Anyone recognize this vertical band saw?

[Perrorojo]

Anyone know anything about this Parks Snowflake vertical band saw?

I've been wanting a metal band saw for a while and stumbled upon this one in the back of a trailer. It was our trailer and I'd honestly forgot it was there. It has no plate or name and looks like it was originally grey. There's a "1534" on the home holding the guard.

The motor isn't original and the guard is missing the bottom half.

It a like a quality piece of equipment even if it was sitting in a am open box trailer for the last 15 years.

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[Oregon rock crusher]

Looks like it could be a Parks Snowflake. Here is a link to a similar saw on OWWM photo index. Ed.

http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?ID=14251

 

[Perrorojo]

Looks like it could be a Parks Snowflake. Here is a link to a similar saw on OWWM photo index. Ed.

http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?ID=14251

Holy ****! That's it exactly. I've never heard of Parks.

Thanks!

 

[crguy]

Sliding table to be used as a meat saw?

 

[Perrorojo]

Sliding table to be used as a meat saw?

Someone on the vintage machinery site suggested the same but argued it wouldn't be sanitary with the open guard. The lower wheel guide makes me think it was supposed to be fitted with a thick blade for production woodwork.

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[BFBOB]

Not a meat saw. They are always configured to feed from the opposite direction, so the mast is at the operator's right.
The available thickness of cut makes me think it's a wood resawing saw. Unless there are reduction gears between the pulley and lower wheel, it's definitely a wood saw - blade speed would be much too high for any metal except maybe aluminum.
It does look like a sliding table ran on those angles. Search, search search for that table and the lower blade guard! You really have a gem there!

I just looked at the link - wow! Is yours only a 12" saw, like the restored one? From the massive construction, I guessed it was much bigger, maybe 18". Saw the tape measure in a couple of your pix, but couldn't really tell where they were measuring from.

If you want to use it for metal cutting, it's not too tough to add a jackshaft and second pulley to accomplish that. I did it on my woodcutting 14" Sprunger, and can switch between wood and metal speeds just by moving the belt from one pulley to another. I posted pix here a few years ago.

 

[Perrorojo]

Not a meat saw. They are always configured to feed from the opposite direction, so the mast is at the operator's right.
The available thickness of cut makes me think it's a wood resawing saw. Unless there are reduction gears between the pulley and lower wheel, it's definitely a wood saw - blade speed would be much too high for any metal except maybe aluminum.
It does look like a sliding table ran on those angles. Search, search search for that table and the lower blade guard! You really have a gem there!

I just looked at the link - wow! Is yours only a 12" saw, like the restored one? From the massive construction, I guessed it was much bigger, maybe 18". Saw the tape measure in a couple of your pix, but couldn't really tell where they were measuring from.

If you want to use it for metal cutting, it's not too tough to add a jackshaft and second pulley to accomplish that. I did it on my woodcutting 14" Sprunger, and can switch between wood and metal speeds just by moving the belt from one pulley to another. I posted pix here a few years ago.

The sliding tray rack is 19" wide and a little over 22" deep. The overall height is 43". I'm going to set up a secondary set of pulleys to slow it down for metal. I have a couple of motors that would be more period correct that should mount on the original holes.

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[crguy]

The sliding tray rack is 19" wide and a little over 22" deep. The overall height is 43". I'm going to set up a secondary set of pulleys to slow it down for metal. I have a couple of motors that would be more period correct that should mount on the original holes.

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It will take a large speed reduction to get that slow enough to cut metal at ~150 - 200 FPM.

 

[tombell572]

Perrorojo-in the first picture to the left of the band saw, is that a lincoln style miller in the background?? A pic of that would be nice.

Tom B.

 

[T_Curlee]

Looking at the pictures of the somewhat crude sliding table in the above link, I'm going to make an a really off the wall guess on the intended use. Not knowing if the "Snowflake" name is used anywhere else by Parks (or means anything), could the saw be designed to cut blocks of ice? The crude looking sliding table would be plenty accurate enough for ice. Of course, the big question is, was ice ever cut into blocks with a saw?

 

[Corndoggeh]

Dang, I would have suggested homemade or something but Oregon rock crusher nailed it!

 

[nine4gmc]

Looking at the pictures of the somewhat crude sliding table in the above link, I'm going to make an a really off the wall guess on the intended use. Not knowing if the "Snowflake" name is used anywhere else by Parks (or means anything), could the saw be designed to cut blocks of ice? The crude looking sliding table would be plenty accurate enough for ice. Of course, the big question is, was ice ever cut into blocks with a saw?

I think you nailed it, I'm betting it was used to cut blocks of ice.

 

[Perrorojo]

Perrorojo-in the first picture to the left of the band saw, is that a lincoln style miller in the background?? A pic of that would be nice.

Tom B.

This one?

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[Perrorojo]

I think you nailed it, I'm betting it was used to cut blocks of ice.

Ice would make sense because of the height and width would make it possible to cut 12" cubes. We have a few Amish places that still cut block ice in the winter. I see horse drawn wagons hauling block ice fairly often around here.

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[Perrorojo]

Looking at the pictures of the somewhat crude sliding table in the above link, I'm going to make an a really off the wall guess on the intended use. Not knowing if the "Snowflake" name is used anywhere else by Parks (or means anything), could the saw be designed to cut blocks of ice? The crude looking sliding table would be plenty accurate enough for ice. Of course, the big question is, was ice ever cut into blocks with a saw?

I guessed it was because of the pattern on the guard but the design would work well for ice or another fast cutting material.

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[Perrorojo]

Re: Anyone know anything about this Parks Snowflake vertical band saw?

Found this:

http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=16699

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[crguy]

I think you nailed it, I'm betting it was used to cut blocks of ice.

No, I don't think so. The "snowflake" term comes from the design of the guard. Several companies had similar designs, which are referred to as "snowflake" today.

Has Nothing to do with cutting ice.

 

[T_Curlee]

Ok, the "snowflake" is the blade guard style, and nothing to do with ice or snow.

But still, the sliding table seems awfully crude for anything to do with wood, yet it appears to be purpose built by Park. It might be ok for firewood, but certainly not with the overall size. I can't see it being used for resawing wood with the crude sliding table, but the height of cut does suggest resawing wide planks. Ice, maybe, but now I'm thinking that it's too small for that. Ice is usually made, or in past years cut, in bigger blocks. Why have a saw designed to cut smallish blocks into smaller blocks like 12", as was mentioned? A custom ice cube saw? Probably not.

What makes this saw so interesting is that photos on Vintage Machinery and the one owned by Perrorojo both have the same table. Either a custom build for a specific manufacturer or some kind of process nobody does any more that was common enough to build a specific type of saw.

 

[Perrorojo]

Re: Anyone know anything about this Parks Snowflake vertical band saw?

How about a dry ice saw.

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[Perrorojo]

Re: Anyone know anything about this Parks Snowflake vertical band saw?

Well, I tried to slow it down with some spare parts I had lying around. I tried mounting up a secondary pulley set but it only got me down to about 400 fpm.

Knowing I need to be closer to 150fpm for metal I remembered I had this old auger motor with gear reduction.

I made a bracket or of some scrap and mounted it. This gets me to between 100 and 125 feet per minute.

I put it on a stand and stained the butcher block table. I'll tear it down later and finish the bracket a little nicer. I'm not going to paint it.

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[nine4gmc]

That came out nice and you can use it, win - win!