Craftsman 103.24280 Restoration

[nine4gmc]

Looking good!

Splined Drive Rivets is the word I think you're looking for.


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[Zeeman]

Right on 9! Thanks. That makes sense.

 

[bulwnkle]

Your garage looks 10 million times better than mine. Thanks for the info though, I want to make sure I don't end up with an underpowered saw.

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[Zeeman]

I made some progress today, and had to take a few steps back also. Finally got the main body of the band saw painted. It looks pretty good, but not perfect. The paint is still hard for me to use, unlike the regular Rustoleum cans. I put it all back together, but only had a metal cutting blade. This won't work since I don't have a way to slow the motor down yet.
Things to do: get blade, find another guide (the part that looks like an engine valve), get a piece of fuel line to go around the top adjustment rod, get another set screw/bolt for the pole, rewire the motor back to 110 (I am not good with electrical devices), figure out what kind of switch I want and wire that. Ouch, that's still alot!

Oh, and get a decent mount for the motor. What do you guys suggest?

 

[Zeeman]

I don't know why the two posted sideways. I rotated them on photobucket.





A few more things to do: paint the miter guage, find and install fence rails.

 

[nine4gmc]

Amazing job!

 

[Zeeman]

Thanks Nine! I'm ready to cut stuff up, but will have to wait a while longer.

 

[Lynden]

Zeeman -- Did you receive my response to your PM? I made a couple of changes to it and posted it in the Bagged89s10 bandsaw thread.

 

[Zeeman]

Just now saw that I had a PM. Thanks Lynden. I'll check it out.

 

[CKS1955]

Looks great.

Jay

 

[Zeeman]

Thanks Jay. I'm having some trouble getting things to line up, but I'm not giving up!

 

[bubinga]

I feel bad I didn't/couldn't keep mine.
As it belonged to my Grandfathers brother.
This man was a master carpenter. You should have seen some of his work.
very clean job all the time.
anyways it was a crazy number, 103.0103.................lol
Space issues, and I had decided to keep and restore the 1967 delta 14" I had.
I had the Craftsman B/S in the paper & craigslist for a good while at $100.00.
Guess that was too much.
Lowered it to $40.00, guy looked at it,
wanted to offer less, (that's fine) but I said I had already dropped from $100.00 to $40.00, I would just keep it rather than take less.
It was on a nice shop built metal stand, with an OEM Gold craftsman motor. too.
worked real well, I did find the guides to be a little fussy, at different heights,
But other than that had no issues.

 

[bubinga]

Looks very nice Zeeman.

 

[Zeeman]

Thanks Bubinga. One day you might want to find another Craftsman. I have a Delta also, but have not even thought about restoring it yet. I have too many projects before it. I believe the Delta is a better machine, but I just love the look of the Craftsman, and won't be using it for any re-sawing of large timbers, mostly just for cutting curves. I hope it works well for that.

40 bucks for a CM B/S seems like a great deal. I would have bought it!

 

[Zeeman]

I made a switch bracket today and got it mounted, but that's about all the progress. I posted over in the electrical thread asking for help on how to convert my motor back to 110, and put a switch in. If anyone can help, I would greatly appreciate it.

Here is the mounting bracket, and the next picture is what I want to use for a switch. Please let me know your thoughts.









I know very little about wiring.

 

[ckadams00]

Zeeman just catching up! Looks SO GREAT! Can't wait to see it finished!

 

[d.mcfarland]

That's a really good transformation. I'm going to have to work on a way to make mine into a metal cutting saw as well.

 

[Zeeman]

Thanks CK. I appreciate the kind words. I can't wait either. Even though this has taken a lot of hours, there's still a lot to do.

D. Thanks for the kind words. Do you have the same model, or a different one? There are some threads on slowing these machines down.

 

[bubinga]

Thanks Bubinga. One day you might want to find another Craftsman. I have a Delta also, but have not even thought about restoring it yet. I have too many projects before it. I believe the Delta is a better machine, but I just love the look of the Craftsman, and won't be using it for any re-sawing of large timbers, mostly just for cutting curves. I hope it works well for that.

40 bucks for a CM B/S seems like a great deal. I would have bought it!

thanks zeeman, Yeah, It worked great for curves.
I think I even had a 1/4" blade for tighter radius.
I know I cut a bunch of Uncle Sam decorations out for my mother (at the time) for her and her husbands VFW dinner center pieces.

 

[AR1911]

Hey guys, I'm working on a 103.24280, almost finished. Wondering what that little hole under the center of the upper base. I suspect its for the belt guard you guy are talking about, but all the Photobucket links are deal (A curse on photovucket!).

Any chance you could post those photos, or at least confirm the purpose of that hole?

 

[Zeeman]

I'm sorry. peebucket *****! I will be happy to post some pictures but it will probably be tomorrow at the earliest before I can start to rebuild the thread.

Here is the belt guard and the mount I made for it. Hope this helps. If you have the guard itself, I think you are in good shape. They seem to be a little hard to find.

 

[AR1911]

Zeeman, that is exactly what I needed, thanks. I don't have the belt guard. I was mostly curious about that that hole was for.

Was yours originally the gold color?

 

[Cyansarunt]

What motor did you end up using for this?

I've got a 103.0103 craftsman band saw that I just did some refurb to and got back into operating shape. Unfortunately the 1/4 HP baldor that came with the saw is definitely underpowered

 

[AR1911]

Mine came with a nice Craftsman 1/2 HP. The OE doc recommends 1/3 HP but seems like everyone goes with 1/2 HP

 

[Zeeman]

AR, Yes mine was originally gold. I actually have two, but made one good machine out of the two put together. The second one I got had the belt guard but no mount. I painted it with Rustoleum Champagne Mist. It was a pretty close match, and I needed a splash of color in my mostly red and gray garage.

 

[AR1911]

Looks good. I had a Powermatic Gold 12" metal lathe for a while, but it clashed with all the PM green and Machinery Gray stuff

 

[Natebreaks]

Zeeman, a lot of the vintage "Hobby" machines (like your Craftsman) used a combination shaft/bearing set-up that can't be disassembled called an "integral shaft bearing". The common name for them is "water pump bearing". Google "water pump bearing" and you will find them pretty easily. The issue with these is that the shafts are typically just that, a straight shaft with no keyways, threads, etc.

The good news is that the shafts are mild steel and easily machinable! Bandsaws of this era usually only have a flat spot on the shaft that the pully set screw bears on, something that you can do yourself with a file, grinder, dremel, etc.

Accurate (or most other bearing suppliers) can get you the proper bearing but it can be a bit expensive. A life hack that i discovered while googling water pump bearing, is that they are commonly used in water pumps, who knew? When sold as an actual water pump replacement bearing, they can be had for dirt cheap! The hard part is finding one that will fit in your machine. Most places only list model numbers with no dimensions but if you scroung around for a bit you can usually find that info. The trick is to find one that has the correct shaft and outside of bearing diameter (a must, obviously) and has workable bearing and over-all shaft lengths. The bearing and over-all shaft length can vary quite a bit, just take some measurments and start searching and comparing prices. I was able to find an inexpensive John Deere WP bearing (less than $10 on E-bay) for my 3-wheel BS by looking around and finding one with a shaft length that worked. Not an exact match to the original, but a workable substitution!

What did you do about the key way and the grooves for the snap rings on the shaft of the new bearing assembly? I just got a quote for the custom work on my new bearing assembly at $150-225. All of these restoration thread for the 103.24280, but have not seen one where someone replaces the bottom bearing. I just

 

[NormWoodworker]

I purchased a Craftsman BS 103.24280 a few weeks ago and disassembled it this past Saturday. However, I left the lower “water pump” style bearing in the frame based on posts from other Garage Journal threads. If I soak the frame and cover in Simple Green for 24 hours will this bearing get damaged? If so, any suggestions on how to protect it because Simple Green does a good job at taking the paint off?