Craftsman by Walker-Turner SJ-30 (?) scroll saw

[Beerhippie]

I spotted this at a long-running yard sale last Sunday:



It's been eating away at me since then--especially as everything at this sale is priced at less than scrap prices.

So I went back this AM to get it:





A Craftsman Crown 1/2 hp motor! I think it's from a DP, based on the mount.

Since it fit the improvised mount on this cast-iron stand, I thought I'd bring it home, too:



It's heavy--without the motor, I can get it in and out of the rig (Toyota Corolla sedan) by myself, but it's close.



Long-C Craftsman drive box.



That's the only marking I've found on it so far. Since it's on the drive box and not the frame, it may be the # for the box.

There are several examples of this online, including a couple at Vintage Machinery. It looks like early '30s vintage. Interestingly, a couple I found have very similar improvised motor mounts. Now that I've seen a few pictures of examples with what appear to be the original motor and mount, I think I'll run back over and see if those parts are there, too.

Do I need a scroll saw? Nope. Will it be a fun project? Yep. I'll start tearing into it as soon as I finish this post. So far, the drive box turns smoothly and easily, with no indication of gear or bearing wear. Fortunately, it breaks down into several large pieces.

Stay tuned....

 

[niget2002]

That's awesome. I love watching old shop tools brought back to life. Half my shop tools are older than I am.

 

[Beerhippie]

The first sub-assembly to come off:



And the first bump in the road:



Functionally, not a problem. I can use a stop collar for that.

Now to figure out how it comes apart. I wonder what the nut and threaded shaft on the "elbow" are? I guess I'll find out soon....

 

[Beerhippie]

Here's what the nut and threaded rod do:



What's inside the head:



I found the frame #!



Yeah, upside-down. I tried flipping the image, but that made things really confusing.

So, SJ-31-blob blob-blob. Unfortunately, I think the blobs would indicate the DOM.

 

[Cruzan80]

First and second pic are the same for me.

 

[Beerhippie]

First and second pic are the same for me.

Fixed it for you.

 

[Beerhippie]

The upper arm is done for now:



I considered stripping and re-painting, but I want to see how the rest comes out first. The blue should be pretty easy to rough-match, but I'm sure I'd have to paint the whole thing to look decent. I just cleaned it up and slapped a very light coat of thinned BLO on it. At least I can tell that it's blue now.

On to the next part. I think the table and tilting mechanism is next.

 

[Beerhippie]

Movin' along....

This is next:



Three bolts to remove the whole shebang.



I guess it's just easier to let the broken blades drop into the hollow shaft than to remove them and toss 'em.

All cleaned up:



A random orbital sander and 80 grit Cubitron did a great job of removing the rust from the table.

I've found more casting numbers:



The base of the pivot is S.J. 30 B. The other half has no numbers that I can find.

The table, however:



So the crankcase and tilt mechanism are S.J. 30, the base is S.J. 31 and the table is S.J. 34. Curious.

Time to get down and dirty:



The crank has its own oil pump and counter-balance:



There's a passive ball valve in that tube that picks up oil with every stroke.

There's about a half-inch of sludge composed of sawdust and oil in the bottom of the crankcase. I'm pretty sure there's supposed to be a rubber boot of some kind where the shaft emerges from the top of the case.

 

[Beerhippie]

I found yet another casting number:



inside of the case side cover.

The side cover had no gasket of any kind, so I fixed that:



I need to order some blades for this saw. I have no experience with scroll saws, so I'll have to do some research as to things like tooth count, etc.

 

[Beerhippie]

Moving along nicely!

I was snooping around at Vintage Machinery yesterday and found this: http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/808/2860.pdf The third picture is my machine.

I want some of those attachments! A spacer I can make, but that router/flex shaft drive head....

I made some good progress today:




Now to get the motor cleaned up, wired with modern, grounded wiring and add a switch to it. I've chosen to use this 1/4 hp @ 1725 rpm Fairbanks Morse C1901 motor:





Unfortunately, it seems almost impossible to find any info on FB-M electric motors. Lots of info on engines, little or none on motors.

I chose that motor rather than the cream and brown Crafty as it looks more like the right general age and is covered in oil and sawdust, making me suspect it might have once been mounted on this saw. The literature above says to use a motor of 1725 rmp, 1/4, 1/3 or 1/2 hp. Anyhow, the motor runs well, no bearing noise or excess run-out, so I'm going with it. I'll just do a light cleaning like I did with the rest of the saw and get 'er hummin'.

Back at it....

 

[Snip's]

Great progress...
Keep the updates coming...

 

[Beerhippie]

The motor cleaned up pretty well:



The data plate isn't missing all of its paint--it's just overexposed in the picture.


And I found a place for a switch:



Hmm... might want to do something about the faceplate for the switch--that one is for a double-throw switch.

Tomorrow is wiring the motor and fabricating a motor mount from some scrap aluminum plate. I've ordered a selection of blades, so whenever those arrive we'll hopefully give it a try.

 

[Beerhippie]

Oh, yeah--you know how sometimes you have a crazy idea and it actually works?

I needed a puller to remove the grinding wheel arbor from the motor shaft. I'd already tried heating a quenching with penetrating oil, but it needed some force and there was nothing to pry against or on without doing damage. So a needed a puller. But I don't have one.

Hmm... maybe?



A scrap of Uni Strut, a couple of pieces of 2X scrap and an Allen wrench in one of the set screw holes to keep the shaft from turning, and



Ah, the sweet smell of success!

 

[Beerhippie]

I'm cleaning a Rinnai today, which is a hurry-up-and-wait sort of job, so while waiting...



I used the first grounded cord I found. I need to buy a more-retro looking extension cord of at least eight feet to replace that with, but it works for now. I filled up the crankcase with ~5 floz of 10 wt. compressor oil--the instructions recommend "light motor oil", but I'm not sure what that would have been in the early '30s. I figure this produces less heat than a compressor, so should be fine.

I used two bolts to mount the motor--a twenty-pound motor producing 1/4 hp. doesn't need to be all that well anchored, and this allowed me to skip fabbing a mount. Found a belt that fit, tensioned it, and fired 'er up! She runs smooth and quiet and the crankcase cranks up and down! Once the blades arrive, I'll make a short video.

I need to find a different pulley set-up. If you look up "janky" on Wikipedia, you might just find a picture of this. The stock sheave stacks had four sheaves each, for speeds of 644, 926, 1295 and 1725. From that, I can figure out the ratios to get the right stacks.

This saw is rather impressively dangerous with the exposed belt and pulleys right at waist height. If I were to keep it, I'd have to fab a guard for the drive.

 

[Beerhippie]

I put the saw and motor on a brewery scale. Together, they weigh right around 97 lb (motor is 23 lb)--hence the wheeled cart.

 

[Beerhippie]

Blades arrived today!

I chucked up a 12 tpi blade to try it out. The blade clamps are a PITA--there may be a learning curve to use them, but it's hard enough to make me wonder about using this as an actual scroll saw, where you' be doing a lot of inside work requiring removing the blade and passing it through pre-drilled holes.

So I thought I'd try a simple pattern:





Not too bad, considering it was probably high school shop class I last used a scroll saw.

Proof-of-life video:

https://flic.kr/p/2pYz7e4

 

[mrhaenel]

I bought this exact saw at an estate auction for $5! I put it in the back of the garage for at least 3 years before I decided to start the restoration. Apparently the previous owner did a few repairs on broken parts so it's kinda of Frankensteined. I was thrilled to find your post on here online because this thing is so rare. I would really appreciate any advice or resources that you experienced and found on your way to your restoration!

 

[Beerhippie]

The only thing broken on mine was that height adjustment for the foot.

One thing I did but didn't post here was to make a canvas "boot" for the drivebox. The lower part of the blade drive going up and down ***** sawdust into the drive box--I think there's a pic above of how much was in there. The "boot" keeps the dirt and dust out, while still allowing air to flow.

I've since sold this saw to a friend. I think he bought it to sit in his ceramics studio just looking cool.