Old Yates Combo Table Saw-Resto Mod

[RatFinkleton]

Yates Table Saw-Refresh/Riving Knife addition

Hi everyone, thanks for checking out my thread. I am new here and this is my first post.


First things first, I will give you a little background on this project. I have a Yates M-1701 combination 8" table saw, 4" jointer, and 10" disk sander machine. I know they are not the most desirable machines, and it is not the biggest most powerful saw available. However, I decided to move forward with this project for a few reasons.


Reason 1: This particular saw belonged to my grandpa's brother, he was a fairly avid hobby woodworker, and died pretty young without any kids. He purchased this saw new.


Reason 2: I work in a smallish 2 car garage that splits duty between woodworking, car repair/maintenance, and parking. That combination of requirements means I am very limited to the amount of space I have for machines. I was willing to sacrifice some capacity for a workstation that combines many tools into one.


Reason 3: It was available, free, and I liked the idea of built not bought tools.


Also, I will be breaking this first bit up into a couple posts that way I can get my 5 posts to be able to add some pics to this thread for you guys.

 

[RatFinkleton]

So what the heck do I plan to do with this thing, and what do I mean by resto-mod? Well, first and foremost I need to get this thing back into tune. The saw worked good and cut wood before I started. It was by no means a basket case, but was far from a saw that would create good quality cuts. I have decided to go through and refresh the old girl. I will be tearing it down an replacing worn parts. I plan to leave the cabinet in the shape it is in, I would rather spend my time doing things that improve functionality.


I guess a better title would be resto refresh, but that doesn't quite have the same zing to it. There are things that I do not like about the saw and would like to bring into the 21st century. Mainly the fact that it doesn't have a riving knife, the fence is very finicky, and the throat plate design doesn't lend itself well to a zero clearance insert.

 

[454ragtop]

Welcome! Looking forward to see your restoration. I have one of these, couple pics here http://www.vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=11851

 

[RatFinkleton]

My plans are as follows:

1. Add a riving knife. I believe I can do this by creating an addition onto the arbor bearing mount. Currently there is a sort of bearing retaining plate that is held in place by three screws, on the arbor bearing mount. I plan to design a new retaining plate that extends around the blade and would serve as a mounting location for the riving knife itself (really wish I had that 5 post limit so I could show a picture). My job fortunately grants me access to 3D CAD software as well as a very nice plasma table. I am hoping I can utilize these to make this happen.



2. I would like to add a higher quality fence to the saw. I looked at aftermarket fences and they looked really nice, but this saw wants to fight me on that as well. Instead of having a nice flat front with rails for a fence. This saw has a profile cutout on the front and back edges (again the picture thing), but imagine a roundover bit on a router sort of look. The stock fence then has a mating cutout of this profile and the two work together along with some bearings to create a fence that is a major pain in my @#$. The sides of the saw are flat though, the kicker with that is that one side has the jointer running along it rendering that side useless for mounting a fence as well.


So, being down to only one side for a mounting option for a fence I realized right quick my only option for a good fence is going to be a homemade one. I have been fiddling around with it in Inventor at work a little and think I may have come up with a fence design using 8020 extruded aluminum. (really wish I could post pics )

Long story short it is essentially using the one mountable surface I have on the table top to mount a frame rail parallel to the top. From there I want to use another frame rail that runs perpendicular to the parallel rail which I hope leads to a fence that is parallel with the blade. There will however be some adjustment built into the fence.

 

[RatFinkleton]

3. I want to add a zero clearance throat plate, due to the weird shape of the throat on the saw I plan to plasma cut this out on the table as well.

4. Since I don't have the wings for this saw, and the top is small I am hoping to add a homemade wing on the side to increase stability on wider materials. I also want to add a router table into that extension. Which would give me 4 tools and an assembly table in the same foot print as most cabinet saws. I also want to have the whole works be on a mobile base so it can be tucked away when not being used.

 

[454ragtop]

Yes, OEM fence leaves a lot to be desired. As to the 5 post thing, it's not really that hard. Post a "Can't wait to get started" or some such here, a simple "Nice find" reply to another thread should do it. Jump in, lots do it that way.

 

[RatFinkleton]

Thanks ragtop, Im jealous you have the extensions for yours.

 

[454ragtop]

Thanks ragtop, Im jealous you have the extensions for yours.

Meh, the OEM extensions work good for me as "wheelbarrow" type handles to move the saw around, but I think a more traditional "eggcrate" style rectangular extension would work better as far as an actual table extension.

 

[RatFinkleton]

Meh, the OEM extensions work good for me as "wheelbarrow" type handles to move the saw around, but I think a more traditional "eggcrate" style rectangular extension would work better as far as an actual table extension.

I could definitely see that being the case.




So now that I can post pics here is one pic of the saw "before"



IMG_0555 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



So far I have managed to tear everything down and started working on the trunnion assembly. I had a bear of a time getting it all apart, and truth be told still haven't quite figured out how to get the jointer infeed table off yet.


I have pretty much made it through the trunnion/arbor assembly though. I found that one of my arbor bearings was bad. I decided just to order both while I am in here. I also had to fix some boogered up threads on the arbor itself. It took a little while and a lot of patience to sit there with a file and get them cleaned up.



I cleaned up the arbor shaft and all of the components that go along with it, and it is now sitting off tot the side waiting for the bearings to arrive.


The main pivot point for the arbor was also very stiff and required allot of force on the crank to get the arbor to pivot up and down. There was a cap on the inside of the front trunnion that I removed which gave access to the main pin. I sprayed some PB blaster into the opening and started trying to work the arbor arm back and forth. This proved very difficult at first and I was only really able to get it to move with the help of a 3 ft pipe wrench. After working it back and forth slowly for 10 min I was able to get it free enough that I could move it through its whole range of motion with one finger.


I then packed the opening with moly grease. Spread a thin layer of rtv on the caps face and sealed the opening back shut. I know most people say not to grease table saws because of the dust. I really think that pin should be greased though in this one particular application, and since the only two ways for dust to get in are through the pin which is a press fit on the open side and the cap which I sealed I think I should be safe.


I also cleaned up the adjuster for the height and re-assembled it on the trunnion assembly. It is a night and day difference how easily the height adjustment moves now.


Here is a shot of the all of the parts awaiting work.

IMG_1063 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



And one of the trunnion assembly as well as the arbor assembly parts waiting for the new bearings.



IMG_1064 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



While I wait for parts I am working on cleaning the table top off. I have been going at it with a wire brush and some 400 grit sand paper. I don't think it is cleaning up too bad. I have about 2/3 of it done. Once I get it cleaned up I am going to check it for flatness, and as long as it is reasonably close I will move on to the next part.



IMG_1062 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr

 

[woody 73]

Mr. Rat Fink you made one mistake...Shame on you, shame, shame, shame Yates are top notch machines so when you say" not desirable" not true I guess it's like me saying big old boat anchor vises and freaking ugly craftsman block grinder are over rated...They are but I guess some of them are very nice!


Keep showing pictures of that nice old yates machine!

 

[Tedley]

What he said! You have what I believe is a very worthy project and will probably be very nice machines in the end! Many are proud of less.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[RatFinkleton]

Mr. Rat Fink you made one mistake...Shame on you, shame, shame, shame Yates are top notch machines so when you say" not desirable" not true I guess it's like me saying big old boat anchor vises and freaking ugly craftsman block grinder are over rated...They are but I guess some of them are very nice!


Keep showing pictures of that nice old yates machine!

What he said! You have what I believe is a very worthy project and will probably be very nice machines in the end! Many are proud of less.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the positive feedback. I knew Yates machines in general were highly regarded. When I was doing my homework on the saw however, I ran across a handful of posts saying things like the saw is too small and underpowered (I figured an old 3/4 HP motor was probably more like a 1HP by todays standards which I thought was pretty good).


I also read a few things along the lines of combo machines sacrifice functionality, kind of a jack of all trades master of none type of situation. That is what let me to believe that this was an undesirable machine. After reading all those things and knowing how critical some people on the internet can be I figured I would get it out of the way before I had a bunch of people asking me why I was putting so much work into something that wasn't a Unisaw.


I can honestly say I didn't expect such a warm welcome and have not received as warm a welcome on other forums I have posted on. I have found that most other forums I have tried to be a part of are rather picky and critical (for lack of better words). So thanks again for making me feel welcome

 

[RatFinkleton]

Tonight I did not get much time in the garage working. My mobile base for the saw did show up though

Instead I have been measuring and getting my information together, so I can spend my lunch breaks at work designing my riving knife, throat insert, and fence system. Once I get a little more done with it I will snag some screenshots to share.


I have also been on the search for parts and alternatives to use for my fence design. So far I have been looking at 8020 through McMaster Carr, which isn't looking too bad. My preliminary design is looking to cost about $235 for a roughly 5' span. Which is still cheaper than a Biesmeyer, but I am hoping I can find a way to cut some cost out.


That is about the end of the updates for today. Thanks for following along

 

[RatFinkleton]

I was able to get a little more work done today and one of my arbor bearings showed up. I took the outfeed portion of the jointer table and the sander off since they are all one sub assembly of the saw.



jointer by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr
sander by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



For anyone unfamiliar with how this machine works there is a rubber puck on the shaft for the sander. When the table saw is moved into the correct location the v belt that drives the arbor contacts that rubber puck and spins the sander.


I found that my rubber puck spins independently from the shaft. Which definitely will not be good for driving the sander. I will have to inspect it further when I go to work on that particular assembly, but for now I am keeping it in the back of my mind on how I may want to fix it.


I also finished cleaning up the table top. I know some will probably be disappointed I didn't take it in and have it ground perfectly flat with a nice mirror finish. I did however check the table for flatness, and was actually quite surprised with just how flat it actually was. There is some pitting and dings on it, but for its age I think it is in pretty decent shape. A coat of wax and I think it will serve all every purpose I need it to.



top by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



Today on my lunch break I got some modeling done. I got everything kind of roughed in with the fence and my overall idea for the riving knife. The riving knife shape was a little challenging since it swings along a wider arc than the arbor itself. It makes it very hard to not have the knife stick way above the blade at full blade height and not sit below the throat plate at minimum height.

After some testing and messing around with it I think I was able to come up with a shape that compromises both at max and min height but allows a good usable knife between 1/2" and 2" height. I figured rarely will I be working at either extreme, but I will be working allot between 3/4" and 1-1/2" height.


I found out some of my measurements were wrong though and took correct ones tonight. Hopefully on tomorrows lunch I can get those tweaks made and see if it helps me in my design. Here are a couple pics of the very rough preliminary design for the fence and riving knife. (I know there is a lot of room for improvement on them, but they are just the first drafts)

 

[woody 73]

Good Job keep up the good work and keep showing us pictures...

 

[RatFinkleton]

So, it has been a few days since my last post. I was traveling all weekend, needless to say no work got done on the saw. There are a couple updates though. I got the new Freud thin kerf blade in, as well as the last arbor bearing I was waiting on. Today I got the design for my arbor mount finished up, and got it released to the cut table. Hopefully later this week I will have some parts ready to install.

 

[RatFinkleton]

This past weekend I was traveling. So I really didn't get much garage time to work on the saw. I have been able to get a little done throughout the week though.


I tried to clean up the underside of the table a little. There was 50 years of sawdust, dirt, and general gunk built up on it. So I went after it with a little wire brush and the shop vac to try to knock down as much of the "big" dirt as I could. I said early on I am not trying to make this thing a beauty queen that never gets used. It is going to be a user. Which means it wont be long before it is packed full of dust again, but I wanted to at least try while I had easy access to the bottom of the table.



table bottom by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



The one thing that I didn't clean up when I did the top was the miter slots. I used a small steel wire, and another brass brush to get inside of them. I still have to get in there with my small sandpaper sponge block, but the improvement was tremendous with just the brushes. The gauge moves really easily.

On a side note I was very surprised at the slop or lack there of between the slots and the gauge. There was absolutely no play at all in it. This was a very welcomed surprise that I really did not expect to be the case. I guess they just don't make them to the quality they used to.



miter slot by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



I have also gotten all of my parts designed for the riving knife, throat plate, and custom fence mounts. So I have everything in line at work between the fab shop and machine shop. I owe a big thanks to the guys and my workplace for allowing me that perk of the job. I am hoping the parts will be done by next week.

In the mean time I turned my attention to the jointer. I wanted to work on the head a little. So I pulled it apart and cleaned up the holddowns on the bench grinder with my steel and brass brushes. They cleaned up nicely. I used another hand brush to clean up the rest of the head as much as I could.

I got another pleasant surprise when I checked the bearings on the head. They spin very smoothly with no noise. I debated changing them anyway, but decided against it. Another plus side to "old arn" is that it truly was designed to be easily serviceable. So, if the occasion arises I really don't think it will be that hard to pull the head out and change the bearings.



jointer head by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr
knife hold downs by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr




That is about it for now. I am thinking about ordering the next round of parts which would include a PALS system to help me get everything tuned in, some new knives for the jointer, new belts, and all of the parts I need for my custom fence.

As always thanks to the guys/gals who may be following along. To anyone else thanks for checking it out. I appreciate all the positive feedback.

 

[woody 73]

I am subscribed to this post you keep it up good job!

 

[RatFinkleton]

I am subscribed to this post you keep it up good job!

Thanks for all the support Woody

 

[rsanter]

I would add a biesmeyer type fence to the front. You can make adapters that will go to the profile you have or you could have th front machines flat

 

[RatFinkleton]

I would add a biesmeyer type fence to the front. You can make adapters that will go to the profile you have or you could have th front machines flat

I had the exact same thought about machining it flat, but after I looked at it closer I realized there isn't enough meat there to take off enough to be flat.

I didn't really think about the adaptor idea though. I think that could be an interesting route. I wouldn't mind going with that style of fence, but I would be looking at $300 plus for the fence and still have to modify it to work.

All the 8020 and parts for my design will be in the ball park of $135 plus some 1/2" ply wood. I am pretty confident I can make it pretty accurate as well. It is probably worth mentioning that I have overhauled the whole design that was shown above.

I do also plan to add a router table to the extension wings on the saw, and I want to use the saw fence to pull double duty as the router fence. Going with the custom fence gives me the ability to add a dust port to the router side without having to mutilate the biesmeyer.

I do like the idea of an adaptor for the profile with a biesmeyer. if everything goes south with mine I may just give that a try. I can always scrap the 8020 for other jigs.


Thanks for the feedback I appreciate some input

 

[Stuart in MN]

Jeremy Schmidt built a neat home made Biesemeier style fence with incremental positioning for his vintage saw on his Youtube channel:

 

[RatFinkleton]

Jeremy Schmidt built a neat home made Biesemeier style fence with incremental positioning for his vintage saw on his Youtube channel:

Thanks for the link, I haven't seen this one I will check it out.

 

[RatFinkleton]

I got my parts off the cut table yesterday. I had to make a trip to Fleet Fart to pick up some hardware that I needed to put everything together.

Here are the parts straight off the table.


parts by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



I went through and cleaned up the slag that was left from the plasma table. I also had to drill some counter sinks for the three screws that mount this part to the arbor.

Unfortunately I do not have a countersink bit, so I improvised. I used a larger drill bit to drill the countersinks and it actually worked pretty good. I mean I isn't machine shop quality, but they are going to work fine for what I need.



knife mount by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



I wanted to mock everything together before I put it together with the new bearings. I figured I would wait to put the new ones in until I was sure everything was together and clearance properly. Just in case I had to tear it back apart.


arbor mount by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



At this point I was just too excited I had to put the new Freud on it too.



arbor mount with blade by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr
arbor mount with blade 2 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr

 

[RatFinkleton]

Once everything was together and I was comfortable with the arbor mount. I took everything over to the saw and mounted it all to the table top.


on table by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr


Then I mounted the table to the cabinet


mocked up by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr
table installed by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr




I was pleasantly surprised everything clearenced really well. Then I threw the old throat plate on and checked the positions.



pos 1 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr
pos 2 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr
pos 3 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr
pos 4 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



You can see the all the way up and just about all the way down positions are not exactly ideal, but like I said in an earlier post I had to design it that way. I was very happy with the all of the positions between though.



I took the knife off and used my Dremel to add a sort of knife edge to the riving knife itself. I figured it was probably good to ease the transition between the blade and the knife. I also cleaned the blade up a little.


I decided I was probably going to use the stock throat plate instead of the ones I designed. I actually liked the stock one more. It was a little tweaked though. So the last thing I did today was to straighten out the plate. I was a able to get it pretty much all back to even with the table top again.


Thanks for following along.

 

[PNWguy]

Awesome stuff - thanks for sharing.

I wasn't aware of YA until I found a 20" bandsaw for sale locally. It's a great big beast, and I love it. I put on new tires, hooked it up to a VFD and it runs great. Somebody converted it to chain drive, and slowed it way down, so they could cut steel with it. I'll be ditching all that, and making it closer to stock at some point, when I have the space for a full rebuild.

 

[RatFinkleton]

Awesome stuff - thanks for sharing.

I wasn't aware of YA until I found a 20" bandsaw for sale locally. It's a great big beast, and I love it. I put on new tires, hooked it up to a VFD and it runs great. Somebody converted it to chain drive, and slowed it way down, so they could cut steel with it. I'll be ditching all that, and making it closer to stock at some point, when I have the space for a full rebuild.

That's awesome. I have seen a few Yates for sale around here too, most everything I see is exactly what you described a big beast. I want to bring them all home. I saw a fun planer here not to long ago that I wanted to drag home so bad. Maybe someday I will have a shop big enough


Thanks for the support man.

 

[RatFinkleton]

Tonight I played around with the riving knife setup one last time just to make sure I was happy with everything. Once I was I pulled it all back apart and re assembled it with the new bearings.


I had one little hiccup with the new bearings though. The bearing on the side closest to the blade wasn't as much of an interference fit as it should have been. I could actually slide the arbor shaft through the ID of the bearing all the way with just my hands.


I pondered the problem for a while and decided to go with an old junkyard hack I learned for getting races to tighten up in sloppy wheel hubs. I took a center punch and a hammer and popped a couple of dimples into the surface of the shaft that mates with the bearing. The idea being that the material displaced by the punch creates a ridge effectively increasing the OD of the shaft.


Now I know this is probably a "hack"ish way to go about this, and I am not advising that this is what everyone should do. I am simply saying it has worked for me many times. I recommend anyone using this post for information do all their homework and make an informed decision before doing this to any of their stuff.


I was a bit flustered while I was working on the reassembly and didn't take any pics of the shaft fix, but here are a few shots of the re assembly.


re assembly 2 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr
Re assembly by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr
re assembly 3 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



As I was getting ready to put the table top back on I decided I wanted to put together the Shop Fox mobile base I ordered for this thing so I could set the cabinet in and then re assemble everything on the mobile base. I thought it would save me a bunch of work later trying to fight the fully assembled saw into the base.



cart box by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



I bought the "Heavy duty" version of this off amazon if anyone is interested I can get you the link. After putting it together I have some mixed feelings about it. First, the stand and all of the components feel very substantial. In my opinion it doesn't feel cheap or weak at all. I would not be afraid to put a pretty heavy machine into this thing.


Assembly was pretty straightforward and didn't take too long. I was a little disappointed in the care that seemed to be taken of everything. Many of the parts were scuffed up and the casters appeared to have rust on the cast iron wheel. Now this is a shop base and will most likely end up with some scuffs and blemishes eventually anyway. I was just a little disheartened that my $85 purchase already looked a little beat up.


wheel rust by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr


With all that being said though, I wouldn't hesitate to buy this again. It rolls nice, feels very sturdy, and looks pretty good. I can live with the cosmetic sacrifices the shortcomings in packaging caused.



IMG_1108 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



Thanks again for reading this far in my Saga. I hope at least a few people are finding this entertaining, informational, inspiring, or some combination of the latter.

 

[RatFinkleton]

Tonight focus turned to the disc sanding unit. Going into it the sander spun really hard, I am hoping I can free that up a bit. I had originally thought that the rubber puck that drives the sander was spinning free from the shaft. I was a bit worried that I was going to have to get creative with that fix. Luck was on my side with that one though, because about 2 min into the tear down I realized the free spin was due to the castle nut not being tight.


I started out with the whole sub assembly pulled from the machine.


whole 2 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr
whole 3 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr
whole by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



It was a pretty straight forward tear down. A set screw held the sander plate on and the castle nut held the drive puck in place. After removing those two items I had to pound out a roll pin that held a collar in place. There are two collars on the shaft, but I only removed one. I didn't think both were necessary since I was going to be forcing the shaft out that side anyway.


half disass by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr


The sander doesn't use ball bearings like the jointer and saws did. Instead it uses bronze bushings. At first I thought these would be easier to deal with than the bearings, but boy was I wrong. It took a quite a bit of force to get the shaft to go through those bushings. Hindsight being what it is I probably should have took some emery cloth and cleaned up the shaft first. That would probably have made things a bit easier.


brass bushing by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



I was successful in getting the shaft to come out. It did end up bringing one of the bushings with it. I just used a gear puller to pull the bushing off the shaft.


Finally everything was all disassembled.



full dis assemb by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



Now I could start cleaning everything up. I took the shaft for the sander and the pin that acts as the pivot to the wire wheel. I also wire wheeled the big shaft that the table for the sander mounts to. I used some 600 grit to clean up the bushings and some 300 grit to clean up the holes in the cast iron that the bushings and all the other pins mated with.

I took a small hand held brush and cleaned out the threads on the adjustment screw. A quick once over with the shop vac to clean all of the big dirt of the other parts, and I was ready to start re assembly. I used a rubber mallet to drive the brass bushing back into its home. I pinned the pivot back in place. After cleaning it was so easy to slide back in I was able to do it with my hand. I see now why they had a set screw to hold it in place.



re assemb by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



I was going to try to put the shaft back in place, but decided I was probably better off using a press for that. I figured I would stop where I was crack a beer and relax for the night. I can always go into work tomorrow and use the press, but I wanted to wait to do that until I could come at it with a fresh mind. Nothing worse than having to press something back apart because you forgot to put one of the parts in

 

[RatFinkleton]

I had to run errands this morning, but this afternoon I was able to get a quite a bit of work done on the saw. So tonight's post will be broken up into two, because I have more pics than I can put in one post

I started out where I left off last night with the reassembly of the sander. I got the shaft pressed in the bronze bushings. Boy what a night and day difference there was. When I started I could hardly spin the sander at all. Now the shaft felt like it was on ice. It was very smooth and very easy to spin.


sander spindle by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



From there it was a matter of putting the guard back on, and then getting the sander disk put back on. If I am being completely honest though I had to do that twice because the first time I forgot to put the guard on before I put the sanding disk in place


sander guard by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr
full re assemble by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr

After I had everything all together I cleaned up the outfeed table. I was pretty happy with the way it all turned out.


clean table by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr

 

[RatFinkleton]

Part two of todays post is the part I have been waiting a while for. I got to start re assembly. With the arbor, and the sanding/jointer outfeed table assembly done. I wanted to re assemble the table.


table mount by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr
table mount2 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr


It was much easier to get at the 4 bolts that hole the sanding assembly in place with the table upside down. The pics above kind of give you a good idea how the sander is powered as well. To engage the sander you pivot the whole assembly over until the rubber drive puck contacts the blade belt. I am excited to see how well it works. The sander is not in the most ergonomic position, but it is in about the perfect spot for using while sitting on my mechanics stool.


At any rate, once the table was assembled it was time to flip it over and set it back down on the cabinet. This was a real bear of a job to do by myself. I wish I had invited a buddy over for beer. This table especially with all of the stuff bolted onto it is quite heavy. It became even more of a bear because with all of the various components hanging off the table it is hard to get it to just set down without hitting anything.


I found it was effective to set the top on at and angle and sort of rotate it to allow the height adjustment shaft to go into its slot. With the table still at a slight angle and the adjuster in its slot. I had lift the sander corner straight up to and rotate it the rest of the way straight to get the rubber drive puck inside the cabinet. This whole process took a while, and allot of trial and error.


table on by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr

table on 2 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr

Even though it isn't a full on restoration at this point I felt pretty good about this saw. It was really cool to see everything kind of come together. I know it still looks like an old saw, but functionally everything moves so much nicer and is working the way it was intended to.


My last bit of time today was spent roughing in the alignment of everything. I just used and adjustable square to get everything close. I figure I will go back and fine tune everything with a angle indicator and a dial indicator when its all done, but I wanted to get it close while everything was still fairly easy to get at.


alignment by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr


I am not sure that anyone is even still following along, but I am going to continue to post anyway because at this point I feel fairly committed to this thread haha. If you are following thanks for reading. I am very pleased with the way this thing is coming along, and seeing it start to come together today was pretty cool.

 

[454ragtop]

Keep the updates coming, I'm sure a lot of us are following along, just not commenting. If my sleuthing is correct you may have posted about this saw over on OWWM earlier? Just saw your (?) post looking for ext. wings, looked at "other posts" and realized I missed a post over there from earlier. I'm JBishop over there, sorry for not getting back to you. I'm guessing you figured out that the jointer isn't an obstacle to using the saw, as the guard for the jointer is below the saw table.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Keep the updates coming, I'm sure a lot of us are following along, just not commenting. If my sleuthing is correct you may have posted about this saw over on OWWM earlier? Just saw your (?) post looking for ext. wings, looked at "other posts" and realized I missed a post over there from earlier. I'm JBishop over there, sorry for not getting back to you. I'm guessing you figured out that the jointer isn't an obstacle to using the saw, as the guard for the jointer is below the saw table.

RatFinkleton as above.

Lovely work

 

[RatFinkleton]

Thanks guys glad to hear yall are enjoying. I was wondering if maybe no one was reading.

If my sleuthing is correct you may have posted about this saw over on OWWM earlier? Just saw your (?) post looking for ext. wings, looked at "other posts" and realized I missed a post over there from earlier. I'm JBishop over there, sorry for not getting back to you. I'm guessing you figured out that the jointer isn't an obstacle to using the saw, as the guard for the jointer is below the saw table.

Ragtop excellent job picking up on that. I did just post a wanted add over there for some extension wings. I have kind of changed my plans a little and would like to at least try to get the original fence to work. No worries at all I definitely figured out the jointer issue haha. It never even dawned on me when you shared your earlier in the post that I had talked to you over there too. Its a small world wide web I guess haha



With that being said I am not sure that this is allowed, but I am going to add here too. If anyone has or knows someone who has a pair of extensions for this saw that they wouldn't mind selling I would be very interested in buying them. PM or comment if you have something.

 

[RatFinkleton]

I haven't really posted anything this week. I have been pretty sick so after work I just didn't feel like doing anything but resting. The free time gave me a lot of thinking time. Earlier in the week I had thought about scraping my custom fence idea in favor of tracking down a set of stock extensions allowing me to use the stock fence. I have gone back and forth between the ideas about 2500 times in the last 4 days.


Today I felt good enough to make it out into the garage finally. I wanted to start my day by setting up the jointer head.


jointer head by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr


I had bolted the head back in place and was starting to put the knives in. I was racking my brain trying to figure out why the knives were facing the wrong direction and how I was supposed to orient them to get them facing the right direction. That's when it dawned on me I had the head installed backwards... doh!!

I pulled it back apart again and got them facing the right way. I then went to swing the infeed table back into place, and immediately remembered that I pulled the head before I removed the infeed table...double doh!!!


Luckily I remembered that you have to install the belt for the head before you install the head. Otherwise there isn't enough room to slip the belt over the pulley. I still needed to run to the farm and barn to pick up some new belts. So I set the demon head off to the side and set about on another task.


Setting up the jointer infeed and outfeed tables. This was a relatively straightforward process although it did take some finessing to get the gauge to read accurately.

infeed table 2 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr

infeed table by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



Basically I set my square to 3/8", 1/4", and 1/8" depths placed the square side on the outfeed table and adjusted the infeed table until it kissed the square. I then tweaked the pin for the gauge until it would read somewhat accurately. Then I would move on to the next depth. I repeated back and forth through the measurements until it was consistent.
I got it to be within 1/32" and decided that was good enough for me.


I also know that these squares aren't always the most reliable devices since mine isn't a starett. So I decided to double check it with another vintage tool I have my Mitoyo dial caliper. I was quite surprised to find out that it read .250" exactly on the dial.

mitoyo by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr

From there I only really have about 4 major milestones yet until this saw is running.

parts left by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



1.Motor- I think I am going to take it to a local electric motor rebuilder and have them go through it. It does run and runs pretty smoothly. I do think there may be a bearing going out it though.

2. The jointer fence.

3. Sanding platform.

4. The fence- Stay tuned this will be my next post

 

[RatFinkleton]

The second half of my day today was spent on the fence. I initially started out with the thought that I would try to freshen up the old fence. From there I would see how precise I could get it and how well it would hold that precision. I thought that would help me to decide if I wanted to stick with the stock fence.

I pulled the fence all apart cleaned everything up and put it all back together again. I then took it over to the saw and put it in place. I new initially it was going to be way out of whack. I then proceeded to spend the next hour and a half adjusting it to square with the miter slot, and the table, then moving it around. I would bring it back to the miter slot and almost every time it would be back to out of square with the miter slot.

It was weirdly consistent though. It would usually pull away from the slot on the feed side of the blade. How much varied a little, but it was not usually a terrible amount. I am sure for someone who used it occasionally for pretty rough work it probably would have been ok. I however wanted a bit more precision out of it since it will be my user.

This pretty much decided that my custom fence was going to be green lighted. Lucky for me the machine shop at work was awesome and got my rail mounts machined yesterday. They are basically flats with a slot milled into them at a 1/16" deep. that slot allows me to reference the bottom and the small flat face on the bottom of the stock fence profile rail. They also have a line of holes drilled in parallel to the reference groove.


fence rails 1 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr
fence rails 2 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr



The 80/20 fence rails will mount to the series of holes and in theory everything should be pretty close to parallel. I know theory doesn't always work out so the holes were made a little oversized which should allow me to fine tune the 80/20 rails to be parallel with each other.

Now comes the part where I know I am going to get some mixed feeling from you all. That is how I plan to attach the mounts to the table top. There isn't really anything with enough meat for me to drill any fasteners into the ribs on the table. I debated welding them, but I do not have a welder and really do not want to pull the top back off again to take into work to weld. This left me with one option to use an epoxy.

I opted to go with JB Weld I have used it on a quite a few projects before with pretty good success. Albeit not on anything quite like this. I am curious to see how it works out. I know this is a touchy issue and I ask anyone who may not like this idea to keep the hate mail to themselves haha. I am viewing this more as an experiment. If it works great if it doesn't well I will report back and figure out where to go from there.

Here are the rails all clamped and epoxied into place. It is pretty cool here this week(around 30 degrees) JB Weld does cure but at a slower pace in colder temps. My thoughts were I would epoxy it today and let it sit and cure for the next week while I am traveling for the holidays.


fence rails clamped by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr

fence rails clamped 2 by Rat Finkelton, on Flickr

I hope I didn't offend anyone with my practices today. I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday and New Years. I will most likely be back with more updates after the New Year.

 

[RHJO51]

I had one of these saws and it was basically all there and complete. Worked well. I unfortunately wasn't using it much and needed room in my small shop so I sold it. I just found the original blade guard. I had taken it off and then lost the mounting bracket. Still don't have the bracket but if you are interested in the blade guard let me know. Thanks

 

[RatFinkleton]

I had one of these saws and it was basically all there and complete. Worked well. I unfortunately wasn't using it much and needed room in my small shop so I sold it. I just found the original blade guard. I had taken it off and then lost the mounting bracket. Still don't have the bracket but if you are interested in the blade guard let me know. Thanks

Thank you for the offer. I do not usually use blade guards. I find they get in my way more often than not. If you come across any other parts you may have for this saw though keep me in mind . There are a couple other bits and pieces I wouldn't mind having.

 

[454ragtop]

No hate on your JB weld attachment, though I do think it is doomed to fail. I think you would have better luck with some of the 2 part adhesives used in auto body repair that are dispensed thru a special caulking gun.

 

[RatFinkleton]

No hate on your JB weld attachment, though I do think it is doomed to fail. I think you would have better luck with some of the 2 part adhesives used in auto body repair that are dispensed thru a special caulking gun.

Its funny you mention that, I was looking at 3M's panel adhesive. That adhesive is temp dependent for curing so I was worried that it wouldn't fully cure with the cooler temps seems like 70 F is the recommended curing temp with cure time decreasing as temp rises. It is also like $70 for the tube, gun, and mixing nozzles. It is however my back up plan. I figure if the JB weld holds great, but if does fail, this spring when the temps come back up I will be shelling out some coin for the 3M.

Thanks though Ragtop for bringing that up because up until a week ago I didn't really know anything about panel adhesive. I saw it mentioned in a practical machinist post and decided to look into it. Incase anyone is using this post for project research purposes, Panel adhesive is an epoxy used by the automotive industry. They use it to bond non structural joints together on the body of vehicles, because it is stronger than spot welds. Think JB weld on steroids for professionals. Automotive grade testing is no joke so this stuff has to be the real deal.

Its rare I get to be an optimist and pessimist in the same statement so here it goes---my whole custom fence system might be garbage haha so it may be nice to have the weaker adhesive on incase I have to take the rail mounts back off.