Good eye Shoottx...it is indeed a slow speed converter. The best picture I've got right now:
Didn't even know it had it when I went to look at it. IN fact, here is the picture that idiot that sold it had on craigslist when I went to go look at it:
Needless to say, that wasn't the same saw.
When I got to the place to look at it, we had to walk down this guys back yard, down about a hundred feet of concrete steps down a hill, step over all kinds of trash and into this ramshackle barn where two shirtless dirt-bag type guys were hauling off trash. It was sitting in a corner of the barn covered with cobwebs, dust, grease and rust. My dad went with me and said "It looks like we're in a scene from "Deliverance".
We got it back up to this guys garage to plug it in. It hardly moved and started smoking. Needless to say, he didn't get full asking price. In retrospect, I don't know why I even let him start it. But it surely drove the price down.
I got it home, pulled the upper cover, brushed it off, blew all the dust out with the air hose, blew the motor out, cranked it through several times. The band was rusty but freed up nicely. Plugged it in and it started right up.
The table was pretty bad:
Got the light weight "bent" wire wheel on the grinder and lightly cleaned what rust off I could:
The top of the table is somewhat pock marked...I don't know if I should worry about it or not. I've read where other people have used a RO sander with fine grit to get saw tables looking real good after damage like this has occurred. What do you guys think?
And I didn't even know what the speed reducer did until I got back home with it. Its really a neat little gizmo... am I assuming correctly that it slows down the blade for metal cutting? One of the belts on the converter has small cracks in it. Hopefully I can get those replaced somewhere when they go.
Thanks for the link BTW...I assumed the converter was an aftermarket piece...but that makes it even cooler to know it was a Craftsman option!
