Walker Turner BN 905 Bandsaw

[Hoorn]

I'm pretty familiar with vintage Delta bandsaws, having bought, sold and restored a half dozen, this is my first Walker Turner bandsaw. I bought this for $175. Ser No. is 19-639. It runs very well, gearbox was seamless. Pictures are the condition I found it in.

Of note, I have never before found what I assume to be original canvas tires on the cast iron wheels. The upper wheel tension guide is extremely heavy duty, as is the gearbox, gears and cast iron pulley cover. The base is from PO. Definitely an interesting bandsaw.

 

[JoCoSawdust]

Whoa! That's a sweet machine Hoorn! That gear box is fantastic.

 

[Jayman17]

That looks really well made. That blade tension assembly looks very stout. Unlike my import bandsaw tension assembly made from pot metal that has cracked.

Jay

 

[Hoorn]

That looks really well made. That blade tension assembly looks very stout. Unlike my import bandsaw tension assembly made from pot metal that has cracked.

Jay

Jay, I'm cleaning the upper wheel tension assembly and will do a side-by-side with my beloved Delta when it's done. I thought Delta's were the final word in bandsaws (in the 30/40s that is). Wait until you see the difference in material. It's like Powermatic vs HF.

 

[crguy]

I've owned a few of the WT bandsaws and some still had what appeared to be the original glued on rubber tires. I question the originality of those tires.

 

[Hoorn]

I've owned a few of the WT bandsaws and some still had what appeared to be the original glued on hard rubber tires. I question the originality of those tires.

Thank you crguy. I don't know enough about Walker Turner to have known one way or the other. All the Delta band saws I've had were either from the 1940s or modern and none of them had canvas. The PO I bought it from had means (despite the jury-rigged bandsaw stand) and he spared no expense on his vintage car collection, so I was very curious about the material of these tires.

 

[bmwrd0]

Looking forward to this. I have the 12" version out in my garage waiting for a rebuild, but I haven't sourced a new lower wheel yet and the original is rather damaged.

 

[Maui]

What size is the Walker Turner, 14” or 16”?

 

[slowtwitch73]

Nice.....

 

[Hoorn]

What size is the Walker Turner, 14” or 16”?

Maui it's a 14"

 

[Hoorn]

I started to clean the blade guide. I pulled the blade guide off of a 1943 Delta bandsaw (I removed the blade guard) and put it next to the Walker Turner for comparison. To be fair, I have not started cleaning the Delta yet and that adds to the discrepancy. The weight difference is almost double. WT on the right.







And the main blade guide lock knob.

 

[Nutria]

Beautiful.

 

[RTM]

I was just poking around on vintage machinery, and decided to look for your tires. No one mentioned canvas. Add tires as the “Search Within these results”

Making sure you're not a bot!

This got me nowhere, adding in “canvas” instead of tires.

Making sure you're not a bot!

 

[bmwrd0]

Just a thought, but I once bought an old bicycle, and a former owner had used rope as a spoke protector between the rim and the inner tube. I bring this up to point out that at some point in the saws life an owner might have used whatever was lying around that could work. Remember that during the heyday of that saws use people were pretty thrifty.

Rubber saw tires are a continuous loop, what do these look like at the join spot? Are they butted against each other, or are they scarfed?

 

[11b30b4]

Hoorn that is a nice and beefy band saw. Looking forward to the restore.

 

[Hoorn]

BMW, here is the canvas wrap. Since this band saw was most likely built in the 1940s, my guess is a PO somewhere down the road put this on as opposed to WT using canvas material. For whatever reason it's there and I will say it did track the blade very straight.



Here is a comparison with a Delta 14" of the upper wheel tensioning assembly. Again, In fairness to the Delta it has not been cleaned yet but you still get the idea.



And here are various shots of the assembly. It's really quite impressive and very heavy.









Walker Turner has the cast iron wheels ride on two SKF bearings. You can see the one bearing still attached to the tensioning assembly, here is the other inside the wheel.



You can see a bushing inside the cast iron bore that separates the two bearings.



And then here is the wheel retaining screw and flange. A nice touch to stamp the word oil on the screw.

 

[lafester]

That is a beautiful saw. Someday I will find a slow speed version to go with my Craftsman/WT 16.
Hell even that motor is bad ***.

 

[Jayman17]

Wow, I can’t believe the difference between the two tension assemblies. The WT is the way they should all be made! That’s a lot of iron.

Jay

 

[Hoorn]

If there is an Achilles heel to this Walker Turner bandsaw it would be this table tilting bracket. Here the delta outshines The Walker Turner with infinitely more adjustments and six points of contact with the table instead of three. Although robust in appearance, from what I have read, attempting to move your WT bandsaw via the table will result in a broken trunnion very quickly.

The table adjustment locking handle/lever screws onto a segment screw that was put on the cast iron base at the factory and is not coming off. For the sake of example there is a screw behind the WT handle simply holding it loosely in place.

 

[crguy]

Wow, I can’t believe the difference between the two tension assemblies. The WT is the way they should all be made! That’s a lot of iron.

Jay

They do show up broken. I always check the tension unit for damage before buying a WT saw. You know right away if the little wheel is on an angle.

 

[Liaviator]

Beautiful work!