In what seems to be becoming a habit, I’ve taken a before shot, no progress shots, and a few “complete” pictures. Well, I never claimed to be a photograher.
Here’s a “before” picture. In fact, that was just two posts ago! Hmmm, this doesn’t seem to be the most active space, does it.
Hey, that was only the end of May? Four months isn’t so bad. Anyways, it wasn’t in that bad of shape at all. Check out my other post for more details.
So, what did I do? Replaced the wheel bearings, replaced any rubber bits, replaced the guides (with fancy ceramic ones), new belt, new blade, new wheel tires, and a 6” riser block. Oh, and a new high-tension spring, new guide post, and some reproduction cover knobs. And some paint. If you’ve got one of these that you’re restoring, look up “Iturra Designs”, they’ve got you covered for parts.
Pictures! Reminder: this saw is 72 years old.
The best part is that it actually runs really nice. Very little vibration, lot’s of resaw capacity, plus bonus vintage good looks. You may notice a piece of cardboard wedged under one of the feet.. I actually haven’t repainted the original mobile base yet, I’m having a super hard time locating replacement casters. The original ones sat so long they developed a flat spot on the wheel, so they don’t really function well as wheels anymore.
All in all, it was a lot of fun to restore. It’s amazing what you can do with a brass wire wheel and some spray paint. If you’ve got an old piece of woodworking machinery laying around somewhere, chances are that it’s just as good or better than anything you can buy new. So don’t throw it away! Restore it, or better yet just give it to me.
Now I can actually get back to some woodworking projects. I’ve actually had a few in progress, just no posts about them yet. I’ll have a report up on a new moxon vise and a badaxe saw in a few weeks though. Let me just say, the combo is supersweet.
– Matt
