1960's Craftsman Table Saw Refurbish Part 1

Both of us ran the roads today, with our list of items to get for the table saw redo.

R's list consisted of 1 errand and then return home to unbolt the table saw top and then unbolt the table saw base from the home made wooden base.  His errand was to take the electric motor to the electric motor shop.  His normal place told him to go to another place because they had more experience with the older electric motors like our.  So he crisscrossed to the other side of town to go to the electric motor shop that was recommended by the first shop.  

The second shop said "no, you really need to go to (a third shop)".  Unfortunately, that shop was back in the other direction.  So back he went to the third shop.  They said "yup, that's old." But they were cool about the fact that we were refurbishing an old saw.  They need to tear it apart to see what's wrong with it so they can give us a quote.  I hope that it is under 200 bucks but who knows what you will come across when you are working with old stuff.  But there really isn't a lot of parts in that old motor even though it is huge in size.  Brushes, bearing, rotor, and wound stater and that is about it.  

R then headed home to remove the saw table top.  Every bolt was rusted and needed to be cut off.  After he removed the top  he could see that there were parts that should move that weren't moving.  Parts like the adjusting wheel that tilts the blade.  A little WD40 fixed that.  Then there was an arbor that was froze and he fixed that.  When we reassemble we will grease parts that need to stay lubricated but for now we will let the WD40 remove some of the surface rust.

That left the 4 bolts that held the base to the home made wooden cart/base.  They needed to be cut off because they too, were rusted.  By this time it was 5PM.

My list consisted of getting 4 castors that can be bolted onto a flat surface AND the castors needed wheel locks to keep the saw from rolling away while in use.  Harbor Freight had a sale on the castors that I thought I needed AND they had the metal socket rails that we needed to replace some of the plastic ones that we have that have broken.  Lucky me....metal socket rails were on sale for 99 cents each.

HarborFreight.com

I then went to my Ace Hardware to get 16 lag screws and a quart of black satin paint for the wood base.  As I was leaving the screw department, I noticed their castor assortment and stopped to look.  Then it hit me that I bought castors with a brake and not a lock. So I picked up 4 castors with locks and I will take the others back tomorrow.

When I got out to my SUV I realized that I had forgotten the quart of paint so I went back inside to get the paint.  By the time I left Ace it was 4 PM.

R was tired from his driving back and forth and I was exhausted from my running around, so we called it quits at 5PM.

Tomorrow we have a tree trimmer coming to give us an estimate.  We have used this company before and were very happy with their work.  It is an extensive list that includes cutting the two limbs that are slightly hanging over the sun room, removing some lower small limbs from the black walnut trees so that the canopy of those trees match the canopy of the other surrounding trees,  remove old storm damage from two silver maples, remove two huge 90 degree limbs on a huge ash tree by the driveway gates, and trim low hanging black walnut branches that hang over the garden shed.

After he leaves we hope to get the castors on the wooden base and install a bottom shelf.  Then we will head out to the barn to look for scrap 2X6's or 2X8's to make a new top for the the wooden base.  I think we have a large supply of like new 2X6's that R picked up for free from a store that was remodeling.  If I remember right it was twenty two 12 foot boards that just had drywall screws in them.  

If that wasn't a good enough deal, the owner asked if R wanted the big pile of aluminum that was laying on the ground.  R can never pass up good scrap, he says it is free money.  He went from the store directly to the scrapper and walked away with almost 30 bucks.  Basically, he drove 10 miles from the store to the scrapper and then back home which is another 10 miles.  Just about 2 1/2 gallons of gas and 1 hour of time.

Reuse Repurpose Recycle