1960's Craftsman Table Saw Refurbish Part 2

We made quite a bit of progress on the table saw today.  If you are new to this project, just click on the link below to read Part 1.

Part 1

  R went and picked up the electric motor from the repair shop while I met the tree trimmer for an estimate on removing storm damaged limbs and dead limbs.  

We were shocked when the repair shop called and said the motor was fixed and the charge was 60 bucks. I've read horror stories on the Internet about people who were restoring these old saws and that a new motor, if you could find them, cost a lot more than the the saw.  This refurbish could end up costing around 100 bucks.  Sounds perfect!!!

When R returned home, we ate lunch, and then got to work tearing apart the home made wooden saw base.  First item on the list was removing the two wheels.  The wheels and axle will work great on our rolling trash cans.  If you don't buy the heavy duty trash cans, the trash guys will reduce a lower quality trash can to something that resembles a sieve.  And if you have wheels on your trash can you will now have a full time job putting wheels back on your trash can.

After we removed the wheels, we needed to cut off the stub of 2X4 on each corner.  The reciprocating saw made quick work of that.  We now had a nice flat area to attach out 4 new locking castors.  We used 4 lag screws on each wheel.  After that, we flipped the base onto it's new castors and starting pulling out long nails that were sticking out of the wood base and also holding the badly damaged top to the base.

It took a while to pull the nails out but once the top was gone we could get to work on the bottom shelf.  R was unsure if his dad built the bottom without that piece of wood or if that piece got broken somewhere and sometime in the past.  No fear....we have a scrap pile and we're not afraid to use it.

The chosen board looked like it was the side of a built in pine cabinet that we removed several years ago.  Measured, marked, cut, installed, done.  

Now comes the top.  The top is flush with the back because the saw motor sticks out in that area but the sides and front can overhang the base.  I measured and figured 4 2X8 and 1 2X4 would give us just about the correct width that we were looking for but the overhang in the front is uncharted waters so we made the boards 40 inches long and once the top is glued and joined with biscuits we will decide how much of an overhang is needed.

But first we needed to go to the barn and look and see what 2X8's were available.  We found two boards rights away.  I have no idea where they came from but they are old and might be fir because they were slightly orange/tan and smelled like a Christmas tree.

We biscuit joined the boards in two pieces because our bar clamps were not long enough.  One piece had 3 pieces and the other had 2 pieces and tomorrow we will join the two pieces to make one top.  For now they will dry over night.

I haven't figured out yet if I am going to sand the top and just seal it or if I will sand, stain, and then seal.  I have several small cans of stain so that is good if we want to keep this project under 100 bucks.

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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.

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