A really weird saw

Carol Reed

In Memoriam
Messages
5,533
Location
Coolidge, AZ
The saw I picked up from Jim Bradley yesterday had some surprises. It has a flexible shaft drive system rather than belt and pulleys. I'll get pictures once I get it out of the car. I did some research and found the owner's manual and exploded parts diagrams. I also found what few parts Sears has in stock for it. It dates back to the '90's and was never highly regarded. I'd call it a saw that was a good idea from a safety stand point. The flexible shaft has no exterior moving parts that present a danger. However.

What began as an innovative idea ran afoul of the bean counters. From the manufacturing side, with no heavy motor hanging off the trunnion, that part was made of aluminum, rather than cast iron. Thus the table top is thinner and has fewer bolt bosses to attach the trunnion to the top. The bearings are far less substantial as well since they don't need to carry the lateral stresses of a heavy motor. The coup de gras was the size of the flexible shaft was reduced from 1/2" to 7/16" from the original design and shortened so that it is curved to its minimum radius, putting extreme wear on that part. And fail they did, roughly between 40-100 hours of use. That caused tons of returns and Sears quickly abandoned the design.

The shaft is still available at nearly $200 a pop, but a design flaw is a design flaw.

Also missing is one of these guys:

Sears key.jpg

Sears wants $6 plus shipping for one. Not on my watch!

Of course, I can wire around it to see how things run. I suspect the shaft is royally dried out and needs cleaning and re-lubing before I turn it on. The entire saw needs some serious cleaning and de-rusting. Everything but the blade guard is there, though. Plus a bunch of steel saw blades good for making shop clocks, but not worth sharpening to actually cut wood!

The reason that I wanted the saw was to refurbish a contractor type saw and make the little improvements to greatly magnify its accuracy and functional use for the woodworking book I continue to labor away at. The jury is out on this. Everything I read suggests it is not worth the effort. I just have to decide how much work I want to put into this.

All that said, I am still looking for the usual blade guards for these kinds of saws as they can easily be modified to be both more useful and also function as a pretty good splitter. And I also need one for the old Rockwell bench saw I picked up last month (which has its own weirdness, but another thread on that one later). I think I can modify any guard to make it work. Anybody got something like that laying around unneeded? Or a little yellow switch key?
 
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Yeah scrap. I would not want to read a book today that has me dumpster diving for a antique saw to renovate at the price i could pick up one from HD as a jobsite saw. :)

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
Well, Rob! Say what you mean!

Actually, your remark jogged my brain to add some verbiage about new saws and why they ain't the be-all, end-all. Crappy fences are the first issue. But I digress. :type:
 
If nothing else out might be worth it as a cautionary tail on what not to buy :D. The shaft sounds like it's probably a deal killer from a practical perspective.

Crappy fences are the first issue. But I digress. :type:

Not so fond of the mitre bar slots on the ones I looked at at the local Borg either (not one was a standard T slot).
 
And non-standard miter slots were the second issue. Thanks, Ryan.

The third, if any one is interested is the table area, though that is handled with an outfeed surface for any table saw.

There may be some fans of this saw, maybe enough to part it out to them. I had never seen one before, or even heard of one. Interesting but flawed concept. As it is, its a land mine to the unaware. I'd hesitate to pass it along without huge disclaimers.
 
The saw I picked up from Jim Bradley yesterday had some surprises. It has a flexible shaft drive system rather than belt and pulleys. I'll get pictures once I get it out of the car. I did some research and found the owner's manual and exploded parts diagrams. I also found what few parts Sears has in stock for it. It dates back to the '90's and was never highly regarded. I'd call it a saw that was a good idea from a safety stand point. The flexible shaft has no exterior moving parts that present a danger. However.

What began as an innovative idea ran afoul of the bean counters. From the manufacturing side, with no heavy motor hanging off the trunnion, that part was made of aluminum, rather than cast iron. Thus the table top is thinner and has fewer bolt bosses to attach the trunnion to the top. The bearings are far less substantial as well since they don't need to carry the lateral stresses of a heavy motor. The coup de gras was the size of the flexible shaft was reduced from 1/2" to 7/16" from the original design and shortened so that it is curved to its minimum radius, putting extreme wear on that part. And fail they did, roughly between 40-100 hours of use. That caused tons of returns and Sears quickly abandoned the design.

The shaft is still available at nearly $200 a pop, but a design flaw is a design flaw.

Also missing is one of these guys:

View attachment 83825

Sears wants $6 plus shipping for one. Not on my watch!

Of course, I can wire around it to see how things run. I suspect the shaft is royally dried out and needs cleaning and re-lubing before I turn it on. The entire saw needs some serious cleaning and de-rusting. Everything but the blade guard is there, though. Plus a bunch of steel saw blades good for making shop clocks, but not worth sharpening to actually cut wood!

The reason that I wanted the saw was to refurbish a contractor type saw and make the little improvements to greatly magnify its accuracy and functional use for the woodworking book I continue to labor away at. The jury is out on this. Everything I read suggests it is not worth the effort. I just have to decide how much work I want to put into this.

All that said, I am still looking for the usual blade guards for these kinds of saws as they can easily be modified to be both more useful and also function as a pretty good splitter. And I also need one for the old Rockwell bench saw I picked up last month (which has its own weirdness, but another thread on that one later). I think I can modify any guard to make it work. Anybody got something like that laying around unneeded? Or a little yellow switch key?

Just cut a piece of wood from a tongue depressor and stick it in the switch.
 
Poor Carol. The parents, who lived across the street, died a few years ago and some of the kids have been living there. Suddenly, withing a few weeks, they all got jobs in different parts of the country. They have all moved out and the house is being refurbished to be sold. Anyway the garage was piled high with car parts, boat parts, yard tools, etc., etc. One of the kids asked me if I wanted the saw that was buried under tires, cigarette butts, old saw blades, etc. I saw a Craftsman contractors saw and I could see the end of the motor (not the flex shaft end) which looked great . I thought, "Somebody could fix this thing up to be a whale of a lot better than not having a TS."

A couple of the workmen doing the refurb. brought the saw over and put it between my TS and the garage door (a tight fit). The saw was only there about 24 hours, but it was really in my way. I didn't pay any attention to it until Carol came to get it. The flex-shaft was a surprise to both of us. What ticks me off is that a couple years ago I had a 10" Delta TS in excellent condition, that I could not even give away. It was finally scrapped. So now I have scrap and Carol gets stuck with it.

I'm sure Murphy saw me coming.

Enjoy,
JimB
 
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