Jeff Horton
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I have posted this before else where. Since I recently posted photo in another thread I thought it only fair to my saws ego to post "the rest of the story".
Just a brief history on the saw. It was used in a small cabinet shop in Birmingham AL. The owner worked days at the Steel plant and ran his own cabinet shop at night. Full time according to his son, Sam. Dad had a stroke in his latter years and was unable to ever work again. The one thing he made clear was that his shop machines were to be kept! He expected to be able to go to work again but never did. He died several years latter and with the machines in storage.
I will skip forward 20+ years when I met Sam, his son. The machines were in his garage in Winona Mississippi and as you can see storage had taken their toll on them. Had we not meet this saw was headed for the scrap yard.
While many people would have thought that the scrap yard was the perfect place for the saw. I could see it for what it was, a diamond in the rough.
I had never restored a wood working machine but it looked to me like restoring a car just on a much smaller scale. Having been a gear-head all my life and having lost interest in cars this looked straight forward and fun to me. I started tearing it down to it's basic components and then once it there was nothing left to disassemble I knew I must be done with this part.
From here I stated removing the rust from the cabinet. All the rusty parts were stripped to bare metal and primed. Then it received a few coats of the very famous and highly debated (in OWWM circles anyway) Delta gray. Then I moved on cleaning the other parts of the saw.
What I found was a saw that had actually been taken care of. I had but a few screws that I had to replaced. The saw was in very good condition. The motor was not acting exactly rights so I sent it to the shop for a complete rebuild. Other than the years of neglect the saw could have been used with just some lubrication on the moving parts. With all the pieces cleaned and painted I started to put it back together.
One thing you may notice in the photos is that I did not try to restore the saw to factory condition. That is I didn't paint the inside of the cabinet except where there was rust. I didn't clean and polish pieces that did not show . Since I planned on using the saw heavily instead of looking at it, I saw no reason in making the hidden parts look new. I cleaned them and protected them. I just didn't worry about it being showroom new on the insides.
These photos show her done and dusty. The way I like to see old machines. I have used this saw for a few months now I know why people love their cabinet saws. As I have said many times before It doesn't cut the wood any better than my contractors saw, but is sure is a pleasure to use. Had I not been given this saw I would still be using my contractors saw and perfectly happy with it. But this saw is special because of story behind it. Sam and I both think it would make his father proud to see it looking like new and being used again.
Just a brief history on the saw. It was used in a small cabinet shop in Birmingham AL. The owner worked days at the Steel plant and ran his own cabinet shop at night. Full time according to his son, Sam. Dad had a stroke in his latter years and was unable to ever work again. The one thing he made clear was that his shop machines were to be kept! He expected to be able to go to work again but never did. He died several years latter and with the machines in storage.
I will skip forward 20+ years when I met Sam, his son. The machines were in his garage in Winona Mississippi and as you can see storage had taken their toll on them. Had we not meet this saw was headed for the scrap yard.
While many people would have thought that the scrap yard was the perfect place for the saw. I could see it for what it was, a diamond in the rough.
I had never restored a wood working machine but it looked to me like restoring a car just on a much smaller scale. Having been a gear-head all my life and having lost interest in cars this looked straight forward and fun to me. I started tearing it down to it's basic components and then once it there was nothing left to disassemble I knew I must be done with this part.
From here I stated removing the rust from the cabinet. All the rusty parts were stripped to bare metal and primed. Then it received a few coats of the very famous and highly debated (in OWWM circles anyway) Delta gray. Then I moved on cleaning the other parts of the saw.
What I found was a saw that had actually been taken care of. I had but a few screws that I had to replaced. The saw was in very good condition. The motor was not acting exactly rights so I sent it to the shop for a complete rebuild. Other than the years of neglect the saw could have been used with just some lubrication on the moving parts. With all the pieces cleaned and painted I started to put it back together.
One thing you may notice in the photos is that I did not try to restore the saw to factory condition. That is I didn't paint the inside of the cabinet except where there was rust. I didn't clean and polish pieces that did not show . Since I planned on using the saw heavily instead of looking at it, I saw no reason in making the hidden parts look new. I cleaned them and protected them. I just didn't worry about it being showroom new on the insides.
These photos show her done and dusty. The way I like to see old machines. I have used this saw for a few months now I know why people love their cabinet saws. As I have said many times before It doesn't cut the wood any better than my contractors saw, but is sure is a pleasure to use. Had I not been given this saw I would still be using my contractors saw and perfectly happy with it. But this saw is special because of story behind it. Sam and I both think it would make his father proud to see it looking like new and being used again.