Thread: Restoring the Major

First, use a wire brush in the drill to get most of the rough stuff of, then boil the jug and mix up some citric acid with boiling water in a stainless steel sink (had to make a special bath for the lathe bed its over a meter long) and soak the parts. Warning don’t put aluminium in the citric acid it will destroy it.
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Now depending on the concentration of the fluid, I uses about 15 to 20 grams to around I guess 20lt of water, as long as the parts are covered with water you can add however much you like. The more you add the quicker it works.<O</O
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After soaking for a couple of hours or over night for really rusty parts they go black. I then washed the parts in clean soapy water and get some of it of. Then it was back to the wire brush in the drill. If there was still rust on the parts do the process again. This would clean them up nice. This way I never lost any material, just rust. After all the parts including every washer, nut and bolt had been soaked and brushed I painted the parts with marone kill rust. Then I started to assemble them back together.

2 months later it was all but finished. I was missing the quill for the tail stock and a bracket for the extension table. An email to Coronet woodworking and Derek sent the parts over. Now I have had her working every weekend with out fail (well when I’m out there that is). Put a new DOL starter in it and a 10” blade and it’s wonderful.

Even after I don’t know how long the motor was in the rain for it still works like a new one. Just checked and greased the bearing’s and away she went. The bearing’s in the planer where replaced this year and the brass bearing in the headstock is still good and gets oiled every time I use it. Not bad for a machine built in 1976.<O

Mine is the last of the imperial machines. That same year they brought out a metallic blue one all metric with the &#190; head stock mine is a 7/8<SUP>th</SUP>. Then came the mark 3 with a 7” planer thicknesser.

Well hope you like the pictures and how I did it. Feel free to ask any questions.<O

Regards Jamie.<O


Picture 1: Table saw
Picture 2: Rear view
Picture 3: Front view
Picture 4: Mortacing attachment
Picture 5: Planer drum. There is a bit of the bed missing because one of the blades came lose and startes chewing at it. Much to my horror.


Any thing that looks like rust isnt. It is saw dust, I took photo's after testing it out.

G'day Garell,

I would've walked away from it but to your credit you took it on and the rewards have paid for themselves - a great effort and job well done.

The bit that got chewed out of the jointer bed is a bit scary.

And the pride of a job well done everytime you turn the Major on would be gratification enough.

Thanks Waldo

Yea it was a bit of a daunting task at first, but it got easyer as it went along. I enjoy using it. It can be a pain to switch between attachments though, but I dont mind.

It is regularly maintained and checked every time before I use it. It gets the once over at the end of a weekend, oiled, greased and covered up. It took to long and a lot of hrs to complete. Dont want it getting rusty again.

The jointer bed incedent was scary. I had the thicknesing attachment on at the time and knowticed aluminium shaving's comming out. Shut the machine down and took it apart and to my horror, well yea the pic shows it. Was not impressed.

I even re-wound the solinoied in the origional DOL starter twice before the bobin melted. So I made a new bobin out of perspex. It to melted. So I tossed the hole lot in the bin. My uncle had a spare one and got it of him recently. Later found out the old DOL stater had a fault that I could have fixed it but just did not fancy puting 600 turns of wire on another bobin again. To damb tedius.