Thread: Advice - Toolmac table saw for a newbie

If it's all there and in good order that sounds like pretty good value to me. There are lots of saws with varying branding like the Toolmac around. See these threads:
- Toolmac 12" tablesaw fence
- Jacob 12' Table Saw - any info?
- table saw help
- Hafco SB12 - handle turning but blade not elevating
- Baker machinery 305mm
- Repair thread - Hafco ST-12 circa 2003

That lot should keep you busy for a while.

Do you have any other photos of it from the top, side and back so that we can see that all critical parts are there?
Providing it has a riving knife, blade guard, belt guard a new saw won't be any safer unless you buy a Sawstop.

Thanks, I'm getting another look at it tomorrow, this time right side up and set up. I'll get some more photos of it then.

While I'll see tomorrow, from the reading, it sounds like these saws typically have a splitter that's located a little way behind the blade, rather than a riving knife. This sounds like a little bit more of a kickback risk.

Also, the rip fence sounds like it's gonna be pretty average and at this stage I don't have another $300 to drop on a new fence system. I wonder if I'm game enough to trust my skills at building a DIY fence and rail system... or if they are even a reasonable alternative...

If I do end up getting it, it looks like there's plenty of knowledge here to get it ship-shape!

Correct me if I’m wrong here, that looks like it has been sitting out in the weather, looks like it’s in a trailer and water has been sitting in the webs of the cast top, if so I would be very careful and inspect the whole saw as it may lead to further problems due to rust etc from sitting out in the weather.

Acco, you're right it was. I've climbed all over every part of it that I could reach today, without taking it apart. It looked to be a good condition. Had all the stock accessories and attachments. Bought it for 300!

Before I got there he's hit the entire top with a grinder of some sorts to polish off the surface rust. With a straight edge it didn't look like he's worn into any areas.

The top itself isn't exactly flat, but damn close. Across the width, the level sits on the edges of the track slots and, without a feeler gauge, it looks like there might be .25 to .5ish mm light coming through.

It feels a little stiff to raise and lower the blade, but tilting is much easier. Maybe that's meant to be like that? Either way the blade looks like it holds the angle when lifting or dropping, and there doesn't appear to be any wobble or rattle when running.

I need to reassemble the fence, so I don't know how good it is yet.

There's a few things I think I might need to buy:
1 - A good riving knife to replace the stock splitter.
2- a good but affordable fence (subject to the existing one). Not so keen on spending $200-300 on what little options my limited Google skills have dug up.
3- a decent but affordable blade, and a cheaper one for my first few cuts of reclaimed wood.

Any recommendations on any of that?

Is it feasible to make your own fence system from bunnings materials? Assuming I have an accurate square and patient steady construction.

And is there any use for old pure steel blades? The ones that don't have the extra ground/shaped tips that all modern blades do have? Worth resharpening for rough stuff? Or just cut them up and repurpose the steel?

It looks like you've done alright there, that sounds like it'll make a good starter saw. The rise and fall is sometimes a bit stiff, this can be improved by putting some candle wax on the drive teeth and some lubricant on where the shaft passes through the eccentric housing shaft that is bolted to the front trunnion. The eccentric housing shaft is how you can adjust the meshing of the rise and fall mechanism drive teeth.

It may not be possible to fit a splitter immediately behind the saw blade and there's no way you can fit a rise and fall riving knife. If you make some zero clearance inserts you can fit a timber splitter in the insert behind the blade, it's not as good as a rise and fall riving knife but it does greatly reduce the risk of kickback, improves your chance of doing quality rip cuts as well.

To get started any decent combination blade (40 to 50 teeth) will do, one of the Makita or Diablo blades from Bunnings would be fine. Some of these saws are a bit under powered (1.5 or 2 hp motors) so you will probably find that specialised rip and crosscut blades will serve you better in the future. Heavy ripping with combination blades can be particularly unsatisfactory. Old steel saw blade bodies can be used for making tools, marking knives immediately come to mind, but don't even bother sharpening them, carbide tipped blades have made them totally redundant.

It's always possible to make your own fence but it won't hurt to get started with what you've got, you may even be able to improve it sufficiently to be happy with it. The junction between the cast iron front locking mechanism and the fence proper seems to be the weakest link. Keep an eye out on Gumtree for a replacement fence, quality examples come up from time to time when someone has done an expensive upgrade on their saw.

Thanks, you've been a huge help.

In protecting the underside of the top from rust, is it worth pulling it entirely off to prep and paint it, or would wax be sufficient?

The underside of the top doesn't look too bad in the pic. Plenty of people would be happy to leave it as it is. If you want to treat it go ahead, I personally wouldn't bother painting it though, it's not as if you're going to be leaving it out in the weather. There was a thread here just recently about rust treatment, I'll try and find it or maybe somebody else can chip in.

Rust is pretty straight forward. I'll get right in to every groove and scrub it out then seal it something that dries like ptfe or similar.

Looking at the fence, as I'm a little unfamiliar with what the "The junction between the cast iron front locking mechanism and the fence proper" is, would you mind pointing it out?

I've been pouring over the fence system and see a few issues:
1- first up, I'm missing the m8 bolts that attach the fence to the front clamp and rear block. Big green box should resolve that.

2- The eccentric and clamp shoe are loose and dont track centrally, while not a huge issue, it's something first could be eliminated with a 3d printed insert to keep them both tracking centrally, or some small bolts from both sides to do the same.

3- there's no obvious way square up the fence to the mitre slot, or vertically. Assuming it doesn't have too much play in it (when it's finally assembled), i wonder if i could drill in to the inside of the front clamp housing at each end and insert a couple of grub screws? Any other ideas? Vertically i might be able to just put shims between a sacraficial face plate on the fence

4- the shaft bushing on the clamp shaft isnt on properly. While not an issue now, i can see it splitting one day. I don't know how to extract the clamp shaft non-destructively as its blind seated at one end so theres no way of tapping it out. I'm not sure i want to drill a hole to its butt end to be able to tap it out...

5- the spring on the rear clamp hook is missing. I don't think that really needs to be replaced. Though i have considered adhering neoprene or similar to the clamp hook to improve grip between the hook and the rear rail.

Does it have round rails, ie. pipe, or steel angle?

Round pipe.

6- the visual readout is a small triangular pointer that only accurately reads the inches (inches nearest me, mm nearest the table). I considered getting some acrylic and rebating it into the circular window, and putting a thin red line in the back.

Edit: only some of the individual parts are ever so subtly subtly different to the grizzly 1022sm fence and rail system (manual that you've posted in a different thread)

Sorry it's taken me a while to get back to this, had a few things on and when I did make the time to get out to the shed it was so cold that inside with the heater was the no brainer choice.

1. Those bolts are not M8, they're 5/16" by 1/2".
2. I don't recall what fastener located the zinc alloy clamping shoe in the cast iron housing when I got the saw but I note that I have replaced it with a bolt that locates the shoe on a non-threaded section of the shaft. Check that you have the compression spring that is located between the bottom of the shoe and the cast iron housing. It probably firms up what might otherwise be a loose and sloppy fit. I don't recall having any problems with the front locking mechanism during the extensive time I was using the original fence on my saw.
3. The 2 5/16" bolts mentioned in #1 are the only provision to square the fence to the mitre slot. They allow a couple of degrees adjustment, which should be sufficient. There's no vertical adjustment as you suspected. I used a laminated MDF panel as a fence facing.
4. Not sure what you mean by the bushing on the clamp shaft?
5. There's no spring in the rear clamping mechanism in the fence on my saw and there's no provision for one that I can see. If you're going to use something to improve the grip on the rail It'll need to be pretty thin. The rear clamping mechanism was a source of constant problems for me. It's a bunch of poorly retained and meshed, flimsy parts that are a complete PITA to fettle. The operation of the cam in the clamp hook was probably a big part of my problems, the whole thing needed to be pulled apart and slightly bent to allow the cam better purchase in the hook slot.
6. You can do whatever you like with that and it'll never provide any great level of precision and don't forget you'll possibly be adding an extra face to your fence.

I've attached a few pictures of the fence components so you can determine if your example is the same as mine. It also helps to ensure that we're talking about the same bits, some strategic circles and arrows are a huge help.

Here's that thread on rust treatment, it popped up again today.
Trialing Evapo-Rust and Inox Lanox for metal recovery and protection