Thread: Cleaning up an old table saw.

WHile waiting for the new bearings, did a bit of work on the table top using a palm sander and green Scotchbrite.
It's starting to come clean but it's hard going!

There were two 'lumps' of rust that wouldn't budge so I took to them with a fine stone. It worked so well, I was tempted to attack the entire table top but not knowing what damage I was likely to do, stuck to the scotchbrite.

There are a couple of spots that look pitted but I think are stains, Anything other than the Scotchbrite method to clean these up?

I would be leaving it at that stage, cast iron does go black over time and the only real reason to polish a top is to make the material slide over it smoothly. My saw which I would say is going on 40 years old is black and no amount of work will make it silver like a new one, so I just rub it with fine sand paper and then steel wool with wax on it if it needs it to make the timber glide over it.<br>

Here are a couple of pics of a shaper that I acquired using this method.

Rob

If you're really keen, a maroon scotchbrite followed by a grey scotchbrite followed by a rotary buff with a lambswool mitt and some car paint cutting compound!

New bearings arrived yesterday and are now installed.
I was expecting more drama but everything went according to plan.
Triton Superjaws make a great bearing press! I had a piece of thick walled pipe that I used to press against the inner race, a large socket took care of fitting the other bearing that need to be pressed against the outer race.
As per this video by John Heisz, I put the arbour in the freezer for an hour but didn't need to apply any heat to te arbour housing to fit it. Looks like I bought a propane torch for nothing.

I clean all my rusted items using Evaporust, including my rusted cast iron table saw.

Grunt work is minimal and cleanup really easy. I generally use an old paint brush and slop the Evaporust around the top. Over a period of a couple hours I might reapply 2-3 times, over the existing layer. I then clean up with an adsorbent rag or toweling. I would then usually apply a couple "cleaning" layers and lastly leave a final wiped layer on to dry which I don't wipe off (I only do this when I'm happy all the rust is removed).

I used to use synthetic sanding pads, etc until I discovered Evaporust.

I think the rust is all gone, what remains are stains. There's still some light surface rust on the bottom of the table so I'll check out Evaporust.
Anything that makes the job easier.

I've been a bit slack on getting the saw back together. My excuse is that I promised the landlord I'd paint the back verandah and an inspection is coming up so I thought I'd better get a move on. Steel window frames with lots of rust to clean up, no fun at all.

Between coats on the weatherboards, I went back to shed to try so solve a couple of frustrating problems with re-assembling the saw..

I've replaced the bearings in the blade arbour and had trouble getting the arbour back in, I couldn't get the worm and gear to re-engage. I tried engaging the worm/gear and tilting the arbour but that wa much too tight.. I removed one to the raies/lower limit stops and it wound in easily..

Similar issue with getting the tilt worm/gear to engage. Turns out this one was staring me in the face all along. The shaft with the worm on it goes through the casting in a brass sleeve. There's a flange on one end of the sleeve and a nut on the other to hold it in place. I (finally) noticed that the flange had two flats on it tht screamed 'spanner!'. Sure enough, the hole in the flange is off centre and a spanner is used to adjust the fit.

Both solutions are obvious now but a week ago, I couldn't see them.

Still deciding whether I should make some PALS to make the trunnion adjustment easier. I don't see adjusting the trunnions as more than a one off exercise but it might be fun to fire the mill up again.

Time for another coat.

As the weather has been reasonable for the last few days , I've gotten back into the shed and have been working on the table saw again.
All cleaned up and back together but still needs the trunnions adjusting properly.
I had to replace the lead on the motor as it a) was old and b) had a 15amp plug on it. As the motor is rated at 6A, I replaced it with a 10A plug. This was required to fit into the NVR switch box I made.

The motor mount could use some work. The hinge is just a steel rod onto which the pressed metal motor plate mounts. As the only support is the v-belt, the whole motor hangs at a slight angle.
I'll make up some bushes to make this a tighter fit. Any suggestions for adding some sort of extra support would be welcome. Hope the pictures show it well enough.

Sorry for missing photos from earlier in this thread. There was a problem with my website and I don't have copies of the images.

A lot of the contractor style table saws have a similar arrangement for the motor. For example my H&F did, ie just hung by the belt with what seems to be a similar arrangement (I don't have it now so can't take a photo for you)

Garage6C.jpg
Howdy.With this old refurbed sander i hung a chain via an eye bolt (at top rail) & small D link at bottom.Once i adjusted the eye bolt it provides the neccessary strength to hold everything nice & level taking the strain off the belt.The motor base plate is hinged to rear rail that allows me to lift to change belt.

A quick measure today shows that the shaft that is part of the hinge is 1/2" but the hole in the motor mount plate is closer to 13mm which explains the loose fit.

Not that it will affect the fit but I think I have the motor plate on back to front.

EDIT: Changing the motor plate around to the right way made some difference in that the motor swings more freely than it did. It still sit on a slight angle which I think I can fix if a I make a new pin for the hinge, one that has a step on each end to fit the larger hole in the motor plate.

Aligned the trunnions and went to make a test cut and the belt broke! Very old, cracked and hard in parts so no surprise there.
Once cleaned up and adjusted, the fence is not too bad but I think I'll replace it when I put the saw in a better/bigger cabinet.

Spent a bit of time re-sanding the cast iron top after condensation made some new rust spots, not too bad.

I want to make stand/cabinet for the table saw and extend the table for large cross cutting capacity. I also want to build a Beisemeyer style fence for it.
It's been posted before but Jor's incemental fence (link below) looks like it won't be too hard to do, his table saw station has given me some ideas too.

I've done a quick frame in Sketchup to give me somewhere to start. Timber is 90x45 MGP10 of which, for some reason, I have a lot of.
Right and left table extensions will be (probably) 25 or 32 mm MDF with a laminex top (suggestions for alternatives welcome). Not sure what to do with the space underneat but drawers are always handy.

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

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Right and left table extensions will be (probably) 25 or 32 mm MDF with a laminex top (suggestions for alternatives welcome). Not sure what to do with the space underneat but drawers are always handy.
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I'd go with the laminex - But I have noticed our kitchen benches looking decidedly sad after 15 years

You thinking of a building in a router table as well?