"Restored" Delta 36-600

**RedShirtGuy** · 5th April 2010, 05:32 PM

A year or two ago I was given an old Delta 36-600 tablesaw that had been hibernating outside under a sheet of plastic. It was pretty grotty and rusty but it was better than my Ryobi and it still worked...well, at least it *did* for about three minutes before the magic blue smoke escaped and ever since then it's been taking up room in my shed.

A couple of months ago I got talking to the guy who gave it to me and told him what had happened to the motor and how despite my best efforts on the net and in repair shops I could not find a replacement or get it repaired. He took the motor from me to "someone he knows" who gave it a good going over by replacing the bearings and rewinding it. While it was away I got cracking on cleaning up the table and giving it some TLC, and while I'm not particularly happy with the results, it's been one hell of a learning experience and I've come out of it with a much better looking and functioning table saw than I've had before.

To start with I thought I'd give the electrolytic rust removal process a stab and the first victims to science were the height/angle adjustment rods. The first image attached is of the frame and hanging metal "core" I used as my "vat". This was submerged in a PVC pipe containing the electrolytic solution (2nd pic). The rods were hung in the centre of the metal core with the intention that if they were surrounded by the charged core I wouldn't have to fiddle around with turning them to get even removal around them. The third pic is of the solution bubbling away.

With a bit of experience in silver recovery from photographic chemicals, paper and negatives I thought I'd chuck a pump into the mix to circulate the solution. While it's essential in silver recovery, for rust removal I think it is detrimental to the process. Sure the rods and table top would come out cleaner (without so much of the removed rust goop on them) but the actual rust removal process seemed slower and less effective than if I didn't use the pump. So after a bit of experimenting the pump got ditched.

Disappointingly, the rods came out quite pitted and after a long time of checking and resubmerging in the solution and I ended up scrubbing off most of the rust with steel wool and green scrubbing pads. Pics 4 and 5 are the before and after results.

The rods got lubricated with something that's actually for mountain bike chains. It's a wax based fluid that was drizzled on and wiped off to leave a coat of pink wax in the threads. I'll have to see how it goes after some use to report how effective it is, but the rods are moving nicely while they're clean.

The table top got drowned in an old black and white photographic paper chemical bath tray for the same electrolytic process (pic 6). This time I used a sheet of metal for the anode that covered most of the table top to get fairly even removal.

Pic 7 is the before, 8 is the top covered in goop after its second last submersion and before I took to it with a high pressure water gun and 9 is the result prior to some manual scrubbing. Again, the metal was heavily pitted and came out very blotchy which was disappointing. I was really hoping for a nice, even, shiny surface.

**RedShirtGuy** · 5th April 2010, 05:57 PM

So it's back into the shed we go now and I decide that a mobile base would be pretty darn useful right about now. Pic 1 shows the corners I knocked up from some old angle steel that I gave a couple of coats of paint to just for fun. Pic 2 is the ever so simple frame screwed together from some cruddy old pine I had lying around the yard. This thing proved invaluable given that I've got very little room to move in there and needed to shift things around a lot while I was working.

Once I'd finished scrubbing the table table top and given it a coat of carnauba polish, I put everything back together and got to work on aligning the blade. This alone took more than a week!! Talk about dramas

The first problem was that just as I was finished with the vertical alignment and was getting started on the 45deg measurements, I noticed the jig for the dial indicator wasn't sitting properly. Pic 3 shows the monstrous bend that had developed in the jig which was probably the cause of the previous many hours struggling with adjustments and not being able to figure out why everything was apparently moving so much. So a new and different jig was produced which gave much better results.

The pic of my hand is of the scratches I copped from the blade trying to jam it through the throat plate hole to adjust bolts. How bloody stupid am I to not realise until the last minute that a socket wrench with extensions coming up from underneath would be much better.

Just as I thought things were going well and I was tightening up the trunnion bolts for the last time, I had the unholy feeling of pressure and grip suddenly released. "Oh no" I thought, "I've gone and torn the head off the bolt". Nope. I'd ripped the thread out from the hole in the table. "!@#$%^!#$^!#". So I tapped the hole to be bigger and made it the official pivot point for the trunnions seeing as the bolt fit snuggly through the existing hole in the trunnion. Pic 5 shows the larger bolt as the bottom right one.

On I go...la di da...measure...adjust...measure...adjust...(repeat ad nauseum)...tighten...

...

"!#$^(&!#$^*Y!#$^!@##!"

I'd done it AGAIN to another hole!!!

This time I had to drill a bigger hole in the trunnion to allow for some movement to it could be adjustable. Fortunately I guess it was for the same trunnion as before and pic 6 shows the difference in the hole sizes. (Left is bigger, right is unchanged pivot point)

Eventually I got the blasted thing all aligned and tightened up. I had intentionally overshimmed the front trunnions with some washers to make sure I'd only have to put shims on the back trunnion and now, at 45degrees, it's only about 0.08mm higher at the back of the blade. Not exactly what I'd like, but I'll see how cuts go before I stress myself out tearing threads to fix it. The vertical alignment is 0.02mm to the left at the back which I'm happy enough with. Everytime I tightened the bolts, even just a little, the whole thing would slip, so that result is pretty good as far as I'm concerned.

After a bit of hassle getting the wiring sorted out (thanks again forumites) I got everything hooked up nicely and made a shoddy little switch cover box (pic 7) seeing as the original had broken and I couldn't find any Dick Smithy project boxes to suit. Pic 8 is it installed. I had to put new holes through the front of the saw body to hold it but that was the least of my worries through this whole project.

**RedShirtGuy** · 5th April 2010, 06:04 PM

And last, but not least...the end result...

The top had started rusting up again where I'd been dripping sweat on it so I gave it another rub with a scrubbing pad and another coat of polish. It will get another coat later on this evening just for good measure.

As you can see the top is not in very good condition but it's a heck of a lot better now than before. Everything is aligned, smooth and working beautifully. Altough, while making sure the wings were flat I noticed there is a honking great dip of 1mm or so (eyeballed) from the edges of the cast iron portion of the table to its' middle. Disappointing.

I haven't put the splitter and blade guard on as most of the time I will be working with sleds and they get in the way. I want make a new throat plate that will have a splitter on it or preferrably make a rising/falling one to go with the blade.

Pretty soon I'll be putting a new plug on the end of the power lead as the shielding has pulled out and is exposing a little of the core wires (still in their colored sleeves) and I'd like to nip that problem in the bud before it gets dangerous.

All up it's been a bloody painful, frustrating and tiring exercise, but it's done now and I can get back to doing what one is supposed to do with a saw like this...save up for a TSC-10HB

**kiwioutdoors** · 6th April 2010, 07:27 PM

Look like it will serve you well and the fence looks ok too

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