Thread: Pem vintage Scroll saw ?????????

Gday Matt

Looks like a good find.
Check this thread out, may lead to something.

PE McManus Scroll Saw

Good luck
Keith

Good find Matt, love that good old stuff.

Doesn't seem to be many of these left. As far as I can see they were only made in 1946/47 and that the first number is the serial number, the second is the month of manufacture and the last number is the year. They were marketed as a jigsaw. If the pulley on the saw is original it will be stamped. I have two of these, one with the original cast Iron base and cast alloy belt cover. It seems the original colour was black however I did find remnants of green paint on the belt cover. not sure if it was all green or just the ribs painted that colour. The saw that is complete is disassembled and in process of being restored. Not sure if they were always used as I found it... but it had a small piece of bandsaw blade rather than a scrollsaw blade. I am thinking of putting a metal blade in it and set it up for metal work.
By the way PE McManus also made a small bench saw.
PE McManus Saw Bench 0002-4.jpgPE McManus Scroll Saw 424-2-47-4.jpg
Saw Bench Jigsaw with base and belt guard

Also Matt... check the gearbox... Both mine were full of crappy old grease...... I am pretty sure they would have been full of oil.

Originally Posted by Gaza58

Also Matt... check the gearbox... Both mine were full of crappy old grease...... I am pretty sure they would have been full of oil.

Gaza,

That’s sound advice, I didn’t think of that, will do.

Cheers Matt.

Nice find Matt. What are your sheetmetal skills like? The guard on Gaza's saw is pretty snazzy

Matt (and Gazza)

That is a rather nice looking bit of gear. P.E. McManus seems to have been a bit reclusive. A quick search showed nothing at all. You might try just looking at images for "vintage scroll saw" and seen if something comes up there.

I am very envious of that machine as it looks solid and I can see many a saw handle being cut out on that. What HP is the motor?

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Nice find Matt. What are your sheetmetal skills like? The guard on Gaza's saw is pretty snazzy

MA,
My Sheet metal skills could, but as much as it would be cool, the realisation that it’s just not going to get done, is the truth.

Tho I “may” make a new table for it, because the only way to remove the table is to remove the blade at both ends.
An I can’t bring my self to Cut a slot in the cast iron one.

Cheers Matt.

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Matt (and Gazza)

That is a rather nice looking bit of gear. P.E. McManus seems to have been a bit reclusive. A quick search showed nothing at all. You might try just looking at images for "vintage scroll saw" and seen if something comes up there.

I am very envious of that machine as it looks solid and I can see many a saw handle being cut out on that. What HP is the motor?

Regards
Paul

Paul,
I’m not actually sure of the Motor horsepower
But it really doesn’t need a lot I think it’s really only designed for cutting 5/6 mm , tho I suspect the saw was sold with out a motor,leaving the buyer to find there own, this saw is is just mounted on a piece of thick Chip board with the motor behind it works well but is as Ugly as Sin.

Cheers Matt.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Paul,
I’m not actually sure of the Motor horsepower
But it really doesn’t need a lot I think it’s really only designed for cutting 5/6 mm , tho I suspect the saw was sold with out a motor,leaving the buyer to find there own, this saw is is just mounted on a piece of thick Chip board with the motor behind it works well but is as Ugly as Sin.

Cheers Matt.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Matt

I would expect 1/2HP to be sufficient.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Matt

I would expect 1/2HP to be sufficient.

Regards
Paul

Paul,
Your guess is as good as mine, I think that says 1/4 on the motor plate, but it’s quite hard too see.
But I reckon the motor is Vintage too.



Cheers Matt.

Mine has a 1/3hp Pope that has been mounted with a dodgy weld job.... was thinking about putting a small 3ph motor with a VFD so I can vary the speed for metal cutting etc.
Below is a list of owners and serial numbers that I have gathered over the years. Not sure if they are still with the same people or not.

Number	Month	Year	Owner
174	3	46	Leighton Shea
304	10	46	Gaza58
424	2	47	Gaza58
476	6	47	Jerryatrick
483	6	47	Simplicity
513	8	47	unknown

Just looking at these numbers I suspect they made some prior to 1946 and like many engineering firms that were involved in the war effort, they branched out into machinery manufacture to fill the void once the war was over. I did find a few adds from around the 1946/1947 period that were advertising this machine as a Jigsaw... but other than that there is very little info on the company or what they produced.