Thread: Silver Manufacturing Co. Bandsaw Restoration

I retract my thinking this is a LS Barker. It looks to be identical to the Thomas McPherson in Matty's thread here: pic's of Thomas McPhersons bandsaw

This is the distinguishing giveaway. That turn wheel adjusts the tabletop.

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Cleaned up the guides and painted them and just this evening put it all back together.

Before...

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After

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Unfortunately the lower guide has a chip-out on the 'do-da' I think there is enough on this sleeve for it to hang in there.

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Part of the trunnion...

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All parts that aren't painted (exposed metal) have been smeared with Renaissance Microcrystalline Wax and rubbed lightly with oil to prevent rust. My shed is bone dry but if I leave something metal lying in my shed for more than a week or two some small rust spots start appearing. Recent rain has almost completely undone some sand blasting I did for my Wadkin DN Bandsaw restore!

I've dug a little deeper. I am 99% convinced this saw is made in America by Silver Manufacturing Co. It looks identical to the below + looking at some of the parts here: Photo Index - Silver Manufacturing Co. - Improved Power Band Saw | VintageMachinery.org look to be the same also.

Silversaw01.jpg Silversaw02.jpg

I've dug a little deeper. I am 99% convinced this saw is made in America by Silver Manufacturing Co. It looks identical to the below + looking at some of the parts here: Photo Index - Silver Manufacturing Co. - Improved Power Band Saw | VintageMachinery.org look to be the same also.

Silversaw01.jpg Silversaw02.jpg

Originally Posted by Charlie_6ft

...I am 99% convinced this saw is made in America by Silver Manufacturing Co...

Now you're going to have to change the thread title .

Cheers, Vann .

Yup - how do you do that?

Originally Posted by Charlie_6ft

Yup - how do you do that?

Reply to this post or send me a PM with the new heading you’d like and I’ll change it for you

Thanks if you could rename it "Silver Manufacturing Co. Bandsaw Restoration"

As far as the brass plate goes this is about all I could find in Googling what this may look like. Does anyone have any leads in Australia who could replicate this? I've messaged Tom Utley over in the US (Machinery Restoration | Von Industrial, LLC) in the mean time.

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I know cast iron welding is an art form BUT what if this broken bracket was welded (nothing special just enough to hold it) then a hole drilled through both pieces and a thread was inserted creating a bond?

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Cast iron welding article:
Welding Cast Iron: The How-To Guide

I know this doesn't help, but here are two more of those tags.

This one looks more modern.

TSMC2.jpg

And is on this saw.

TSMC2a.jpg

The second one is more like the one you pictured above.

TSMC1.jpg

I doubt the colour is original - going by the colour on the rest of the machine. It seems I don't get a photo of the whole machine, but here is the top half.

TSMC1a.jpg

And I'm guessing that bracket in the bottom left-hand corner is the one that's broken on your machine.

Both these Silver bandsaws were photgraphed at the New Zealand Timber Museum in Putaruru (central North Island).

If you want more photos of either machine, I'm happy to post more.

Cheers, Vann.

Thats awesome, thanks Vann. Yes thats the bracket. It holds a guard (which I'll need to make up out of something - if I could find some scrap brass channel that would be perfect, highly unlikely thou). My dad is going to try and weld it together and will see how it holds up.

What sort of welder does your Dad have Charlie?

The best thing I know of for cast repair is to use the right rods in a stick welder . Grind and then Pre Heat the pieces with Gas ( Oxy?/LPG or Oxy/ Acetylene )

and use something like

2.5mm Stick Electrodes 5 Stick Handy pack ENi99 Cast Iron Welding Rods Electrode | eBay

or

Castcraft 100 - 2.5 mm / 3.2 mm | Cigweld

Keep hot with Gas. The differences in shrinkage rates is what kills Cast Iron welding . The welded material shrinks away from the welded Cast and cracks off.
Then bury in a bucket of fine sawdust covered with a lid properly to stop air getting in and starting a fire.
That cools it very slowly. Be careful . I came back one day to find welded metal sitting on the concrete driveway by itself in some ash . The 20 LT plastic bucket of sawdust had been totally consumed because I had only covered it with a 200 liter steel drum that could breathe . From then on I did airtight sealing and I stick to using Free sawdust ( I'm up to my ears in it ) for welding Brazing and annealing of metals . If I cant cover it Ive used dry washed sand or Ash. Im convinced saw dust is better though . It forms a biscuit of charcoal around the piece and Ive come to it the next day 12 or 14 hours later and put my hand in near the metal and heat is still coming off it .

Otherwise use Gas and Braze it with Bronze rods.
Drilling and putting threads through can cause more problems maybe , but sometimes simple amazing things like that work .
If its carrying a load then obviously that consideration has to come first and the best soloution or remake the part better out of Mild steel maybe the way to go .

Ive used Mig to weld cast iron as well . It seems OK but Ive seen it crack as well . Only for non load bearing things and for the ease of it .

Rob