Thread: Wadkin PK Gen 4

Originally Posted by Charlie_6ft

...Would I be correct in saying if I heat this wind handle I could then bend it back into alignment?

If it's cast steel you will be able to heat it and straighten it. If it's malleable cast iron you will probably be able to heat it and straighten it. If it's grey cast iron it will almost certainly break off.

My money says it's cast iron (but malleable or grey - I don't know).

Cheers, Vann.

I'm with Vann on this. My guess would be ductile iron so heat and judicious application of force could straighten it without snapping.
RG

The 45º part that attaches the motor is by the far the worst casted piece on the whole machine. I am chipping away at this rebuild which gets a couple of hrs of attention here and there. It's not been a mammoth task but life has got in the way so going at a snails pace.

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Originally Posted by Charlie_6ft

...by the far the worst casted piece on the whole machine...

I had a discussion about this while working on a friend's "new" 1945 PK just yesterday. He was looking at a rough casting too.

From what I've seen Wadkin weren't adverse to using casting with distortions, so long as the casting was sound. Function before beauty? Or maybe the war affected what was acceptable?

And I noticed some considerable mis-shape in the front face of the stand on my 1946 Wadkin RB buzzer stand. It doesn't look too bad here (I don't have any 'before' photos). Maybe I used some body filler to disguise the worst of it (I don't usually use filler). Every casting was taken back to bare iron.

Note the defects especially to the right of the tags.
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Cheers, Vann.

A lot of filler came off when I stripped it back. Wadkin did make a little effort to try and smooth off areas with what looks like a very abrasive grinder, this however left some cut marks.

I went through a whole tin of filler. I didn't get it perfect but much better than it was when I got it.

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Not to offend any purist out there but I can't stand the bland colour of grey (RAL 7011) on machines + I've got a heap of blue heavy duty epoxy enamel paint so I've painted the PK with what I had. I figured if I really dislike it I can always repaint it in another colour (other than grey or blue that is).

I also made it mobile. Each wheel can take 400kg and are connected to angle iron. The two pieces of angle iron are in a Z shape and bolted together - I hope it takes the weight of the saw ... so far so good, will see how it goes when I put it all together.

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Originally Posted by Charlie_6ft

Not to offend any purist out there...

What's wrong with PinK on a PK?

Cheers, Vann.

Originally Posted by Charlie_6ft

...but I can't stand the bland colour of grey (RAL 7011) on machines...

You know that's like saying you prefer red roses to be yellow... .

Cheers, Vann.

Originally Posted by Charlie_6ft

Not to offend any purist out there but I can't stand the bland colour of grey (RAL 7011) on machines + I've got a heap of blue heavy duty epoxy enamel paint so I've painted the PK with what I had. I figured if I really dislike it I can always repaint it in another colour (other than grey or blue that is).

I also made it mobile. Each wheel can take 400kg and are connected to angle iron. The two pieces of angle iron are in a Z shape and bolted together - I hope it takes the weight of the saw ... so far so good, will see how it goes when I put it all together.

WadkinPK-Blue.jpg

I don't think there is a wrong colour, the main thing is you are saving the machine and putting it to good use

Originally Posted by Camelot

I don't think there is a wrong colour, the main thing is you are saving the machine and putting it to good use

Indeed Nigel ... this saw needed a full restore a lot of the bearings were shot (read further up) - mind you the motor bearings seems to be OK. Not sure if the saw had a hard life but was definitely not lightly used from what I can tell or perhaps thats whats to be expected of a 65yr old saw.

I really wanted a colour that would pop (against other colours like red, black, bronze & any polished metal). My original colour was going to be turquoise which I bought to restore a Wolfenden Saw (Wolfenden Table Saw) but:

A) I ran out of it
B) I faded over a two year period (see the difference between the body of the saw which was painted last & the rest of the machine parts). The paint came from a reputable paint shop up on the Sunshine Coast my dad uses so was surprised that this actually happened.

I do like the colour combo of this MA. Anyway left over paint doesn't cost anything so blue it is until one day I repaint it or the next person who owns it repaints it.

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With this blue paint (I can't say I love using it), it's Wattyl Killrust Epoxy Gloss Enamel & needs 1 day between coats & over 7 days to fully cure which is very annoying as you can literally not even move the pieces to lean up or store to make room as paint is still soft & sticks to things, etc. It's taken me forever to paint parts. The paint gets really good stars over above other epoxy enamel paints like Dulux equivalent. At first I sprayed without thinning the paint but it's very thick & needs a 1.7 spray nozzle to spray properly (1.4 caused too many head aches). I found if you don't thin the paint it's as thou the paint doesn't harden properly. The parts (main body) I sprayed you can literally take your finder nail & scratch off paint as I found out weeks later. I've since thinned the paint, it sprays better & hardens much better. I think without thinning it it goes on too thick which causes curing issues. I don't know what is in it & I doubt it's actually got epoxy in it but my experience in using epoxy making wooden surfboards is that it's an exact science (temperature, humidity, epoxy, hardener, contaminants free all play a part). If I didn't have so much of it I wouldn't have used it and probably just gone with an enamel paint.

It'll look nice when finished.
It reminded me of a UK ebay PK I saved a picture of.

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And this.
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Interesting Rob, so do we know if that blue was an original colour that Wadkin sometimes did?

Originally Posted by Charlie_6ft

Interesting Rob, so do we know if that blue was an original colour that Wadkin sometimes did?

Not on Wadkin. It looks like a Bursgreen original colour on the thicknesser.

Wadkin Bursgreen Circular Saw Bench 3 Phase 440v | eBay

I thought I was doing with filler until I sprayed it with Septone - Aerosols - Aerosol Spray Putty 400g I ended up going through a whole can getting carried away trying to fill voids with this Septone Spray Putty. I think I'll give it one last sand and leave it at that before spraying. Anyone else had better luck with 'high build putty/primers'? They all seem to fill in .5mm voids but thats about it!

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