It Followed Me Home, Can I Keep It? - Woodfast Universal Woodworker

It was in the trailer, so technically it did follow me home :roll:. I was given this today by a retired builder, who used to cart it from job to job, many years ago. It was stored for a while near the beach, which is why the lower part has so much rust.
My plan is to give it a quick clean, then see if it's going to work and if it does, then do a full restoration.
I had a quick look at it this afternoon & the main shaft etc still turns & the table height adjuster works, so it seems most of the rust is on the bottom part of the machine. It has an infinitely variable speed control, which can only be changed with the machine running, so I'm yet to see if that's still working.
Does anyone know what colour it would have been originally? What little paint is left seems to be an olive green/grey, but if I do a full resto' I'd like it to be as original as possible.
Attachment 451239 Attachment 451238

What a great pickup Mike. Please do a full restoration, it looks like a fantastic machine. If you take the switch or speed control plates off you should be able to see the original colour.

This morning I plugged it in, leaned well back & pushed the start button & ......... it ran perfectly :D. No strange noises or vibrations. So after going into town to vote for the next muppet to run NSW, I started the job of dissassembling the beast. I can see a lot of WD40, Evapo-rust, wire brushes & sandpaper in my life over the next few months. This will be a total strip down to every last nut & bolt, hopefully it will be like new when I'm finished. I'll try to document as much of the rebuild as I can, as there's very little information on the interweb about these machines. Let the fun begin.

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Originally Posted by 62woollybugger

This morning I plugged it in, leaned well back & pushed the start button & ......... it ran perfectly :D. No strange noises or vibrations. So after going into town to vote for the next muppet to run NSW, I started the job of dissassembling the beast. I can see a lot of WD40, Evapo-rust, wire brushes & sandpaper in my life over the next few months. This will be a total strip down to every last nut & bolt, hopefully it will be like new when I'm finished. I'll try to document as much of the rebuild as I can, as there's very little information on the interweb about these machines. Let the fun begin.

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Wouldn't it be simpler and cheaper to use a molasses bath and electrolysis for smaller stuff rather than heaps of consumables that cost money. Watching a molasses bath work flat out is not very energy consuming at all. :)

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...to+remove+rust

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...to+remove+rust

Just a thought about alternatives.

Chris, unfortunately most of the bad rust is in the base unit, so I'd need a 44 gallon drum full of molassas to fit it in.:no: I'll use some sort of abrasive pad/disk to remove the worst & then might even buy a cheap sand blast gun to finish it off. I think removing the paint from the castings is going to be the hardest job.
I've got most of it apart now, just have to remove the motor & wiring from the base unit.

I've now got a pile of parts on the garage floor, the beast has been fully dismantled. I've started rebuilding the two critical assemblies, the variable speed drive pulley, which was seized & the main shaft, the planer head was badly rusted & I want to replace the bearings, also the saw blade backing washer was stuck on the shaft. Thanks to a local mechanic letting me use his press, I managed to get all the bits off the main shaft. If I wasn't able to get these two assemblies fixed, there was no point in going ahead with the restoration.

This machine takes a 3/4" (19mm) bore saw blade, but looking at both Carba-tec & Timbecon websites, there doesn't seem to be a reducing bush for this size available, is there such a thing or am I going to have to make up special adaptor.

The lower half of the sheet steel base unit is badly rusted & pitted, so I have to decide what sort of paint finish to use. I could try to fill the pitting with a thin layer of body filler, but I'm not sure how that would handle any flexing & vibration. The other option is to use hammertone paint to try to hide the rough surface, or is that sacrilege?

These machines have an infinitly variable speed control, using a variable diameter V-belt pulley on the motor. The motor is mounted on swinging arms & as it is moved up or down with the speed control lever, the sides of the pulley move in & out, changing the diameter that the belt runs on. A spring pushes the sides together when belt tension is released, for high speed & tensioning the belt forces the sides apart, reducing the speed. The one on my machine was seized, so required stripping down & cleaning up to get it working again.

The pulley assembly parts, with the sheaves in the low speed position
Attachment 451635

Assembled, with sheaves held in high speed position by the spring.
Attachment 451639

When in the high speed position, there isn't much tension on the spring, so when taking heavy planer cuts or using the saw, the sleeve over the spring closest to the pulley is rotated & small tabs in the back sleeve prevent the sheaves being forced apart by the belt tension. When in the position shown in the photo above, the tabs slide down the slots, allowing the sheaves to move apart.

Locked in high speed position.
Attachment 451645

[QUOTE=Does anyone know what colour it would have been originally? What little paint is left seems to be an olive green/grey, but if I do a full resto' I'd like it to be as original as possible.
[/QUOTE]

Here i a pic I have on file of one that has a little less rust
Attachment 451915
Early Woodfast machines seem to have used the Hyco colours ie a grey/teal colour where later machines used various shades of hammertone green. I am thinking yours may have been the Hyco colours

Thanks for that Gaza, I think you're right with the Grey/Teal colour. I've decided to go with Charcoal hammertone, which I'll brush on. I've got body filler to cover the worst of the rust areas, & by brushing rather than spraying, should be able to get a reasonable finish. I'm restoring it as a user machine, not a museum piece.
I got a bit of a shock when I went to get new bearings for the main shaft. One of them is an angular contact ball bearing, with a seal on one side, $28 for one without the seal, $150+ for one with seals.:o As the seal is only to keep sawdust out of the bearing, I got the unsealed one & a sheet of hard felt from Spotlight. I'll just cut a disk of felt to cover the bearing & stick it to the bearing with a bit of silicon.

Agree... getting these old girls up and running isn't a cheap thing... but the enjoyment of achieving it is worth every cent. I got a Maximat 10 metal lathe recently and that is becoming a money pit getting the electricals sorted. It was 3 Phase and I want to run it on single phase. I thought VFD and it would be sorted but.... No..... these had Dahlander wired two speed motors that won't work with a VFD.... New Motor and then the VFD and new switch gear.... Electricals aren't cheap. Post some pics when you get her finished.

“3/4” (19mm) bore saw blade”. Try somewhere more specialised in saw blades & sharpening like Brisbane Saw Service. They have a lot more than Carbatec and other general woodworking shops.

It wouldn't be hard to make up a bush to suit that way you will have a full range of blades to choose from.... I will have the same issue when I get my Thornley Rip Saw going as it uses a 7/8" arbor. I would reckon a saw with these old measurements would cost more than the modern ones. They seem to sell saws with a 30-20mm bush... would that be too much play?

You are right. Was talking about not as common bush sizes from specialised shops. If you are able to make bushes, that is great. I don’t so easier for me purchase.

Sorry Pete...miss understood... thought we were looking for saws with a 3/4" bore.... They are available but not sure about 12" blade though I have seen them in 9" & 10".

I've been slowly plugging away, pulling bits apart, cleaning, removing rust etc. The motor has been cleaned, bearings flushed with solvent & repacked with fresh grease, painted & the pully assembly refitted. I know it's not the original colour, but I had half a rattle can of blue hammertone left over from another job. The switch is the foward-off-reverse switch.

Attachment 452542

At this stage I'm going to use the original on-off switch, which has built in adjustable thermal overload protection, which can be set from 6.6 - 9A. I might make a flap to go over the top of the buttons, so I have to lift it to turn it on & give a bigger stop button.

Attachment 452543

The power cord should be OK to use still.....

Attachment 452544

:no::no: