Before the restoration, this old Walker-Turner wasn't muchmore than a pile of scrap iron. Sixty-five hours and four hundreddollars later, the author has a new (again), better-than-from-

the-factory, vintage bandsaw. The saw's quality casting, 12-in.resaw capacity and 16-in. throat depth were all factors that madeit worth restoring.

Restoring Vintage MachineryBandsaw's lessons can be applied throughout the shopby Robert M. Vaughan

I

W hat a bargain—a 16-in. Walker-Turner bandsaw for $80. All itneeded was new tires, guides,

motor, electricals, guards, stand, completedisassembly, cleaning and rust removal,one casting weld, repainting, reassemblyand, of course, realignment of all the partsduring reassembly. The good news wasthat all of the crucial components werethere and in good condition; the other stuffI could fix. This wasn't an $80 bandsaw,but an $80 bandsaw kit. It was up to me toturn it back into a bandsaw.

I had to weigh the value of the restoredbandsaw against commercially availablemachines. A resaw capacity of 12 in.,400 lbs. of quality American cast iron anda 16-in. throat depth are all factors thatmade this moderate-sized machine worthrestoring. If this had been one of Walker-Turner's 14-in. models, I would havepassed. The work required to restore itwould have been the same, but the resultwould have been little better than a newPowermatic or Delta 14-in. model.

If you're thinking of restoring an old ma-chine, it's important to realize that it's avery rare old machine that's ready to run.Almost all are like this machine was—a lotof cast iron with potential. Bearings, belts,pulleys, switches, wires and motor almostalways need replacement. One reason thatbandsaws are so popular to restore is thatthe parts that wear out can almost alwaysbe obtained from sources other than theoriginal manufacturer. The importantquestion to ask before diving into arestoration is whether the restored ma-chine will be worth your trouble.

In this article, I'll discuss the general pro-cedures common to restoring any oldwoodworking machine, as well as themore specific procedures that were neces-sary to get this bandsaw back into topform. And while the general proceduresare applicable to just about any machinerestoration, even the bandsaw-specificprocedures illustrate ways of addressingproblems common to all woodworkingequipment—ways, for example, of dealingwith dust, alignment problems and beat-up or missing guards. The principles ofmachinery restoration are the same re-gardless of the machine.

Moving the machineMoving any heavy machine from oneshop to another is always a chore. Thereare no rules on how to accomplish it oth-er than to be prepared. I have help onhand for lifting. I generally bring reseal-able plastic bags for nuts and bolts and anote pad to record the disassembly se-

quence and to label parts bags. I also bringwrenches and WD-40 for disassembly ofany heavy or protruding parts that mightimpede handling. I often remove the table,and any guards or pulleys, and I always tryto remove the motor and cord. I make surethere are a couple of floor floats (four cast-ers on a piece of plywood) ready in myshop, so I can move the machine aroundduring the restoration process.

A fine-wire brush mounted on the au-thor's wood lathe quickly and efficientlycleans away dirt, dried grease and evenlight rust. The wheel also imparts a slightpolish, so Vaughan runs all fastener headsunder the wheel for a few seconds.

Masking all parts ensures a clean, crisp,professional-looking paint job. A goodway of masking holes is to wrap a piece ofpaper tightly around a dowel and then torelease it inside the hole. The paper will ex-pand to fit. To avoid a messy cleanup later,remove all the masking tape as soon as thepaint is dry enough to touch.

First inspectionOnce in the shop, I break out the air hoseto blow out the years of accumulated dustand grease. Always wear a face mask orsafety glasses when using an air nozzle. A100-lb. blast of air into any of those littlenooks and crannies can unleash hostileprojectiles at bullet-like speed. If you don'thave a compressor, a stiff bristle brush willremove most of the crud.

After I've cleaned off the bulk of thedust, dirt and grease, I begin disassembly,examining each component for furthermechanical problems—things I may havemissed when I bought the machine. Orga-nization at this stage really pays off. As Itake apart the various subassemblies of amachine, I use plastic trays, bins or boxesfor the larger parts and resealable plastic-bags to hold the little stuff. I note the se-quence of washers, springs and otherthings that I'd otherwise forget. I bag indi-vidually any shims I find, along with a noteshowing where they came from. This notonly makes reassembly infinitely easierbut also allows me to move the multitudeof parts and store them out of the way,without losing track of what's what andwhat goes where—no little considerationin a space-starved shop.

Next I buy or collect all of the big itemsI'll need. This includes the motor, wiring,switch, pulleys and belts—all the big-tick-et items crucial to completion of the ma-chine. Even when other unexpected ex-penses crop up, I know that the projectwill get finished.

CleaningProper parts cleaning is the most time-con-suming aspect of the restoration process,but it's also the most important. The pur-pose of a thorough cleaning is not only toplease the eye but to make things work asthey should. I've been hired to repair a lotof equipment that needed nothing moremechanically challenging than a goodcleaning. Forty years of dust, dirt and resinshave a way of adversely affecting the per-formance of the finest machine.

After covering my lathe bed (to protect itfrom flying dirt and debris), I mount a finewire wheel on my wood lathe and use it tobrush away any dirt or grit in threadedparts, to remove minor coatings of rust andto clean up any dried, caked-on grease(see the photo above). The wire wheelalso polishes a bit, so I put the heads ofall the old screws, nuts and bolts underthe wheel.

I clean holes, with or without threads,with a brass brush (the kind used to cleanrifle barrels) chucked into my electric drill.

Forty years of dust, dirt and resin had taken their toll on the back blade guides, butthey weren't damaged—just frozen. Vaughan removed the bearing from the shaftwith two screwdrivers (above), popped the cap off the bearing with a hammer anddowel (left) and sprayed the bearing clean with lacquer thinner (right). The cleanedguide works like new.

If the hole isn't very deep, I'll follow thiswith a blast of air and then wipe with aclean or solvent-dampened rag.

Grease is best removed with a solvent; Iprefer lacquer thinner because it's thequickest solvent I normally have aroundthe shop. I spray-clean small parts, using acompressor-powered spray gun andspraying into a cut-out plastic milk jug.The milk jug catches most of the spray,which I use later to dampen rags for wip-ing down larger areas; I wipe with a dryrag after cleaning with a solvent-damp-ened rag. I've also found the refillable,rechargeable spray cans—which are avail-able at most auto parts' stores—useful forcleaning larger areas. I just spray lacquerthinner on, then wipe clean with a dry rag.These cans are particularly handy in closequarters or when you don't want to dragthe air hose around.

Think safety whenever working withsolvents. Work in a well-ventilated area,

wear a respirator and always set the dirtyrags outdoors—away from anything flam-mable—to dry after use.

Cleaning an old machine is messy work.Chances are that your workbench (andmany other areas of your workshop) willbecome spotted with grease and grime.Make sure you clean up thoroughly afterworking on the machine before you beginworking wood again. It's incredibly an-noying to find greasy dirt smeared all overa just-completed project. Rebuilding awoodworking machine may not be as badas rebuilding your car's transmission inyour shop, but it's close.

Dirt or grease from a machine you'rerestoring can mess up your shop, but shopdust and dirt can mess up a restoration aswell. To avoid this, make sure any surfacesyou'll be working on are clean before youbegin. Also try to finish the restorationwithout interruption. If you have to putyour restoration on hold in midstream to

work on a woodworking project, both cansuffer unless you're extremely carefulabout cleanup and protection.

Renewing the tableTo clean up the rust on the tabletop, I start-ed with 220-grit sandpaper wrappedaround a block of wood, then moved upto 320-grit. After finishing with the 320-grit,I dampened the table with naphtha andrubbed with a hard Arkansas stone untilthe high spots shone like little mirrors.This makes any metal very slick and doeswonders for planer and jointer beds—even new ones. It only has to be doneonce, and the results are well worth it.

General machinery repairsSome repairs are specific to individual ma-chines; others are general and apply tomost machinery. I'll discuss general re-pairs below and the specifics of bandsawrepair in the story on pp. 78-79.

All four wheel bearings in this saw werecontaminated with dust and dried-outgrease and needed to be replaced. The lopbearings were standard sized, and avail-able locally (check the Yellow Pages for abearing distributor near you), but the bot-tom bearings had an odd-sized insidedimension. My usual local sources of pow-er-transmission products couldn't locatereplacement bearings. I knew that Walker-Turner had some of its bearings custom-made for them, so I began to worry. Icalled Accurate Bearing Co. (1244 CapitalDr., Unit 1, Addison, Ill. 60101; 800-323-6548) and asked the sales manager aboutmy bearings. He replied, "Sure. I havethem right here. What else do you need?" Iliked that.

To restore the outside threads of beat-upfasteners that can't easily be replaced, Iused a thread-restoring file. These squarefiles come in two sizes with eight differentthreads-per-inch sizes on each file. I setthe file's teeth into the matching groovesof the fastener and filed. These files areparticularly handy when the end of athreaded piece is smashed and when try-ing to start a threading die would riskcross-threading. You can find these files inmost large industrial-supply catalogs.

The pulleys on the saw were cheap alu-minum ones that no longer ran true. I re-placed them with cast-iron pulleys from alocal power-transmission distributor. Thebelt was equally worn, so I replaced it witha Browning cogged, high-strength indus-trial belt (from the same distributor) that'sdesigned to transmit high torque smooth-ly. Any machine is only as good as itsweakest component, so these simple sub-

stitutions of power train components real-ly make a big difference in the overall per-formance of the restored machine.

Any time something is held in place by asetscrew, there's a good chance that thepoint of the setscrew will cause a crater.The raised sides of these craters will causeall kinds of difficulties in disassembly, of-ten requiring gear pullers, presses, punch-es or a big soft-faced hammer. I usually filedown the crater edges with a super-finefile or honing stone before removing thepart from the machine. This avoids gallingthe inside of a hole or housing as the partis withdrawn.

The parts on this saw that need to be re-moved or adjusted to change the bladewere fastened with nuts, bolts and slotted-head screws. Every time I wanted tochange blades. I'd have to hunt down theproper tools, have the tools and all loosehardware laying around during the bladechange, and then put them all back whenI finished. To make the machine moreuser-friendly, I replaced common nutswith wing nuts, bolts with threaded studsand slotted screws with socket-head(Alien) screws. I then mounted a holderfor the Alien wrench on the machine. Now

I can change the blade and adjust theguides without ever going on a tool hunt.

PaintingRepainting a restored machine may deterrust, but the real reason is that it looks niceand makes you feel better about your ma-chine. Sawdust may come off slightly easi-er, but who are you kidding?

How far you want to take the paint job isup to you. I've stripped down to bare met-al, done body work and built up the paintas though I was restoring an auto; othertimes, I've only needed to do touch-upwork. Stripping may be necessary if themachine came from a school: often thecolor scheme will look as though it weredesigned by Stephen King and applied byKing Kong. If you strip down old cast iron,you'll sometimes find that auto body fillerwas used to make a smooth surface.

On this particular machine, the existingpaint had faded to olive-gray. I found orig-inal paint on an unexposed section of themachine and matched it with Krylon's#1608 Smoke Gray. It took five cans to dothis bandsaw, including the stand. I didn'tbother to strip because the paint film wasin good condition. I simply cleaned the

surfaces with soap and water and thenwiped them down with lacquer thinner. Ihad to spend a little more time and use abit more solvent in some of the greasy cor-ners and crevices, but there were no realtrouble spots.

I mask all surfaces that take workingparts, like shaft holes and ways. An easyway I have of masking the inside of a holeis to cut a small piece of paper and wrap itaround a dowel. I then insert this into thehole and unwrap the dowel until the pa-per springs out to fill the hole.

I remove all masking tape and paperas soon as the part is dry enough to han-dle, so I won't have to deal with any stickyresidue later. I paint the parts individuallywhile they're disassembled. Bright, un-painted fasteners, new aluminum guardsand crisply contrasting parts, such ashandwheels, all add up to create a qualityimpression. A wash-over paint job sayssomething else altogether.

ElectricalThis machine, like many older machines,had a simple toggle switch inconvenientlylocated on the front of the frame. I replacedit with a new heavy-duty, push-button

manual starter on the column (where it'seasy to get. to), but I had to cut a sheet-steelmounting plate for the switch first. Aftercutting and drilling the necessary holes inthe mounting plate and mounting thestarter, I drilled and tapped two holes in thehandsaw's cast-iron frame and attachedthe mounting plate assembly.

A rigidly mounted motor greatly reducesvibration. To mount the motor securelyon this machine and still allow for tension-ing of the belt, I cut a couple of short sec-tions of folded steel U-channel (I usedUnistrut from Grainger; 800-473-3473),drilled five holes in the bottom of each andscrewed them to the base. Then I found acouple of pieces of steel that would slidein the channels and drilled and tappedthem to accept the motor.

A good-quality new motor, switch, wireand plug will cost $200 to $300. It's moneywell spent. I've used a light switch, vinyl-covered cord and a cheap mail-order mo-tor before. Performance was poor from thestart. I ended up shelling out more moneyfor the good stuff in no time.

Bottom lineTotal material costs were just under $400,bandsaw included. Costs were so low be-cause I used a reconditioned motor and amanual starter (both good quality butwithout any bells or whistles) and becauseI already had just about all the peripheralmaterials (sheet steel and aluminum, clearplastic, fasteners) on hand.

I also spent about 65 hours on therestoration. At $25 an hour, labor costswould be about four times my materials'cost—not out of line for this kind of pro-ject. I've explained how I overhaul a ma-chine and, for the most part, the reasonswhy. I hope this both inspires and instructsothers to restore old machinery becausethe result, when done well, is most gratify-ing. The adage "they don't make them likethey used to" is true, but there's a reasonfor it. The sad and brutal truth is that mostbuyers of new woodworking machinerydon't demand quality so much as they dolow-priced look-alikes. The downwardspiral in the quality of woodworking ma-chinery is the result. "They don't makediscriminating buyers and users of-wood-working machinery like they used to" isprobably a more apt phrase. But who cancriticize the guy who's perfectly satisfiedwith a five-dollar socket set?

Robert Vaughan is a contributing editor toFine Woodworking and a woodworkingmachinery rehabilitation specialist inRoanoke, Va.