Walker-Turner (Craftsman branded) 16" Bandsaw

[PHPaul]

This gem showed up in the Free section of Craigslist less than 10 miles from me. I wasn't long jumping on it. Mostly complete but pretty neglected and the upper blade guard was badly damaged. Looks like it was dropped as all the cast aluminum was cracked/broken and with missing chunks. But hey...FREE! Best I can tell from data on Vintage Machinery, it was built between 1936 and 1938.

The bad news, besides the broken blade guard is missing fence and fence guide on the table, worn out/missing blade guides, a broken and brazed back together upper wheel, and (not surprisingly) rotted tires.

I fixed the guards as best I could with fishplates, pop rivets and JB Weld. The JB Weld is mostly for body filler rather than any hope of strengthening the repair.

The table cleaned up nicely, the motor runs (I later discovered it needed a new start capacitor, which I just happened to have in my stash) and with a fresh set of bearings the lower/driven shaft runs smooth as silk.

As I already have a wood bandsaw, my plan is to convert it (without altering anything that can't be returned to original) to metal cutting by slowing it down to about 150-200 SFM. A 20:1 gearbox (also from my stash...it's good to be a packrat!) gets me close enough that the final reduction can be done with pulley choices. I had to machine the jury-rigged input shaft (I pulled the box out of a dumpster when I worked at the cannery) for a 5/8" bore pulley and milled a keyway in it. The output is a hollow through-shaft with keyway. I machined (using the term VERY loosely...) a shaft for that with a 3/4x1 stub for the pulley, a main shaft of 18mm with a 3mm keyway and a 1/2-13 thread on the other end to hold it in place. That was fun!

All 6 of the blade guides are either worn plumb out or missing entirely, so I ordered a piece of bronze square stock from McMaster and am working on machining new ones. The prototype came out usable but now that I have the setup figured out, the remainder should be better. I did have to cheat on the adjustment slot as I don't have a suitable end mill for that. The original is sized for a 10-32 screw, as close as I could come is a .250 mill. There is a slot in the guide that rides on a rail cast into the mount and I was able to size that correctly so that should be fine.

When I recover from some recent unexpected expenses (dentist, brake jobs) I'll do a little end mill shopping.

EDIT TO ADD: All the upper wheel and assembly is there, I just had to take it off both to clean and inspect it, and to get the saw short enough to set on top of my work table without hitting the ceiling of the shop. Before I reassemble things, I need to build a stand for it. It was on a stand built out of a wooden box with casters but it was pretty much rotted away.

 

[Dave Smith]

nice find, can't beat it for free!
Dave

 

[PHPaul]

Got my Chinese casters from Amazon today, so finished building the cart for the bandsaw. Surprisingly, the caster set seems pretty decent quality. One pair of straight casters, one pair of locking swivel casters, 3" poly wheels, and mounting hardware all for less than $25.

I calculated things to put the table of the saw at about 40" which is a convenient working height for me. Cart top dimensions were planned to accommodate the gear box for the low speed drive arrangement.

Now that it's on it's own cart and I don't have to worry about lifting it any more, I can finish putting it back together.

 

[PHPaul]

Finished up the low speed drive. (Yes, I know, I need a shorter belt...it's what I had in my stash that was close enough for a test drive...) The combination gives me 36 +/- RPM at the lower wheel which translates to 150 FPM blade speed. That should work for most materials.

The home brew motor mount allows left/right adjustment for the belt tension between motor and gearbox, and forward/back adjustment for belt alignment if I need to move the gearbox. Same with the gearbox mount - left/right for pulley alignment, in/out for belt tension. It's just bolted to the original motor mount so I can return it to original condition in about 10 minutes.

I'll clean up the motor wiring and put a switch in the circuit. Got new tires coming from Amazon and a guy on one of the tractor forums I hang out on is sending me a 20 foot roll of metal cutting blade. Just need to find someone that and cut to length and weld 'em up.

 

[twhite]

I have an old Delta Milwaukee that I want to convert to steel. I will need to find a gear reducer. Following your project for more great info.


Cutting oil is my blood.

 

[PHPaul]

Finished making the blade guides today. Got a 6" stick of bronze from McMaster-Carr. It was rough-cast and oversize so I milled 4 sides to get it to size and then milled the slots for the rail they fit on. Conveniently, they were .375 wide so a few passes with the appropriate mill took care of that.

Then I laid out and cut the adjustment slots. I messed up on one, got the slot too long, but it'll be fine for what it's for. Had a bit of extra material on the right end.

Then it was a just a question of slicing them off on the table-mounted Porta-Band and screwing them onto their rails.

Now I just have to find a way to get some blades welded up. Sniffing around on that topic, plus I have a bunch of old wood blades that came with it that I can use to practice on if I wind up having to do it myself.

 

[PHPaul]

The saw is finished for now. I would still like to replace the upper wheel. With new tires and proper blade tension it works okay but has a really bad wobble in it. Haven't been able to find one yet.

I bought a blade from McMaster-Carr and tried it with the original 12 inch pulley on the lower wheel but it was too slow. Swapped that out for a 6 inch and that seems to be a good compromise between cutting speed and heat build-up.

With tires, blade, belts, pulleys, casters for the stand, bronze for the blade guides and some miscellaneous bits, I have less than $200 invested thanks to getting the saw free off Craigslist.