I got my grubby little hands on this yesterday. Its a (I think) 50's era DeWalt Model GE 16 inch radial arm saw with the single phase 3 horse motor and 24 inch stroke. I just got it assembled to get it off the floor. I went with this because, well, the price was a steal, and since it has a 1 inch arbor, I can run a VFD to step the speed down to 1500 RPM and run my metal cutting blades. I do far more metal than wood and metal bandsaws always p#@%& me off.
Sadly, it looks like someone decided to repaint it and chiseled off all the number plates to do so. At least thats the only thing that makes sense to me. So I don't have a way to get an accurate date on it due to, well, no serial number.
I went over every wear point I could possibly find and this girl is pristen. guide bearings are perfect, guide way looks brand new, zero flop in the motor bearings, I couldn't believe how nice of shape she was in.
But, there is one little thing. which is where the advice comes in. The steel table has seen better days and the column is beginning to sag in. Its the table that's out of whack. Plus there's about 30 bolts in the bottom of that piece of maple. Now the way this thing is designed, there are 6 steel bars about 18 inches long that run parallel to the blade. You would normally use about 2 - 2 1/2 inch quarter 20's to bolt them to the stand and space them up about a half to three quarters off the stand itself. So the bars are floating, but still locked into the stand. You then make those bars perfectly level. Then you put the boards down on the bars and ran more quarter 20's thru the deck boards into the steel bars.
Not a bad system. works perfectly fine. But i want to reinforce the stand a bit and try to pull that sag out. My idea is to double up some 3/4 plywood and sheet the entire top of the stand with that. Then take those steel bars, put them under the table, and bolt down thru the top of the plywood, into the bars, and wrench them tight. Im hoping thats going to be enough to square up the stand a bit and give that column beam some extra support.
Then comes the maple cut surface. I found some levelers on McMaster Carr that have bolt holes in the feet. I was thinking of taking 4 of those, bolt the feet to the bottom of the maple in the biggest square i can fit. then drill the positions thru the plywood, put in some threaded inserts from the top, and run the bolt up thru the bottom of the plywood, thru the insert, put a lock nut on, then into the foot on the bottom of the maple. Then i can sit there and fine tune the table with only 4 bolts instead of 30, and I gave the stand a boatload of additional structural support.
Anyone have a better idea? I've been working on this one for a few hours now and its the best I got so far.
Thanks. Enjoy the pics
Sadly, it looks like someone decided to repaint it and chiseled off all the number plates to do so. At least thats the only thing that makes sense to me. So I don't have a way to get an accurate date on it due to, well, no serial number.
I went over every wear point I could possibly find and this girl is pristen. guide bearings are perfect, guide way looks brand new, zero flop in the motor bearings, I couldn't believe how nice of shape she was in.
But, there is one little thing. which is where the advice comes in. The steel table has seen better days and the column is beginning to sag in. Its the table that's out of whack. Plus there's about 30 bolts in the bottom of that piece of maple. Now the way this thing is designed, there are 6 steel bars about 18 inches long that run parallel to the blade. You would normally use about 2 - 2 1/2 inch quarter 20's to bolt them to the stand and space them up about a half to three quarters off the stand itself. So the bars are floating, but still locked into the stand. You then make those bars perfectly level. Then you put the boards down on the bars and ran more quarter 20's thru the deck boards into the steel bars.
Not a bad system. works perfectly fine. But i want to reinforce the stand a bit and try to pull that sag out. My idea is to double up some 3/4 plywood and sheet the entire top of the stand with that. Then take those steel bars, put them under the table, and bolt down thru the top of the plywood, into the bars, and wrench them tight. Im hoping thats going to be enough to square up the stand a bit and give that column beam some extra support.
Then comes the maple cut surface. I found some levelers on McMaster Carr that have bolt holes in the feet. I was thinking of taking 4 of those, bolt the feet to the bottom of the maple in the biggest square i can fit. then drill the positions thru the plywood, put in some threaded inserts from the top, and run the bolt up thru the bottom of the plywood, thru the insert, put a lock nut on, then into the foot on the bottom of the maple. Then i can sit there and fine tune the table with only 4 bolts instead of 30, and I gave the stand a boatload of additional structural support.
Anyone have a better idea? I've been working on this one for a few hours now and its the best I got so far.
Thanks. Enjoy the pics