I have been woodworking for a few years, and have built up a decent shop. I am in love with the "Gen 1" Delta Unisaws. These are the really old ones, with the art deco dust door and switch and the infamous goose egg motor cover. I want to pick one up for around 500$, ship it to my house. I will restore it, add a beissmeyer fence system in either 36 or 52 inch length with a shopmade side table. I will also replace the motor with a newer Leeson replaement. Will this be an improvement over my handme down 40+ year old craftsman? Any thoughts would help
Will this be an improvement over my handme down 40+ year old craftsman?
probably depends on the type of WW you want to do and what you are used to in terms of a TS. i recently refurbished a '72 3hp baldor motored unisaw as i wanted to see what all the hoopla around this "old arn" saw was. after using it briefly, i sold it and kept the two 10" emerson electric TS i have that are probably the same basic saw as your hand me down c-man. the unisaw performed extremely well, but to me, there just wasn't that much more that was special about the unisaw. a sharp blade spinning at 3450 RPM will cut almost any wood. i just can't shove it through the contractor TSs as fast as i could shove it through the unisaw. but i'm not in a hurry. and the herc-u-lifts on both my contractor saws made them much more mobile than the 3 wheel delta base on the unisaw.
so i don't really see what all the fuss surrounding older unisaws is all about. the OEM jet lock fence is a good fence, but should really be replaced with a newer t square style fence. i will say that my decision to replace the bearings on the baldor motor, rather than replacing it with a less beefy, newer leeson, was a good one as it had a tremendous amount of torque. and the uynisaw's dust collection, with a dust hood in the base and the floor i added, was really quite good. apart from that, it didn't believe it would materially add to the overall functionality of my shop, which is why i sold it.
A Cabinet saw is an industrial saw, and meant to be a stationary piece of machinery. In my opinion they are overkill in a hobby shop. If you can afford one great, but I'd rather spend my time and hard earned cash on something else that is more practical.
I would go with and 85'> model, but I am on a fairly limited budget. I would probably take the old motor to an electric motor shop, where it could be hooked up to a phase converter. This would save a bit on the motor. BTW do you guys know how much freight would cost on this saw.(I'm in Canada, if this helps). And by Gen 1 I mean the saws manufactured between 1938? to 195? when they got hid of the art deco elements.
In my opinion anything unisaw is superior to anything Craftsman, regardless of vintage. My dad had a late 40s-early fifties Craftsman, and I grew to hate that saw the more I used it. The one thing I dislike about the unisaw is the awful fence. I replaced it on mine (used, but I don't know the vintage-not as old as the one you're looking for) with a custom fence I am very happy with. Any T-square type of fence would do very well. Is such a saw overkill? Well, it's footprint won't be much different than the Craftsman. And what's not to like about horsepower? It was an ordeal we both dreaded to rip a 2X4 on that thing, it was so gutless (but it had other issues too).
The rip fence it horrible. Every cut it gets out of square. I set it with a framing square held on the mitre gauge. Although the power is okay, it does struggle trough some wood w/ a 50 tooth combo blade b/c the motor drives a equal sized pulley.
depending on the material being cut, a 50 T blade may be too many teeth. i tried bevel ripping with a 40T and the saw wasn't happy. switched to a 24T rip blade and away we went.
for a great primmer on all things unisaw, check out these guys:
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