WoodNet Forums: Re: Anybody want to build a UniSaw?

Yes a FrankenSaw. No more collector/restoration/MySawIsOlderThanYourSaw/Elitist attitudes here.

This saw will be a worker, not a restoration project. But it will also demonstrate that a little cosmetic damage on a cabinet has nothing to do with it's usefullness as a functioning saw, nor is it an ironclad reason to run out and spend a grand more on an X5. (Make no mistake there are good reasons to go buy an X5.)

As for the shafts, we will have to wait until we get there to see if I was born at night or last night.

Let's Start

We are building a saw from the bottom up, so we need a bottom ring and an base. Let's go check one of the many graveyards scattered around my shop.

Do you see what I see? Wonder why I put this one in the in the scrap heap? Ahh that's why.

That's not pretty!!

What do we know about this saw? It was built after 1977. We could nail down the exact year with the serial number.

We know it was built after 1967 because the motor cover opening is square. Prior to 1967 the opening was oval and matched a cast iron motor cover commonly referred to as a 'goose egg'.

In 1977, the bottom ring under the cabinet body was changed from a beautiful, cast iron, art-deco style plinth, to a sheet metal ring. These rings get thinner and thinner all the time. The first ones aren't bad, are welded and are fairly heavy guage. They also have a square hole with cover that allow for connection of a dust connector.

This saw has the low voltage control box on the back. We'll remove that as I don't anticipate using that on this project.

What's the inside of this critter look like?

Not terrible. (I've blown out the worst of the bottom at this point)

This is the stuff you can find in the bottom of your UniSaw -

Don't Squeeze!!

You just never know what you will find in the bottom of these saws. The moldy crud buildup can be the worst part of getting the saw home and initially cleaned. Hope the previous owner didn't have a cat in the shop and all this is is damp sawdust!

Let's flip this beast over.

Not as bad as I have seen, not as bad as a lot of the cast iron base versions get, but still this is going to be work.

If your cabinet saw, at home, has poor dust collection, take the time to set it on a sheet of plywood. This keeps the sawdust and metal off the concrete floor, which in turns goes a long way to eliminating rust, condensation, sawdust clumping and mold.

Let's separate the bottom ring from the base.

This can be a hour long chore or can take 10 minutes. The rings are secured to the cabinet with carriage bolts, secured with square nuts. I don't know why they are square. Any guesses anyone?

There are usually 8 of them on older machines, but as machines got stripped down for weight and cost, they dropped to 4. That is the case here.

Here is a closeup of one of these critters.

If these bolts have extensive rusting, this process can jump from minutes to an intolerable chore. I have ground these out, Dremel tooled them off, and once used a torch. (That didn't work so good

)

Often times the square portion of the shaft on the carriage bolt will round over due to the force of the square nut being turned on a rusty thread.

Save yourself some grief and do these things first.

Spray them with a penetrating agent. I like PB Blaster.

Then wire wheel them for 10 seconds a piece.

Spray them again with PB Blaster and take a break for a few minutes. Now unbolt the top and set the pieces aside.

Now we need to clean up the sheet metal.

Here is where some body shop guys might have better choices than the way I do it, but you can have my version for what's it worth.

On cast iron rings and insides of sheet metal parts I like to sand blast. I just use a cheap Harbor Freight blaster, sometimes with a cabinet, sometimes not.

Be Careful with the Sandblaster!

Using too coarse of a grit can really 'raise the grain' on the sheet metal and really cause a lot work to smooth everything back down for paint later. Remember we aren't working wood yet! Smoothing metal is more work than smoothing wood.

That's why we'll only sandblast the inside of the cabinet and the base ring.

We'll use a 4075 grit sand on the inside area's and on the heavier rust on the top and bottom of the ring. On the outside of the ring we'll hit it with a finer 4030 sand.

Here's halfway through on the inside of the ring.

Nice heavy guage ring, cleaning up okay. The heavier guage is letting us get away with the fact there is a fair amount of rust 'pitting' on this ring.

When you sandblast, I like to get it done and get things primed quickly. It is amazing how fast the rust comes storming back, especially in the humid summer months.

This ring and base has been stubborn and we used about a 100 lbs of sand or $9.00.

There are options for cabinet stripping and with the rust on the outside at the bottom we might have to use them. There are soft media's designed for light removal of material. Such as walnut shells and plastic beads. I can't find the walnut shells locally and the plastic beads seam expensive to me and again aren't easily available to me locally.

I think we will try one of the pre-made chemical strippers. Electroylis would be another excellent way to clean this cabinet, but let's save that for another day.

I've got to get back to work and I've spent about an hour of time so far. I've got to go make some money, then later I'll run to the store for some stripper. We'll see what we can get done tomorrow.

See you soon.

Chris

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