Band Saw restoration complete

[Mike Cruz]

As some of you may already know, I picked up a 1958 Delta Rockwell 28-350 20” Band Saw a few months back. I vowed not to go through a full restoration (like I did with my PM90 lathe). Well, I think I fell a little short on that promise. While I didn’t “completely” take it apart, and didn’t sand blast it either, I did pretty much give it a facelift from top to bottom. If you might recall, the band saw had, somewhere along the line, been repainted…and not the correct color. I probably wouldn’t have even repainted it, but the ugly green/grey that it was donning was a little too much for me to bare.

What I did:
Primed and painted top to bottom two tone…doors and starter are darker
Replaced the 1.5 hp single phase motor for a 3 hp 3 phase Baldor motor
Added a TECO FM50 VFD phase converter to give me speed control and electronic braking
Made a shield/cover for the VFD
Changed out the original guides for Carter bearing guides
Cleaned the rust off the table
Put replacement urethane tires on
Changed out the bearings on upper and lower shafts
Replaced the on/off switch with a magnetic starter/switch combo
Modified the blade guard to attach to the carter upper guide assembly
Not in pictures, but I’ve got a period lamp en route that will attach to the blade guard
New throat plate
Added 2.5” dust collection port by lower wheel
4” dust collection above the table
Replaced the bolts and inner nut swively thing in the trunion tracks for tilting the table
Added 2 Powertwist linkbelts
And I’m sure a bunch of other little things that I can’t remember…
Bought two Lenox Diemaster 2 blades
Fixed a really ugly mess the original owner made of the front of the BS, enlarging the hole…I had to make a face plate with a hole for the motor to stick through

All in all, it has been a fun project. I cut up some turning blanks Saturday and let me tell ya, it cuts like butter! I have to admit, that the dust collection leaves a lot to be desired. I’m going to have to make some mods to it. Part of the problem, I’m sure, is that I was cutting through stock SO quickly that it would have almost been impossible for the DC to keep up. But I have some ideas of what I could do.

A special thanks goes out to everyone that has helped me on this project: From Peter Elliot who helped me get the old motor out; to Steve Cherry who helped me with the dust collection ports (letting me use his plasma cutter and doing some welding to correct a mistake I made…:eek:) and also with all the 3 phase and starter wiring; to my brother Marc who helped me change out the spindle bearings; and to everyone who put in their two cents and advice on the subject pertaining to this saw, like on the replacement tires and blade guard fabrication. I couldn’t have done this without all of your help.

Here are some restoration pics. This will take a few posts to get them all in. That one of it on my tractor bucket is the "before" pic...

[Mike Cruz]

And here are the pics of the blade guard.

[Larry Edgerton]

Very nice! That was fast. At least by my standards..............

[Andrew Howe]

very sharp, great work!

[Bruce Page]

As they say in Hollywood, she has classic beauty! Love the Carter guides.
I fooled around with above table dust collection once but never could get it to work very well and gave up on it. I hope you have better success.

[Mike Cruz]

Thanks, guys!

Bruce, this over/under system works really well on my 14" Ridgid. Don't know why it isn't better on this saw...

[Stephen Cherry]

Looks great! I still think that you need to hit walmart for a hot plate to use as a braking resistor, and for fried bolony samiches. You could mount the hotplate on the bottom of the table, and fry on the top.

[John R Green]

Mike

Did you try the upper collection hose "without" the grate?

Great job!!

John

[Neil Brooks]

My only comment ....

I like (maybe love) ... every single thing about it.

Great score. Great clean-up. Great result !!!

[Dan Hintz]

Hah! I never knew it was green to start with, I thought you just touched up the color that was already there.

[Thomas Delpizzo]

It's really purdy! Enjoy using it!

[Baxter Smith]

Great job Mike. Looks better than new!

[Mike Cruz]

Again, thanks for the nice comments.

No, John, I haven't tried it without the grate. I have nearly the same set up on my 14" Ridgid band saw (one 4" below and one 4" above) and the above has the grate...it works very well. Since I have a 6" feed, if anything, I don't mind not having the 4" pulling a full draw...hoping that gives each of the 2.5" ports more draw. Not sure if it is. Oh, now that I think of it, I tried closing the 4" port completely and that didn't work any better... The reason for the grate is so it doesn't suck up any cut offs that "shouldn't" go to the DC. I am working on a couple of possible solutions. One being containing the area just under the table with a section of 4" flex pipe so that the dust can't escape before getting to the 2.5" ports. Secondly, the aluminum plate that has a slot for the blade in it that directs the dust to the 2.5" port just under the table has a very big slot. I figure if I fabricate another one with a very thin slot, more dust would be forced to go into the top port...even if there wasn't any suction. The current plate has about 3/4" slot. Making it with a 1/4" slot might do the trick. There was a LOT of dust that was bypassing the upper 2.5" port and getting into the lower wheel cabinet. Too much for the 2.5" port in the lower wheel cabinet to pick up.

[Mike Cruz]

Ok, did some dust collection work on it today and I came up with two fixes. One is a little more temporary than the other. The first is that I took a section of 4" flex pipe and made a custom shroud. One of the issues I saw was that there is open space from the underside of the table to the 2.5" dust port under it. This allows dust to fly out all over the place. So the shroud keeps that all contained. The firs pic is of the cuts I needed to make in the 4" pipe to encompass the open area. The next two are of it fitted in.

The second fix has to do with what I had mentioned earlier...the plate that the blade passed through that is supposed to lead dust to the 2.5" port has too large of a slit in it. Dust could bypass the 2.5" port too easily. So, I took some high density foam (the kind that comes in 4x8 sheet that you use for insulation) and cut a wedge out of it. Then, I cut a slit in it with a knife, and pushed it into the blade. I removed the foil right around the blade so it didn't wear on the blade. I don't know that it would make any difference anyway, but didn't want to take a chance ruining a $45 blade.

The next couple of pics show the dust left over after cutting a 6" thick, 9" diameter bowl blank. I didn't possition the upper 4" pipe into a better position (should have), and I am a LOT happier now. BTW, think this out to turn into a nice bowl? :)

[Jeff Monson]

Mike that saw looks great! I'll agree with the rest, it looks better than a new one.

[Bruce Page]

Mike, you could improve the dc even more if you can pop some holes into the throat plate, similar to what I did.

[michael case]

Mike,
That paint job you did is just beautiful! That machine is a joy to look at.

[george wilson]

Try also drilling 1/8" holes all over the throat plate to help with dust collection. I am restoring exactly the same model of saw. It is just like the one we had in the toolmaker's shop,and is my favorite bandsaw.

One thing we did was to increase the cutting height. We had a job that needed more resawing depth. there is a hefty casting that the vertical arm of the upper blade guide goes through. I took it loose,and sawed away at least 1" of the cast iron. No ill effects to the saw at all,and the saw would saw that extra inch afterwards. I intend to do the same on my saw at home. I wouldn't have considered it if there was any chance of hurting the saw.

[Dan Hintz]

Hmmm, looks like a job for the Stinger... :)

[Mike Cruz]

George, thanks for the info. I had considered putting a riser in the arm. I thought about it extensively. One way would have been to break all the welds of the entire arm from the body, and lift it up 3-4" and weld it back on (that was Steve Cherry's idea). The other would been to cut the arm to detatch the upper half from the lower half. Then, weld steel plates inside the arm that stick up about 8". Then put the top half back on and weld back together 3-4" higher. Kind of like a mortise and tenon with the lower half of the arm being the tenon and the upper half being the mortise. Does that make sense? Anyway, while I really wanted to do it, I just didn't have the energy to do it.

Bruce, how am I supposed to fit a square insert into a round recess? :D Looks good. I think I'll do that.

[Dan Hintz]

You're just not hitting it hard enough...
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[Mike Wilkins]

Really fine job on the old iron restoration. And that is a nice mobile base you have also (the Deere model).

[Don Morris]

I did the 1/8" throat plate holes. Other than that, mine compared to your is like a stick drawing compared to Michelangelo. Great Job. Thanks for sharing.

[Mike Cruz]

Mike, you had me scratching my head...I didn't know I had a mobile base on it...:D

Don, once I drill the holes, I'll bet you won't be able to tell our's apart.;)

[Chris Padilla]

Beautiful job, Mike!

[george wilson]

I don't think cutting the arm and adding a riser is a real safe idea. It might make the frame too flexible,and you have a screwed up saw. The mod to get an extra inch did work well,though.

[Mike Cruz]

Agreed, George. I was thinking about that, but decided against it pretty much for that very reason. Part of doing that riser would have been researching it, asking others their thoughts, and picking professionals' brains on it. And I really didn't have the time or energy to devote to it. Besides, I didn't want to ruin the saw and be left with scrap metal. I'm gonna look into that 1" height gainer thing.