Rockwell Delta RAS question

[Greg Pennock]

HI, I am new to the Sawmill creek community and have a question that I hope somebody can help me with. I recently purchased a RockWell Delta turret RAS model 33-267 to utilize along with a 10" craftsman that I have. The saw is in good condition with the exception of the plunger assembly being rusted in place so that I can not turn the turret. I have been soaking the assembly in PB Blaster trying to get it loosen up.
If the assemblt does not loosen up, is there any way that it can be disassembled? I do not have the owners manual for this saw, so in a sense I am flying blind. The main reason I purchased this saw is to utilize the turret in cutting angles for toy barn roofs.
Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Greg

[Todd Burch]

Hi Greg. Welcome. I have a similar Rockwell RAS. Yes, the plunger will unscrew and disassemble. I took mine apart. It wasn't as stuck as yours, but it certainly didn't have an action that was easy to pull up to release the plunger. I think there are only 3 parts to it - the interior plunger, a spring, and the housing. Well, and the knob. Take a picture and post it if you get (no pun intended) stuck. Clean it all up, put some grease on it and it should work fine for the next 20 years.

Todd

[Larry Edgerton]

Also, for cleaning up parts I use a product by the name of Ospho. Its a rapid oxidizer that eats rust.

I had a Delta Turret Saw, was a nice saw. served me well. When you get it tweaked you may wonder what the Sears is for.;)

[Bill Adamsen]

Greg: There is a manual and parts breakdown on that "specific" model at Vintage Machinery, and if you search deep you will find several "operator's guides" not labelled with the model, but very relevant. I too have one of the Delta turret saws (12") and it still works flawlessly.

[Greg Pennock]

Thanks for all the help. It should be a very nice saw once I get it fixed correctly, now its just finding the time to get it torn apart. Before I did into the archives as Bill commented on, I would disassemble the turret from the bottom to get the plunger assembly apart?
I tried uploading pictures but that didn't work yet.

[Mike Schuch]

On the Turret arm saws I have worked on I was able to remove the angle lock plunger without removing the turret. On a couple of them there were just a couple of allen screws holding the plunger mechanism. I believe there are a couple of allen head machine screws stacked on top of each other, one to secure the plunger and a second to keep the first one from loosening.

On your saw it looks like the retaining screw for the plunge mechanism might be behind the face cover on the upper arm. I still don't believe you will need to separate the arms.

The plunger mechanism is made to rotate 360 degrees. The nipple on the plunger is offset to the side (not concentric to the plunger itself). You adjust the angle of the turret arm to the fence by rotating the plunger stop mechanism. I usually line up the turret arm, lock it in place when it is perpendicular to the fence then rotate the plunger mechanism back and forth to seat the plunger securely in the alignment slot before locking the plunger in place.

I grew up learning woodworking with my father and his Rockwell 10" turret arm RAS was our only stationary tool. We did everything on that saw including ripping. My first saw was a Craftsman RAS... i was never really happy with the Craftsman RAS and bought a 1947 Redstar Turret arm RAS which has been with me ever since and is the main tool in my shop (I use a table saw for ripping now though). Redstar was the original producer of the turret arm RAS and they were eventually bought out by Rockwell who initially sold the Redstar saws virtually unchanged.