Creekers' choice for Unisaw parts

[Bob Jones 5443]

I lost another arbor nut for my Unisaw. It slipped out of my fingers when I removed a blade, and for the life of me I could not find it in the cabinet. It's possible it got sucked through the dust removal ducting, but I haven't looked in the barrel for it yet (cyclone, thank goodness).

I did this about three years ago and needed to order another one. The saw was sidelined while I waited for shipment, and some time after it arrived, I found the original nut! So I've had the spare nut "magneted" to my drill press ever since. Today I used the spare to keep going on a project, and I just ordered another one: $16 + $6 shipping + tax.

I have no memory of where I found it back then. It's time to access the collective wisdom of the Creek and ask, where do those in the know shop for incidental spare Unisaw parts?

Mine is a 3 HP, left-tilt, 10 in cabinet saw, model 36-953. That's what the nameplate says:

446577

The replacement parts sites want to know if mine is a 36-953 Type 1 or a 36-953 Type 2. Who knows? I bought it in February 2001, the owner's manuals are dated December 1997, and the nameplate mentions Pentair Tool & Equipment Group. Does that provide a clue?

Just to confuse the matter, my purchase receipt and the owner's manuals say my saw is model 36-821L, not 36-953. The plot thickens.

The part I ordered is Ref No. 154 from the original Unisaw parts exploded drawing, Part Number 902-01-201-2571. I found this part online today at a site I never heard of, and it seems to be the part I need. Here is that spare I'm now using:

446578 446579

But if there is a next time, I'd like to store a reference to the best place to quickly find parts like this. What do you experts do?

[Matt Day]

There’s a guy on eBay who sells nice replacements delta parts. Also a couple guys on OWWM make Uni nuts.

[Matt Day]

Also, make sure the DC is off while blade changing and I keep one of those extendable magnets next to the saw in case I drop the nut. Usually there’s a nice soft cushion of sawdust for it to fall in.

[Andrew Seemann]

I tend to buy Unisaw parts wherever I can find them.

I'm pretty sure the arbor nut for my 1986 Pentair Unisaw is the same as for my old 1968 Rockwell Unisaw. As far as I am aware, they only used one arbor nut for the whole run of that saw from 1939 to whenever Stanley B&D introduced that "new Unisaw" in 2000-something, but the true old arn people may correct me.

[Mike Kees]

What Matt said, I have ordered from a guy off the bay who is somewhere in Michigan. I will look when I am at my shop tomorrow.

[Jon Endres]

Look for a Delta 36-201 arbor nut assembly. It's what I bought years ago for my Unisaw. It's two separate nuts, one for dadoes and one for regular blades, and both have a knurled grip that you can spin them on and off by hand.

[Matt Day]

I think it’s this guy.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?sid=pd2bob&isRefine=true&_pgn=1

[Mike Kees]

Matt that is the guy I ordered from. Makes a real nice wide nut for Unisaws.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Look for a Delta 36-201 arbor nut assembly. It's what I bought years ago for my Unisaw. It's two separate nuts, one for dadoes and one for regular blades, and both have a knurled grip that you can spin them on and off by hand.


When you find one, quick, go buy a lottery ticket, as it's your lucky day. If I sold my contractor's saw, nut wouldn't go with it. Does that tell you how I feel about mine?

[Mike Wilkins]

Ditto on the extendable magnet idea. If I loose the grip on the nut or washer, it can usually be found in the dust collection hose.
Never have the DC running when changing blades.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Epilog to all this:

I found the silly nut again. It had indeed gone into the DC hose, but was too dense for its size to fly upward the first vertical 8 feet of the 4" hose en route to the ceiling run to the cyclone. So it rattled around in the hose. I had ear muffs on while the DC was running so I didn't hear the rattling.

I didn't find the nut until I moved the hose over to the drill press for another operation. For that I attach a 4-to- 2-1/2 reducer to fit onto the drill press fence dust port. Sometimes when I'm boring into something thick, that covers the air hole in the fence, I leave the DC on, but not connected to the (blocked) fence port. With the reducer on, the hose shrinks up and just dangles there at elbow height, which is then a handy pull-over once the hole is bored. Once the hose was hanging vertically, the nut had a clear path to fall to the floor. "Where'd that come from?"

Now I'll have three of these nuts to go with the nut behind the wheel.