Robinson table saw rebuild

[Mark Hennebury]

I am rebuilding an old English Robinson table saw. I took it apart a couple of years ago, then got distracted with other stuff, so recently got back at it.
I will post a bunch of photos soon. I have made new shafts for the blade adjustment and made a quick video that i thought you might find interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rGu7tEqIF0
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[Joe Calhoon]

Looking forward to another one of your rebuilds Mark!

[Mike Delyster]

Looking forward to another one of your rebuilds Mark!

That makes two of us. Looking good Mark ��.

[Michael Todrin]

Nice fit Mark. The coolest top I have ever seen.

Michael

[Patrick Kane]

Nice, i will watch these for sure. The Martin was a great build.

Argh, im still a little salty with myself for not buying the Robinson ETE at auction 2 hours north of me. Ended up selling last summer for $750+/-, i remember. Im all out of space, so what can you do.

[Brian Holcombe]

Sweeet! Looking forward to seeing your progress.

[Tom Bender]

That's some awesome machining.

[Mark Hennebury]

This is a Thomas Robinson and sons Variety saw Model ET/E
It is a British made joinery saw. 7.5hp 18" blade capacity.

Striped everything off the saw and removed all of the paint from the base with a disk grinder. Then onto body filler and block sanding. more body filler more block sanding. Then about 4 coats of primer and more block sanded between coats, then spot filler.



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[Mark Hennebury]

More of the same.

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[Mark Hennebury]

Then wading through all of the smaller stuff. All cleaned, masked, sandblasted, cleaned again, old masking removed, re-masked for painting.

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[Jim Becker]

You are indeed fortunate to have that lift available for this great project! That's going to be a fine machine when you are done with it.

[Mark Hennebury]

Jim that lift has been very helpful to me over the years. All of this cast iron stuff is seriously heavy, and you need something to help. That lift is small enough for me to use and can lift 1000kg. With a lazy susan it makes things easier to paint also.


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[Mark Hennebury]

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[Brian Holcombe]

Looking great, Mark!

[David Kumm]

Mark's restorations are second to none. The ETE is my favorite saw, even better in my world than a Wadkin PK. This will be outstanding. Dave

[Patrick Kane]

Mark's restorations are second to none. The ETE is my favorite saw, even better in my world than a Wadkin PK. This will be outstanding. Dave


Grrr, my regret only grows! What do you like so much about it? Is the slider a more refined design?

[Joe Calhoon]

The raised up hand wheels would be a huge plus for me. Top notch work as usual Mark!

[David Kumm]

The preference is really just a bunch of small things. The sliding table uses roller rather than bearings and i thought that would be a negative but it is very smooth and the lateral play is minimal. The tilt takes too many turns vs the Wadkin but the wheels are higher so I don't need to get on my knees to turn it. The build is hevey and the 7.5 hp motor has a good depth of cut. The dovetail miter slot is handier for me than the straight slot on the PK. I can use a pneumatic clamp on the gage. The Robinson and Whitney 77 are my two go to saws. The Wadkin is best looking but I always end up with the ETE or 177. If any of them turn up in good condition, take it. The differences are too slight to worry about. 459403459404459405

Mark, were the shafts worn or just sloppy from day one and you decided to fit them better? Dave

[Mark Hennebury]

First of all, thanks for the kind words everyone.

Dave, the shafts weren't worn much at all, they were a little loose but not enough that you would replace them.
The reason that i ended up making new ones is that I screwed up and put a big scratch on one of the original ones.
The sleeves and collars were rusty and I made them worse by putting them in acid to clean them which left them more pitted.
So i made a new collar, bored the pin hole in it, but when i put it on the shaft, the pin would go all the way through, and I had to remove the pin and collar. Removing the collar scratched the shaft.
So it seemed the best thing to do was to make new ones. The shafts were a bit undersize as well so I didn't mind so much. But it was my fault and ended up being a make work project.

I take solace in the lessons learned and the new knowledge gained...it helps lessen the pain.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLzYCNTiwJ4

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[Mark Hennebury]

I ground a small threading tool from some tool steel. cut the threads. Then ground a bit of oversize key-stock down to fit the keyway in the handle and then cut a keyway in the shaft.




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[Mark Hennebury]

Made a new taper pin and checked the taper by putting some dye on the pin and putting in the bore. It shows that it touches top, bottom and middle so that's good. It should fit pretty good when it's pressed in. I think next time I may put a bit of lapping paste on the taper pin and spin it in the bore to clean it up , prior to assembly. I will see. The taper took me a lot longer than i thought it would, my taper attachment was giving me some problems, it would cut straight for a while before starting the taper, so I will have to take a look at that at some point.

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[Mike Delyster]

You do very nice work Mark.
I’m really enjoying following along.