Primordial Gloat

[Jason King]

I've asked a couple questions recently regarding a "new" tool that I had purchased, so I suppose it's time for a proper gloat about it.

Feast your eyes on a 1905 American Woodworking Machinery Company "Universal Saw Bench."

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2311/2111484849_522515a06e_m.jpg

Weighing in at a dainty 2250 lbs, this dual arbor beast spins 2, yes, 2 16" saw blades.

It comes with a complementary rip fence shown below:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2114/2111484855_7fde28b1ac_m.jpg

It also comes with a left side sliding table that acts as a cross cut sled:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2128/2111484859_f44d3cea49_m.jpg
(Please note that the holes are "stops" for the cast iron crosscut fence.

While I don't have any pictures, the table will tilt 45 degrees.

The hardest part of getting the saw was convincing my wife that I "needed" a 1 ton saw for the added "stability" :rolleyes:

It needs a good basic cleaning and oiling, but the saw is amazingly complete. All it needs is a motor and flat belt drive pulley and it'll be purring like a kitten in no time.

Wish me luck...

Jason

[Scott Rollins]

Can you take some more pics? A friend of mine has a machine very similar to this he purchased from a (sadly) closed furniture manufacturer. His is a little less complete than yours. It did not come with a rip fence and we were going to build one. Also where is your second blade? His looks like you cold set it up to either gang rip :eek: or rip on one side and cross cut with the other.

[Jason King]

I'll try to take some more pics later today of the rip fence assembly so that you can get a better idea of how it works. The fence has a stop so that it's parallel to the blade, but the fence can be angled to make large cove cuts as well.

Regarding the other blade, A picture would describe it better, but here goes.

Both arbors (and saw blades) are mounted on a giant wheel. A hand wheel rotates the giant wheel. As the giant wheel turns, the saw blade comes up, goes back down, and then is replaced by the other saw blade.

There is no way to use both saw blades at the same time on my saw, so if it looks like your firend's can gang rip, you've definitely got a different saw.

I'd take a look at OWWM dot com. They have a photo archive of almost any old saw you could imagine. If you post a picture of it on their forum I would bet that they'd be able to ID it for you.

[Shane Whitlock]

Man am I ever jealous! That is one sweet old piece of arn. Definitely deserves a big "You Suck"

Congrats on the new saw,
Shane Whitlock

[Lee Hingle]

Both arbors (and saw blades) are mounted on a giant wheel. A hand wheel rotates the giant wheel. As the giant wheel turns, the saw blade comes up, goes back down, and then is replaced by the other saw blade.

There is no way to use both saw blades at the same time on my saw, so if it looks like your firend's can gang rip, you've definitely got a different saw.



Just curious, what's the advantage of having 2 blades if you can only use 1 at a time?

[Jason King]

The main advantage is never having to change blades. Many woodworkers go to extraordinary lengths to find one blade that satisfies their needs. If I need to change from rip to crosscut all I have to do is turn a handwheel.

My (uneducated) opinion for the rise of dual arbor saws in this period is that companies used to make rip saws or crosscut saws. the "unversal" saw bench was an attempt to house two separate industrial machines in one unit.

I plan on setting up one blade for pure ripping operations, and the other as a fine crosscut blade. Hopefully, I can have my cake and eat it too.

Jason