Walker Turner Bandsaw Restoration #22-659

[nima hadavi]

SO I purchased me this wonderful piece of vintage iron. It is a Walker-Turner 16" band saw serial #22-659 which, from the limited information available on these WWII era band saws, I am able to gather it is a 1946-48 model. This thing is a beaut!!!! And HEAVY.

If anyone has anymore info then vintagemachinery please, PLEASE, post it. I would be eternally grateful.

I bought the saw for the purpose of resawing stock and ran it under power and immediately noticed the blade tracking all over the wheel. I bought it anyways for the price of $500 as a user. Got her loaded, and unloaded, and rolled it into the shop where I ran through the setup and had the blade tracking dead on. Re-sawed some lumber, enjoyed it for about 3 days then.......







So now I have a box of parts at my work awaiting to be blasted and and a couple knobs that I will be machining new ones on the lathe.

I think that I will be painting (well, the body shop painter will be doing it) the saw a hammer tone black and the cast stripes will be a gloss black. I will also be modifying the the tension adjustment knob to be above the top wheel housing. Also the plan is to create custom brass knobs for the smaller lock knobs, and 3D Printing stainless ones for the larger handles and dials out of stainless.

I am sizing some high quality bearings throughout, and custom milling a magnetic resaw fence and custom blade guard.

It is nice to have access to every piece of equipment I could imagine thanks to my work!

Stay tuned for more!!!!

[Roger Green]

Nima, I love mine. My father had it for years & I'm sure my kids will have it when I'm gone.
Enjoy the restoration and then use it!
Roger Green

[nima hadavi]

Thanks Roger, I hope it serves many generations more!

Here is the fence I have started designing. It will be mill out of a chunk of 6061 I have laying around. I am unsure if I like the idea of three seperate mag switches. Also unsure if a piece of UHMW on the face would be a good addition? Thoughts? Feedback is greatly appreciated.

[M Toupin]

There wasn't a shortage of CI back then, how's your back?

Once you get it cleaned up and tuned up it's a very nice light industrial saw and will last a few more generations, though I might be a bit bias as I have 3 . As far as info, OWWM really is going to be your best source of info, many WT BS have been rebuilt and documented ad nauseum. If you haven't found it yet vintagemachinery.org is another great resource. You'll need tires, I'd recommend giving Bobby at Woodworkers Tool Works a call for real rubber tires and yes, you need to crown them.

Here's a link to my 16" with some info on bearings ect which might help you out.

Mike

[Ron Brese]

Too bad it didn't still have the nice art deco base that these saws came with. You might possibly find one if you look. It would be the crowning touch to the your restoration even though it would be on the bottom of the machine.

Ron

[Jim Becker]

Darn...that's a nice score! I'm looking forward to what you do with your restoration. It sounds like it's going to be both a show-piece and a hard-working machine in your shop!

[M Toupin]

Too bad it didn't still have the nice art deco base that these saws came with.

Ron, it's highly probable that Nima's BS came just as it is. Unlike today back then you bought many machines a la carte. The basic saw was just the BS itself. The base, motor, belt guard fence, miter gauge etc were all add ons. Folks didn't have the income we have today so they often bought just the saw and added their own motors and bases to save money.

In 1940 the BS alone cost $142.85 which doesn't sound too bad until you covert that to 2016 dollars. In today's dollars it's $2,438.65. The entire saw with all the extra parts came to $228.50 or $3,900.81 in 2016 dollars.

Part#	Item	1940	2016
BN1135	16” wood bandsaw	$142.85	$2,438.65
11BN4	Cast iron base	$25.40	$433.61
11BN2	Belt guard	$12.35	$210.83
KAB5S	1/2hp 1750rpm motor	$35.55	$606.89
9BN80	Rip fence	$7.25	$123.77
MG90	Miter gauge	$5.10	$87.06
		$228.50	$3,900.81

That still doesn't sound too bad but convert your current salary to 1940 dollars and you'll see its' a much higher percentage of your yearly income than we are used to today. Back in the day machines were much more expensive than we currently enjoy. On the other hand, they were built to last for generations. It'll be interesting to see if the current crop of "value engineered" machines are around in 60-70 years.

Mike

[Dave Macy]

Also unsure if a piece of UHMW on the face would be a good addition? Thoughts? Feedback is greatly appreciated.

I know I'm just getting started and am only still in school, but I have some uhmw from a neighbor that machined some up. That stuff is awesome and I'm starting to use it for a lot of stuff.

[nima hadavi]

Ron, I would love to find the base, I have been drooling over images of them for the past month. Hopefully one will appear into my possession at some point and I will be able to restore it to match my saw.

Jim, it is definitely going to be a good looking saw but will be used graciously to resaw many exotics for my guitars. Currently it has a 3/4 HP 208v Craftsman Motor which is a little small I am thinking. Maybe a 1.25 HP?

[Jim Becker]

nima, I hope you'll post some photos of your guitars in the Woodworking Projects forum sometime! There are other's here who have interest in that, at least from a personal perspective, and they might learn some interesting things from you about it. There's also a dedicated Musical Instruments area here at SMC.

You'll probably be fine going with as much as a quality 1.5hp motor for your refit, but I don't know I'd go bigger just because the machine wasn't likely design for it. Those old motors originally used put out a lot of oomph for their stated lower hp, too. That combined with good, sharp bands should do a very nice job re-sawing the beautiful stock you use for the guitar work. You can still run it at 208v/240v (depending on what you have in the shop) as long as the motor you choose will support that voltage. (many good motors do)

[keith micinski]

I love the vintage look of an old saw and while that base would probably be pretty cool that base cabinet looks like the best thing I have ever seen. Mobile, locking, and it looks like support riggers along with a bunch of storage not sure what more you could ask for and it was free.