I cut my teeth, so to speak, on this dinosaur of a bandsaw that my dad inherited from my grandpa when the latter died. My grandpa was a cabinet maker, and my parents were into making crafts and selling them at craft fairs. I was a kid so the stuff that I was doing at the time was super simple things for scouts, pinewood derby cars and making rough shapes that I would whittle away on while at camps and such (and really, not even a whole of that). When my parents got out of the craft business the saw disappeared from their house.
I didn't really got into woodworking until fairly recently, I had some saws I was borrowing from my neighbor to put in a pergo floor and I took the opportunity to try my hand at making a few items that I had seen and was interested in trying to make myself and I really enjoyed it.
So I've started trying to acquire some cheap and/or free tools from here and there so I can see if this was just a one time thing or if I would really like to make a hobby out of it and I remembered this saw and asked my mom about it. It turns out that it was out at my uncle's farm and he hadn't used it but 2 or 3 three times in the last 15-20 or so years, so I went out and picked it, and a few of other pieces that he didn't mind parting with, up and brought them to my home.
So now I have this old band saw, it's a craftsman model 103.24300
The body and the motor are both in quite good condition, the table has a little bit of rust on it, and my uncle told me that he thinks it needs a new upper blade guide.
I found this forum while searching around for information on other tools that I've considered buying and the people here seem very knowledgeable, so I joined up to ask if anyone knows anything about this saw model or whether there's anyone making parts that would still fit it.
The rust on the table is slight, it's at the stage of starting to discolor but still very smooth. Would a few layers of paste wax be fine for it or would the suggestion be to go ahead and sand it down to clean metal and then wax it?
Which manufacturer would you all suggest for sourcing blades?
Are there any particular parts inside the case that I should pay extra close attention to that might not be readily apparent without investigating thoroughly. I used this saw before but I never had to maintain the saw and those who did are no longer around so all help is appreciated.
My mom warns me that she has always thought that this particular saw is a death trap (so far there have been no casualties nor lost digits but I could always be the first, and I don't want that), any thoughts on that?
Edit: added pictures
IMG_20180809_182202.jpgIMG_20180809_182238.jpgIMG_20180809_182554.jpgIMG_20180809_182604.jpgIMG_20180809_182614.jpgIMG_20180809_182620.jpgIMG_20180809_182626.jpg
Reply With Quote