Vintage Martin T75 restoration

[Patrick Walsh]

How is a micrometer different than clippers.

I have mitutoyo digital calipers.

[Brian Holcombe]

A micrometer is more accurate for small measurements. Measure it with your calipers and see what they read.

[Dan Friedrichs]

My favorite view again, clothes back on in this picture.

Given how glossy that paint is, I think everyone is grateful for that!

Unbelievable work! Reading your updates on this machine has become my favorite part of the day.

[Mark Hennebury]

Beautiful job on the green there bud! Crisp and clean.

[Jeff Duncan]

I use Motion Industries and/or Kamen for most of my bearings, both are in Woburn. Sometimes one is cheaper, sometimes the other is, never can tell until I call. I tend to use Kamen more though as they keep a pretty good stock in their NY warehouse so I get them the next morning. Thats really important when your machine needs to be running and making you money! I prefer dealing with people I can talk to as I may have questions or may get different options. They'll tell you what bearings they have and from what manufacturers as well, though most I've gotten have been SKF. The bearings for the Martin shaper were FAG and I bought those directly from Martin as they had the best price at the time, and while I respect David's opinion as he really knows his machines, the bearings for the Martin were actually ABEC 3's. I don't know how much difference that ABEC rating really makes on a woodworking machine anyway, your talking clearances that may make a difference on a high precision metal lathe, but on a shaper..... not likely....IMHO

good luck,
JeffD

[David Kumm]

Hi Jeff. We are actually in agreement. I suggested ABEC 3 for that machine. Martin used ABEC 7 in their shapers but mainly because the large bearings needed to run at 9000 rpm. Bearings with a stamped steel cage are limited in speed due to the cage so extra precision is kind of wasted. To make use of the greater precision to increase the rpm range of large bearings, the cage material must also change to reduce friction. That is why most high precision bearings are open and use a machined cage. To get the most speed you will also see an oil delivery system to better lubricate the bearing with less friction and thus less heat buildup. Getting the clearance right is more important in this application. Dave

[Patrick Walsh]

I’ll split the difference and go 5.....

I’m not practical at all...

I’m borderline wasteful.

[Patrick Walsh]

Got quite a bit done today, all unsprayed and prepped pieces are now sprayed and done.

I resprayed about ten small to medium sized pieces. I’ll hsve to re spray two of them as I’m still not happy and or suck.

I’ll be spraying the base again also as I’m just not as happy with it as I need to be.

So you know another half day of sanding and another half day of painting and I’m really really done.

Not bad. The sad thing is the base came out really really nice. The coat is very very even and consistent. Not one single sag run heavy or light spot. It just has more orange peel than I deem acceptable. The light in the booth is terrible and it’s a fine line on a piece so big with so many books and crannies between success and disaster.

Go to cautious “light” and you get what I got, go to heavy just one spot and your respryaing the whole thing anyway due to a sag.

It’s autoboy paint so you should be able to wet sand then polish back the odd run here or there and even orange peel. Gotta have enough paint on there to not burn through though so I’m going for two coats. I also figure the two coats will hold up to bumps and bags better long term.

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This paint is so shiny it’s crazy. I’m not normally a shiny stuff kinda guy at all.

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Crazy how in different light along with Whole it’s drying the first week after painting the color can look so varied.

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Painted what bolts I plan to use painted. Mostly these go to the two pieces that support the sliding table that bolt to the front of the saw left of handwheel and on the back of the saw. Most everything else I’ll replace with either black coated or stainless and polish them to match the nickle plate accordingly.

I redo

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And another

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A few more along with a few of the yet to had been painted pieces.

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[Patrick Walsh]

Bolts and arbor plate piece..

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See one side looks like the same green I have been painting and the other looks like I forgot to mix the paint.

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[Patrick Walsh]

I also brought both fences home. The guy I purchased the saw from had purchased a Felder fence for the machine.

I’m torn, I relay really like the look of the old fence with this machine and honestly alomost the quality also. The Felder stuff and SCM stuff just has nothing on Martin new or old.

Homeslty I have been planing to purchase a new Martin manual fence for the machine. The fence is about $5k though, the fence on our t73 is just so sweet. The stop travels on bearings and it has a sweet micro adjust right on the stop that makes fine tuning if anything falls out a snap. I don’t want or need anything electronic, the fence on the t73 has me very spoiled at this point. Add in a pair of Macs clamps “and I will buy a set” and I’m nearly $10k more into this saw. Still compare that to a $75k new t75prex “you kinda can but kinda can’t” and I’m still waaaaaay ahead.

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At some point a stop broke and it was repaired.

If I do keep this fence it will get a new wood base and will be fully gone over much like everything else.

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[Brian Holcombe]

The T70 fence looks like a ball bearing linear motion carriage on a custom extrusion. That’s pretty nice. You could mount a linear rail on the old MARTIN fence along with a ball bearing carriage and have something made to micro adjust a stop. That would not look out of place and it would retain the original fence. That gets rid of the broken stop, makes it useable in a contemporary context and retains the appearance.

I think also, replace the wood with a heavy gauge aluminum extrusion or cold rolled steel plate. I personally think it is odd to see anything wooden on machines like this, except the material being processed.

[David Buchhauser]

I agree with Brian on this point. To me - the wood does look out of place. I like the idea of substituting CR steel bar stock in place of the wood. I don't think an aluminum extrusion would look "period correct" for this vintage saw.
David

[Joe Calhoon]

No doubt Martin has improved the fences with every generation. I like the T73 fence better than the one on my T72. It’s fine except the stops get sticky if you don’t keep everything waxed. My old T75 had the fence with the wood bottom. You always had a chipbreaker and think I prefer the solid fence to the two point on the T72. I see Martin now offers the 2 point or solid. I get that the 2 point is more accurate in some situations but liked the convenience of the solid.

I just acquired Jeff Heath’s T17 and it has a 2 point fence that is the fore runner to what the T72 and T70 had. It’s big and would like to figure out a short fence for it since I have the long fence on the 72.

[Brian Holcombe]

Congrats Joe! Enjoy the saw.

This:http://www.lm76.com/speed_guide.htm

Embedded into 60" of aluminum would be cool. You could mount a block on top which could carry a micro adjustable flip stop and battery powered DRO which utilizes a magnetic strip also mounted in the aluminum to give accurate positioning without going to computer operated.

I've been doing a bit too much day dreaming in this regard lately, as you can see

[Patrick Walsh]

Funny joe.

I'm just today for the first time using the miter function in the fence of the T73.

Sadly the digital readout does not work.

Whomever owned the machine before rigged up a bunch of sacrificial or zero clearance blocks that can be added to the end of the factory fence:

I only mention this in reference to the comment regarding the wood fence on my t75.

When setting up for the miters for these doors noticed real quick that when the fence is at a 45% you can't get the stop on the fence very close the blade and sti have support of the crosscut fence.

These sacrificial blocks completely solve the problem.

When it comes to my t75 I will like to incorporate the ability to set the angle of the entire crosscut fence vrs using the miter index thingybyou suggested way back in the thread many ok s again now.


Sadly the attachment bracket to do so is missing from my saw so I'm gonna have to fabricate that piece up also.

It's almost starting to sound like I'll be abuilding a one off custom fence for the machine..

No doubt Martin has improved the fences with every generation. I like the T73 fence better than the one on my T72. It’s fine except the stops get sticky if you don’t keep everything waxed. My old T75 had the fence with the wood bottom. You always had a chipbreaker and think I prefer the solid fence to the two point on the T72. I see Martin now offers the 2 point or solid. I get that the 2 point is more accurate in some situations but liked the convenience of the solid.

I just acquired Jeff Heath’s T17 and it has a 2 point fence that is the fore runner to what the T72 and T70 had. It’s big and would like to figure out a short fence for it since I have the long fence on the 72.