Restore 1953 unisaw or put motor mount on new Shopfox W1837

[Reggie Burnett]

There is a shopfox avilable up here new but with a broken motor mount. They want $500 for the shopfox and I already own the unisaw. The unisaw is 1HP.

Opinions on which way to go? I'm literally on the phone with woodstock right now trying to find out how much it will cost to get a new motor mount.

Thanks!

[Ryan Lloyd]

Do you have the time and knowledge to restore the Unisaw? It can be a lot of fiddly work to bring an older, potentially neglected, tool back into shape. If you are up for it, I would go with the Unisaw for the better rails and fence alone. Used table saw motors are readily available, if you require more power.

Once restored, the Unisaw will maintain resale value. You will be hard-pressed to get that $500 back out of that ShopFox saw.

The only thing that would tip me towards the ShopFox is if going that way will get you up and running immediately, versus a long delay in making the Unisaw operational.

Good luck.

Regards,
Ryan

[Reggie Burnett]

I have the time and though I have never restored one I'm pretty hands on and I think it can't be that hard. I've had it awhile and already restored the table to a nice finish and have already put a shopfox fence on it some years ago. So at this point I was just going to pull the guts out of the unisaw and clean everything up, paint the cabinet, and likely replace the bearings on the arbor. I also plan to rewire the bullet motor to 220v

I was leaning on staying with the unisaw mainly because I already have it and I like the castings and trunnion assembly better than the hybrid saws. The only negs on the unisaw are right leaning blade and no riving knife.

[Bill Dufour]

New bearing are around $30 for both. If the arbor threads are good it can be reused forever. If worst comes to worst a new arbor with two new bearings is a little over $100.
Remove the top,four bolts, wash out the moving surfaces with penetrating oil mix and apply triflow, that is it for the rebuild. Maybe a new belt.
take your time to align top carefully after relube to reduce kickback and keep accuracy.
Bill D.

[Mike Cutler]

You already have the UniSaw. I say put some elbow grease into the one you have.

[Mike Henderson]

A 1 HP cabinet saw is underpowered. I'd definitely look for a bigger HP motor if you're going to restore the Unisaw. I expect that back when that Unisaw was made, higher HP motors were expensive and perhaps that's why they only put a one HP motor on it. I expect most people would recommend 3 HP as the minimum for a cabinet saw today.

Mike

[Matt Day]

A 1hp motor will be fine for a large majority of work if you’re doing general furniture and plywood cutting. If you want to rip 12/4 oak all day, yeah, 1hp is underpowered.

For thicker stock, you’ll just need to slow your feed rate.

If you want to fix it up as a “user” saw and not paint, you can leave the guts in and do a good cleaning of the gears with the top off.

Bullet motors will need more maintenance than a couple bearings like most motors would. Check the OWWM Wiki for a good tutorial.

[Mike O'Keefe]

I've had a 50's vintage Unisaw for 20 year's now. I've never had a problem with the saw being underpowered. I've cut 2" ash-white oak never had a issue. I would stick with the Unisaw. Mike O'Keefe

[David Kumm]

If the uni motor is original it will be a repulsion induction motor. I've never used one but they tended to be large with lots of copper and ran cool, had lots of torque for their size, and low start up amps. If in good condition, they are preferred by the old iron guys as they outperform relative to their hp ratings. I'm not advocating, just sending you to do some reading. Dave

[Mike Henderson]

If the uni motor is original it will be a repulsion induction motor. I've never used one but they tended to be large with lots of copper and ran cool, had lots of torque for their size, and low start up amps. If in good condition, they are preferred by the old iron guys as they outperform relative to their hp ratings. I'm not advocating, just sending you to do some reading. Dave

A repulsion induction motor is just an induction motor once it is up to speed. And all motors of the same HP and RPM have the same torque. The definition of HP is torque times RPM times a constant.

You can certainly cut wood with a 1 HP saw, but it's a lot easier and quicker with a 3 HP saw. If you stick with the 1 HP motor, use a thin kerf blade.

Mike

[Bruce Wrenn]

Hundreds of thousands of these bullet motors have labored faithfully in woodworking shops since 1937. Most of their lives was spent spinning steel blades, which dulled quickly as compared to carbide blades. This meant they were under a greater load most of their working years, yet they faithfully chugged right along. I wouldn't dismiss the bullet motor just because it is only rated 1.0 HP. When I taught shop, we had a 1.0 HP bullet motor Uni, and a 3.0 HP induction motor Uni. "When the rubber met the road," there was no difference in performance between the two. Most of my students chose the bullet motor saw as it had the better fence system ( Biesemeyer clone) on it.

[David Kumm]

Mike and Bruce, I understand that in theory there should be no difference between two motors of the same rating, new or old. In practice, my old large frame cast iron motors seem to outperform their ratings- at least when woodworking. Makes no sense but my old machines had lower hp motors than my new ones yet don't bog down or burn up as I would have expected. I can't speak to the uni motor but I've replaced or rewound more motors less than 20 years old than motors over 40 years old. A new Chinese motor of 3 hp may have more power but probably also a shorter life. Don't get me started on most Euro motors in woodworking machines. I don't like them much either. Dave

[Mike Kees]

Reggie ,keep the Unisaw. I have experience with at least three of them now that I have owned. One of my employees bought one with a 1.5h.p. motor and it works fine.

[David Buchhauser]

I think that perhaps some of the older motors were "under rated" as far as the stated HP, and some of the newer motor ratings are for 'Peak HP", not continuous. I'm sure that this varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Just my opinion.

[Pete Staehling]

I'd keep the unisaw. Depending on what "restore" includes I might or might not bother with some or even all of what you plan. Personally, I'd only do the stuff required to put it in good working order. Paint and polish I'd skip. Just me though. If that stuff floats your boat have at it.