I recently bought a powermatic shaper model 26 (1979)
According to the guy I bought it from ( who was a woodworker) it belonged to his dad and was not used for 20 years.
I tried it and it was running fine so I bought it for $400.
The up/down mechanism was hard to move so I decided before putting it to use restore it and bring it back to shape ( cause its a shaper 😃
When opening up the quill assembly parts of the impller started to flake off. Parts of the oil reservoir was also worn indicating that these two pieces have been rubbing against each other without oil for a while causing them to wear out.
There was not a single drop of oil in the quill assembly there was instead lots of gunk.
So i have couple of options now.
- Buy those two parts ( impeller 3324002, reservoir 3657001)
I was not able to find these parts anywhere
- Buy a whole new quill assembly. This option is very pricy since i want the interchangeable quill. $480 ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/16489736612...0AAOSw00JhKWga
- Try to get what i have work without those parts.
As crazy as options 3 sounds it might work. Here is what i have in mind.
The bearings in this old style quill assembly are open and need oil, what if i change them to seal bearings so no need oiling them and instead of the impeller, just put a sleeve on the shaft to take its place (I have a metal lathe). Im thinking the sleeve will make sure the bearing doesn’t move out of its place.
the existing (broken) impeller is very loose on the shaft, I am not sure if this is by design or it was worn out because of lack of oiling.
I am also not sure of the material these are made from, they are (both impeller and reservoir) are as light as aluminum but looking at the broken piece I am not sure if its aluminum.(It could totally be I am just not experience enough to tell what it is used)
Im gonna provide some pictures and the manual for my shaper. Any help is appreciated!!!
manual: http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/655/887.pdf