In article ,
Michael Gray wrote:

On Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:17:14 -0400, Joseph Gwinn wrote:

My father (who is 87) is closing down his house and moving to assisted
living, so he gave me his table saw, which I grew up with.

The construction is cast iron and mild steel (table and mechanism) and
sheet steel (box and table wings), and the whole metal assembly has to
weigh 70 or 80 #.

The motor is 115 volt single phase 3/4 HP, made by GE.

The rubber power cord is hard, and crackles when bent. It will be
replaced. (I installed the switch and cord when I was a kid, but I
don't recall when.)

It turns out to be almost a cult object; I never knew. Here is a
writeup:

http://www.old-woodworking-tools.net...h-table-saw.ht
ml.

My father bought the saw used for $50 on 1955 (when I was 8), and it
isn't nearly so pretty as the one in the writeup photo. I'm in the
process of cleaning it up. Everything does work, and is tight, but
there is a heavy layer of dry rust on all the unpainted iron or steel
surfaces, in particular the table top and miter grooves. A carbide
paint scraper works well, as all the surfaces needing attention are
flat. Wet sanding with a machined aluminum sanding block also works.


Joe, went to the dump last week and one of these was lying there in the
metal section - right beside a Sears Roebuck 15" jigsaw (1950's vintage?).
Hard to fit a table saw in a car trunk so I picked up the miter gauge and
brought it home. Told my buddy, whom it was destined for, to go after
school and pick it up - of course it was gone by then! Bummer.
Electrolytic rust removal made a very nice job of the miter gauge mind
you, I should put it in the local Buy&Sell as a freebie for the guy/gal
who picked up the saw.

I got the saw into my station wagon, but it took some disassembly, which
took something like an hour to accomplish.


Amazing what you can find up there, my aforementioned buddy found a WW2
gas powered gen set on a 3 wheel cart there a few years back. Cleaned the
carb. put in new plugs and away she went! The khaki paint was still new
looking.

I have found things at the town dump, but nothing that good.

My biggest score was a maple tabletop on a trestle base. Again,
required disassembly (and a guard wife holding the other scavengers at
bay, and away from my tools). It's now my work table in the shop.

Joe Gwinn
We should all be so fortunate.
Mike in BC