1950 Craftsman table saw

Colog

Colog

Joined
Dec 2, 2005
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A friend of mine gave me a craftsman table saw. Its almost identical to this one i found on ebay, just the stand is different. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200028615913&category=42296. It has a 3/4 hp electric moter that spins the blade with a belt drive. I don't know if it is worth my while to fix it up and use it. The table top is in perfect condition, but the blade seems to shake up and down a bit. Quite frankly it scares me lol. Also, when i turn it on, all the lights in my house dim.
 
If it really is like the one in the photo it's an 8" saw with an aluminum or zinc undercarriage and a 1/3" arbor. It's not a terrific saw, or worth a ton, but it's plenty usable and a lot of projects have been made with them over the years. In cherry condition with the accessories I'd guess it would be worth around $150.

Your house wiring sounds like it sucks.
 
ABTOMAT-47 said:
Your house wiring sounds like it sucks.
Click to expand...

Nope, its all fairly new, 3-4 years old. I was wondering if it was due to the age of the motor. I'm not to concerned with the value, im just wondering if its worth my trouble to really clean it up and use it.
 
I'd use it if I needed one, but only if it could be fixed so the blade ran steady. Could be the belt just needs tightening.

-Bob
 
I have not figured out how to tighten the belt yet. The motor can move freely. The weight of the motor provides tension. I think this is how its designed. When you tilt the blade, the pully wheel tilts with it.
 
That's how mine works anyway, the motor pivots on a hinge, pulling on the belt. But if the motor is resting on the plate, there is no tension and the belt flops. If the motor needs more space, it can be slid in or out farther on two rods.

Something else that would cause shaking, if some part is worn or unbalanced.

-Bob
 
I inspected it a bit further tonight. There is some initial shaking but it smooths out once the blade is up to speed, 1-2 seconds. Is there any maintanance I can do to the electric motor that you know of?

Edit: there is no noticable belt flop. The tension seems sufficiant.
 
The blade height and angle are adjusted by a sort of worm gear/rack and pinion type system. I would guess that something in that needs tightened or replaced to get the blade to keep from bouncing up and down. The tension on the V-belt should not affect that, only would cause the belt to slip if it was too loose.
Something could also be out of balance like Bob said also.


As far as your lights dimming, I'd guess that the motor is an old induction motor rather than capactitor start. When it first kicks on it will draw about 4 times its operating amperage until it gets up to speed. That would put a big draw on your electric service and could cause the lights to dim a little bit while it winds up.
Getting a new capactitor start motor for it would probably help that if it bothers you. Its not all that uncommon for it to happen with large appliances though.

It would also be good if you could find an outlet for the saw that has its own dedicated circuit. Most house wiring splits up branch circuits in a way so that if you trip one breaker, some of the lights will still stay on. You end up with a mix of lights and convenience outlets on a circuit, rather than all the lights being together. The convenience outlets aren't really meant for running large appliances. Thats why its required to have at least one (might be 2 now) dedicated (on their own breaker) 20 amp outlets in kitchens so you can plug in your microwave/toaster etc. If you want to have a workshop and run power tools you will want to set up some dedicated outlets for it too.
 
Matt Shade said:
As far as your lights dimming, I'd guess that the motor is an old induction motor rather than capactitor start. When it first kicks on it will draw about 4 times its operating amperage until it gets up to speed.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you hit the nail on the head Matt. As far as the shaking goes, it smooths out after about a second or 2. Thinking it might just be the torque of the motor might be making the belt jump a bit.
 
Get the model number off the base and check the Craftsman site for more info - it seems later models have owner's manuals still available, but for those of us who own the Brave Little Toaster's uncle, not much is there.

Still, for the features, you'd pay hundreds more these days. Cast iron table (?) (and you got the extra extension, too ) belt drive, separate motor (which can be rewound/repaired) hopefully a good tilting arbor, wow. A much better saw than the junk entry level Delta.

Now you just need to build a shop around it.
 
Most of the old Craftsman motors were capacitor start. You can't easily tell though--they hid them in the base instead of in a bulge on the side of the motor. I'd guess that either the old cap has failed, or there's something friction somewhere. Make sure all the bearings on the motor and blade arbor turn smoothly.

Also make sure to use the correct adapter with modern blades. Most of these saws had 1/2" arbors, whereas modern blades are all 5/8".

These are good little saws, but nothing to build a shop around. The design of the elevation and tilt mechanism is awful.
 
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