My dad called me up a while back saying that he knew a guy getting rid of an old table saw. I bought it sight unseen for $100CAD.
Brought it home. It's a Beaver Rockwell (6201, I think) with an open web cast iron wing with the basic crappy fence, and the belt is shot. Used it for a few basic cuts as it came. It worked, the arbor bearings were good, but it was definately in need of some tuning (and the blade probably needed cleaning and sharpening).
Went down to Lee Valley and picked up a rip blade, some link belt, zero clearance insert, and micro splitter.
The previous owner had the extension on the left side, and it's a left tilt saw. Go figure. Moved the extension to the right. The center screw holding the back rail is sheared off in the saw table. Will have to drill it out and re-tap the hole. For now the back rail isn't perfectly tight.
Fit the link belt. While fiddling I realize it only has a 3/4HP motor. Ah well.
Saturday I go to install the new blade, and realize its a 9" saw, not a
10". Whoops. Run the saw with the link belt on and no blade installed, realize just how much vibration is coming from the unbalanced pulley. Will have to let that slide for now.Back to Lee Valley to return the blade, and start shopping around for a blade. Discover that nobody carries 9" rip blades. One store carries a
9" combo blade, but they're industrial and are only open regular office hours. Go in Monday lunch to pick it up. Power dies while I'm trying to pay with my credit card.Get home, look at insert, realize there's nowhere for the micro splitter to fit behind the blade. Oops. Guess we'll have to figure something else out.
Last night I cut the insert down to fit (it was about 3" too long) and ran the blade up through it.
Blade is pretty sweet. Still have a tiny bit of blade wobble due to arbor runout, but I can live with that.
Now I need to decide whether I want to drop the money on a decent fence, or just save up for a better saw.
Chris