Contractosaur lives--what a long strange gloat it's been

About four years ago I was told to pick up a saw with spun bearings being dontated to a church sale. After I packed the thing into my Mazda 626 I asked the guy at church how much he'd tag it for. And it came home with me.

A little while later I bought some bearings, and there sat the saw in my basement. Every day going down there to watch this thing mocking me. Didn't have the time, or forgot to do something or other, or didn't have the space, and time rolled by. Finally ordered a new arbor and started the rebuild last week. Cleaning, lubing, much beating and pressing of parts. And it all went back together.

So what am I talking about? It's a 1972 Rockwell/Delta 34-338 Contractor's Special 10" table saw. Two-knob 24" capacity fence (any official name?), nice miter guage, one aluminum wing, one stamped steel, 1.5HP TEFC motor, steel stand, and came with a decent Sears carbide combo blade. 280 pounds of domestic iron in the form of the best saw short of a cabinet style. Original cost in my

1971 Holiday catalog shown at $364.98.

And what's the gloat? Table saw from church sale: $10, New arbor: $63, New bearings: $24, New knobs: free from scrap bin, finally having my first 10" table up and running: Priceless.

Oh yeah, have any opinion of this model, Keeter?

GTO(John)

Reply to
GTO69RA4
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I have the exact same saw. Bought it from a local contractor cheap some years ago. It came with original stand,cast extensions and a wonderful 50" Vega fence. Since buying it, I've given it a tune up, replaced the blade, new laminated right table extension and added a new link belt. The old 1.5 hp Rockwell motor still runs good. No blade guard came with mine and I'm not sure if the saw had one originally. In case you didn't know, the two small holes in the cast iron top near the blade each contain a small set screw to adjust the 90 deg. and 45 deg. stops for the blade. At first, I thought the saw would just "get me by" until I found a cabinet saw, but it has proven to be a winner . It's a solid piece of equipment, as I'm sure you already know, although if the motor ever goes, I think I'll replace the

1.5hp with a two horse. My only dislikes about the saw is the little on/off toggle switch and it's location is not the most convenient, but I've learned to live with it. Happy sawing-dave

Reply to
Dave jackson

It's probably twice the saw you'd find today. OK, slight exaggeration but given the "value injineering" of some machines lately...

A look see through the 1972 Industrial Catalog does raise a question or two. At the time they (Rockwell/Delta) show a Model 34-426 which looks identical to your 34-338. The difference appears to be maybe the 34-426 has/was available with solid wings (your saw had al-you-mini-um gridded wings). The 34-426 had/has "through the table" adjustments for 45 and 90 blade settings and T-slots for the miter (mitre David) gage (gauge David). What are the particular specs for these on the 34-338?

On the up side the 34-338 had a 40" wide (4" wider than a Unisaw) table.

It's a damn fine saw. And the fence would have been a Jet-Lock. Pictures to the OWWM Photo Index soon?

UA100

Reply to
Unisaw A100

The 34-338 has through-the-table stop screws and plain miter square slots. My catalog doesn't show the 34-426 so I can't comment on that. I'll get the whole thing PDF'd for OWWM when I get around to it, but here are the two pages that cover my saw in the '71 Christmas catalog:

members.aol.com/gto69ra4/tools/rock1.jpg

members.aol.com/gto69ra4/tools/rock2.jpg

Interesting note/question: The catalog shows the loaded saw package (minus motor) as 34-338, just like the tag on my saw says. However, when I called Delta they said it was a 34-700. The explanation I got was that the latter number might have been for a package that _included_ the motor, but couldn't be more specific. I didn't get the blade guard with mine, but the 1970 manual seems to show it was optional.

Oh yeah, isn't the Jet-Lock a lever-activated fence? Mine is identical to the one in the catalog.

GTO(John)

Reply to
GTO69RA4

You're right about the toggle switch. Mine took itself out of the picture, so I'll probably upgrade to a real swtich.

In addition to the stop screws, there's another strange adjustment on this saw. The lowest blade postion is adjustable, but the highest postion (where the pulley hits the table) is not.

The "See-Thru" blade guard was apparently included with the original package (stand, wings, fence, miter square, saw), but was technically optional as far as I can tell.

GTO(John)

Reply to
GTO69RA4

GTO(John):

A'yup on the Jet-Lock. Your fence was one that appeared with and was sold with the 8" and 9" saw. Never heard a particular name for it though.

UA100

Reply to
Unisaw A100

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