Old Iron - Sears Bandsaw 1937 & Atlas 3500 Shaper 1949

[whydontu]

Just picked up a couple of pre-war Sears machines. 1937 - 1939 12” bandsaw, and a Sears/Atlas 1949-issue 3500 shaper. Excellent price - free!

Bandsaw seems to be in decent condition, original paint. Tires are pretty gnarly but probably still track. The last two photos are samples of restored units, and my one isn’t too far off.

Shaper is likely a basket case. No fences, no guards, and I suspect it’s missing a lot of the internal components.

Plan is to clean up the bandsaw and make up a speed reducer so I can use it for aluminum. Possibly tweak the shaper to use as a beveller.

Projects 42d & f

 

[PeterT]

I love that green resto model. The castings are so meaty & solid with nice graceful lines to boot. Pretty nice for what was once a hardware store machine in the day. I dunno, you might be entering authentic/antique territory on that one.

 

[Jayham]

Nice finds!

 

[whydontu]

Just finished doing an initial tear down. Bearings are good, no trashed fasteners. Needs new tires and a new blade insert, the rest looks good. Paint is reasonable. This is the fourth bandsaw I’ve owned. First one that has -zero- plastic components. Everything is steel, cast iron, or light alloy. One non-metallic component is the wooden table extension to the left of the blade, and it looks like an original piece. Even the blade guards are heavy enough to stun a moose.

 

[whydontu]

So decided the existing stand was too big for my tiny shop. It was 16” wide x 30” long, 2x8 fir top, with the motor mounted beside the saw. Figured if I cut the top to 20” long, I could also cut a slot through one of the 2x8s and drop the belt through the top. I want to use a treadmill motor so I can slow it down to cut aluminum. Easy enough to mount underneath. All going along smoothly, 80-year old fir cuts very nicely. Then I think, poop, I should figure out a way to put casters on the stand so I can move it around! Stand is made of bolted-together 1-1/2”x3/16” angle iron. No big deal, mark out some new bolt holes at the ends of the vertical legs, and pop it into my Roper #11 bench punch. 1/4” holes in mild steel should be about 3.7 ton to punch, well within the 7-ton rating of the punch. I’ve done heavier stuff in the past, shouldn’t be a big deal. Holy crap, what the hell did they use for steel in 1938? Took a three-foot cheater bar to punch, and when it finally spit out the 1/4” slug it sounded like one of those pew-pew-pew things some of you guys like to play with.

80 years of strain-hardening?

 

[Tom O]

Nice I have a Punch like that I got off eBay probably 10 years ago with dies, that’s one of my 42 projects making the base to hold it on the bench. To be honest the last one I used was grade 8 metal class making holes for 1/8 rivets for a garden hose rack.

 

[Mcgyver]

Nice little saw.

I've a "Craftmaster", made in irrc Guelph or Kitchener. A very similar form factor, probably patterned after yours. I just came up from just resawing some hard maple.....these little saws are impressive at what they can do.

 

[Tomc938]

That's a beautiful saw! Congratulations on giving it new life for years to come.

 

[whydontu]

OK - question time.

I want to use a 90 VDC treadmill motor to run the saw. I want variable speed to use the saw to cut aluminum sheet. The original motor is a 1/3 HP 1750 rpm 120v motor, nothing fancy. Problem is the 90VDC motor is about 5000 rpm, so I need to reduce the rpm. Also treadmill motor has a weird metric threaded shaft with e poly-v belt. Was going to set up a jack shaft, poly-v to conventional vee pulley with 3:1 ratio. Easy enough, but requires spending money. And I'm really cheap.

Any reason I can't use the original motor as a jack shaft? It is a dual shaft, so I can use all the original pulleys and belt, just drive the offside shaft from the dc motor.'

Even set up the dc motor so I can remove the poly-v belt and use the AC motor for wood cutting?

 

[Tom O]

I’d find one of those split variable speed pulleys for adjustment.

 

[whydontu]

I’d find one of those split variable speed pulleys for adjustment.

So far, total expense for the proposed dc motor is zip. Got a free treadmill with fully-functional controller, have the poly-v belt, have a couple of pulley blanks in stock so I can machine everything without laying out any cash. I also have a big box full of MOD1 gears, but I didn't think they are robust enough to make a suitable gear reducer.

 

[whydontu]

And the gods smile on me again. Bandsaw is all back together, dc variable-speed motor and controller works fine, new tires off Amazon making it functional. Just needs paint.

And today, digging through the piles of useless stuff at my local thrift store, scored four reasonably-sharp blades for $1.50 each. Nicely coiled up, held together with crumbling masking tape. 14 tpi bi-metal, a couple of 12 tpi, and a 6tpi skip tooth! I suspect they are original Craftsman blades.

 

[Tomc938]

And the gods smile on me again. Bandsaw is all back together, dc variable-speed motor and controller works fine, new tires off Amazon making it functional. Just needs paint.

And today, digging through the piles of useless stuff at my local thrift store, scored four reasonably-sharp blades for $1.50 each. Nicely coiled up, held together with crumbling masking tape. 14 tpi bi-metal, a couple of 12 tpi, and a 6tpi skip tooth! I suspect they are original Craftsman blades.

As the old A-Team used to say, "I love it when a plan comes together."

Didi you use the configuration diagramed above to run things? I also have a treadmill motor and controller I was thinking of putting on my bandsaw.

 

[whydontu]

As the old A-Team used to say, "I love it when a plan comes together."

Didi you use the configuration diagramed above to run things? I also have a treadmill motor and controller I was thinking of putting on my bandsaw.

Yes, original double-ended motor can drive the saw, or be used as a jackshaft off the treadmill motor. I started out super sophisticated, designing an interlock so it's not possible to run the AC motor with the treadmill motor connected, and a tachometer that reads in SFM. Then I realized that was a lot of work for no benefit. I'm not dumb enough to run the AC and DC motors at the same time. And my guess is I'll end up using the DC motor 99% of the time. My test cuts with the DC motor at 10% established that it has enough oomph to cut even at super-low RPM.

Current configuration has a simple tensioning arm for the treadmill, if I use the AC motor I just loosen the tensioner and remove the treadmill belt.

Control panel has E-Stop, three-position AC-Off-DC switch, a pilot light, and the speed control pot. Instead of the tach, I will just use my handheld optical tach to measure the shaft RPM at specific pot settings, then engrave a dial for the pot that will show the blade SFM. Draft panel layout attached. KISS.

 

[Tomc938]

Nice! I was thinking of replacing the AC motor with the DC motor and using the AC for my 1" sanding belt. (Assuming it's running in the right direction). The old motor was toast.