[The first part of this post is here.]
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Back To The Table/Mechanism Teardown
I don't expect any more surprises from what little is left of the mechanism. There's something I wanted to point out, though.
The following photograph shows one of the points where the mechanism attaches to the table. The 5/16"-18 screw has been removed from it.
Note the considerable amount of clearance the hole provides for the screw that goes through it. That clearance is what makes it possible to adjust parallelism between the blade's plane and the mitre gauge slots. That adjustment is absolutely fundamental and crucial to a saw's good performance. I'll deal with that adjustment later on.
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The Table
After much scraping, wire brushing and orbital sanding, I've got the table to the point of respectability, if not beauty. There was some sort of hideous, cement-like coating on it -- that's all gone now, and I've given the table a coat of paste wax.
That steel bar is what I have in mind for a mitre gauge bar -- an extra long one for better accuracy. The bar runs flawlessly in its slots now that all the rust and muck are gone.
The bar is a bit of an odd size -- 3/16" x 5/8". 3/16" x 5/8" may have been something of a de facto 'standard' for 8" table saws way back when; I have another saw of similar vintage that takes the same size of mitre gauge bar. (I got the bar material from Metal Supermarkets. Metal Supermarkets is a good outfit to know about.)
With the table now fit for service, I can return to the mechanism and get it fully cleaned up, then put the whole table/mechanism affair back together.
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Back At It -- WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2014
Here's the saw's base with its new paint job, and the 'plates' reattached.
The colour is Tremclad's standard grey, which strikes me as a very attractive colour for the application. I'm quite pleased with that outcome.
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Update -- SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2018
Well, it's been a while. I've been guilty here of abandoning a post, and not seeing it through to a satisfactory conclusion.
I did complete the refurbishment of the saw. At one point, I had it up for sale on Kijiji complete with a motor and stand, but there were no takers at a price that I considered reasonable.
The plain, simple fact of the matter is that 8" table saws are utterly, hopelessly obsolete. The things are doorstops.
So, I put the saw only up on Kijiji asking $20.00 firm -- no motor; no stand. Three people were interested, and this morning I sold the saw to one of them and got my $20.00 for it. And that will be almost the end of my work with 8" saws. I have one more 8" table saw on hand -- an ancient Craftmaster with a tilting table. I've given it new bearings. I'll give it a paint job to pretty it up and then I'll put it up for sale for $20.00, the same as I did with the Craftsman. And that ought to be the end of my work with 8" table saws. You can scarcely even get blades for them anymore; their time has passed.
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