Dewalt GWI help

10 years ago I bought a Dewalt GWI in good condition. I started doing research and noticed a lot of them being beautifully restored and had to do the same to mine. I pulled it apart and found everything to make this old iron like new. I found a supplier that had the motor bearings and all the other hard to find parts. I removed every trace of rust and went through a lot of trouble to match the original green paint. Then life happened, kids, career, relocation. I now have this beautiful old machine in pieces in my garage and I'm torn on what to do next. I have everything to put it back together but in the last move all of my pics and diagrams of the breakdown were lost so unless I can find an original diagram it's going to be a challenge to get it back in working order. So here's my question or questions. Where can I find a manual or intricate digram of this machine? Should I put it together or sell it part by part so a bunch of guys can restore there old Dewalts? Here's a pic of what it will look like. The only difference is that I have the base with 4 legs.

James, I think most of the saws of the same era are more or less the same as far as construction goes. Look at a manual for a GA or GE and you'll likely be seeing pretty much the same thing you have - possibly the MBF as well. I'd certainly keep it and put it together as that is one of the more desirable medium sized saws. Here's a link to the instruction manual for the saw:

http://www.vintagemachinery.org/pubs/252/7091.pdf


OTOH, crate it up and send it to me - I'd love to have it.

I have a GWI and can attest that it is a very fine machine, worth putting back together and using after you went to the trouble of refurbishing everything piece by piece. As Bill said, most Dewalts of that error should be very similar and you should be able to put it back together from an exploded diagram. I'll look and see if my sort of generic owner's manual has one. I'm also happy to help talk you through any issues if you get stumped along the way.

John

As Bill indicated, you can get the manual over at Vintage Machinery/OWWM. Join over there as well, those guys have restored more machines than most of us can count. If you run into trouble with your reassembly, then a post over here will get almost immediate answers. The Dewalt forum is a good place as well. As was said above, these saws are rather simple in design and rather easy to put together, I've done several with little effort. The GWI was a fine saw and deserves to be reassembled and used.

Harold

There's also the Dewalt group on Yahoo.

Here's a pictorial on how to reassemble a DeWalt MBF. Its nearly identical to the GWI only smaller. I also recommend Jon Eakes book, Fine Tuning a Radial Arm Saw, available as an ebook at his website.

DeWalt MBF Radial Arm Saw Disassembly and ...