Rebuilding an old 50s Dewalt 16" RAS

[Stephen Saar]

Not really sure if this is the right place for this, but I figured someone here has probably done some tool restoration. My grandfather passed away about a decade ago, and he had a bunch of wood working tools. One of the items is a large DeWalt 16" RAS. I would like to restore this item. Currently the saw is in central FL in my grandfathers barn. It's somewhat rusted up, but not too bad. I haven't had a chance to test the motor, so not sure if I would need to rebuild that, but hopefully not. I tested the movement of the arms, and everything moves fairly well, so it doesn't look like any major damage to the unit. I'm hoping to get the RAS back up to Atlanta in a couple months. So I wanted to start getting some ideas/tips on rebuilding a saw like this. I had planned on taking an angle grinder with a wire brush to clean off all the old paint and then repaint it, but I'm not certain what the best paint and primer is to use. I believe pretty much everything on the machine is cast iron. I'm hoping all I have to do is strip and repaint everything and grease/oil the thing and it should be in pretty good working condition. Any tips or advice are welcome.

Thanks.

-Stephen

[Alex Shanku]

Owwm.org


Nice saw...very heavy...I just moved one this spring...does yours have a large electric brake?

[Joe Scharle]

Treat it nice! They're $6,000.00 new!

[David DeCristoforo]

You should be able to get whatever parts you need from:

http://www.wolfemachinery.com/

Also, these guys have a lot of parts that will fit the older DeWalts:

http://www.originalsaw.com/woodcutting.html

[Fred Hargis]

Send me your e-mail and I'll send abck an article writtern by Roger Hill on rebuilding a Dewalt. The article focuses on a 925, but the saws are similar enough in construction that much of it will apply to your saw. Evrything on your saw will be much heavier duty, but it should still be if use. I'll include his artocle on an alignment process as well. You can send it to fandm@*DELETE*bright.net.

[Stephen Saar]

@Alex - I'm not certain if it has a brake on it or not, I'll have to see when I get it up here.

@Fred - I actually just downloaded and printed out the article here (http://www.woodcentral.com/bparticles/dewaltrebuild.pdf). Is this the same article you are referring to?

@David - Thanks for the links, hopefully I won't have too many parts to replace, but nice to see that there are some sites that still have some of these parts.

-Stephen