As some of you may already know, I picked up a 1958 Delta Rockwell 28-350 20” Band Saw a few months back. I vowed not to go through a full restoration (like I did with my PM90 lathe). Well, I think I fell a little short on that promise. While I didn’t “completely” take it apart, and didn’t sand blast it either, I did pretty much give it a facelift from top to bottom. If you might recall, the band saw had, somewhere along the line, been repainted…and not the correct color. I probably wouldn’t have even repainted it, but the ugly green/grey that it was donning was a little too much for me to bare.
What I did:
Primed and painted top to bottom two tone…doors and starter are darker
Replaced the 1.5 hp single phase motor for a 3 hp 3 phase Baldor motor
Added a TECO FM50 VFD phase converter to give me speed control and electronic braking
Made a shield/cover for the VFD
Changed out the original guides for Carter bearing guides
Cleaned the rust off the table
Put replacement urethane tires on
Changed out the bearings on upper and lower shafts
Replaced the on/off switch with a magnetic starter/switch combo
Modified the blade guard to attach to the carter upper guide assembly
Not in pictures, but I’ve got a period lamp en route that will attach to the blade guard
New throat plate
Added 2.5” dust collection port by lower wheel
4” dust collection above the table
Replaced the bolts and inner nut swively thing in the trunion tracks for tilting the table
Added 2 Powertwist linkbelts
And I’m sure a bunch of other little things that I can’t remember…
Bought two Lenox Diemaster 2 blades
Fixed a really ugly mess the original owner made of the front of the BS, enlarging the hole…I had to make a face plate with a hole for the motor to stick through
All in all, it has been a fun project. I cut up some turning blanks Saturday and let me tell ya, it cuts like butter! I have to admit, that the dust collection leaves a lot to be desired. I’m going to have to make some mods to it. Part of the problem, I’m sure, is that I was cutting through stock SO quickly that it would have almost been impossible for the DC to keep up. But I have some ideas of what I could do.
A special thanks goes out to everyone that has helped me on this project: From Peter Elliot who helped me get the old motor out; to Steve Cherry who helped me with the dust collection ports (letting me use his plasma cutter and doing some welding to correct a mistake I made…) and also with all the 3 phase and starter wiring; to my brother Marc who helped me change out the spindle bearings; and to everyone who put in their two cents and advice on the subject pertaining to this saw, like on the replacement tires and blade guard fabrication. I couldn’t have done this without all of your help.
Here are some restoration pics. This will take a few posts to get them all in. That one of it on my tractor bucket is the "before" pic...
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