Restoration - Powermatic 66

[David Falkner]

This is my first new thread at SMC and it will be a long one, be forewarned (I hope this is ok, if not, then moderators please let me know - it'll take a few days to get this posted because I can only sit here and do this for short periods - too many projects calling my name!). You may or may not follow along, you may get bored, you may look at the photos only and never read a word of what I write, you may look at this and wonder why I even tried to restore this saw (and jointer but I won't be covering the jointer here), but I can pretty much guarantee you'll like the results of my efforts. So dive in, gander at what you want, offer comments, or just come back once in a while to see what I've done - I took over 300 photos but I won't inundate you with all those. I will post enough to cover the 'story', though.

This post is more about me documenting what I've done to restore these tools and wanting to share the process than seeking guidance or help. You'll see things you may have done differently or not at all but I do hope you enjoy the trip - David

Here's the background and a prerequisite for understanding how all this took place -

I owned a woodworking business in the mid 80's to early 90's, and we designed and built custom furniture, did restorations, refinishing, repairs, etc. I added a partner (an old friend) in the late 80's. It was a good business and at one time we had about 10 people working for us. In 1990 we bought a Powermatic Model 66 table saw and a Delta DJ-15 jointer. When I decided a few years later to get into the Technology field my partner and I worked out a deal by which I would end up with the saw and jointer if he closed the business since I owned all the other tools anyway.

Well, a year went by and he did decide to close the business but I had no home shop or place to store the saw and jointer. But another friend in the same business needed both and asked if he could use them. He had done some work in our shop before and even rented some space from us at one point. He used our/my tools and took good care of them. So I decided to let this other friend take both tools to his shop and for the next few years I checked in on my tools often. Then it got to the point where I checked on them every few years. Finally, after many years of not seeing them and still not having a home shop, I sort of wrote them off.

Then, a few years ago, a friend at church told me he heard that the guy who had borrowed my saw and jointer had abandoned them in an old building, that the motors were burnt up, and they were likely just boat anchors now. I viewed it as my fault for not checking on them and my fault for even loaning tools like that out - stupid move, really.

I found out where the tools were located and couldn't believe where they were and what I found. A woodworker friend, Adam, went with me figuring we'd find the tools covered in sawdust and just neglected. We were not prepared for what we found.

Looks like a vibrant neighborhood from the front, right? I was concerned about even having my MINI parked there!
Where I found my saw, jointer 4.jpg

I looked in through the broken glass and iron bars and saw this -
Where I found my saw, jointer 1.jpg

Driving around back we saw this locked door -
Where I found my saw, jointer 3.jpg

I couldn't get my phone in very far but I took this shot. If you look closely you'll see a contractors table saw in the dark area to the left. My saw and jointer aren't really visible but they are behind the contractors saw. The sunlight shining in is not from a skylight. The roof is simply missing in several areas, including where my saw and jointer were parked.
Where I found my saw, jointer 2.jpg

We left and came back in Adam's truck and I had a guy who had worked there meet us because he had the combination to the lock to get us in the back door. Adam and I loaded the saw and jointer into the back of his truck by ourselves - these are HEAVY tools! And I was still in my dress clothes, didn't even take my tie off. We stopped for a bite to eat and I snapped this shot - one guy walked by and asked if we were headed to the dump. Uh, nope!
PM 66, Delta DJ-15 - as picked up.jpg

More tomorrow... David

[Andrew Hughes]

That place looks haunted hope your saw isn't.

[Justin Ludwig]

Tomorrow?! Wha? You can't do that to us.

Keep'm coming! Along with the story.

[Carroll Courtney]

Welcome David to the forum,lots of PM owners here including myself.Stupid?Na you made no mistakes on loaning the equipment but you should be disappointed with your friend,if he's still a friend.Hope so,never know the story behind why people do what they do but he could at lease help you load them.Anyway getting to the table saw,your not along on this and your in the right spot.Lots of people here have done the same thing that your starting up to do including myself.As you stated lots of pics will help putting things back together again and hope you also have a manual for the TS with a parts list.So welcome,we'll will roll up our sleeves help you along-----Carroll

[Moses Yoder]

I am also a PM66 owner, interesting thread, will be following. Mine was 3 phase 1-1/2 HP motor, I added an inverter and cleaned the top, the rest is as I found it still which is in pretty good condition.

[Jesse Busenitz]

I just bought a PM66 couple months back... same golden color. Cool story so far!

[David Falkner]

Thanks, Guys! I'm looking forward to this little ride - I have stacks of lumber to reorganize in the shop so this will be updated during breaks on this rainy Saturday in north Louisiana.

We got the tools home and into my garage where I could really see how bad they were. The saw was directly under where the roof had been leaking, apparently for quite some time. This is some seriously deep rust! I know a lot of people would have just given up at this point but I do like a challenge. One thing I found that I knew I would have to deal with at some point is that the center was about 0.090" below the perimeter of the table corner to corner and about 0.075" across the middle. I couldn't tell if it was rust build up on the perimeter or if the saw top actually dipped that much near the blade. All I could do is clean it up and see what I had to deal with.
Saw table rusted.jpg

I started by dry sanding with 80 grit. A LOT of dry sanding with 80 grit.
Dry sanding the rust.jpg

I switched to finer and finer grits, even using a 1/3 sheet air operated orbital sander with wet/dry paper and WD40 with 3 in 1 oil. After a couple of weeks doing this just about every night and as much as I could squeeze in on weekends, I got it cleaned up enough to move on to the inside. When I got it to this point I measured again and found the dip in the center from corner to corner was down to below 0.050" and across the middle was down below 0.030" so some of that had to be rust build up. That's still not close enough but it's going the right way.
Saw table cleaned.jpg

When I took the top off this is what I found -
Trunnion, arbor - rusted, locked.jpg

Everything was locked with rust, seized as it could be. Even the arbor would not turn. I worked on it three weeks to get the trunnion to move a half inch. Then little by little with progressive pounding using dead blow hammers, heavy mallets on blocks of wood, lubricants, penetrants, and chipping away at what I could I finally got the trunnion free to move, albeit tightly.
Trunnion finally free to move.jpg

Hate to leave this but I need to get out in the shop - more later!
David

[David Hendricks]

I am riveted. I am hoping to begin the restoration of a pm65 this spring so I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

[Doug Ladendorf]

My 1968 PM66 was crusty but not like yours. Big job there. Looking forward to the result.

[Dave Cav]

Hi, David, and welcome back to woodworking and to machine restoration. I have restored Unisaws and PM66s, although none quite as bad as yours. Of the two, the PM is easier to restore and, I think, ultimately more robust.

If you go over to OWWM dot org (Old Woodworking Machinery) you'll be welcomed with open arms and find lots of people who have restored machines in the same or worse condition. Sounds like you're off to a great start, though.

A quick tip for the rust removal on a CI top or table: next time, hose the cast iron top down with WD 40 or what ever else your favorite penetrant is, let it soak in for a bit, and then start scraping with single edge razor blades. It's generally much quicker than sanding and will remove an amazing amount it rust in a fairly short time. It is messy and takes a lot of razor blades, though.

[Matt Day]

I love these threads! I hope to do a restore one day.

Welcome to the forum!

[Thomas Hotchkin]

Try Barkeeper Friend to clean up your table top.

[David Falkner]

I've been out in the shop since 8 this morning reorganizing my lumber from stacked horizontal to stacked vertical and I'm half finished. It rained all day so it was a good day to be inside working. But I figured I would post a little more on this restoration. Thanks for the comments!!

After getting the trunnion to move I felt there was hope after all, that I could get this fine tool back into working shape. Until I tried to get the pulley off the arbor, that is. I used penetrants, mild heat, dead blow hammer, heavy mallet on blocks of wood - basically anything I could think of to get that pulley off. No luck, no success, no movement at all... for over a month. Almost every evening, just about every weekend, I would try to get this pulley off.
Trying to remove pulley.jpg

Alternately I turned my attention to getting the height adjustment shaft out of the trunnion. I finally got it to rotate but it was bent and would not come out. It would move back and forth a little bit but I couldn't drive it out. I think when it was loaned out they must have dropped the saw or in some fashion bumped it pretty hard, maybe it leaned hard in their truck - I don't know. There was a mark on the handwheel and the knob was slightly bent.

Because I was having to pry/hit/pound so hard to get it to move I figured I'd better give it some support, so I bandsawed this little Maple block to make me feel better about hitting on it so hard
Shaft support.jpg

I began trying to straighten the bent portion of the shaft and finally resorted to filing it down so I could remove it from the trunnion. But the first thing I did after that was order a new shaft and worm gear - $14, not too bad!

Next, I took everything out of cabinet -
Trunnion, pieces - out of cabinet.jpg

And then every fastener and piece removable came out -
All pieces finally out.jpg

Now over on my workbench I got back on the pulley. Same technique of penetrants, puller, etc. and after another week or so it came off - whew! I didn't want to have to order that assembly 'cause I think it was a bit more pricey than the shaft I ordered.
Pulley finally off.jpg

And that's all I have time for tonight. I'm playing guitar in church tomorrow morning (actually, I play every service...) and I'd rather save my falling asleep for the preaching, not while I'm pickin'!
David

[Chuck Hart]

This makes for great reading thank you for posting this story.

[David Falkner]

The good thing at this point is that all the pounding had not damaged or broken any piece. Only the bent shaft needed replacing.

The cabinet is now stripped of all parts and cleaned as good as I could get it but there's WAY too much rust to paint over. At this point I figured my only choice was sandblasting. Until I got everything off I thought there might some remote possibility that I could wire brush it and primer heavy but that would never really work.
Cabinet cleaned but lots of rust.jpg

Here's the fence in all its glory -
Fence top side.jpg

Not really usable as is, I'm thinking.
Fence underside.jpg

And I can't even begin to see through this cursor. The brown specks are paint although it's hard to see that in the photo. But I figured I could replace the plastic without much effort.
Fence cursor.jpg

Here's the bottom side of the rail tube. I assume water stood for long periods between this and the angle iron rail. Pretty badly pitted. This is after quite a bit of cleaning, sanding, etc. It was almost as rusty as the top although cast iron has its own look with rust that's a little different from a steel tube
Bottom side of rail tube.jpg