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Thread: Shop Tour #3: The Martin T-17 Tablesaw.

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    Shop Tour #3: The Martin T-17 Tablesaw.

    Well, here is shop tour #3. As I have said, the shop is in flux right now. I am moving and redoing lots so please forgive the mess and remodel pains. I still have sawdust left over from the summer work as well. But Richard wants some photos and Lou wants to see this beastie even if its wearing its old, used underwear (i.e. old paint).

    The first photo shows the front shot of the martin T-17. The boxes are not part of the saw.. that is my mess. For some reason, many tablesaws are a bit low for me so I often "lift" the saws using these wooden platforms. As you can see, this saw is an old fashioned hardwood slider. You can see the large sliding beam for the sliding table on the left and the electrical box on the right. The main body is solid 3/4 inch thick cast iron. So is the table and its right mounted extension. The sliding table folds down and the folding portion is aluminum. The main portion is cast iron. The red button on the lower left of the base is the panic kill button.

    Note that this saw does not have two individual controls for blade height and blade tilt. Rather, they are mounted in a concentric mannor. The origional oliver 88 was also like this but they changed back to the the two discrete wheels. The center wheel lifts and lowers the blade. The outer spider ring tilts the blade.

    The second photo shows a side shot of the sliding table beam. This is an older design and does not have the outrigger that most euro saws today are sporting. Sometimes this is a pain when its in the way. You can release the beam and shove it backwards. But the beam weighs well over 100 pounds so moving it is not easy.

    The thrid photo shows the beam detail. The beam has two symetrical cast iron ways that are V shaped. One at the top and one at the bottom. The sliding table attaches to this beam by four or six heavy duty, double row, sealed for life ball bearings. Very similar to how DeWalt built the very large GE radial arm saws. This table slides like a greased pig on rails! Wear is an issue with this design as cast iron is soft. But as long as the bearings roll freely, I should be O.K. Personally, I like the SKF linear bearings used in a similar design for my shaper sliding table better. You can unbolt the hardened and polished round way and replace it should it be needed. So far, I have had no complaints. I often trim entire doors to size with this saw. Just throw the door up on the table, take a quick measurement and lock it down. Zip through the saw and the door is now shorter and dead nuts square!

    Photo #4 covers the insides. Clearly I will need to paint this beast as the paint is in need. I am going to paint this saw the new martin blue to be consistant. But as you can see, there are two motors. The big motor drives the main blade and has three speeds. For woodworking, the center speed is just fine and there has never been a need to change speeds. The motor is about 6.5 HP. The second motor towards the upper left is the scoring blade motor. The tiny hoses you see are grease lines feeding that vital motor nutrient from the grease plugs to where its needed. The europeans used a different grease plug than the standard zerk we are used to. This took some getting used to.

    Photo #5 shows the business end of the saw. Here you can see the stock items. Toward the left you see the sliding table. Then you see the one and only mitre gage. Unlike unisaws, there is only one mitre gage on the T-17. Personaly I hate miter gages. They wear out and offer a very small support area. Notice the very large throat plate. This is huge! This plate is aluminium but I also use homemade ones when needed. You will also notice that martin installed a very thin blade insert to the right of the blade on the main table to protect the main table. This can be replaced with a wooden one also if you bugger up the main portion of the table edge.

    You cannot see this detail as the fence is in the way. But there is smooth notch machined into the table about 6 inches long and about 1.5 inches wide. The bottom is painted green as well. At first, I did not know what this was. But then one day, I reached over to take an item out of the saw after cutting it and my fingers gingerly went into this notch to grasp the item. WOW! That feature is nice! Those germans thought of everything.

    I will post some more photos in a response to this one as I have used up my five photos.
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    Last edited by Dev Emch; 10-08-2005 at 1:35 AM.
    Had the dog not stopped to go to the bathroom, he would have caught the rabbit.

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