Hey guys. I know a lot of you follow both forums, but I have slowly started collecting old "ARN". And the OWWM is a wealth of knowledge. Right now I have read clear back to 2014 in posts.
For the record. I also did that with this forum too.
Hey guys. I know a lot of you follow both forums, but I have slowly started collecting old "ARN". And the OWWM is a wealth of knowledge. Right now I have read clear back to 2014 in posts.
For the record. I also did that with this forum too.
Check out canadianwoodworking.com too. The rebuild threads are really well done. Those guys are even more anal. Dave
Just checked out that Canadian site. Interesting posts. Canadians have more samples of quality machine makes like Wadkin and of course General.
Its easy to get hooked on the old woodworking machines after restoring and using a couple of samples.
I just got this bad boy.....
It's nearly twice my age.
I have a couple of restored Deltas, but I like the Canadian built stuff.
Here are a couple of mine that are in the Vintage section at the Canadian site.
1.jpgP1080348.jpg
Very, very nice...I have a 1973 Delta Unsiaw, a 1941-ish Walker turner 14 inch band saw, a Wards Power Kraft lathe, a Buffalo 18 Drill press, a Powermatic 87 20 inch band saw, a 6 inch King Seely Craftsman jointer, and a few other tools...will check out Canadian woodworking..
Your very well served at OWWM with that line up. If you find yourself looking for information on Vintage EU on Japan Kit head on over . Tho we have a lots that like US ARN we have no restriction .
Mark Hennneberry is a regular at the Canadian site on Vintage machines from Japan most here have never heard of
Last edited by jack forsberg; 04-24-2017 at 12:29 PM.
jack
English machines
I too love OWWM's and have a shop full of them, most of them restored. I used to hang out at OWWM.org quite a bit to share my passion but the moderator over there is pretty rude. It has been a year or two since I have been over there... maybe they have improved... learned some manners.
I once bought a Walker Turner 14" RAS because I felt sorry for it sitting under somone's car port collecting rust. That was quite a restoration... I still have it. I sold my Dewalt RAS because I couldn't justify 3 RAS's... my 16" Redstar turret arm saw is my favorite... not to mention older than I am as it dates to the late 40's.
I'm currently working on a 1967 Powermatic 1150 drill press, which is my first and probably only restoration project. The OWWM forum has been super helpful for this newb.
There are a lot of nice old machines out there and luckily I have picked up a few, namely a 1923 Whitney double spindle shaper, a 1956 DeWalt GE radial arm saw, and a 20" Clausing drill press that as best as I can tell is from 1971. They are all very nice machines and I paid pennies on the dollar for what something comparable would cost new. They are also large industrial grade pieces of equipment that are much larger/better than what you would typically buy new today.
One thing I will say is that older *industrial-grade* equipment is clearly better than the hobbyist-level stuff you can buy today and costs about the same, but the current midrange stuff today that most of us here have is probably as good or better than similar equipment from the past and MUCH better than the equipment that we would have actually had in the past. I remember the ubiquitous Sears stuff from the '70s and '80s as it is what my Dad had and what I learned woodworking on, and it was what everybody else had too. We had the equivalent of the stuff that is currently sold at Home Depot, not Unisaws and racing stripe Powermatic equipment as things like that cost many thousands of dollars each in today's dollars. The pieces of equipment most of us have today are far, far better for the same equivalent money.
A 1966 Powermatic 90. I did this restoration a couple years back. For fear that one day I would not be able to find parts for the Reeves drive I changed it over to electronic variable speed drive. The rest of it looks pretty bullet proof.
This is my 70s era Powermatic 143 Gumby saw. I did this resto a year or so after the PM 90. This one has the gear box and I use it for metal cutting.
Ron
Jack F: just watched the video on the Wadkin that you posted -- fantastic job.
Yes, the Wadkin is a nice bit of kit...........and that's a bit of an understatement,
Ron