Deciding whether to restore my old unisaw

[Jeff Heath]

Unisaw's are great saws, and there's no need to replace it with a new asian made machine that won't be as good. You restore it with ease, and there's a lot of help available to walk you through any tough spot. Over time, the sawdust and "gunk" builds up ton these older machines, and they benefit greatly from being taken apart, cleaned, shown some love, and put back together with new belts and bearings.

Keep in mind one thing, sealed bearings are designed to last about 20 years (the grease inside) give or take, depending on usage. I've opened up machines from the 50's and 60's that still had the original arbor and motor bearings in them. They are inexpensive, and easy to replace.

Once finished, you'll have a beautifully functional saw that is better than any of the saws being sold today at 4 times the price.

As far as the 1 hp motor goes, Unisaw motors are a dime a dozen, and come up for sale all the time on the OWWM classifieds. 2 hp and 3 hp motors can be swapped out for yours, and the frame size is extremely common. Piece of cake to upgrade the power of your saw. My 1949 Unisaw had the 1 hp, and I put a 3 hp in it. Nothing it couldn't cut with that bigger motor in it.

There's nothing to be intimidated by restoring an old machine. My entire shop of 27 functional, working machines are all OWWM's, ranging in age from 1905 to 1985 (my restored Powermatic 66). They are all outstanding industrial quality machines that are better than anything I could find at the green bear or Woodcraft.

[Mike Kees]

I would fix it. Sounds like it just needs a good clean up and lube. Agree that arbor and motor bearings would be a good idea as well. Probably belts too.

[Allan Speers]

The motor is probably a 1HP and that's pretty low for modern usage. Time goes on and things improve. I'd get a saw with a true riving knife and maybe flesh sensing technology.

Mike

Mike, I'm with you on the riving knife, but I dunno' about all this flesh-sensing technology.

When the machines finally take over our planet, that might not be such a good thing...

[Mike Henderson]

Mike, I'm with you on the riving knife, but I dunno' about all this flesh-sensing technology.

When the machines finally take over our planet, that might not be such a good thing...

The flesh sensing technology on my table saw saved me from an expensive trip to the emergency room.

Mike

[Jeff Heath]

If people learn correctly to keep their hands away from spinning sawblades, and use push sticks correctly, there's no such thing as flesh sensing technology. It's a crutch, and woodworkers won't have that crutch around jointer knives, planer knives, and shaper knives.......

[Bill Dufour]

Replace the bearing with RS type for about $20.00 for both. Clean and degrease the moving parts and apply some dry lube of your favorite brand and it is good to go for another 50 years.
Bil lD.

[Mike Henderson]

If people learn correctly to keep their hands away from spinning sawblades, and use push sticks correctly, there's no such thing as flesh sensing technology. It's a crutch, and woodworkers won't have that crutch around jointer knives, planer knives, and shaper knives.......

We can argue this again and again, as we have in the past. People make mistakes and technology can save you a trip to the emergency room, as it did for me. Thanks, but I'll take all the safety technology that science and engineering can give me. I had a nick on my thumb instead of a missing thumb.

Mike

[As a side note, the meat industry has a safety device on bandsaws used to cut meat. Prior to that, many of the meat workers were missing fingers. No, safety technology is a very good thing.

Meat workers push meat through the bandsaw very quickly. If their hand was in the wrong place, they'd cut off a finger in an instant - right through the bone, just like they cut through the bone on the meat they're processing.]

[Marc Jeske]

How does it know the difference between a piece of Cow and a piece of a Human ?

Marc

[Pete Staehling]

Just me, but I'd fix it going only as far as making it fully functional again. New bearings, belts and so on as needed, but not an as new restore. My bet is that the 1 HP motor is probably fine, but I'd decide that after fixing up everything else first.

[Mike Henderson]

How does it know the difference between a piece of Cow and a piece of a Human ?

Marc

I haven't researched the meat industry safety devices in detail, but my understanding is that the worker has to wear a special color gloves (I think they're kind of blue-purple). Cameras are focused on the cutting area and if a hand is detected going close enough, and in motion, towards the blade, a brake is applied to the blade which stops it pretty quickly.

I have no idea what damage (if any) this does to the blade or the bandsaw. The bandsaw wheels have a fair amount of inertia so I expect this breaks the bandsaw blade but I don't know.

I expect this is too expensive a system for hobby use (and you'd have to wear the special gloves). But in the meat industry speed and efficiency are primary. An injury accident would probably shut things down for some period of time, the medical expenses would be expensive, and OSHA would be all over you.

Mike

[Note that this system does not require contact with the blade, as the SawStop system does. It activates before contact is made.

And there's good reason for that. If a drop of the worker's blood got on the machine, the machine would have to be cleaned and sterilized before it could be put back into production. The cost of doing that is cheap compared to the cost of a meat recall - but it would slow down production.]

[Allan Speers]

On a more serious note (than before )

- That's probably an old induction-repulsion motor. (I think they were also called "bullet" motors, or something like that?)

Some vintage tool guys love those things. You could probably sell it for a decent price, so as to upgrade to 3 HP.

Regarding the riving knife, there's always the Shark guard. Not exactly the same, but still a nice upgrade. It doesn't actually raise & lower with the blade, but you get three different height splitters and they are simple to change or remove.

I haven't used one myself, as I had an Excalibur on my Unisaw (and now use an EZ One table, for better or worse) but supposedly the one issue with a Shark is that you can't do non-through cuts. Maybe someone else here can explain that.

There was also a true riving knife kit made by a company called ****. - But maybe they went out of business?

[andy bessette]

The motor is probably a 1HP...

11 amps = 1.5 hp. That's what I have on one of my Unisaws, wired for 230 V and it is plenty.

[Jack Frederick]

I picked up a '48 Unisaw (same vintage as me) about '95. It too was stiff in the trunnions. I pulled the top to move it and took the opportunity to clean it up. Slick as a whistle afterwards. I put a 4" dust collection port on it and made some masonite ramps to feed the debris to the port. Years later I replaced the motor and the arbor assembly. I got the components from the Saw Shop in Springfield, MA. They were really helpful. I also re-wired the saw. I had a Vega Fence on it. When I built my shop a few years ago my daughter surprised me with a 3 hp Sawstop. Yes, I like her a lot. I gave my Unisaw to a friend who needed one...sob. It was a good thing to do but every time I'm up at his house I lust over my old saw It is an excellent saw. My friend is thrilled with it. I think if you do the upgrades you will be very pleased with your new old Unisaw.

[Scott Hearn]

As others have said they are actually quite easy to restore. Mine isn't as old as yours, but it was in a vo-tech school for years and had been run pretty hard. New bearings, belts, cleanup of the trunnions, some stoning on the table, and it's as good as new. OK I may have added a few things, but the saw is good for another 50 years.

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[Mike Cutler]

Restore it, or to better phrase it, you just have some normal maintenance to do.
Weekend of your time, maybe a $100.00 to $150.00 in investment, and you're good for another 20 years.
The raise tilt mechanism gets gummed up with sawdust and grease. Generally it's just some deep cleaning and realigning and you're good to go.
Match mark all of the bolts and washers you take off as you go, and you'll be fine.
Once you get the internals out of the cabinet, hit it lightly with some 440 paper, and steel wool and use a rattle can rust inhibiting primer and paint on the internals.
Your motor is powerful enough to probably do 95%+ of all the woodworking you want to do. Unless you're ripping thick billets all day long, your motor is fine.
Don't be afraid to do a little preventative maintenance. It's easy.