W&H Molder progress

[John Miliunas]

Some of you may remember my post last week about being gifted an old W&H molder (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...?threadid=6180) .

Well, me thinks it's going to live! In between mini-projects, I spent a little time on it during the week, plus a real healthy day of work on it today. She's starting to shape up, plus I received my info from W&H today, as well. (As a side note, I emailed them requesting a manual, if available, a price list for replacement parts and a catalog of current cutter profiles. I'll be dipped if I didn't get every single thing I asked for! Kudo's out to W&H!)

Anyhow, back to the progress. 1st shot is 1/2 the platten done, before I decided to completely remove it. I wanted to find out if it was even worth removing. It was!
2nd shot is of the completed platten. Some very slight "staining" of the cast iron remains, but pitting is at an absolute minimal and should not affect performance.
3rd shot is zoomed in a bit on the cutterhead area with the infeed roller. That thing was ALL rust, as was the cutterhead. (See previous post.)
Last shot is an overall view of the machine. The ways don't look the best, but they're devoid of rust and any burrs. Some staining remains and there is a bit of pitting, though the bulk of that is on the upper part of the ways and I don't envision myslef doing a whole lot of molding at the 5 or 6" marks! The cutterhead assembly now travels the distance of the ways real smoothly, needing only one finger on the crank to bring it down, with a second finger to assist in the upward motion. All bare metal got hit with Boe after the cleaning process.

Thus far, worth every penny I paid for the unit! Hey, I *did* spend a few bucks on cleaning stuff for it and paint for the stand! I'm still working on the stand and want to clean up the motor, as well. I'm actually thinking about leaving the machine's stock paint alone. It's really not in that bad a shape and will probably last longer than any spray bomb stuff I put on. A new switch, belt and some cutter knifes and I believe she'll be ready to rock 'n roll! I'll post more pics as progress happens. Thanks for taking a peek!

[Craig Honeysett]

Wow, looks like it is cleaning up great. Major elbow grease!

[nic obie]

John,

Fixing up old heavy iron is a blast. It's ok to spend a bit when the inital price was reasonible.

New tools should work fine out of the box. Any luck with Torben?

nic

[John Weber]

It looks like it's coming right along. I would love to have one, especially at the price you got yours. Maybe someday. Anyway, looks like a super restoration,

John

[John Miliunas]

John,

Fixing up old heavy iron is a blast. It's ok to spend a bit when the inital price was reasonible.

New tools should work fine out of the box. Any luck with Torben?

nic

Well Nic, I don't know about "...a blast", 'cuz I'd rather be using it, but yeah, the price was *very* reasonable. I'd say "free" is not a bad deal!

And yes, I personally spoke to Torben today. He was actually out in the warehouse setting up and testing saws! He's trying to find any and all outstanding issues with the ones they're getting from this factory, in an effort to pin down where/if a "typical" problem lies. He told me, and I quote, "I'm now taking care of this! I'll take care of you, John." He promised me a call on Monday for the outcome and even made sure he had my work number, as well as my regular hours there. So, I won't know "what" until then, but I believe the man will be good to his word. Guess we'll find out.

[John Miliunas]

Oh yeah, one more thing: My thanks to Dominic Greco! Between his restored Craftsman TS, as well as the wonderful job on his Unisaw...Well, inspiring, to say the least! I incorporated a trick or two of his, though I must say, the flat steel wrapped in sandpaper didn't work too good on the round ways! Thanks, Dom!

[Tom Sweeney]

Looks like for a little effort & less $ you're gonna have a great addition to that shop of yours. I've been following your posts but have'nt had as much time lately to respond. Hopefully the house & setup stuff will be done soon & you can start making some serious sawdust with all that new iron.

Congrats!

[Jim Becker]

That's coming along nicely, John. While it's lots of elbow grease to restore a machine like that, IMHO, it's worth it. The W&H is an excellent machine and deserves to be used rather than sitting idle out in the woods!

[Tyler Howell]

Our machine is looking great John . Keep up the good work. I'll be around to help you move it out of the way so you can work on your bandsaw and Vac Press.

[John Miliunas]

Our machine is looking great John . Keep up the good work. I'll be around to help you move it out of the way so you can work on your bandsaw and Vac Press.

WOW Tyler, what a tremendously *generous* offer! Ah, but not to worry; The stand has wheels on it! Matter-of-fact, probably going over to Farm & Fleet today to pick up a couple replacements, as they've seen a bit of wear & tear, too. Probably get the new belt and want to replace the pulley, too. (It cleaned up pretty nice, but lot of pitting, so I'm afraid it would wear the belt too quickly.) Thanks again for your kind consideration! (Yeah, right....)

[Ed Falis]

Hey John, that thing is looking real good. Just wait until you start making things with it - it's going to be ongoing discovery time. (And it just feels better when you brought it back yourself).

- Ed

[Kurt Aebi]

John,

While looking through the October 2003 issue of Fine Woodworking magazine I saw an add for a company that sharpens and manufactures knives for W&H. Not sure if you already knew of them, but thought you'd like the information anyway.

The company is W.Moore Profiles, LTD in Florida, NY and their web site is www.wmooreprofiles.com Like I said, I stumbled onto the add in a magazine, so I don't know how expensive they are, but it can't hurt to have as many sources for knives as possible.

You are really doing a great job of restoring this old beauty. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Take care and try to keep warm.

Kurt.

[John Miliunas]

Thanks Ed! Yup, I've never done any restoration work on old iron, but this one certainly appears to be worth it. It is kinda' fun, in its own strange kind of way.

Kurt, I hadn't stumbled across that one, as of yet. Thanks much for the lead! You're right, the more sources I have, the better. And, who knows, I might even get lucky and hit one that has the profile LOML wants! That would be cheaper, but I'm still willing to part with the higher $$ to get exactly what she wants if it's going to take a custom cut. Heck, I'll still be multi-$100.00's ahead!