Old Iron

[Marbees]

Instead of working on woodenware this winter, I decided to work on woodworking machinery






Completed the 1980 unisaw and started working on 1944 Delta shaper that I got last week at the auction.



Nothing beats old iron, this is a test cut before starting disassembling



Love this shaper, gave her a name - Bertha 

[G3farms]

extra nice finds for sure, hope you got them cheap enough. Sure is a nice fence you added to the saw.

Hard to beat old cast iron machinery, most of the time just needs a little tlc to get things back in perfect working order. After so many big wood working factories closed down and were shipped south or the border there is really a glutton of old equipment to be found if you look in the right places and can be bought for scrap prices too.

[Marbees]

You are right G3, the unisaw I got for $300 on local Kijiji used to be in the shop that closed.
The missing right wing I had on my "project" pile, sanded the top and polished, washed the outside with the lacquer thinner and applied a coat of Delta paint. Changed the belts and installed King's rip fence I bought on sale 2 years ago for $100.
All in all I spent less then $500 for a 230 volts, 3 hp american made unisaw that should outlast me.
Very happy with the saw and the numbers

[LazyBkpr]

Sweetness...  No you cant beat old iron...
   I used to have a radial arm saw, built in the late 60's  it lasted into 2013..  so 40 plus years...  I went and looked at NEW RAS and was, to be blunt, disgusted, shocked, and depressed. plastic, and pot metal..  Saws priced at 1200 to 1500 dollars were junk before they were even assembled and used. To get anything even approaching that old RAS i was looking at over 6 grand.. so I more or less gave up...
   I bought a dewalt, sliding chop saw, and built it into a table to emulate the RAS as much as I could...   THEN, I decided I needed a nice table saw...   started looking on Craigs list first..   and there, to my utter astonishment, was a 1980 Craftsman radial Arm Saw, brand new, still in the box, never assembled, for 300 dollars...
   i didnt believe it.. not for a moment, so I called...  yep, birthday present..  I asked for the numbers, and he gave them to me.. I looked them up, this saw was made in 1978..  I drove the two hours the following morning, and loaded the box containing the new saw in my truck, and paid the man..
  "Thank you, everyone else wanted to try talking me down. I expected you to try as well."
     
   "I didnt tell him what he just sold..   The saw has an ALUMINUM handle, it is made of metal, the only plastic on it is the pointer on the slide scale, and the casing on the back side of the motor.. The housing is metal, the covers are metal, the guard is metal.. on the new saws, they wre all plastic.. SLIDE one of those new saws, it was like rolling a skateboard over gravel..   It is not often I am in the right place at the right time...  AND, have money in my pocket....  So I ran to the store and bought a megabucks ticket!!!  but, as i had surmised, i used up all my luck on the saw...

[Marbees]

Yes Scott, that was your lucky day...
They don't make them that way anymore, those were the finest RAS
Sturdy and heavy, nowdays every new model  comes out with the thinner gauge sheet metal then previous model.
Or plastic, as you mentioned. Those older machines are keepers