I picked up an old craftsman 10 inch bandsaw today. Lots of coats of house paint, a home brew cabinet/stand that has seen better days. The saw has a serial number that reads 103.0101. I can find that it was built for sears by the king-seely company. I cant find a date, but its old. Fairly good quality. Cast iron clam shell housing, steel (rusty) adjustable table, all the bearings appear good, but they are bronze. I plan on scrapping the stand, building a short tube stand and changing out the 3/4 horse AC motor for a variable speed DC 2hp (or so they say) motor. This way I can get it down in speed, slow enough to cut aluminum and some mild steel. The blade tires are shot, but the wheels are very good. The blade guide is cracked, but I will just machine up a new one (with better geometry).
My questions are
- where to find a blade. I did the string as well as the math calculations and figure its 68 1/2.
- How may teeth per inch. I recall a rule of thumb that at least two teeth should be in contact with the metal at all times, this could get tough with
- Tires. It had a very bad set of rubber tires on the wheels. No crown left, chunks missing, glue rotted from the inside out. I've read about urathane tires, but I was wondering what's the general feeling about rubber vs. urathane. This saw will see only home use every so often.....
any other suggestions for getting this old girl running again, would be great!!!!
thanks in advance. bob in phx