Sunday, November 30, 2008

B745


this is my walker turner B745 tilting top table saw. i got this from a fellow south of detroit for 85$. he had completely restored the saw; paint and bearings. that's pretty much all there is to this thing. the top is 19"x25", and the little bugger weights about a hundred pounds. i got the fence with it, but no blade or mitre gauge. i made up some zero clearance inserts the other day. i guess i got the ass kick i needed from the last ffw.


since it's a tilting top, the table is fixed onto two pivots points. this makes adjusting for parallel a bit of a mystery. i figure that the whole arbor setup gets loosened and adjusted from the bottom. one step at a time... no sense adjusting for parallel before it's setup with a motor and a table.


i decided to get a forrest blade after our dollar drop from it's high point, and i paid dearly for this. i had to order directly from forrest to get the 8" blade that this saw takes. i decided to go with a four inch stiffener for this blade. the stiffeners make a huge difference with thinner kerf blades. i'm not a fan of the thin kerf, but that's what my dad has for his saw, and the stiffener made a really noticeable difference in the quality of cut. the 8" blade comes only as a thin kerf. so after i paid the taxes on the package, i did what most nerds do when they get a new tool, i took out the dial indicator... whoa. i had .0012" runout at the blade's edge. knowing that this was much, i swore. then i checked the arbor. i had about .0003" runout there. out it came, surprisingly easily. it ended up being an interesting setup between the bearings. that long sleeve with the bolt hanging out of it allows for a lateral adjustment of the blade and/or pulley in case it is needed. if fit's snugly into the hole in the casting, but fits loosely around the actual arbor shaft.


so now i need a machinist... there's a family friend down here who is a very meticulous machinist that i'm anxious to bump into. i got him to cut threads on my lathe shaft so that i could mount a jacob's chuck on the outboard side, and he did it for practically nothing. that's my kind of machinist, very precise and cheap.

underneath is an unauthorized photo of a certain mister klager working at truing his arbor flange on his unisaw with a shopmade setup. the setup was essentially coarse sandpaper on a stick. turn the saw on, push stick onto flange. this ended up helping some, but in the end we decided to take it into a machine shop. it came back with, if my memory serves right, .0000" runout.


8 comments:

Nick Brygidyr said...

That is one cute lil tablesaw man...but i hope you got something else for ripping sheet stock on haha!

i would love to have a lil table saw just for small crosscuts and tenoning and what not.

LORD GODFREY said...

That saw kicks ass! I remember you checking it out online.

Just a tip, that guy Jason doesn't know shit about shit. He can't read either.

jbreau said...

the plan is not to be able to rip sheet stock easily, so that i don't have to say that i don't want to build kitchens, but i can't! i guess i'll have to get a skill saw for the rest.
the B745 is cool, but walker turner makes another one which is cooler. it's essentially the same one, but it has a geared table tilting mechanism.
http://www.owwm.com/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=1892
you can check it out here. it also comes with a sexy pair of legs.
yeah, that jason guy don't know much, he don't even remember his name when he comments.

Cody said...

Cool little saw! That would be a bad-ass little crosscut machine. Do you dislike thin-kerf blades because of the vibration? I'll bet you'll find that on your 8" compared to your dad's 10" that will be much less of a factor. Assuming that the RPM is the same, an 8" blade has 30% less surface speed than a 10".

And don't be so quick to say you don't build kitchens. I think you should practice on my place first before you make up your mind.

jbreau said...

i guess i dislike the thin kerf 10" blades because they tend to flex while cutting. i guess it's probably due to vibration. whatever happens the cut sucks, but with the stiffener, no problem. i think that your going to be right about the eight inch, but i got a little stiffener just to be sure. it won't really affect the cutting height too much, maybe a 1/4" at the most. and if it's ever an issue, i could just take the stiffener off for the cut.

LORD GODFREY said...

My 8" has the opposite problem, it's too stiff.

Cody said...

C'mon Ian, grow up. You disgust me. No wonder we don't get any ladies here.

Sheesh...

Nicholas Nelson said...

That saw looks awesome! The little Inca at the school is so convenient.
Can I assume that this is one Jacques Breau? I've heard and seen good things from/about you. I hear you're coming to the school in May? Looking forward to meeting you!