MBN1105 Bandsaw Rebuild

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bggrnchvy

New member
Mar 23, 2012
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1939 Walker-Turner 16" metal cutting bandsaw. These saws were built from '39-'48 by W-T before Walker-Turner purchased by Kearney & Trecker. K&T sold W-T to Rockwell in 1956. Rockwell (now Delta) eventually stopped using the W-T name in the early 60's but still holds all rights to it.

The entire saw is cast iron, even the access doors. It weighs in a beastly 600lbs for a smaller 16" saw. The V-belt cover is a solid 25lbs on it's own.

I've got a 115/230VAC motor coming to replace the 220vac 3 phase motor in it. The plan is to strip it all down, blast all the large components and get it primed and painted machinery grey to match the original color. The bare steel components will be polished. With a little care, some oil and some new tires for the saw wheels she should last another 73 years easily. I'll post up progress as it gets done.
 
That looks like one beast of a little saw. Subscribed to see how this comes along.
 
Dubyagee said:
Nice. Love seeing OG tools being used.
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Me too. Most of my learning of machine shop tools were on old school stuff. The shop I worked in had pretty much all Rockwell-Delta stuff rom the 60s-70s... i.e. bandsaws, table saws, etc. We had a 1973ish Bridgeport and a really old (1930s) mill that was used on some Navy ship. I can't remember the name of it right now. It was made for tight spaces and was only about 4 foot tall. We had to build a base to get it to a height that was ergonomic to use.

The old tools like that are so damn stout... just aren't made that way anymore
 
BadassBlaze said:
The old tools like that are so damn stout... just aren't made that way anymore
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Yup. Nobody had FEA to easily and cheaply figure out what was just enough to do the job so they went overboard.

HankScorpio said:
Sweet Kyle! I have been looking for one myself but that thing is awesome.
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I've been looking for a vertical band saw for a while. Not necesarily this specific model, but it was on the list. I really didn't need another project, but I do need this saw so it made it's way home.

Unfortunately as it was raining the day before I found myself needing to do something. I took my perfectly working 1950's Reed bench vise and tore it all the way down for a thorough refinish. I'll need to get that done, as well as the Chevy before I can totally commit to this unit.

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Main nut wouldn't come out, had to go to the last resort.

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Juan! said:
That'll teach that bitch ass nut not to fuck around w/ Kyle :imo:
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Lol. I think it really just needed some concentrated heat, but the combination of being able to apply the impact and the heat took it out instantly. I won't post pics of my defeated 1/8" plate/scrap tube tool I attempted to use first:(

Ordered new tires for the saw. Crazy they still make application specific tires for this saw you can get direct from Amazon.com.

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Love seeing old things being restored ill be following i have one at my grand father house has to be 40-60 years old. ill look next time on there. God bless him he is doing great but he getting older and told me and the family all his tools and equipment is for me. since im the only one in the family who will appreciate and or use any of it. nice thing is roughly 80% is older made in the USA tools, though not looking forward to the day it all becomes mine
 
Tires came in over the weekend while we were away enjoying some rain, snow and wind in the Nevada desert.

Thinking about taking the 16" wheels off and chucking them up in the 30x60 manual since the ST-20 only goes up to 15" (sigh) and just crowning the wheels themselves instead of trying to abrasively crowning the tires. I think there's enough material on the edges to take the .038 off at the lowest point.
 
BrutalSierra said:
Where did you find that at? I would love to find some old machinery to fix up!
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This one was a CL find. I search a few key words a couple times a day looking for what I want. The important part is being ready with cash and means to pick up whatever you find ASAP as they have a tendency of showing up exactly when you don't really need them. That is of course just below being able to identify any issues which might turn that nice old iron find into scrap no matter how nice you make it look.

You just have to be specific and patient.
 
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Tore the upper guide down last night. It took a bit of penetrating oil and some persuasion, but the whole thing is in decent shape.
 
This one was a CL find. I search a few key words a couple times a day looking for what I want. The important part is being ready with cash and means to pick up whatever you find ASAP as they have a tendency of showing up exactly when you don't really need them. That is of course just below being able to identify any issues which might turn that nice old iron find into scrap no matter how nice you make it look.

You just have to be specific and patient.
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Couldn't agree more thats the way to do it. The older equipment is definetly built to last its going to be so cool to see this thing ready for another 100 years of operation.
 
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I saw (pun) this on another forum as a good way to take off scale and oxidation from a flat table. #1 steel wool attached to a palm sander with liberal use of penetrating oil. I've since made it through about 2/3rds of the table, but it's by no means a fast process. Works awesome though!

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Seperately I blasted, tapped and painted that Reed vise. I reassembled it with plenty of synthetic grease and the actions just feels awesome. The paint is going to get chewed up in the coming years, but at least it's fully regreased and works great.
 
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