Museum table saw

[Harold O.]

Here's a few shots of the Maine Maritime Museum table saw. Powered by an electric motor on the ground floor. The miter sled still works well and (I reached over the line and moved it). With all the machines, belts, and pulleys, there are many ways to get hurt in a shop like this. Those were some tough men.

[fishhh4]

I had one similar . I Was going to refurb it . Came to my senses . Sold it to a dude on owwm . He can have some fun with it . What I could never grasp totally was tilting table .
The slider on it was probably 200 pounds of cast iron
 I think it was a Cresent

[Bobby Thompson]

Love that old iron

[WilliamHodge]

I'm not a tough man, but I ran a saw just like this one (American) 35  years ago when I worked in the milling room in a shop. My saw didn't have the mortising attachment. All I did all day was rough rip, face joint, plane, edge joint, and rip wood.

The saw ran great. Instead of the blade being raised and lowered by that big hand wheel, the table goes up and down. We had a stock feeder set up on a floor mounted post, so it was always set up for the correct thickness of wood. The stock feeder was always a little below the top of the blade, and the blade would be 1/8" above the top of the wood.

The saw also ran quiet. It still had babbit bearings, and he motor was some big old 3 phase motor. With all that cast iron, there wasn't much vibration. The stock feeder went up to 70 feet per minute, and this saw could do that fine.

The dust collection was horrible. It could have been fine, if the management tried. I guess that went along with other 19th century aspects of that shop, like no plumbing. I lasted three months, until I found a better job. I still miss that saw.

[Harold O.]

The saw also ran quiet. It still had babbit bearings, and he motor was some big old 3 phase motor. With all that cast iron, there wasn't much vibration. The stock feeder went up to 70 feet per minute, and this saw could do that fine.

The dust collection was horrible. It could have been fine, if the management tried. I guess that went along with other 19th century aspects of that shop, like no plumbing. I lasted three months, until I found a better job. I still miss that saw.

With the electric drive motor a floor below, sound would have been very different from what we expect today. Thanks for pointing that out.

There was no plumbing to be seen, but they did identify a funnel attached to a wall. So at least you didn't have to go to far when you had to go.