worth it or not-im gloating

[Strokes77]

Loved the MBF I had in the shop for a while. Great tool. Space hog was my only problem with it as a dedicated cross cut station.

My dream was to have it setup with a Dado for rabbets, dadoes, and tenons. But I couldn't work out the table flatness well enough. Totally my fault for not using the mr. Sawdust method I didn't know about at the time.

[tomsteve]

Dewalt MBF, great saw. Back in the day those saws only had HSS blades available, and with the thin kerf they cut 3/4 HP was just fine. It might be a little underpowered with today's carbide blades (even TK) but is still a quite serviceable saw. I have a couple of PDF files that you might want (PM em an email address if you want them). they are written by a Dewalt guru named Roger Hill. They are both a cliff notes version of rebuilding and tuning (killer tuning procedure) a Dewalt RAS. He used a 925 as an example, but almost everything except for some motor stuff applies to the MBF. You'll almost certainly wnant to change the motor bearings (fairly easy and cheap) when you do your clean up. It's easy to date the saw. Check the SN on the motor plate, the first four digits are the year, than the month the motor was manufactured which is probably close to when the saw was manufactured.

Oops, forgot to mention: 9" blades are a little hard to find. Consider using an 8 1/2" one, that also helps a little with the underpowered part. Freud makes their LU91 (negative hook, excellent blade for that saw) in 8 1/2" and it's a reasonably priced blade. Just don't try ripping with it, it sucks at that. You can even get it without that hideous red coating they use on some blades.

funny you mention 8 1/2 blade. i was lookin on the freud website at blades and wonderin,"what the heck needs an 8 1/2" blade? yeah, that was goin over my head for a minute.
 i did find something somewhere that the serial on the motor plate would tell me date.

i used to have an older 10" RAS set up in my shop when my shop was just a 12 by 12 barnshed.i cant remeber which brand of saw it was, but it was quite a workhorse. since i only had a 12 by 12 area, i built the RAS into a bench along one entire wall with a window on the end. when id get my lumber for a project, id just slide it through the window to cut to rough length. also to rough width- made it easier than dragging my table saw out into the yard to do the work, which at the time my TS had my planer on the top most of the time.
my shop today is only 16 by 24, but im already foreseeing a little shop remod.
i was thinking the motor bearings would be rather easy to come by. the bearings on the motor that slide it on the arm are a little rough, but quite understandable- there was a mouse nest up above the motor in the arm.pretty surprised the wiring all looked good, but that wasnt a close inspection- just lookin up in the arm with a flashlight. hopin i can get them cleaned up. 
im not sure if it would be a sign of how much use this got, but the tracks that those bearing travel along- theres still factory paint on them.

thanks for the offer,fred, and ill be sendin you a PM here in a bit. when i come across something like this- and it doesnt necessarily have to be power tools- it can be boat motors, riding mowers,etc, i like to read up on them and learn.
like on this RAS- i got lookin into American Machine and Foundry. geeze- they got into everything from bowling lanes to nuclear reactors!
i wondered where glow bowling came from!
which led to their demise.

[fredhargis]

Those carriage bearings are almost always a little rough on a saw that has been sitting, but they are easily cleaned up and can (most times) be put back into service. I think on one of my saws I had to replace 2. Motor bearings are easy to come by and cheap, I paid $20 for the set I bought some 10 years ago or so. Just a word of caution, if you disassemble the carriage (separate the yoke from the rollerhead) there is a set screw (called a dog point setscrew) that needs to be removed. You'll see all this stuff when you look into the manual (from OWWM) Anyway, those setscrews are often frozen in place; DO NOT go ahead and try to muscle it out. Once you break off the end they are almost impossible to remove and your hopes of getting the carriage bearings off for cleaning are dashed. If that's the case for you (frozen) join the Dewalt forum over at Delphi and ask for best approaches.

[Downwindtracker2]

Over at Vintage Machinery forum they have favourite bearing supplier, I got my carriage bearing from her.

[Steve N]

A bunch of info available here Often referred to, but hardly ever attached as a link.


DeWalt serial # registry So using your tools serial number you can look up it's pedigree, or at least it's neighbors, or is it siblings?


I agree with Fred that sure looks like an MBF


We had a AMF plant up in Vandalia, Ohio (just a bit North of Dayton). I never knew what they made, everyone always said they are the "bowling alley people" so I just assumed they made parts for bowling alleys. Anyone know which sites made the saws?

[fredhargis]

I don't know where the sites were, but I would think when AMF bought the Dewalt name they got whatever factories Dewalt had at the time.

[tomsteve]

A bunch of info available here Often referred to, but hardly ever attached as a link.


DeWalt serial # registry So using your tools serial number you can look up it's pedigree, or at least it's neighbors, or is it siblings?


Anyone know which sites made the saws?

beings how i can only make out the BF on the tag at this time, im thinkin its an MBF.
thanks for the links, steve. when i acquire something like this, i have a habit of having a little history lesson.
as far as which site made the saws, according to the dewalt website, in'29 they moved to a plant in lancaster,PA. in 49 they were acquired by AMF in 
lancaster,PA.
http://www.dewalt.com/company-info/milestones
 im going to doa little more diggin to see if i can find more, but as it is, AMF had their hands in everything- bicycles, model airplanes, pretzel twisting machines, golf equipment... quite a bit more,too.

[TDKPE]

. . . im going to doa little more diggin to see if i can find more, but as it is, AMF had their hands in everything- bicycles, model airplanes, pretzel twisting machines, golf equipment... quite a bit more,too.

Yeah, like Harley-Davidson, some time around the 70's.

[tomsteve]

Yeah, like Harley-Davidson, some time around the 70's.

i still wonder if that was a big mistake or a good thing.
would harley still be around if AMF didnt buy them?