Good evening!
My Grandfather was an amazing and talented Man. I sure do miss him! He was from the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina and moved his family to Florida at a young age. He spent his entire life in construction and was a Mason, roofer, framer, electrician, plumber and a cabinet maker. He never had any days off, but when he had spare time, he enjoyed gardening, hunting and fishing. He had a workshop that many would be envious of. I spent many weekends cleaning up the evidence of his work....namely mountains of sawdust. When he passed away, many of his belongings were shared among his sons. I later inherited many of those tools, one being a trusty old Craftsman contractor saw.
Over the years, I've been cleaning this saw up, upgrading a few parts here and there. I've added a cast iron wing on one side for a router and router lift, and will be adding a second wing to the opposite side for a second router. The few things I've done have really made this saw a joy to use. With every upgrade or repair, I tell myself that my Grandpa would be proud.
Over the last few weekends, I've been working on a new maple bathroom vanity for our house. I had a rhythm going and things were coming together nicely. As luck would have it, my table saw seized up mid-cut. I chalked it up to the super-dense maple I was using, and figured it may have been too much for this old saw. The 1 hp motor was hot and the blade wouldn't even turn. Well, it IS old and it's had a long productive life, so maybe it finally gave up the ghost.
I pulled the belt, the pulley and then the motor. I went over to my jointer and figured I'd try to finish things up using THAT motor. So I pulled the motor off my jointer and got everything switched over to the table saw. I reinstalled the pulley, the belt, then tightened everything down. It fired right up and I was back in business!
There was only one problem. The jointer motor spins in the opposite direction as the table saw motor!
Well, I put everything up and walked away. LMAO!!
Friday morning, I found a small shop in L.A. that services electric motors. I found them using Google, and not by a personal recommendation. So I grabbed this seized up 40 year old motor and my wife and I headed over to L.A.
Abco Electric Motors, Inc.
We got there and I walked in to the rear parking lot carrying this burnt up motor. A young man rushed over towards me with outstretched arms. He greeted me and asked me if I had called ahead. I told him I hadn't, and he told me to give him a minute. He walked inside the shop and over towards a workbench. I called out to him and asked if I could watch what he was doing (I'm a nosey bastard!). He motioned for me to come over to watch. He began disassembling the ends of the motor and opened up the housing.
My Grandfather was an amazing and talented Man. I sure do miss him! He was from the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina and moved his family to Florida at a young age. He spent his entire life in construction and was a Mason, roofer, framer, electrician, plumber and a cabinet maker. He never had any days off, but when he had spare time, he enjoyed gardening, hunting and fishing. He had a workshop that many would be envious of. I spent many weekends cleaning up the evidence of his work....namely mountains of sawdust. When he passed away, many of his belongings were shared among his sons. I later inherited many of those tools, one being a trusty old Craftsman contractor saw.
Over the years, I've been cleaning this saw up, upgrading a few parts here and there. I've added a cast iron wing on one side for a router and router lift, and will be adding a second wing to the opposite side for a second router. The few things I've done have really made this saw a joy to use. With every upgrade or repair, I tell myself that my Grandpa would be proud.
Over the last few weekends, I've been working on a new maple bathroom vanity for our house. I had a rhythm going and things were coming together nicely. As luck would have it, my table saw seized up mid-cut. I chalked it up to the super-dense maple I was using, and figured it may have been too much for this old saw. The 1 hp motor was hot and the blade wouldn't even turn. Well, it IS old and it's had a long productive life, so maybe it finally gave up the ghost.
I pulled the belt, the pulley and then the motor. I went over to my jointer and figured I'd try to finish things up using THAT motor. So I pulled the motor off my jointer and got everything switched over to the table saw. I reinstalled the pulley, the belt, then tightened everything down. It fired right up and I was back in business!
There was only one problem. The jointer motor spins in the opposite direction as the table saw motor!
Well, I put everything up and walked away. LMAO!!
Friday morning, I found a small shop in L.A. that services electric motors. I found them using Google, and not by a personal recommendation. So I grabbed this seized up 40 year old motor and my wife and I headed over to L.A.
Abco Electric Motors, Inc.
We got there and I walked in to the rear parking lot carrying this burnt up motor. A young man rushed over towards me with outstretched arms. He greeted me and asked me if I had called ahead. I told him I hadn't, and he told me to give him a minute. He walked inside the shop and over towards a workbench. I called out to him and asked if I could watch what he was doing (I'm a nosey bastard!). He motioned for me to come over to watch. He began disassembling the ends of the motor and opened up the housing.
