Brought home an old Unisaw in pieces today...any takers?

Philbo · March 30, 2015, 06:33:58 PM

The saw belongs to a friend of my business partner who passed away some years back and has been sitting in a neighbor's garage for a while. It's on loan to us for the time being, and we're hoping to get it up and running tomorrow to start ripping some 4/4 black locust for outdoor deck boards.

Pics below. The motor wasn't mounted where we found it, and there were no mounting bolts to be found. The mount point inside saw looks like line up with the motor. There's a 1/2" non-threaded hole, and also a threaded hole that is 7/16" fine threads?? the best I can tell. Looks like the top has 4 fine threads that line up with some mounting points on the frame. It looks like they are 7/16" fine, also. Going to Lowe's tonight to pick these up so if I'm wrong on size, any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hopefully this is the right motor, and it's not toast. Anybody able to read the SN and figure out when it was manufacture and if this is original motor? For some reason I thought Unisaws has 3 or 5 hp motors, but this tag reads 1 hp.

Overall a bit rough around the edges, but hopefully she'll go together like we want tomorrow and we'll be sawing soon! Any comments and advice welcome!

Delawhere Jack · March 30, 2015, 07:09:49 PM

Used one just like that at the family business for years. Not sure about the HP, but probably the same. Worked fine, but setting the fence was a bit finicky. Solid medium duty saw. We used it mainly for industrial millwork tasks, but with a better fence it should make a decent cabinet shop saw.

Delawhere Jack · March 30, 2015, 07:14:56 PM

A good thin kerf blade would make that saw cut locust decking much faster.

beenthere · March 30, 2015, 09:02:19 PM

Hope you find all the parts and the motor works. But there must have been a reason that it was in pieces. Any clue what the reason might have been?

As to ripping the rough boards, are you jointing them along one edge first to get a straight edge to hold against the fence? Or some other plan?

redprospector · March 30, 2015, 09:35:10 PM

The only thing that makes me think that might not be the original motor is that it's a 1725 rpm motor. I'm reaching back, but I believe the unisaws used a 3450 rpm motor.
Those old unisaws are pretty good old saws. Wish I had one again.

pineywoods · March 30, 2015, 09:44:15 PM

Got one just like it...well almost. Mine had a 2hp 3 phase motor when I got it. Replaced that with a 2hp single phase, otherwise completely stock. You'll like it..

Don_Papenburg · March 30, 2015, 10:41:37 PM

The 1hp motor made the Unisaw "affordable" to the homeowner.

Larry · March 31, 2015, 09:20:53 AM

A Unisaw uses a motor with a unique mount only found on the Unisaw.

Just Me · March 31, 2015, 07:42:14 PM

I picked up a NOS Unisaw from the late 60's and that one is older than that. The one I have has a 110 1 1/2 hp motor on it and it does just fine. The Jetlock fence can easily be dialed in wit the two bolts on the top of the fence. Once set they are fine as long as you are careful not to bump them real hard with the stock. There is an adjustment on the back to time the lock on the back side of the fence. you want the front to lock just before the back. The front part pulls it square, and then the back locks it down.

A lot of people take the tables off to make it lighter to move, seems like more work than just moving it to me. Hopefully that is the case. Take your time adjusting the table to a known flat blade and then your miter gauge will work well.

Great old saws, nice! I have a PM 66 as well, like it better, but its a 5hp 3h and has a 55" Biesy on it. Nothing stops that one, and if it does, I'll just use my big saw. ;D

Philbo · March 31, 2015, 08:22:47 PM

Got her purring like an well-aged feline this morning. Thanks to all that offered insight and advice.

Replaced the power cord off the motor. Old one was pretty toasted. Found some proper mounting bolts for the motor and the top and got it all together after a bit of a fight getting the motor lined up in the mount. Replaced the belts with some new ones that have no slack in them, and that made for a pretty tight fight around the motor mount! Only got about $30-40 in it so far to get it running...better than I thought it'd be when I saw it sitting in a garage where we picked it up.

She runs well and is stronger than I thought after seeing 1hp on side of motor. I ran a bit of 4/4 locust today and had to push pretty fast to get it to start to bog. I took it easy on her today, though as this is probably the first time in at least 2-3 years that it's been running, maybe longer?

I haven't gone to great lengths to check squareness of the fence, but so far it seems to be pretty dang close.

Beenthere, as for the ripping/straight edging I'm just using a simple 8' MDF sled with a couple or 3 screws into the unplaned/bottom side of the stock to establish my straight edge. It's not perfect but it works well enough for this outdoor decking. If I was doing something more precise/indoor, I don't know if that would really cut it.

We also have a Woodmaster 712 planer/combo machine. It just has planer knives in it now, but I've read that the cork mat and planer knives can be replaced with a straight edge/gang rip setup. Anybody have experience with the accuracy of that compared to carefully using a table saw/sled setup?

We are just getting started on the milling/woodworking side of things. I've been hoping to run across an old Unisaw to put in our shop for a while now and this one fits the bill nicely so far. We mostly log with draft horses and operate a small portable band mill, otherwise. Pretty steep land in these parts, which is where the draft horses come in handy till we get logs down to an established road.

Philbo · March 31, 2015, 08:23:43 PM

Just Me,

You sayin you think this one is older than the late 60s model you have?

Also, does anybody know if this saw could take one of the later 2hp or 3hp Unisaw motors if I came across a used one? Did the mount stay the same design for a while?

Bru · March 31, 2015, 08:48:40 PM

I strongly recommend that you look up owwm.org ; lots of posts on rehabbing the Unisaw, with links to its sister site, Vintage Machinery, and parts diagrams, serial number lookup tables, etc.

pineywoods · March 31, 2015, 10:22:27 PM

I replaced the motor with it's special mount with a 2hp single phase standard flat base. Welded up an adapter that works well. Be aware if you go this route that the special unisaw motors are sealed against dust. An open frame motor will rapidly become clogged with sawdust unless precautions are taken. Hooking up a dust collection system seems to solve the problem..