# Old Rockwell Delta Wood Metal Bandsaw



## mu38&Bg# (Jun 16, 2014)

I've been scouring craigslist for a bandsaw for a couple months. Initially I wanted a horizontal saw, but after searching I saw a few of these wood/metal vertical saws. I decided that with the space available and how much cutting I actually do the vertical saw would be much more useful. I was prepared to pay up to 400USD. Saturday I was browsing and found a listing cheap and called right away because it didn't note whether it had the gear reduction. It turned out it did. I picked it up from a tool maker that got it years ago from the corner of the shop he works in. It's in fair condition, but nothing looks broken.

There is no model or serial number on it, but it's an 880, 890, 28-205, or 28-207. The pulley on the motor is not original and the bushing installed in the pulley is nowhere near true. The pulley on the gear shaft looks good. The pulley on the direct shaft is knackered. There is no key and it won't come off with the small puller I have even though the pulley bore is worn and spins freely on the shaft. All the guides are there and one cover knob is missing. For $50 there is plenty of money left to find a new pulley, belts, and rewire the light which tripped the GFI when I tried to turn it on. I may even paint it which I generally don't bother with.

Greg


----------



## Swifty (Jun 16, 2014)

Nice buy for $50, I'm still to get around to having any sort of bandsaw. The models that I build seem to be getting bigger now, so may have to plan on one in the future.

Paul.


----------



## mu38&Bg# (Jun 17, 2014)

The price was right. I didn't even look it over when I picked it up because I was in a hurry. The lower wheel and direct pulley refuse to separate from the shaft. It turns out someone tried to use the set screw instead of the key and wore a large groove into the shaft. This is why the pulley won't come off.

The upper wheel isn't original. The bearings are fairly loose in all the bores it seems. Hopefully this isn't a big problem. The gearbox feels good so I think it should clean up fine. I'm sure when it's running I'll wonder how I managed for so long without a saw.

Greg


----------



## velocette (Jun 17, 2014)

Hi Greg
Go for it a strip down and rebuild whatever you spend will increase it's value from $50. I have a similar machine that I bought as a pile of bits. One improvement was to fit "Poly Vee" belts to replace the Vee pulleys.
Better drive at slow speeds.

Eric


----------



## barnesrickw (Jun 18, 2014)

I would love a machine like that for that price.  Great deal. 


Sent from my iPad using Model Engines


----------



## mu38&Bg# (Jun 18, 2014)

I made some progress today. I did get the lower pulley off and a file cleaned up the shaft. I removed the shaft and wheel. However, I only managed to move the lower wheel about 1/4" on the shaft using a hammer and it won't fit in my little arbor press. The gearbox looks good inside. I found some nice Starrett metal cutting blades on Ebay and they're on the way. The price for this saw was definitely right, it seems these can go for up to 400USD. The bearings are New Departure C87502 and C87504  with wide offset inner races. I may substitute standard types and make spacers if needed. I also saw the sheet metal wheels on Ebay listed as an original Delta part.

Poly-V belts are nice. Single speed on the gearbox doesn't limit use much? The motor pulley isn't correct and won't allow the use of all 4 speeds with one belt so I'll be buying at least one pulley anyway.

Greg


----------



## MachineTom (Jun 19, 2014)

While the vertical saw is much more versatile than a horizontal saw, you can't walk away from a vert saw and still have it cutting. Look for a bandsaw vise made by Heimich, not cheap even used, but it will save you MUCH grief. Also doubles as a good drill press vise.

It is one of those tools that make you say, why did I not have one of these before.

You will want a horizontal saw after you are 1/4 the way through a 2" steel block.


----------



## mu38&Bg# (Jun 20, 2014)

I agree, but I don't really have the room. Thanks for the tip on the Heinrich vise. There were also some good ideas here, http://www.frets.com/HomeShopTech/Projects/VMiterGauge/vmitergauge.html though I wonder how well the gravity feed works.

I did remove the wheel and bearing from the lower shaft. After cleaning up the threads on the end of the shaft you can't even tell I beat it out. I hate doing that, but I didn't want to take it anywhere. A small hydraulic press or a bigger arbor press is next on the tool list.

Greg


----------



## OrangeAlpine (Jun 20, 2014)

MachineTom said:


> You will want a horizontal saw after you are 1/4 the way through a 2" steel block.


Nah.  You will just say to yourself, "This would job would really be a ***** if I was using the hacksaw".

Bill


----------



## MachineTom (Jun 21, 2014)

Very True Bill.

Almost Every job starts with a saw.


----------



## surfside (Jun 23, 2014)

That's definitely a nice find! Be sure to clean the wheels, guides, knobs  and table. Tune it up and use urethane tires. What's the HP? 
Are you going to use it mostly for cutting metal?


----------



## mu38&Bg# (Jun 24, 2014)

I got some new bearings from the local bearing supply. The weekend was busy so nothing was done otherwise. At this point I have to decide if I'm going to paint it. It's been painted before and some of the paint has flaked off to bare cast iron.

The motor is rather small at 1/3HP. I'll probably look around for something a bit bigger after I get it running. I'll be cutting mostly metal with it as I do have a small band saw for my model airplane building needs. When I built my spindle a couple years ago I used a hacksaw to cut some 2 3/8" 304SS, I think I went through two blades.

Greg


----------



## MachineTom (Jun 24, 2014)

My horizontal is 1/2 hp, and slice's through 4140 6" dia with no problems with a 6-10 bimetal blade.
The vert saw has a 1hp, but that is really needed in wood not metal.


----------



## mu38&Bg# (Jun 24, 2014)

This motor seems to run fine. If 1/3HP is enough, that's great.


----------



## surfside (Jun 24, 2014)

I think 1/3 HP motor will not be good enough for cutting metal .


----------



## gus (Jun 25, 2014)

Its a great buy. After overhaul and a coat of paint, this machine will look gorgeous and run forever.
My balcony workshop has no space for a convention horizontal bandsaw. Bought a Makita Portable BandSaw. Made a Vertical DIY plywood housing. Prior to this ,Gus sure hate manual hacksawing which left a '71' aka ''17'' young man panting away.:rant: The vertical bandsaw is a ''must have''. Building engines from stock bars now easy chore. No more procrastination.


----------



## mu38&Bg# (Jun 25, 2014)

Power all depends on speed and feed (material removal rate and material power factor) like any other machining operation. Looking around a bit it seems like 1/3HP will be adequate. More power would be nice, but only necessary if I ran a higher surface speed.

Greg


----------



## Brian Rupnow (Jun 25, 2014)

I have an old Jet 14" vertical woodworking bandsaw that I bought cheap and installed a second shaft and pulleys in so I could get the blade speed down to the proper range for cutting metal. It works fabulous. I have a self feeding reciprocating power hacksaw out in my main garage, but now it hardly ever gets used.---Brian


----------



## surfside (Jun 25, 2014)

Now I understand, since the metal needs slower speed, your HP will be enough. Good luck and Looking forward to hear progress on this. Did you get a blade already?


----------



## mu38&Bg# (Jun 25, 2014)

I found a reasonable price for a couple Starrett Intenss ProDie 10-14V 1/4" bi-metal blades. This will be suitable for thin stock to 1" and maybe 2" thick. However, 1" and thicker would cut better and keep power requirements under 1/3HP with a ~6tpi blade. One thing I didn't really consider was that recommended speed for bi-metal blades is twice that of carbon steel. If I want to run at these speeds <200SFM rather than ~100SFM for carbon, I will not have enough power. I haven't figured out if running at lower speed will shorten blade life, but as use as it will see, I'll probably never even use the second blade anyway. It's all speculation until I try, but machining power calculators are pretty accurate.

So, now I want to find a good 5-8tpi blade.

I also ordered some KBS paintin grey.


----------



## surfside (Jun 26, 2014)

If you're using the right blade ( correct TPI , type and speed) , you'll be fine. I always make sure that I keep minimum of 3 teeth in work at all times. I don't think slowing down speed would affect the blade life. I'm using 601 Haltbar Bi metal blade, I does cut good so far.


----------



## mu38&Bg# (Jul 1, 2014)

I took the saw off the stand and cleaned most of the stand over the weekend. We should be getting some cooler weather in the next couple days so I want to get it prepped and painted. The table had some soft rust on on it but it looks great cleaned up.

Greg


----------



## surfside (Jul 2, 2014)

You can use evaporust. Good thing everything works so well. What are the speeds?


----------



## gus (Jul 2, 2014)

surfside said:


> If you're using the right blade ( correct TPI , type and speed) , you'll be fine. I always make sure that I keep minimum of 3 teeth in work at all times. I don't think slowing down speed would affect the blade life. I'm using 601 Haltbar Bi metal blade, I does cut good so far.




I am with Surfside. Only Bimetal will last and last. The cheapy M.I.C. won't survive HMEM barstock cutting.Two months' life maxed. I am forced to stay with Makita Bimetals which cost a bomb but latest saw blade in used for last 12 months and cutting very well on track.  Came w/o a stand and cutting table. DIY vertical version.  
Sawing speed can be dial-selected.


----------



## mu38&Bg# (Jul 3, 2014)

This saw has speeds of 125, 175, 250, 340, and 2200 feet/min.


----------



## gus (Jul 5, 2014)

dieselpilot said:


> This saw has speeds of 125, 175, 250, 340, and 2200 feet/min.




Thanks for the info. Set at medium speed as dial is hard to get at with the DIY 
housing. Am using my fingers to guide cutting on marked lines. Cutting skill now not bad and can cut on the line which means I don't have too much to skim off. ''71''' young Gus not panting away with manual hacksawing which I was never good in trade school.


----------



## mu38&Bg# (Jul 5, 2014)

I did some more prep today. I did something I never do. I went to Harbor Freight (because Menards didn't have what I needed) and bought a wire wheel and polycarbide wheel for the angle grinder. The polycarbide wheel is fast for paint and rust removal on flat surfaces, but grinds metal quite quickly. The wire wheel is good for any surface but shoots out little wire missiles, make sure you're wearing heavy pants and eye protection. Citrus degreasers remove/damage paint and Dawn Power Dissolver which I used to cut through some old cutting lube/grease/muck on a lathe part dissolved the paint on the band saw covers fairly quickly with less work than paint stripper. Some people use Dawn Power Dissolver to clean model engines which is why I had it. It's made for the kitchen to cut through baked on grease. I forget what's in, it but wear gloves. I stopped using it on model engines because it seems to soak into pores in casting were you can't even see any and shows up later as white spots. Maybe some photos tomorrow. And try to bid on some proper pulleys on Ebay.

Regarding the table, I do have Evaporust, but will probably just manually remove it. I have also done electrolytic rust removal in the past.

Gus, I did consider just what you did, but I do have the space, although it's running out quick and the wife complains that all the space is mine. It's time to move.

Greg


----------



## gus (Jul 6, 2014)

Hi Greg,

Fortunately my wifey boss is quite happy/contented with Gus safely in the house Mondays---Fridays and not at high sea fishing. So no territorial dispute. Still looking for a horizontal hands free bandsaw that does no take a lot of space or DIY a small mechanical hacksaw.For now the DIY Makita will do.


----------

