# Bandsaw rebuild



## kvom (Mar 31, 2009)

When I bought my lathe and mill, the seller threw in this old Johnson bandsaw as a freebee. It's been sitting in the shop for some weeks now waiting patiently for some attention. The seller told me that "it cuts pretty good, but not straight on large diameter stock. And BTW, sometimes it can give youa shock."







Serial # is 1811, model J, and certainly predates 1965, which is when Johnson became Kysor. Probably quite a bit older than that. These were first produced in 1938.

Today I decided to see what it needs. First task was to remove the chip/coolant pan and the cover over the motor to get a good look inside.

I turned on the switch and then plugged it in via an extention cord. The motor runs with no problem as far as I can see, and the drive wheel rotates smoothly. I had previously talen off the blade. Aftyer unplugging I removed the motor and all of the wiring. The motor looks newer than the saw. It's a 3/4 HP dual-voltage 115/230 wired for 115. The insulation next to the motors wiring box was frayed, so that was likely the source of the shock. The motor leads were wired to a junction box that contains two utility outlets. I plan to keep that. The power cord also comes into that box, and was a 2-wire cord with no ground. I will replace it with a 3-wire cord that will ground to the same screw in the junction box as the motor.

The on-off switch is "worrisome". 






It mounts in the 1/2" hole you can see in the photo of the saw, just next to the vise wheel. When the blade is through the stock being cut, a piece of sheet metal on the head pushes down on the switch to turn off the motor. The whole setup looks like a jury-rig, but I guess it can be made to work.

I took off the blade guides to clean them, and found that one of the bearings is shot. That's perhaps the source of the crooked cuts. I did see a vendor on eBay that sells the guide wheel/brearings for the Johnson model J. One of the guide castings was broken at some time in the past and rewelded. That looks OK.

The saw came with a submersible coolant pump. I haven't tried it yet to see if it works.


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## shred (Mar 31, 2009)

kvom  said:
			
		

> It mounts in the 1/2" hole you can see in the photo of the saw, just next to the vise wheel. When the blade is through the stock being cut, a piece of sheet metal on the head pushes down on the switch to turn off the motor. The whole setup looks like a jury-rig, but I guess it can be made to work.


FWIW, most all 4x6 bandsaws turn off the motor by a piece of bent sheet metal knocking the switch into the off position.


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## BobWarfield (Mar 31, 2009)

Oh Darn.

I thought you were gonna tell us how to make our cheezy HF little bandsaws run like "pro" quality bandsaws!

That one you have is way to nice for any of it to be applicable to my little machine.

Cheers,

BW


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## itowbig (Mar 31, 2009)

BobWarfield  said:
			
		

> Oh Darn.
> 
> I thought you were gonna tell us how to make our cheezy HF little bandsaws run like "pro" quality bandsaws!
> 
> ...



Funny that's exactly what i thought too..
it certainly looks like a good heavy saw


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## kvom (Apr 1, 2009)

It probably weighs 300+ pounds. I'm going to build a base with 4x4s so that it can be moved with the pallet jack.

It's a lot bigger than I want/need, so I might try selling it to buy a smaller one.


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## kvom (Apr 1, 2009)

The Johnson brand is now owned by Dake. I emailed them and got a PDF copy of the original manual.

Looks like this baby weighs 700 pounds. I ordered a new blade guide online yesterday and am off to Lowes to get a new power cord. The way it was wired, the 110V sockets are switched so that the coolant pump turns on when the motor starts; logical.

I have replaced all of the wiring, and the switch, motor, and outlets seem to work as desired. And the power cord, motor, and outlets now are connected to a common ground.


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