New to me saw..


Brendon_t

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Oops I did it again..  CL got me another project tool.

Picked up this unisaw this morning.  The price was right as it was pretty much a fire sale. 

It IS a 3 phase machine which I will either convert to run on 1 phase or swap motors, haven't decided yet. 

I brought my LV straight edge to check it out and the top and wings are very flat across and on the diagonal. The vertical and tilt adjusters are super smooth and the arbor has no detectable slop.

As far as I can tell,  all the parts are accounted for with the exception of the motor cover. The fence is both in poor shape and too short so back to that dilema.

Anybody gone through a rehab on these and want to give any pointers?

I'm going to order belts and bearings,  a new paddle switch and cord. 

Anybody want to give a guess as to production year range? I tried looking up the serial but delta isn't very forthcoming with a decoder.

Pics to follow. 

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Yes micks, I was talking about a vfd. The current motor is a 3 phase 5 hp. If I lose a third with the converter it may still have 3.something hp..  More than I need.

I agree that the body looks like 80's or 90's but it didn't have the uni fence which I think they started in the 70's

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I have a saw about identical to that model.  Mine didn't have the motor cover either, but I built a wooden box for DC air inlet over the motor that accepts a 12x12 furnace filter.

I have one VFD that I'm running a bandsaw on that works perfectly.  It's a Huanchang (or something close to that) that came off ebay for $268.  I only programmed it to convert single phase to 60hz three phase.  It can be programmed to do all sorts of other things.  It winds up the bandsaw motor like a jet turbine starting, which would be too slow for my liking on a tablesaw.  I think you can program the startup time, but I didn't spend time worrying about that for the bandsaw.

I ditched the fence and put a 52" BIes on mine.post-14184-0-49507900-1413659084_thumb.j

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Tom, was your saw a one or three phase?  It looks about identicle.

There is a little steel ramp inside at about 30 degree going from left to right toward the motor cover where it dumps out a 4"x16" trough of sorts.  I'm trying to figure out how I'll hook it up.  I run 4" pipe to the rockler dust right heads so I can hook it up to the machine in use. 

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Yes micks, I was talking about a vfd. The current motor is a 3 phase 5 hp. If I lose a third with the converter it may still have 3.something hp..  More than I need.

I agree that the body looks like 80's or 90's but it didn't have the uni fence which I think they started in the 70's

I think Delta used a serial number sequence with the manufacturing date listed first. That would make this one a 1995 model. 

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yeah, 1995 March, go figure. Pretty sure they were still using the unifence then, but that is very close to when they switched over to the bies(I had several saws from 1993-2000). No clue why that fence is on that saw; the guy must have lost a bet!

 

I made a 1/4" ply box with a 6" hose adapter as my dust port. I think the OE was this enormous sheet metal cone. I had 2 of them from my old saw purchase. Too bad I think I threw them out! they were 2' long and the width/height of that lower rectangular opening below the motor cover.  Dust collection seems to work OK. I haven't look inside the cabinet in a few months. Do you have the sawdust deflector in front of the blade?

 

What splitter does your saw have? I was fortunate enough to have the bies quick release in place on the saw I kept. $30 later and I had a nice new stubby splitter from sharkguard.

 

Ive already said it in the other thread and via PM, but I wouldn't go VFD. Save $150 and run the 3 phase motor as 2.66 or 3hp saw and hope it doesn't crap out on you in a 1/2/5 years, or spend the extra money now and never worry about it again. Plus, not that you want to sell it, but if you HAD to sell it, selling a single phase unisaw is a walk in the park compared to selling a 1995 unisaw with a VFD. Have fun spending the first 22 minutes of each potential sale explaining what Variable Frequency Drive stands for and does. I certainly hope life doesn't force me out of this hobby, but if it does, I take comfort in the fact that I will recoup all the equity(and then some) out of my tools.

 

Looking forward to seeing this thing polished up. Tip from the guy who has been there, don't forget to switch the breaker back ON after you wire the outlet and fire it up for the first time ; )    I somehow do that each and every time--the immediate disappointment is unimaginable.

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Yeah I  think it's safe to say that the fence that is on there, called the micro adjust, is not what came on the saw.

im definately leaning toward a brand new 3hp baldor or leesen motor. I'm my research I have found fanboys and haters of each.the baldor will be about $450, the leesen about $375 both plus shipping.  

What I keep coming back to is, if I drop some coin on a vfd, call it $200 and the motor craps out in a year, what do I have? A specialized part with no resale value and still need a new motor.  

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What I keep coming back to is, if I drop some coin on a vfd, call it $200 and the motor craps out in a year, what do I have? A specialized part with no resale value and still need a new motor. 

My point exactly. Also, 3 phase unisaw motors aren't exactly a dime a dozen to replace. That unique motor mount makes the motor a lot more valuable than your run of the mill 5hp 3 phase motor that would be worth $25.

 

I vote baldor. More $ = better. You cant argue with facts :rolleyes:

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