Tom King Posted September 14, 2015 Report Share Posted September 14, 2015 (edited) It was on a dolly with small castors. The dolly is out of the picture. It has those heavy duty leveling castors with the height wheel and big rubber pads to let it down onto. I nosed the truck up to a light pole 150 feet away on the paved parking lot. The rope for the Maasdam rope puller was tied to the pole about 14 feet up. I had taken the tailgate off before I left home because I was afraid it would get bent from the weight of the bandsaw. The table height was just right to back the truck up to it, take the bolts out, and slide it right into the bed on flat 2x4s. For cushioning, and slide, I wrapped a 4" foam moving mattress with a blue tarp. The rope puller eased it right into the bed while the seller kept it from leaning the wrong way. I had placed a couple of tires on the side with the motor to keep it from hitting the truck hard, but it wasn't hard for Johnny to keep it upright. The mattress didn't slide at all, so I used the aluminum floor jack I brought to lift the bottom (now back) end up with a 2x4 I cut to the right length, and we slid the mattress back out.All in all, it went easier than I had expected. The hard part was pushing it across the parking lot, but the seller and a friend of his did that while I rigged up the rope puller. It was pretty effortless for me. The seller turned out to be a great guy. The saw weighs 6 or 7 hundred pounds, but the balance point was near the edge of the bed, and it eases right over from the pull of the rope. Rope is 7,000 lb. capacity.I paid $600 for the saw. It needs new bearings and a few replacement parts to the Carter upgraded guides. Carter sells parts individually. It really only needs the top wheel bearing, but I'm going to go ahead and replace both of them since one has some slop in it. I'll replace the 3 phase motor with a 5hp Baldor single phase. Other than that, it's in fine shape. I had originally thought to use a VFD, but we're going to run it all day long for a few days, and I'd rather trust a motor to operate than electronics under those conditions. It came with three blades that are in decent shape.I straightened it up with the mattress out from under it to tie it down, but that was the only picture I took. The trip was 311 miles one way, but almost all on I95, and wasn't too bad. I stayed the first night at a friend's house a hundred miles from the saw. It made it back home safely. I'll unload it with the front end loader. I intend to weld a lifting eye on it to move around with the tractor. Edited September 15, 2015 by Tom King Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 14, 2015 Report Share Posted September 14, 2015 Looks like you made short work of that!Sounds like you have a project in mind for it. Anything interesting? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted September 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2015 I'm going to put some guys to work making 8,000 shingles out of 4,000 2 foot lengths of 4/4 Old Growth Heart Cypress to replace a roof on an 1850 house. Scroll down on the "structural" page on my website, and you'll see pictures of the Cypress shingles that lasted 131 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkrusen Posted September 15, 2015 Report Share Posted September 15, 2015 I was following that saw and was so tempted to buy it. Glad to see someone here got it. Looking forward to seeing it up and running. Congrats on the new toy, that is one badass machine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew-in-austin Posted September 15, 2015 Report Share Posted September 15, 2015 Very nice score. For that price and that distance, I would drop what I am doing and immediately pick that thing up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted September 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2015 (edited) On closer examination today, it doesn't need bearings. It just needed some adjustment and lubrication. What I thought was slop in the top wheel bearing while it was on the truck was just out of adjustment ways on the top wheel slide mechanism for tensioning the blade. An important bolt was missing from the lower guide setup, but it was in the bottom of the cabinet. Two of the three blades are even useable for what we'll be doing.After talking to some experts, I decided to try a VFD first. Evidently, this is a really good motor that's on it, and the VFD is a third the cost of a new motor. I ordered a VFD next size up from minimum, so hopefully it will be robust enough to last. Edited September 15, 2015 by Tom King 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted September 16, 2015 Report Share Posted September 16, 2015 That's awesome tom. Great work. I think the lifting hook will be a good move. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pwk5017 Posted September 16, 2015 Report Share Posted September 16, 2015 Sweet score. You look like you have a special talent for moving heavy equipment. You need to come by my place today or tomorrow to help me get my 12" jointer into position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted September 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2015 (edited) I carried enough 2x4s thinking I might have to load it by myself and build something to keep it from tipping one way or the other, not being sure if the tires would mark the sides of it. Fortunately, the seller was a really nice guy, and helped steady it.That rope puller is a handy thing. It works like a come-along, but is only limited in length of pull by the length of rope. We ended up using it to get it back upright in the shop.http://www.sherrilltree.com/Rope-Puller-1204#.VfnTAOktCUkYou need a good three-strand 1/2" rope to work in it though: http://www.sherrilltree.com/Tree-Master-Rope#.VfnTxuktCUk Edited September 16, 2015 by Tom King Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted October 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2015 (edited) I finally got around to getting this saw going today. The guy I bought it from doesn't post here, but does on another woodworking forums, so I'll tell what was wrong with it here. I bought this saw on ebay for $600, with no one else bidding on it. The seller was very honest and said it needed new guides. The top guide is fine-Carter 20-just nowhere near the right position for any blade. The lower stock guide was trashed. A blade was balled up inside the machine but hadn't hurt anything.I had bought new tires, and a lower guide a while back but we didn't need the saw until now. I got a Carter 20 offset for the new lower guide even though Carter said it wouldn't fit. It wouldn't fit out of the box, but by shortening the shaft the thrust bearing is mounted on, and elongating the hole in the mounting rod bracket, it works just fine.I got the guide setup milled to fit, and started putting in the bolt that was holding on the old lower guide. I was puzzled why there were a couple of cheap washers behind the bracket on the bolt that the original guide was held on with. I looked at the bolt, and the threads were messed up to the point that you couldn't screw it into the well made "nut" welded to the machine far enough to pull anything up tight. This was the total "problem" with this saw. A ten minute run to our Ace Hardware found the required 8mm-1.25 bolt for 55 cents. It pulled the new Carter guide right up tight like it needed to be with no hitch in the threads.The new tires were as easy to put on as on a Delta 14". They have a tongue that fits in a groove. I heated them a little with a heat gun, and they went right on.I ran one of the old blades on it first in case something went haywire. I didn't want to risk the new Woodmaster CT 1.3T. It ran as smooth as any woodworking machine I've ever seen. We'll start slicing wood with it next week. Edited October 23, 2015 by Tom King Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpt life Posted October 23, 2015 Report Share Posted October 23, 2015 The prize goes to the thorough once again! Congrats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arnosaur Posted December 30, 2015 Report Share Posted December 30, 2015 Tom, I purchased the same saw this year. Mine was a bit closer, but we paid about the same and both saws seem to be in about the same condition. I have the manual which I obtained from an Italian speaking woodworking friend, and I am working on getting some old parts. Do you know the year on yours? For some reason, mine has a monochrome paint scheme, all olive drab. I spent a bit to find a cast iron fence, but for now I don't have my RPC wired up in the garage to get this machine working. If you want a copy of the manual, let me know. Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted December 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2015 I don't know the year. Minimax parts fit just fine. I bought a lower guide from Carter to replace the trashed guideon my saw. I did have to do some modifying of it to get it to work, but the saw cuts like a dream now. To resaw a 4/4 24" long Cypress board into two shingles takes about three seconds without pushing it hard. I didn't try to put the longest blade possible on it, but ordered one in the middle of the listed range at 14' 10". I won't ever order any other length blade. I think the guy I bought it from had tried to run a blade too long for it. I bought a Quanchang VFD off ebay, and the motor never gets warm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted December 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 30, 2015 Here's a link where you can get parts and manuals: http://www.scmgroupna.com/en/service/spare-parts I printed out the manual, and called with the part numbers for things I needed-like the tires. They're pleasant folks to deal with on the phone, and parts came second day with regular shipping. I think the only thing I got from them were the tires. Centauro makes SCM, Minimax, Felder, Hammer, and probably some other brands of bandsaws, and parts are pretty interchangable. About the only difference in the Minimax is the spine height, so they could win the resaw height wars, and the table trunnions have been updated. The folks at Carter are good to deal with on the phone too. They might refer you back to me if there are questions about the lower guide assembly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted December 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2015 something funny about the link I posted earlier. try this one: https://www.partspronto.com/ or specifically: https://www.partspronto.com/MachineDocs/SP%20SERIES%20BAND%20SAW%20CENTAURO.pdf When I talked to the parts guy, I think they're in Georgia, to order the tires, he said they probably had all the parts in stock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted December 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2015 More stuff I thought about. I bought a 2hp Grizzly dust collecter off Craigslist to dedicate to this machine. It does okay, but when I get around to it, I'm going to add another 4" inlet in the lower left hand corner of the bottom door. With cost of saw, improvements, Woodmaster blade, and dedicated DC, I now have $1460 in this bad assed rig, not including a weekend trip to get the saw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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