This past January I picked up a Rockwell 34050 Table Saw off my local Facebook Marketplace. It was in good shape for its age and was a steal at $125. The only issue was that it wouldn’t fit in my compact car. I had to enlist a friend with a truck to go pick it up for me. She readily agreed and headed out to grab it.
Pictured Above: Not the saw I bought. This one is in better shape.
I got a message from her after she got it loaded into her bed. There had been a “tractor incident” during the loading. Because it was just the seller and her trying to get this saw into the back of her truck, they decided to use a tractor to lift it. The saw legs got caught between the tailgate and bucket and got slightly bent. Not a super big deal on newer saw legs, but these legs were made of thicker steel so that was going to be a bit of an issue. When she showed up the following day I got to see how bad the damage was. The legs were quite buckled. I couldn’t come up with a plan on how to fix them until I got it out of the back of her truck. Remember how it was put in with a tractor? Now it was me and her trying to get a roughly 200 - 300 lb piece of equipment off her truck without one. A quick knock on both my neighbours doors and we had the saw down and sitting drunkenly in the shop.
Because I live on Vancouver Island it rains. A lot. So when the saw showed up it had a nice bright coating of surface rust on the cast iron tables from not being covered overnight.
Only a little rusty.
To clean up the tables I grab some CLR and a few pads of steel wool and applied some elbow grease. I was able to get the new surface rust and some of the older discolouring out with about an hour and a half of scrubbing. It was at this point that I decided that I was going to tear apart the whole machine and restore it. This isn’t really a how-to. Or a comprehensive documentation. I took a few pictures while disassembling it so that I could remember how to reassemble it.
Getting the saw apart was simple enough. I removed the three cast iron table plates and put them aside for another circuit of rust removal and buffing. The centre plate was difficult to remove due to the saw arbor being attached to the underside as well as the adjustment wheels coming out the side. I took a bit of creative adjustments to get the adjustment rods slid out of the way. I was amused that as I removed parts, the unit still wasn’t getting lighter as I expected it to get.
After about 10 minutes of work, the table bed is finally off.
While removing the electrical components I opened up the power switch. It was absolutely packed with sawdust. I don’t know how this saw hadn’t burst into flames everytime it was switched on. I mean it was literally packed. I have a replacement safety switch with a big emergency paddle set aside to replace this. I will also seal up the electrical box to attempt to reduce the build up of saw dust so this doesn’t happen again.
How is this not currently on fire?
Continuing on, I removed the housing and what seems to be a custom made saw dust collecting tray (mid right in the picture below.) It’s not original and looks like it was quickly made but I’m going to keep it since the saw doesn’t have any real dust collection built in and I make enough of a mess in the shop as it is. I also stripped off all the extra modifications that the previous users had added. My original idea was to not put the wood handles back on but when I was straightening the legs bac out I discovered that they had shortened two of the legs to put on wheels So I guess I’m putting the handles back on.
That pile of sawdust is from that power switch
Fixing the legs after the tractor incident was surprisingly easy. A good size ball peen hammer and the concrete floor as a makeshift anvil was enough for me to whack the legs back into shape. They are still noticeably warped though, and the trimmed legs weren’t cut evenly so that stands out to my eye. If I ever get a chance to get my hands on new legs or a whole new base, I will most likely swap them out.
I never expected to tear down this saw when I bought it. I just wanted something to replace my cheap contractor saw that I swear is cursed. But once I got my hands on this 40 some odd year old tool, I just had to do my best to make it look brand new.
So now the saw waits until I reorganize the shop so I have the room to reassemble and repaint. I’ll document the rebuild process and post it here once I’m done. And who knows, maybe I’ll restore the bandsaw from the same company that’s sitting in the corner at one point too.