The Beast!
One of the advantages of being old is you can tell on yourself and nobody will make fun of you. This is the story of the beast and it’s a good one.
During a visit to my local sawmill in 1980, I saw a big, very rusty, band saw in a shed. I asked if they were still using it. No was the reply, they had once used it to make pallets but were no longer in that business. It took several days but they finally agreed to sell it to me for the whopping sum of $150.00. That’s $ 0.075, 7 1/2 cents a pound. The problem was I had no truck or trailer. I convinced one of their employee’s who had a very old, beaten up pick-up to transport it to my shop 3 miles away. I paid the mill $150.00 for the saw and $25,00 to load in into the pick-up. When they set it down in the bed, the front wheels came off the ground. The truck owner was backing down, saying he didn’t want to deliver it after all. I convinced him with an extra $25.00 to let them move it up a few inches in the bed. Sure enough, the front wheels touched back down.
The guy driving the loader asked if I had a way to unload it when I got it home. That thought had never occurred to me, how was I going to get it out? Another $25.00 to pay the loader driver to follow us and lift it back out of the truck. I had to promise the sawmill I would pay the fine if we got caught.
So we drove 10 miles an hour to my house and the loader lifted it out of the truck and set it on the concrete apron at the back of my shop. My shop in those days had an 8’ ceiling. The first thing we noticed when we were admiring our handiwork was that the band aw was 9’ tall. A foot taller than my ceiling.
I thanked both guys, paid them and they set off on their way. The next problem was rounding the corner of the shop. My wife Pennie asked me politely how a 9’ band saw would fit in an 8’ shop. Those of you who know Pennie can surely imagine how nicely she was asking.
I borrowed a portable sandblaster from my father-in-law. I completely disassembled it and sandblasted it to bare metal and painted it gray (the color it was under all of the rust.) During the sandblasting through 6-7 coats of rolled on paint, I found the following “US Navy”. Someone had bought it as surplus.
I painted with rattle cans, first primer then finish enamel. I had some half inch pipe clamps so I took off the clamp ends, lifted one edge with a very big crowbar and got a second pipe under it with some difficulty. The apron was sloped down away from the shop, the band saw weighs 2000 lbs but it was surprisingly easy to roll. I had taken the upper wheel and housing off when I sandblasted and painted it. It was only 7 1/2 feet tall unassembled. We managed to roll it to the center of the shop and placed it dead center under one of the trusses holding up the ceiling. I took down one sheet of plywood directly above it, shored up that truss by putting long 2X10’s in the crotch of the other trusses and cut out the section of truss above the band saw. I built a peak roof between the trusses that was just tall enough to be able to open the top door to change a saw blade. A cathedral ceiling for a band saw, really?
I called my electrician and asked him to come wire it up. I was too excited. He popped open the switch and promptly informed me that it was a three phase motor and I had single phase power. His last suggestion as he was leaving was to call the power company and beg. Remember this is 1980, we’re poor as church mice, we have a baby coming and I’m in deep doodoo with my wife.
The power company listened to my sad tale and agreed to put in 3 phase if I agreed to a minimum monthly fee and a higher power rate. At this point I’m in way too deep to back out. The power company installed the extra transformer and my electrician installed a new electrical box with one lonely circuit.
Altogether, including everything, i spent about $500. The saw is now worth over $4000 in it’s current condition. In spite of everything, I’m proud of the beast and so very glad I spotted it out of the corner of my eye 40 years ago. It is a 1956 Crescent, 36” bandsaw.
