Gallery of Restorations

[Mike]

Beautiful and with a stunning base. Nice work!

[jpdalton]

1955 Mark 5 Greenie (S/N 298187)

Picked this up in November, when I was looking for a machine to restore for one of my sons, who’s been doing a lot more handyman work around his new house. It came with bandsaw and jointer - both of which are in the queue for restoration - so figured this would be a good project machine.

I noticed the carriage casting had the familiar, “oops, I forgot to lock the headstock!”, crack in it. So that was replaced, along with the main table frame casting, that I didn’t realize had a really lousy welding repair on it…

Other than that, there was the typical rusty legs, flaking paint on the aluminum castings, and oh yeah, a thick layer of mortar everywhere inside the headstock consisting of 50 years of neglected sawdust, powdered drive belts, and way too much lubricant… Challenge accepted!

Broken castings were replaced, paint stripped, rust removed, gunk scraped, parts degreased, everything painted, polished, waxed, and reassembled. Add new belts, wheels, and wiring, and voila!
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Got a Goldie project right on the heals of this one, so stay tuned…

[jpdalton]

Circa 1957 Magna Model 710 Bench Saw (S/N 34162)

I’ve been working on this restoration for a bit of time and yesterday I finally completed it - a circa 1957 Magna-Line Model 710, 9-inch Bench Saw - complete with factory motor and stand.

When I brought it home in February, I thought there was going to be a lot of surface that would require repainting, but what I found instead was some really good condition paint under a lot of grime. So, this project was largely about cleanup and polishing (of course there was the requisite electrical wiring and belt replacement). But I also got a close look at some of the design features that made this such an interesting offering from the Magna team.

For instance, since the table on this saw is not being tilted or lifted out like that of a Shopsmith, it’s much heavier steel rather than aluminum, with the steel construction of the table providing a lot of the overall strength and rigidity of the system. It also was much more resistant to the nicks and gouges that are so common to contemporary Mark 5 aluminum tables, so looks almost brand new after cleanup.

I was also pretty impressed with what I saw of the construction of the enclosure of the saw - the front panel is the only cast portion of the main enclosure (the other 3 sides are all stamped/formed sheet metal), with the casting also providing the gear teeth that guide the arbor tilt.

The push/pull dual function of the blade control wheel (for both blade height and tilt) is also an interesting innovation that helped to reduce part count and cost.

I’ve still got a little tuning to do, as well as some practice with the table fence (that features an interesting fine adjust, geared to the front table rail), but I should be cutting wood soon!
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[RFGuy]

Circa 1957 Magna Model 710 Bench Saw (S/N 34162)

I’ve been working on this restoration for a bit of time and yesterday I finally completed it - a circa 1957 Magna-Line Model 710, 9-inch Bench Saw - complete with factory motor and stand.

John,

Wow! That is a nice table saw and great job restoring it. I love the rack and pinion design on the fence. Sure wish my 520 had rack and pinion fence adjustment. I wonder why this isn't available on other table saws today. Thanks for sharing.

[thunderbirdbat]

Very nice restoration.

RFGuy, the rack and pinion fence is on most jobsite table saws now.

[JPG]

Great find and job!

Curious re the spring loaded knob on fence. Push in to rotate and move fence?

[MikeG]

Quite a gem! Great job. Thanks for sharing.

[chapmanruss]

Very nice, John.

I did notice that the Miter looks like the special Mark 5 style Miter with the Model 10 Bar. Is that true?

You have it on a nice caster setup, but can the Shopsmith Retractable Casters fit the base? Just wondering.

Again, a beautiful restoration on a less common Magna Tool.

[jpdalton]

Curious re the spring loaded knob on fence. Push in to rotate and move fence?

Yes, push in and rotate for fine adjustment. From the manual…
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[larryhrockisland]

Does the rip scale adjust?