Shopsmith Forums

Very Nice.

Good Job!! Like the patriotic color scheme!!!

Looks great. Very nice color accents on the Speed Dial and other parts.

1962 Magna American Bandsaw

Finished up this old-timer over the weekend. The table has a bit of pitting, but cleaned up pretty well. I left all the original paint, as it was in pretty good shape, although overall quality of the paint job had diminished significantly from Greenie days…

This one is headed to my son’s house to pair with his recently restored Goldie.
.

Very nice!
Don’t drop that cover though. Those old ones are really brittle plastic.

shipwright wrote: ↑Mon Feb 10, 2025 10:33 am Don’t drop that cover though. Those old ones are really brittle plastic.

Aww… what a shame! Yeah, these older covers are awfully brittle.

The only ones worse were the Mark 2 belt covers. Same material, lighter gauge. I’ve never seen one intact before. I found one on eBay that was intact, but it arrived looking more like your bandsaw cover after a rough shipping experience (and an inattentive vendor/shipper…). Yeah, brittle…

I was able to fix it with CA glue, baking soda, and a plastic welder but it’s no so pretty any more.

Good work with the crazy glue + baking soda!

Good to put this on the forum because it is a useful trick that many may not know about.

I use the thick CA glue because it does not cure too fast. Also I keep the glue in the refrigerator until use. That provides enough time to mix the glue and soda powder thoroughly. Results in a hard and strong but brittle joint. Not a pretty joint but I apply the stuff on the non-visible side to minimize that problem.

Maybe a plastic solvent weld would have been better. Depends on the plastic; solvent does not work on Bakelite.

I am surprised (maybe) that Shopsmith would use such a brittle (styrene?) plastic. My bandsaw has a plastic cover but its not brittle.

Looks better than mine. I didn’t think of the CA glue until after I had tried the plastic welder. If I had it would look much better.

John,

Nice job on the Goldie Magna American Bandsaw. I hope my Goldie Magna American Bandsaw (S/N 43172) and my Goldie Yuba Bandsaw (S/N 40422) come out as nice. Still have both of them to restore plus a Gray Magna American Bandsaw and another Greenie. The Goldie Yuba Bandsaw has some cover damage I hope to fix.

shipwright,

That damaged cover is an unfortunate thing. These older covers can become brittle because of age and other factors. My 1956 Greenie Bandsaw I restored had a crack and small missing piece on the cover as seen below. Fortunately, I was able to find a replacement but that took some time to find.

_ .
I still have the cover shown above. The broken-out part was not with it so it would need to be filled in as part of a repair.

Below is that Bandsaw after it was restored.

_