Brand New Used Delta/Homecraft Delta Shop

[edma194]

Just got this home. The motor works. It's an 8" table saw, has a 4" joiner that mounts on the side, an 8-1/2" disk sander that slides into the miter slots on the table, and an 11" drill press/shaper/router. I'm not sure what's 11" on the drill press. Sitting nestled in beside a Sawsmith RAS and 1961 Goldie it looks like their cute little nephew trying to be a real tool. Full set of pictures to follow after I re-assemble everything. I have no reason to use it, but it's an interesting piece in the collection.

Extra note to sellers, I appreciate the effort you take to disassemble large tools to make them easier to pick up, but please leave it assembled. I'll take care of it when I get there. If I have to take it apart it will be easier for me later on if I do it so I can see how it all goes back together.

page0.jpg (223.52 KiB) Viewed 2571 times

[edma194]

I'm going to use several posts for all these pictures. I'm not a great photographer, I could do better if I had one of those cameras with the big bellows on the front and a pan full of flash powder for light.

Here's a shot showing the cabinet front, the dolly and power switch the PO added. I took that picture on a bad day when the whole world was askew and parallel lines were diverging. You can see the blade height crank on the front with the tilt scale, and the blade tilt crank sticking out the right side. The joiner is mounted to the left of the saw table and the drill press is in it's down position on the right side.

cabinet front1.jpg (41.28 KiB) Viewed 2447 times

This next shot taken from higher up shows the table top with the U-channel rails attached to the front and back of the table. The hinge for the drill press is attached to the table on the right with a pair of bolts.

plain top front1.jpg (41.62 KiB) Viewed 2447 times

Here's a side shot showing the length of the rails and a bit more of the drill press in the down position.

rails end1.jpg (89.1 KiB) Viewed 2447 times

This shows the table opening with the main spindle for the circular saw blade or pulleys for the sander or drill press. The spindle is reverse threaded and rotary tools secured with a single nut. The spindle is mounted in a bracket connected to the blade height and tilt mechanism. Belt tension for the sander and drill press is adjusted with the blade height crank. The spindle has a pulley on the right side hidden by the table top. The spindle is driven by a belt to a pulley on the right side of the double ended motor shaft.

main spindle1.jpg (68.6 KiB) Viewed 2447 times

The motor is mounted on a heavy hinged bracket and the motor weight is used to maintain tension on the spindle drive belt. I'm not sure if only one length of belt can be used for all blade height and tilt combination. This picture is taken from the back so the pulley on the left is used to drive the main spindle, and the right hand pulley powers the joiner

motor top1.jpg (72.97 KiB) Viewed 2447 times

The motor may be the original. It's a Homecraft labeled Rockwell motor. I have to check the book, it may have said it had a 1725 RPM motor. There's room for larger pulleys to be used for slower motors. 3/4HP is probably adequate. The original 500s got by with a 3 legged horse.

nameplate1.jpg (87.28 KiB) Viewed 2447 times

[BuckeyeDennis]

That's so cool! And it great shape, too. With the possible exception of the motor, it looks like a Scotch-Brite pad and some JPW could quickly have it looking almost like new.

[edma194]

That's so cool! And it great shape, too. With the possible exception of the motor, it looks like a Scotch-Brite pad and some JPW could quickly have it looking almost like new.

It's got some caked up sawdust on the interior, and some paint spots on the joiner, but it is in pretty good condition overall.

[JPG]

Are the rails "unistruts"?

[edma194]

This next pic shows it set up in table saw mode. It will take an 8" blade. That's the only insert I have. It came with a Craftsman wobble dado blade, don't know if there was a dado insert made. It came to me with an wood auxiliary fence attached that I'll remove. The miter gauge is from Delta but it looks like an upgrade from a smaller original.

fence miter gauge and blade.jpg (66.97 KiB) Viewed 2381 times

Here are some shots of the blade at minimum and maximum height, and tilted.

top blade max height.jpg (17.26 KiB) Viewed 2381 times

top blade minimum height.jpg (12.05 KiB) Viewed 2381 times

top blade angled.jpg (35.12 KiB) Viewed 2381 times

Here's a close up of the miter gauge, seems to be pretty sturdy. A couple of more shots show the little paddle device they use for the angle stops. There's something similar used for the joiner fence angle stop also.

miter gauge top.jpg (70.36 KiB) Viewed 2381 times

angle stop up.jpg (42.8 KiB) Viewed 2381 times

angle stop down.jpg (51.17 KiB) Viewed 2381 times

The fence has a locking knob (the big one), and the smaller knob is for fine adjustment. It's a little hokey but it will tighten down on the rails pretty well. A close up of the rails show the teeth cut into it for the fine adjustment and the engraved ruling on top. It does look like it is made from unistrut channel as JPG asked about. The rear rail might be off the shelf unistrut. It's not as long as the front rail, maybe replaced at some point in time.

fence front.jpg (38.98 KiB) Viewed 2381 times

rail side.jpg (133.57 KiB) Viewed 2381 times

rails front1.jpg (55.3 KiB) Viewed 2381 times

[edma194]

Are the rails "unistruts"?

See above. Probably started that way. They have keyhole slots for mounting as often found on unistrut channel.

[edma194]

The table saw, sander, joiner, and drill press were all available as stand-alone products. Some research on the Old Machine Database might tell me if they were all available before the Delta Shop was created. I have the manuals for the stand-alone versions with a lot more detail then the simple manual shown in post #1.

The joiner was mounted on a riser block to the left of the table saw and is powered with a belt on the left side of the motor. Attaching and removing the joiner is problematic after the unit is assembled. It's bolted to the cabinet with 4 carriage bolts inserted from the underside. The manual tells you to do this before the cabinet is fully assembled because once the sides are bolted on you can't reach under the cabinet to insert or remove the carriage bolts. It could be turned on it's side but that would make attaching the joiner more difficult. I used blue tape to hold the bolts in but I thing I'll replace them with threaded rod so I can put a nut on the bottom to hold them in place.

The joiner looks like all the other 4" joiners made. First pic shows the top view and how a belt would run over to the motor. It's powered directly my the motor so belt tensioning comes from the weight of the motor on it's hinged mount. The pulleys don't look aligned in the photo but the joiner can be wiggled around on the mounting block to position it. Next photo shows the belt on.

joiner top front1.jpg (66.36 KiB) Viewed 2361 times

joiner top belt.jpg (68.75 KiB) Viewed 2361 times

The joiner has an unusual feature. Both ends of the table have height adjustments. This allows the middle of a board to be routed out using a dangerous technique. I'll get take a pic from the manual to show how this ill advised feature works. The joiner fence has separate controls for position and tilt. That is a nice feature.

joiner left side1.jpg (52.66 KiB) Viewed 2361 times

joiner right side.jpg (64.86 KiB) Viewed 2361 times

joiner front side.jpg (46.8 KiB) Viewed 2361 times

Here's the instructions from the stand-alone manual on the procedure they call "Stop Chamfering". As if joiners weren't dangerous enough already.

stop1.jpg (31.47 KiB) Viewed 2350 times

stop2.jpg (98.55 KiB) Viewed 2350 times

stop3.jpg (74.45 KiB) Viewed 2350 times

[edma194]

The previous owner inherited this machine from his father-in-law in the late 80s and continued using it himself. That accounts for the good condition most of it is in, but perhaps they didn't use the sander very often. It's just surface rust though, nothing serious. The sander spindle has a bronze bearing and an oiling hole. It's made so that oil will leak out the bottom of the housing so that fresh oil will pass through the absorbent bearing. The sander sits on the table saw with the insert removed and a pulley mounted on the main spindle instead of a saw blade. The belt would be tensioned with the blade height crank. Tabs on the bottom fit tightly into the insert hole. There are no mounting bolts for it but it's quite heavy and unlikely to move. It will hold up to a 9" sanding disk. The table tilts both ways.

First pic shows the operator's eye view of the sander. Then another one a little to the right to show the pulley mounted underneath on the main spindle. I'm not sure that is the correct pulley, but any 1/2" bore pulley could be used and different sizes could control the speed. A smaller miter gauge that was probably what came with it originally could be used on the table. I haven't checked to see if the larger one can go in the slot without hitting the disk.

sander top front.jpg (62.14 KiB) Viewed 2346 times

sander top back.jpg (54.25 KiB) Viewed 2346 times

Here the two table tilt directions are shown. Tilting the table towards the sanding disk could cause a problem by dragging a piece into the gap between the table and the disk. That could jam it, or worse break the piece and send some of it flying right towards your eyes.

sander top angled.jpg (59.11 KiB) Viewed 2346 times

sander top tilted2.jpg (57.54 KiB) Viewed 2346 times

[JPG]

I do not think leaking oil out the bottom was a design objective with a plews oiler cap /bronze bearing.