Friday, May 26, 2017

Score!!

There is an older gentleman that lives across the street from me and we occasionally shoot the breeze.
This guy is me in twenty five years if I live that long.
Ornery old fucker to the core.
Always has something smart ass to say
Needless to say we get along well.

I haven't really talked to him that many times but apparently it was enough.
I was out piddling around in the garage yesterday dragging crap out of the way to get the Sprite out so I could take it to work. It has been beautiful around here for the past couple of days and one does not waste those kinds of opportunities around here.

Of course the old guy knows I have been a mechanic for many years and can see all the crap I have piled up out there, the topics of our conversations are most often about car troubles anyway.

So yesterday he's telling me about how he has all this crap the he needs to get rid of.
He is in his 80's and he must know he is getting close or something and he doesn't want his daughter to have to deal with his hoard after he is gone.
He has at least one son also but he lives half way across the state of Oregon.

We also have another new neighbor about my age who bought the other house across the street, his background seems to be in the trades and that place has a nice quantas hut type of shop next to the regular attached garage.

The old guy asked me if I wanted this saw thing he had but said he had to make sure the other neighbor didn't want it first as they had a prior conversation about it.

I turned around and looked at the disaster area I call a garage and inquired as to just how big a saw were we talking about?

You'll have to come look he says.
So he goes and gets the neighbor, the neighbor says he doesn't want it and we introduce ourselves.
I go across the street to look at this saw and immediately see why he doesn't want it.

It's a huge band saw on some home made cart.
I'll take it I says.

There must be something wrong with my head.
I have absolutely no need for a huge band saw but this thing intrigued me.

It took all three of us and a hand cart to get the cart wheels over the little lip of the driveway but it's here.

I got online and started to try and find some information on this thing and didn't get very far.

I found exactly one like it searching Google images, Bing images and Yahoo images.

It's a Buffalo Forge, Woodworker 2.

These are the only images of another one I could find on the internet.



More research came up with this.



Originally, this thing not only was a band saw but a portable wood working mill.
All of the other parts are missing but it originally had a table saw, a joiner, a grinding wheel, an adjustable shelf/ guide and a sideways mounted drill attachment.
All in one machine.

As far as I can ascertain, this thing is rare as hell. I found maybe three references to them, one being the source of the pictures above.
Other than that, nothing.

This thing is in pretty damn good shape, what's still there.

I'm going to strip all the funky home made plywood guards off of it and clean it up.
It's supposed to work, I haven't plugged it in yet but it spins free.







I am going to have to do some serious triage out in that garage to make room for it, I had to park the Sprite outside last night and that isn't going to cut it.

Worse yet, the old gent has an antique table saw he showed me yesterday that was made in 1910 that his Dad used to build houses with during The Depression.
It's all there and has a foot pedal you push on to raise the blade up through the table.

Of course it's huge too. Cast iron and heavy as all get out no doubt.

I see a couple of dump runs in my immediate future.

This is going to be an interesting weekend around here, so far The Wifely Unit is unaware of these recent developments.

She is going to go through the roof.

Heh Heh Heh.












10 comments:

Randall said...

I am F*ing jealous! You lucky dawg!

SiGraybeard said...

Hey, that's cool! Much MUCH bigger than my bandsaw. I'm sure the table saw is, too.

Anonymous said...

you gonna need a bigger garage!

Wildflower

Irish said...

Leave all the guards off and run it like a man... ;)

That's pretty cool, good for you Phil!

Anonymous said...

Any idea on when that behemoth was made? I had a Shopsmith that did most of that, but holy shit, that thing y'all got is huge!
DixieDennis

Anonymous said...

Vintagemachinery.org has a been a good source for me on no longer in production machinery

Deacon in La

STxAR said...

Deacon nailed it. Stole my thunder. There is one of those sitting in the weather about 5 blocks from me. Old man that brought it here used it to make windows for all the new construction during the 30's oil boom. My house probably has windows made on that monster.

You got a keeper. Mine that old fellow's memory. He's likely forgot more than we will ever know. Be a shame to lose it all.

Phil said...

That is where I found the two pictures apparently on the entire internet from.
There is one thread with all the pictures I could find of one there.

Phil said...

Good Lord almighty, get over there and see what he wants for it!!
Apparently these things are as rare as hens teeth.
I found an original advertisement for one out of a 1924 magazine on Ebay and it is on it's way here now.
Other than the pictures above and the one thread on Vintage Machinery, I can't find a damn thing, not even the Library of Congress or the Buffalo Forge website have anything.
If the one down the road isn't rusted beyond being salvaged then any parts on it are worth getting.

STxAR said...

I caught the owner mowing one day, and he let me look it over. It's about rusted away. I asked if he'd sell it, and he has ideas to make the old house into a museum and build a shed over the saw. He's had the house for 10 years at least, and the saw has been rotting away since the original owner had it out there..... Pity.....

That thing must weight 4000 lbs! table saw, band saw, planer and joiner if I remember right. It's about as big as my bathroom.

You did good. Excellent find, even if it did hunt YOU down.

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