It has been a good year of machinery upgrades for me. Between adding the tannewitz table saw and upgrading my Newton edge sander with the Oakley I have added a few pounds to the stable. Well yesterday I was able to pull off the trifecta for my year.
I have been searching for a Doall bandsaw in ernest for about a month and a half. It was about then that one had popped up on ebay just down the road from me. I thought about it and decided to bid. I was the high bidder for all of 30 seconds. Someone sniped it at the very end and topped my bid. I was a little heartbroken, more than I realized I would be. I regretted not bidding more and started searching the usual bushes.
I found one on craigslist- not my local craigslist but drivable, and sent the guy an email. It had bad pics and was a tad out of my budget. A couple of days went by and I got no response. I eventually emailed again, and waited, no response. On my third try, I changed up the subject of the email figuring they were getting munched by the sellers spam filter. he finally responded with more pics and an apology that he had just been super busy.
After a couple of exchanges, we settled on a price that hurt for both of us, so I guess it was a decent compromise. I googled the location of the bandsaw. and it turned out to be 22 minutes away from a furniture delivery that I needed to make yesterday. This all happened last week, so the timing was perfect.
I had a cap on my truck in order to protect the furniture so in order to load the saw, we had to knock it over. This turned out to be a bit of a PITA, and he had a forklift! Firstly, the saw is damn heavy- perhaps around 1500 lbs. Secondly, it is actually really stable- it has a fair sized rump and I wanted to tip it over on its back. We did get it to go and I was able to band it to a pallet which I found at his warehouse- I modified the pallet with materials I found on site.
My night got late as after loading the saw we went back to meet the client who was then home from work. They served a magnificent indian meal, but the time flew by. We hit the road at 10pm and quickly encountered blinding snow on the thruway. It intensified around newburgh where I started seeing cars that had spun off the road. The scariest moment was coming upon a tractor trailer in the left lane facing the wrong way. I am still not certain whether he spun around or was southbound and hopped the median. Needless to say it was a long night and pulling into the driveway at 1:30 was very welcome.
This morning I went out to assess the situation. After removing my entire collection of packing blankets which were shoved into the edges, I was left looking at this.
Once again, I am relying on my trusty crown lift, and once again, like lifting the Oakley, it has the guts to make the lift, but the counterbalance is lacking. Here you can see some weights on the base and an electric chain fall for added ballast.
No problem!
Finally down in the studio. The next step will be standing it back up, but that will be a project for tomorrow.
Upon inspecting the saw in person, I have to say, it is one extremely well made machine. I am definitely looking forward to having this one on line. It is replacing a Walker-turner 16" wood/metal which has been a great saw for me.
While buying the saw, I noticed a Knoll Tulip chair near the saw. I asked the seller about it and he threw it in with the saw. A nice addition as I am definitely a connoisseur of modern furniture and this is an authentic, if slightly beat up, chair.
That is all for now.
Pete
