Northfield Band Saw

afuege · Post by **afuege** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:59 pm

Here's one of the projects I finished earlier this year. I picked this Northfield 32" up in an IRS auction at a furniture factory in Taccoa, GA. Here are some of the photos from the plant:

I had planned to keep this saw and use it in my shop, but I acquired three more 30" saws (American Sawmill Machinery, Tannewitz and Yates American) since finishing this project. I finally decided to part with it in November.

The new owner runs a cabinet shop in Fall River, MA. Here are a few photos of the saw after it was reworked:

Here's the saw on arrival at it's new home

And the saw with it's new owner

I heard the weather was going to be bad, so I decided not to take the trailer. The saw standing up in my truck was just over 11'. It rode very nicely. It started snowing just as we were unloading. The trip back ended up taking six hours. I-95 was closed in eastern CT, which put me off on secondary roads for 30 miles. Once I got back on 95 it was slow going until just south of Bridgeport. I was thankful not to have the empty trailer on for the trip back.

-Arthur Fuege
Somerset, New Jersey

mystry_tour · Post by **mystry_tour** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 1:00 pm

Hi Arthur. Nice job on the saw. Looks very nice and I am sure in good health. Got any 20s around that need a rebuild. I am looking fore something.
Reg

afuege · Post by **afuege** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 4:36 pm

Reg,
I don't have any 20" saws now. I've got the Y-30, a Tannewitz 30, an American Sawmill Machinery 30, an American 36, and a Tannewitz GH 36. I'm chasing a Northfield 20-something, but don't have much info yet. I'm trying to thin the herd a little which meand letting go of the larger saws. I hope to end up with a 30" and an 18". The guy who bought this Northfield 32" has an Oliver 18" He's thinking about what he wants to do with it. I'll let you know if I see anything.

-Arthur Fuege
Somerset, New Jersey

mystry_tour · Post by **mystry_tour** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 6:23 pm

Thanks Arthur. An 18 would be ok. I have the snowflake 36 but get tired of changing blades from resaw to pattern cuttting. Not wonating to pay a lot for it but you know how that is. I only have $900 in the snowflake.
Reg

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 8:20 pm

Hey Arthur, Nice restore job on the northfield. What was the paint you used?It looks like a dead match to the northfield green.

The northfield would definitely have been my choice of saws to send down the road- I find them lighter built than most other saws- of course this could be why they are still in business. The real question is which saw would be your choice as a personal user.

Reg, My two woodworking bandsaws are a 30" tannewitz and an 18" oliver. The Tannewitz is the bomb and will saw anything. The Oliver is extremely smooth running and gets up to speed much faster. Together they are a nice combo. I run a 3/8"- 4tpi blade on the oliver and a 1/2"- 3tpi blade on the tanny. I don't do much resawing, but for what I do this seems like a winning combination.

Pete

afuege · Post by **afuege** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 9:33 pm

Pete,
The paint is an Olympic oil based enamel. You can get the paint at Lowes. I had this custom mixed based on a chip I took from a paint chip from Northfield. I can get you the formula if you like. Here are two other restores where I used the same paint:

The side dust cover on this No. 4 is a replacement I purchased pre-painted from Northfield. It's a fair match to the rest of the saw which was painted with the Olympic enamel from Lowes.

I'm hoping that I'll like the Y-30. I haven't had a chance to get into it yet. Here's a picture of it on the way home last week:

If not the Y-30, it'll likely be this Tannewitz PH 30":

This saw is very impressive. It's 100% complete with good tires, Carter wheels, resaw guides and decent paint. It's going to be a tough choice between them.

Reg, I remember that Y-36. Nice saw. You called Bill just before me.

-Arthur Fuege
Somerset, New Jersey

mystry_tour · Post by **mystry_tour** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 9:39 pm

OOPS....

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 11:54 pm

while we are tossing photos of bandsaws around... here is my tannewitz

Arthur, I do not think you can go wrong with choices like that. Does the snowflake have disc wheels? I find them an essential element to a smooth running machine.

My tannewitz has the tannewitz disc wheels- they are sweet.

No need for the northfield formula- I am more of a gray kinda guy and I have no northfield machines to boot. Thanks for the offer.

pete

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 10:24 am

Hey Arthur- I was perusing the owwm.com site and saw your tannewitz- http://owwm.com/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=8431

It is my understanding that those are the tannewitz wheels. The carter wheels that sometimes appear are different- they are disc wheels with a radial based crimp pattern rather than the concentric tannewitz pattern. I am guessing tannewitz built those wheels via metal spinning, but perhaps they were stamped like the carter.

Pete

On edit:
Here are the carter wheels:
http://www.carterproducts.com/product.a ... &cat_id=15

afuege · Post by **afuege** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 7:32 pm

Pete,
I thought ( and may be wrong, it's easy to get confused with so many bandsaws around ) that the wheels had paper labels on them that said "carter". I'll have to take a closer look.

-Arthur Fuege
Somerset, New Jersey