Tannewitz Model U Table Saw Rebuild

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Tue Oct 19, 2010 9:12 pm

Last night I painted the underside of the top. Things were going smoothly and all was right in the world. Here is the results this morning- quite nice.

Now, for those of you who know me, the events that happen next will come as no surprise. For those of you who are learning about me, what follows next is a scary look deep into my persona that should probably not get posted on the internet.

It all started innocently enough on my bridgeport mill. I decided that the electrics would look much better if they were internalized. The best way to do this was to go through the back of the pushbutton switch. Unfortunately, my switch had no access. enter the mill.

a plan

elimination of the rib

drilling the hole

and mounted- this all seems quite fine, perhaps even relatively sane, right? I mean right?

Now. I bought a magnetic drill press a while back and I have been itching to use it. My only experience was using it in a vertical position on a structural beam. This became a moment to push it in another dimension. Now I realize that I would have been wise to do all of this before my paint job, but I needed to have the saw closer to being together in order to know where I wanted the switch. Here we go.

So, here's where it starts going downhill. Firstly I should mention I chose to mount the switch on the left side of the saw. Tannewitz's were factory supplied with the switch on the right, but I anticipate liking this better. Ok, I know, i am boring you, take a look at this.

Everything was going perfectly fine.....until I tweaked it slightly funny when removing the bit. I think I may have broken some teeth off, and others were soon to follow. So at the end of the day, i may be starting an adventure like Stephen's bearing removal odyssey. I have at least 4 more holes to drill if I finish this one, and I need a new holesaw!

The hole is maybe 1/2 of the way through. i decided to remove the drill press. I am not certain when I will get a new bit and will simply have to deal with the realignment when I do

This could get interesting.....

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Thu Oct 21, 2010 9:22 pm

I had some time this evening to get back to work. Earlier in the day I had the opportunity to stop at fastenal and get a new lenox hole saw. I would like to have a side rant now about how sucktastic fastenal is. Their pricing is very variable. Knowing this, I looked up my holesaw at Mcmaster prior to going in. Mcmaster's price is $9.04. The holesaw was actually labeled at fastenal- something like 13.87. I took it to the counter and said I hope my account pricing lowers this price. He types it in and comes up with $13.12. I drop my mcmaster bomb, and suggest that I can buy it way cheaper. He types a while on his computer and sells the thing to me for $9.03. i am happy to have it for a cheaper price, but basically have to go through this game whenever I want to buy anything from them. I tell him this, Just give me a good price- it doesn;t have to beat mcmaster, just be comparable, but the guy I am preaching at is just a young kid who is behind the counter, he has no power. On the way out, I see they have anchoring cement, another product that I use, I ask how much, he says $65. (I buy it for something like $35) he then says, of course, we could do better. JUST GIVE ME THE DAMN PRICE!

Rant off.

Anyway, I chucked the new bit up in my right angle drill- I didn't want to try to realign the drill press and all that stuff.

The new bit flew through and in minutes, I had the switch mounted. I don't know if I mentioned, but I picked up one of Stephen's recommended tilt boxes. I used it to set the stops and here I am using it to set the switch box parallel to the top. BTW I bought it from mcmaster-carr- $45, didn't have to dicker. BTW again, the switch looks crooked in this photo, but in real life it looks great.

Here it is with the guts and cover and the saw tilted to 45º.

I really like to use liqui-tite conduit to run my wires. It is a high quality product that looks great and seems to be the goto conduit on many newer machines. I am definitely not a purist in my rebuilding and want to improve machines. I feel the liqui-tite is a nice improvement and the gray looks great with the machines. The downside is the cost, but I picked up a bunch and a bunch of end fittings somewhere along the way.

Next stop is around the corner where I am mounting the electrical boxes. This one is a new box that I added an aluminum plate in order to screw the magnetic switch to. the electric brake will be mounted to the right of this one.

Lastly, two more holes drilled with my swanky new holesaw and the milwaukee drill. They are going fairly easily and it feels like a good solution. These holes feed the electrical box previously pictured. The top one goes to the push-buttons and the bottom one will go to the motor. I plan on adding one more for an emergency stop mushroom.

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Mon Oct 25, 2010 7:46 pm

Progress!

The top is back on. Finally! I have been tired of having that thing all over the studio. It has been upside down on a pallet for over 3 months, not the worst as I have been able to move it about, but it is so nice to have it back atop the saw. Also, got the electrical boxes painted and in place and have some wires run.

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 10:33 pm

I have a confession. I have been working on a secret component of my tannewitz rebuild. About a month ago I removed my prized Tannewitz bumper sticker. I shipped it off to an Amish foundry called Cattail foundry. On Friday my package arrived Via UPS and I was most excited. I barely even noticed another package that my UPS man handed me as I tore open the cattail box. Inside I found two beautiful cast Iron Tannewitz plaques.

My second Box was from machinejunkie member Mr Douglas. At one point he had built a small aluminum foundry and reproduced some machine badges amongst other things. In fact he was the source of my cast aluminum tannewitz bumper sticker. I had originally asked Mr Douglas if he had any spares as I really wanted to go over the top with the saw rebuild. He said he was out. Well lo and behold, he found one more.

What are the odds that the two packages would arrive the same day from the same carrier. Completely crazy!

Package on left from Mr D, on right from cattail.

A whole lot of badges in a row.

I can't wait to paint one up and mount it on the saw. Over the top? probably. But you should have learned to expect this kind of idiocy by now.

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Wed Nov 03, 2010 7:36 pm

Hopefully a special treat tonight. I wired the saw last night and took it for a test spin this morning. It was a complicated wiring job with multiple stop buttons and the electronic brake that I had picked up on eBay, but I was fairly confident that I had nailed it. I plugged it in and pressed the switch- nothing. Crap. Went and got my electrical tester and followed the fundamentals. Incoming voltage, Line 1- check, Line 2- Nothing? Line 3- Nothing? What the hell? Well, I quickly discovered that the brand new looking hubbel receptacle that I had picked up somewhere along the way was defective. I bypassed it, plugged it in and voila I was golden. Interestingly on opening the receptacle up, it truly looks unused- no scoring marks.

So here is (hopefully) a video. I should say when I press the stop button, but you will have to listen for the motor noise change. I have set the electronic brake to slow the saw down at a gentle pace. At the end of the video you hear it release. It seems to work well and be a nice addition.

Ok, that didn't work, here is a link to the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fskK44jWaXw

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Wed Nov 03, 2010 8:53 pm

here is a bonus post for the night. After my success of actually running the saw this morning (see above video) I got back to the saw this evening and started to tackle the missing cover. Stephen, unfortunately, i have only one piece of sheet metal that is appropriate. PM me if you want to figure out how to send me a piece.

Anyway, I pressed the sheet of metal in my pressbrake and started to set the mill up to make the angled blocks that attach it to the bottom. I was debating ways of angling the metal in my vise when I remembered that pesky little tilt box. Perfect!

nektai · Post by **nektai** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 8:42 am

Nice video!
How long would it take to stop if you disabled the brake? I did not know that the soft stop was an option. Very cool

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Thu Nov 04, 2010 6:24 pm

Hey Nektai,

The switch is controllable in two dimensions, time and torque. I first set it with no blade and it was perfect. Then I placed a blade on the saw and it was totally inadequate.

I would imagine that with an 18" blade my settings may be incorrect yet again.

As to the blade stopping time without the brake, I am not sure. I can ell you that I can spin the blade using my finger on the side (through the side dust door- totally safe) and get it to spin for 15 seconds. And it is not spinning that quickly. So the brake is definitely having a big effect.

BTW, the brake stops the saw in about 10 seconds.

Pete

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Fri Nov 05, 2010 6:49 pm

I believe I mentioned I had started the dust door. I mostly finished it tonight. Here is what I came up with.

Tannewitz originally used heavy gage sheet metal tabs. I decided to machine some out of solid steel.

and for the bottom. I appreciate the concept of sheet metal tabs as the would have some adjustability. Mine are a tad too tight and will require slight adjusting, but it won;t be quite as easy as just bending a tab. Fortunately they are currently functional. Here are the bottom ones that mesh with the 45º piece at the bottom. Fortunately these are sitting pretty well.

I decided against making the handle to fit my arbor wrench. I thought about it and decided I didn't feel like seeing that damn wrench ever time I walked by. This is way cleaner. I'll have to snap a close up of the handle. It has a stainless cross piece that I intend to polish and not paint.

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Sun Nov 07, 2010 12:20 am

I spent an hour on the Tannewitz today. The project of the day was working on my tag stupidity.

I decided to mill the edges and back. Here it is in the vise getting the edges milled.

I then milled the back so that it will sit flat. It chattered a bit in this set-up at the edges, but it will be flat enough.

I then mounted it in place. The saw is shown in position and finally sitting on the floor. I am not loving the standard electrical box I mounted for the mushroom stop switch. I may have to rethink that one.

Here is a close up. Next step is to pull it off and paint it up.

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Wed Nov 10, 2010 10:50 pm

Just one pic from today. A freshly painted badge in place.

diamond saw dave · Post by **diamond saw dave** » Sat Nov 13, 2010 10:32 am

Looks great Pete! Gotta say when you do a rebuild you always pull out all the stops!

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Mon Nov 15, 2010 9:27 pm

My latest idiocy was cleaning up the ends of the biesmeyer fence rail prior to painting. Whomever installed the fence crudely sawed the rails to be flush with the table. I am happy with the cut down fence as I plan on using the saw as a dedicated solid wood rip saw.

Looking at the ends, I thought to myself "I have a milling machine, I can just clean those up in a sec." moments later, I had the rail up on the horizontal mill.

It hung out quite a ways and made working the machine a tad awkward

In order to work the levers that control the power feeds- The cinci mill has power feeds on all axes. Anyways, I was reaching around the fence to pull the z axis feed when I accidentally pulled the in feed. I caught the mistake moments before my bit plunged into the vise. The fence, however, had some issues.

I am glad that it is made of steel and easily welded.

I cleaned up my weld back on the mill. I had a problem with my mig welder which does not seem to have gas reaching the gun. Hopefully it is just a low tank, but my gage was showing it was not empty. I ended up tigging it, but in this photo you can see a porous area where I had originally migged.

That's it for now. I am busy again and don't have enough time to waste on the saw.

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Tue Dec 21, 2010 10:59 pm

I had a little time and was able to work on the tannewitz. I am truly close to functionality as you will see in this post.

Firstly, I sprayed the biesmeyer fence. I decided to match the gray of the saw rather than using a more traditional white. I ended up spraying two separate days so I could easily do all the sides of the parts without fancy footwork to hang them.

While the paint was drying I set out to align the table to the blade. here I am using a dial indicator to gage parallel. I ended up driving the four alignment pins that align the top to the base and was very happy with the results.

The problem that arose was one of the four bolts that holds the top down would not engage as the hole was misaligned. I found this odd as the taper pins were driven home and the top should have been in the position that it shipped from the factory. In any event, I knew there was going to be something funky in the alignment of this saw due to the shims I had found in the biesmeyer and the fact that several of the bolts that hold the top to the base had been necked in order to create adjustability.

I didn't want to neck any bolts and didn't like my other option which was to remove the now aligned top. Given that the mis-alignment was slight, I came up with a plan. I decided to use a tap from above and to literally tap the side of the hole that was in my way. The first step was making a slightly shorter tap. After cutting it most of the way through with a grinder and the side of a belt from my belt sander, I was able to snap it off

I then put four flats on it and made sure it fit in the 12 point end of one of my gear wrenches.

Here I am driving the tap with the gear wrench

Here the tap comes through the hole and gives me the clearance that I need.

The solution is a success and the top gets bolted down. I will try to be as patient as possible with the reassembling of the fence, but I fear I have not been very patient lately. Hopefully the paint will be fairly hard tomorrow and I do not damage it when my patience gives way to eagerness to rip on the saw.

chathamworkshop · Post by **chathamworkshop** » Tue Dec 21, 2010 11:17 pm

Pretty clever solution to the alignment problem, Pete. The finish line is clearly in sight. Looking forward to seeing first wood through the saw!

chathamworkshop · Post by **chathamworkshop** » Tue Dec 21, 2010 11:21 pm

Pretty clever solution to the alignment problem, Pete. The finish line is clearly in sight. Looking forward to seeing first wood through the saw!

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Wed Dec 22, 2010 10:41 pm

Hi Bill, thanks for the encouragement. It's about to become a reality.... Any progress with your saw?

Pete

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Wed Dec 22, 2010 10:51 pm

Today was the day. The next Photo I post will be the 100th in my rebuilding of the Tanny, and finally it will be a photo of a working table saw. I put the biesmeyer back together and laminated some black formica on the faces. I had some white in stock that I had planned on using, but at the last minute changed my mind.

So here it is. There are plenty of little tasks left, but for now, this is a working table saw.

a detail of the biesmeyer.

and last but not least, actual sawdust. The cut was great, effortless and smooth.

It feels great to be functional even though there is a sizable punch list of little items left:
-The most urgent of which is getting the emergency stop up and running.
-I am also planning on adding an outfeed table made from a wing from an XJ.
-I now have two miter gages thanks to a trade made a week or so ago, so those need to be painted.
- I will probably modify and paint the chrome wrench have.
- Lastly, I need to tackle dust collection to the saw and within the saw as well.

nektai · Post by **nektai** » Wed Dec 22, 2010 11:10 pm

Congratulations!

I am looking forward to tge video. Can you pull off the coin on edge while you rip thing?

crzypete · Post by **crzypete** » Wed Dec 22, 2010 11:27 pm

I don't think I will be shooting a video, it just wouldn't do it justice. You'll have to drop in to see it in action in person. The coin on edge thing would be no problem, it has no noticeable vibration.

Just for giggles here is a before and after