The folks who collect vintage machinery are very appealing. Not content to shine tools up and put them on display, they run them too. Here are three vintage table saws in action, scary for their single-stroke gasoline engines, crank starters, exposed belts and flywheels, and other mechanisms that would give a tool company lawyer panic attacks. Surprisingly, two of the saws have blade guards. Go figure.
If the videos below merely serve to whet your appetite for old machinery, check out Wayne’s Chainsaw Museum, the heavy equipment boneyard, and these 7 ancient air compressors.
Jonsered Rip Saw The video below was shot at an event in Denmark. It’s of a power fed rip saw being used to rip small logs into boards. The saw was made by Jonsereds Fabriker AB, a now-defunct Swedish manufacturer of woodworking machinery. The company is gone but the name lives on as a sub-brand of Husqvarna (Jonsered chainsaws). As with other early machines, the saw and engine were purchased separately and paired by the owner. The engine on this saw is diesel. Check out the foot pedal and hanging iron weight on the front of the machine. They are somehow connected to the power feed mechanism because they jump when the tail end of a log passes through.
1919 Oshkosh Eveready Table Saw Mill This very cool combination machine is owned by a fellow who appears to live in the Midwest. Powered by a single-cylinder gasoline engine, it’s not a whole lot bigger than a modern day cabinet saw. Combination machines were once very common; this one has a table saw, jointer, and disk sander. I like the wood cabinet sides and laminated wood top on the table saw section of the machine.
Aranco Stationary Engine with Unknown Saw There is not much to this saw: a table, blade, arbor, pulley, and guard. The single-cylinder hit or miss engine is a 1916 “Hired Man,” produced by the Associated Manufacturing Company in Iowa and sold in the UK under the Amanco label. The fellow who owns this saw and engine is in the UK. It seems like overkill to use a machine of this size to cut scrap—but it looks like he’s having fun. Note how he uses a hydraulic bottle jack to tension the belt.
