Lately the owwm thread has had a lot of talk about linotype, or printers', saws, and I was remiss in not really documenting the modifications I did on my Breidenbach Model C CostCutter. This is an attempt to make some amends.
Here is the saw, a little overexposed, but....
to briefly recapitulate: the fence adjusts in 1/144" increments, the basis being a fraction of what printers call a pica, and the entire table on the left slides on ball bearings to move the stock across the blade. Blade raises and lowers, but does not angle.
Table dimensions are 12 13/16 X 19 13/16". Max. rip accomodation is 20 1/4"
Max. crosscut, using the fence, is 15 7/8". Take the fence off and bob's yer uncle.
Fence, movable portion which parallels blade as table slides, is 5 3/4" long. I find this to be plenty of support for ripping small pieces, but then that's all this saw handles anyway(s).
Turning the knurled knob on the left of this cross-member rotates the long threaded rod inside. The fence rides the threads of this rod and is thus moved toward or away from the blade.
View with table all the way forward and the arbor access lid lifted. The lid lifts and the arbor assy. raises way up to allow easy blade changing. With the new arbor you can only lift it with the table out of the way; there is an arbor nut protruding that was not there formerly. The wire brush outboard on the same arbor is used in printing for deburring after the linotype, a metal quite similar to lead, is cut.
Here you see the table all the way back, lid down, and guard all the way back.
On the right is table forward, arbor lid down, and motor cover open. No idea what the h.p. on the motor is as I cannot see the tag and don't want to take it out until I must.
.Here the drawers are open. Top is sawdust collector, and bottom is tools and such. Two foot deep storage slots are below.
I don't have pics of the original arbor in use except what you can see above, but here it is bare nekked. The new arbor is already installed in the holding arm. Threads on the right side are the same on both, right hand threaded. The new arbor remains 5/8", and the threads on the left are quite different; the new arbor is 12tpi acme left hand threaded. This is the traditional Delta saw setup. The bearings are pressed onto the arbor and then into the shiny cylinder that the grey arm holds, and the sheave, that the link belt wraps around, is also pressed onto the arbor and set with a tapered pin.
On the original arbor the blade sits on a tiny nub of shaft and is then held on with three flat head screws that the countersunk holes in the blade accomodate. The new arbor has enough threads to take blade, nuts, flange, etc. This places the blade in a different position than before. One modification was that I sliced one side off the hinged lid so I could close it. Here is the new setup and the piece that I sliced off is shown lying on the table.. A throat plate here might not be a bad idea, but I don't know what I would set it on.
This is my current thought for cutting angles. While not perfect it does work..
I need help here. This piece came in the drawer. The grey finish is the same as on the saw. But I cannot figure out what it does...
You cannot tell but the handle portion, below, is hollowed out so it can be held.
I forgot to mention it before, but the actual machine part, the saw itself, if mounted on heavy rubber knobs on its corners. These set into holes in the top of the cabinet. The cabinet is storage only and has no saw parts in it or attached.
The piece of wood holds it up to give you a view of these shock absorbers.
.The movable portion of the fence lifts completely off the crosssbar with the push of a button. You don't have to move it 1/144" at a time!
The grey "holding arm" that encircles the arbor is in 2 parts. Two large hex head bolts connect these parts where they lap. The blade is aligned to the fence by use of these. The closest I could get mine was .014" out. Note the notch cut into the webbing just below the belt. The link belt was rubbing there and I went after it with an angle grinder. The 'shiny' cylinder which encompasses the arbor can be set either right or left a couple of inches in the holding arm. Two hex screws lock it in place once you get the sheaves coplanar.
Couple of other specs: Cutting height with the lid down is 1 7/8". Raising the lid and using the entire 7 1/4" blade I could get another half inch depth of cut, but obviously only on the end of a board or the lid would come into play..
Toggle switch in this recess.
I was wondering if the width of the throat, above, would allow me to use a dado set here. Just an idea.
Many companies made smaller sliding-table type saws for the printing trade. The most popular would seem to the Hammond Glider, which came in many models. The link to the owwm site info for Hammond is below. .
A parts list for a Hammond Glider Trimosaw is also on owwm.
And issue 32, Jan/Feb. '82 of Fine Woodworking has an article on modifying a Hammond for woodworking. I have this article in pdf and can put it on a cd, but I am sure it is available somewhere online for free - how else would I have gotten it? Try Google or ask the owwm members.
