I have a lot going on lately, and have fallen a bit behind on website updates as a result. One thing that’s distracting me is looking for a new house. I have one in my sights, but am now waiting on whether I can get that before I put this one on the market. I figure that way would be the least disruptive to everything else I have happening. Also, I’ve been getting this house ready to sell, cleaning and packing up items that I don’t need right now.
As if I didn’t have enough to do already, I have bought two table saws:

And I’ve been working on those. Looking past their somewhat rough appearance, I thought they were too good of a deal to pass up. Both saws are rather old, but they are in very good condition and were relatively well made to begin with. This was a package deal, both saws from the same seller.

The first is a Busy Bee contractors saw made in 1987, model number is B210A that was originally equipped with a 1-1/2 HP motor. That motor was replaced by the owner a few years ago with a high quality 3/4 HP TEFC unit, which was probably adequate for his needs. The saw has no detectable wear on the major mechanical parts (lift and tilt mechanism) and is in very good condition overall. I believe the saw was rarely used and fairly well looked after. I did find one problem, the threads on the arbor are damaged:

I didn’t see this when I was looking the saw over, but I don’t think it would have stopped me from buying it.
Since this saw is nearly 30 years old, I wasn’t sure I could get replacement parts for it. Luckily, I was able to order a new arbor from Busy Bee and new bearings as well. I thought this was fairly impressive, that
they would stock parts for machines of this vintage and size. The price is attractive too: $18.50 for the arbor and $15 each for the bearings, making this a very cost effective repair.

The other saw is a Delta model #34-441 that was made in 1994 (according to the serial number). As nice as the first saw is, this one is much better. It had one problem, though: it was completely covered with wax:

The guy I bought these from said this saw was used in a candle factory to cut up blocks of wax. Every part of the saw had either a thick accumulation of wax or a thin baked-on layer, and removing it was a daunting task.
In this picture you can see just how thickly it has caked on in places.
There were various types of wax on there as well, from the normal paraffin-like white coloured, to the very gummy, sticky dark yellow that I believe is beeswax. The beeswax was much more difficult to remove.

The first tools I used were an old chisel and screwdriver to scrape off as much as I could. I then heated the parts with my kerosene heater and propane torch until the wax melted.
After chipping off as much as I could from the underside of the cast iron top, I suspended it above the heater and covered it with an old towel to keep the heat in. About an hour later, the wax had melted an I could wipe it clean:

Looks very nearly brand new.

The same procedure for the other parts. Here I’ve put the two trunnions in an old cookie pan and placed that directly on the heater:

When the majority of the wax was removed, I could further disassemble the parts for cleaning. I found that lacquer thinner was very effective for cleaning off the last of the wax. I only did that on parts that actually need to be clean to turn freely, like the lift crank shaft.

The arbor assembly took a while, as it had the thickest, most sticky accumulation on it. I had to empty the cookie sheet after about 30 minutes to keep the wax from spilling over:

There was a lot of wax in around the arbor and bearings, so much that it was nearly impossible to turn the arbor. Since the bearings are not the sealed type, it’s possible that some wax got into these also, as they feel a little rough when turned by hand. I did check for play and put a blade on to measure the runout, and it looks very good. I may have to replace the bearings, but I’ll leave it for now and see how well it runs during a heavy cut.

All cleaned up and we can see just how little wear there is. The gears still have the original machine marks on them:

I think the saw was setup with the blade at 90 degrees, cranked to the maximum height and remained that way, unchanged for the nearly 20 years it was used in the candle factory. I also think they got rid of it after it wouldn’t start anymore, due to the wax packed in around the arbor.

The top just had some surface rust, a few scratches and a layer of wax (of course!). I used several 220 and 400 grit sanding disks to clean it up:

After sprucing up the top, I reattached the trunnions and arbor assembly and adjusted the eccentric sleeves on the lift worm and tilt worm to eliminate backlash. It’s a good idea to do that now, before the skirt is put back on. I also gave the gears and shafts a coat of light oil, then wiped off the excess. Leaving oil or grease on these gears or the trunnions will attract dust buildup, and actually make lifting and tilting the blade harder to do.

The saw, fully cleaned and reassembled, looking about as good as brand new.
I made a temporary stand for it from 2″ x 2″ and plywood, thinking that I would build a new fence system for this saw and use it in place of my homemade saw. After giving it some more thought, I reconsidered. I want to use this as the core of a new “homemade” saw, and that will be a fairly drawn out project. Better to use the Busy Bee as my interim table saw until the new one is finished.

The motor on this saw is the original one, a 1-1/2 HP, but not enclosed. It also had a large accumulation of wax inside, but I was able to melt most of that out and the motor appears to be working fine. Even though it is rated 1-1/2 HP, it’s full load current draw is only 12 amps at 120 volts, so I may use another larger motor on this saw and put this one on the Busy Bee. I have a pump motor rated at 1-1/2 HP that I was going to use for a homemade jointer, but will probably use that on this saw instead. In comparison, it’s full load current draw is nearly 20 amps at 120 volts, but I would wire it for 240 volts, drawing half that current.
I made a video about the saws:

So, to sum up, after I have installed the new arbor in the Busy Bee and have it running right, I’ll remove the fence system from my homemade saw and put it on the Busy Bee. I’ll then completely dismantle my homemade saw, salvaging as much as I can. The Busy Bee will become my new table saw until I get the Delta finished.
When the Delta if finished, I’ll use the Busy Bee as a backup saw and a dedicated dado saw. At that time I may do some additional upgrades on the Busy Bee as well.
Should be an interesting pair of projects.