The F(r)antom!

I wonder if your power feed gears have been replaced with a different ratio. Here is a pic of a set I changed a while back, I amnot sure of the tooth count.

The joys of buying a 50+ year old saw that has been altered.  Sounds like you got it about figured out. Congrats and happy cutting. 

Ooh neat Rockoonz. I might experiment with some different pulley set ups soon. What the diameter in the top pulley on your 18” saw? 


I cut a rock and it seems fine. I choose a funky piece of Serpentine as my first cut. It came out pretty good but there is definitely some room for improvement.

The motor got a bit warm, not too hot to touch but maybe a little too hot to keep your hand held against it. It might just need to have air blown through it. I did put a little light oil in its oilers. 

I am using a 3/4” x 1” bushing that I drilled out from a 5/8” x 1” bushing I had. Still waiting for the good bushing to show up in the mail. 

The cheap Kingsley North blade I am using does have a ripple in it but it cuts good enough for now. 

Overall noise level is about the same as a laundry washer on spin cycle. Don’t need earplugs to work next to it in the garage but it isn’t exactly “stealth mode” either. 

Also, I like to use at least a 2" pulley on the motor, more surface contact makes for less slipping without having to run a lot of belt tension that wears bearings faster.

Hmm, I need to buy some pulleys to experiment with. I was looking at some slabs I have that I didn’t cut and they are way smoother than mine. I have a couple of thing I need to work out first though.


I went into this old time (wood) saw shop today and was talking to the old timer there. He was saying he uses the cellophane from his cigarette pack (!) to shim saw blades for trueness. He said you could also use heavy paper or card stock sandwiched between the inside arbor plate and the blade too. 

He definitely looked the part.

Glad to hear it is cutting rocks.   How many hours do you think you have into it?   In case I ever think of buying an old saw.   

You brought up some items to consider that I have encountered.   

I bought a newer 16" saw.   It is probably not as heavy as yours but still heavy.   Light enough that when I drain oil, I can put blocks under one side to help draining the oil.   

I noticed that it looks like you have put furniture pads under the legs.  Currious how well that worked as far as movement.   Even though my legs have adjustable feet to get even, my floor was so far off that I had to put wood shives under one side.  

I have mine on a concrete basement floor and the design of the unit keeps the oil mostly in the saw even when the top is open and the saw running (for short times).  Only issue I have is opening the lid, you get a little drippage off the front.  I usually have a couple of paper towels in front of the saw for that.    

I don't know if you have seen the old threads on filtering oil with brown paper bags.  What worked for me is to take a five gallon pail and put a deeper plastic colander in the top.   Then take two bags (one inside the other) and place that in the colandar.   Then pour the oil into the bags.   You can't add oil too much above the top of the colander.  This is ok for me as I typically let the oil settle in plastic bottles and decant the oil before putting the remaining sludge in the paper bags so I don't have that much to deal with.    

Matt sphereguy has a wealth of information on how Fran the girl with her families rock shop met Tom the rockhound machinist and so on. I know that right now he has so many irons on the fire that it is not possible, but hope that one day a history can be compiled for those of us who are truly interested. I tagged him because I know he checks in periodically to see what's happening, and we have had many conversations in person.

Nice to see that you got a few rocks cut. Your project is really coming along, can’t wait to see what you can do when your all dialed in.

1/16 ain't bad at all, centrifugal force may be flattening it right out. surface looks good, the little bit of dig in at end of cut where the nubbin pops off and the blade is only cutting on one side is normal.