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36" Crescent Band Saw near Baltimore. $500. Should I buy it?

P

Peter Rowell

Joined
May 19, 2022
Messages
13
Likes
9
Location
Stevensville, MD
I don't think this bandsaw has enough room from the table to the raised blade guide. Probably only 16". As modified it has even less. I currently have a 14" band saw with an extension giving me 12" from table to raised guide.

The ad: "Vintage 36" Crescent Band Saw, Very good condition, does run, I have two blades. This is a very big saw. This is not a tilt saw. I've only seen three of these ever. Someone built an enclosure around it, but you can remove. Again beautiful condition. Pickup will need to be coordinated, I do not have access to a forklift. Patent was 1906 on this machine 220v two phase. "
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Peter Rowell said:
Good evening (morning) Emiliano, I'm not sure if it has enough resaw capacity. Probably 16" with some of the homemade cover removed. What do you think?
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I don't do resawing. So I'm not sure about that. But, to make bowl stock, it is a really good one.
 
If I had room, that is exactly the sort of Bandsaw I'd want to have. Looks like the surround needs some trimming/customization to improve the vertical capacity, but those old iron saws are smooth and classy. With huge wheels like that, a lot of the issues with carbide blades flexing go away, so one can use them for beautiful cuts. That said, I'd also keep a smaller 14" saw around for curves and such.
 
I have a big old saw like that in the shop here at Robust. Handiest darn tool around. We use it all the time. $500 is a bargain. Hard to read the motor tag, but it's probably 3-phase (I know you say it's "2-phase" but I think that is incorrect). Fix that by putting on a VFD or swapping it for a single phase motor.
 
I wonder if it still has the original babbitt bearings or if its been converted to ball bearings. Back in my yacht building days we had a couple of these old Crescents, tough machine. One neat thing about these, you can literally strip everything off the main frame casting and put it back on the opposite way to convert it to left hand. One of ours was that way.
 
Peter Rowell said:
Good evening (morning) Emiliano, I'm not sure if it has enough resaw capacity. Probably 16" with some of the homemade cover removed. What do you think?
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16” resaw would suit me well.
If you are cutting bowl blanks a 16” depth will cut a blank from a 32” diameter 1/2 log.
If you wanted to slab off platter blanks 16” diameter is the limit.

My saw has 12” resaw. Witch worked fine 95% of the time. The occasional larger pieces I used the chainsaw to get within an inch or so of round.
 
You can get a Chinese import VFD for $100.00 and quickly retrofit the bandsaw to run on your shop power supply.
This is usually the quickest and easiest retrofit for power and the machine stays intact with the factory motor for resale value.
 
Mike Johnson said:
You can get a Chinese import VFD for $100.00 and quickly retrofit the bandsaw to run on your shop power supply.
This is usually the quickest and easiest retrofit for power and the machine stays intact with the factory motor for resale value.
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Make sure it is a quality product though. You don't want headaches down the road.
 
Also keep an look out for a big bandsaws made around the 50’s or later at surplus auctions. Many of them were bought to train vets for trade work after returning back home from WWII. The really old saws have many more places to get yourself hurt so they require retrofitting with guards that look hacked together. Still $500 isn’t too much of a risk If you have a lot of choices in your area.
 
Those are very well built saws. Just be forewarned that if it has babbit bearings, your gonna have some "fun"
 
I’ve not seen this saw in person nor do I know anything about this specific one. That said, it has been for sale in the DC - Baltimore region for several years if that nugget of info is worth anything to you. Lots of potential there for $500 or less.
 
A word of warning/advice. I've moved a fair amount of big metal working machines (2,000 lbs+) and that banding on the pallet is never going to hold that saw if it starts to lean over at all.
I'd venture that it likely weighs in excess of 1200 lbs so moving it is not a trivial exercise.
A call to a machine rigger would get you an estimate on moving it.
 
I had a Crescent 36 for 30+ years. It's in my son's timber frame shop now, still going strong. Replaced it with a MiniMax 16 to gain some space, but If I could spare the room I prefer the old Crescent.

Mine is from the 40s or 50s with fabricated instead of cast wheels, a cast lower door and ball bearings, but basically the same saw. Very solid. The Wright guides are excellent but a bit tedious to set up with 4 or 5 different size wrenches. Resaw height just under 16", plenty in my opinion. You can modify the upper guard/door to enable the full resaw height.

Weighs somewhere around 1500 lbs. I moved it several times with a sling around the top of the main casting. The upper wheel can be removed to make it less top-heavy and get through low doorways. You can also move it on rollers under the bunks the saw is bolted to. If I were picking it up I would take a friend, a big bar, some blocking, 3 rollers and a drop deck rental trailer.

Babbit bearings are not necessarily a problem if not worn out. They often can be adjusted by removing shim stock between the shells. They do need regular lubrication.

I don't know what "2 phase" means in this context, it's probably a 3 phase motor that can have a vfd added to run on a single phase supply. Check the pulley sizes and motor speed. The blade should run somewhere around 3000ft/min. Lowering the wheel speed with a vfd will result in less power, so correct drive pulley size is important. I had to change the motor sheave on mine to get it into a reasonable speed range,

It almost surely has a tilting table. I can see the trunnion lock handle in one of the photos. Mine would only tilt to about 30* until I ground away some of the table webbing. I can't see a table insert in the photos so that might restrict the tiltability.

If it runs, the castings are sound and you have room for it, it's a steal. Why aren't you there right now picking it up?
 
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Mike Johnson said:
You can get a Chinese import VFD for $100.00 and quickly retrofit the bandsaw to run on your shop power supply.
This is usually the quickest and easiest retrofit for power and the machine stays intact with the factory motor for resale value.
Click to expand...
Bandsaws of that era have a tremendous starting load. Those big wheels really draw the current to start. Pretty sure just any VFD will not work. You'd definitely need a super slow start. I owned a saw just like that, but no plywood guards. My friend built a static phase convertor for it, and the capacitors turned into volcanoes!!!!!
 
Those bearings on the wheel shafts would not be original. Original bearings on that age machine were babbit. Make sure those wheels are coplanar. Also those machines had direct drive motors. That shaft on the lower wheel looks undersized for what would have been there, so check for bushings on the wheels too. I have a feeling that machine started as a frame and table and was custom built from there.
 
Richard Coers said:
Bandsaws of that era have a tremendous starting load. Those big wheels really draw the current to start. Pretty sure just any VFD will not work. You'd definitely need a super slow start. I owned a saw just like that, but no plywood guards. My friend built a static phase convertor for it, and the capacitors turned into volcanoes!!!!!
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It's true that the wheels have a lot of inertia. I had only a 3hp single phase motor and it took about 6-8 seconds to wind up. If you put an appropriately sized vfd on it you should be able to adjust the acceleration to whatever you need. 5hp would be better.

As far as coplanarity goes, the upper wheel casting should have plenty of adjustability atop the main casting arm. There could be a problem if the lower wheel mounting was not aligned with the guides. There may be some wiggle room in the lower pillow block mounts. You should be able to assess all that fairly easily.
 
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Karl Loeblein said:
The really old saws have many more places to get yourself hurt so they require retrofitting with guards that look hacked together.
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Richard Coers said:
I have a feeling that machine started as a frame and table and was custom built from there.
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Frame and table, and built from there, it looks to be.

Looks like a lot of work to make that one useful, but I'm one who wants to turn and am no longer interested in restoring used machines.....I did at one time, but my time left in this world needs to be used to it's best advantage

-----odie-----
 
odie said:
Frame and table, and built from there, it looks to be.

Looks like a lot of work to make that one useful, but I'm one who wants to turn and am no longer interested in restoring used machines.....I did at one time, but my time left in this world needs to be used to it's best advantage

-----odie-----
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NOW don't be boarding that long black train too soon.
 
Why is the motor so huge? Probably weighs 200lbs. The nameplate says 2 hp 1 phase. I can’t quite tell if rpm is really 725. Type is RA: repulsion start induction run. Starting torque is 400% of full load torque. The brand "Leland American Machine and Foundry" (AMF) indicates that it is a 1952 or newer motor.



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Peter Rowell said:
Why is the motor so huge? Probably weighs 200lbs. The nameplate says 2 hp 1 phase. I can’t quite tell if rpm is really 725. Type is RA: repulsion start induction run. Starting torque is 400% of full load torque. The brand "Leland American Machine and Foundry" (AMF) indicates that it is a 1952 or newer motor.



View attachment 46528
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I expect it's 1725 rpm.
 
Those old repulsion-induction motors were built with massive frames. Given the running amperage and the starting torque it should get the old beast going just fine, though it may be a bit underpowered for very deep cuts. Assuming it is 1725 rpm the pulley sizes look about right but do the calculations to see what the band speed comes out to. Good score - I hope it works out for you.
 
It's a single-phase motor as I suspected, but a lot of people mistakenly believe that a 240-volt branch circuit is two-phase because electricians typically refer to the 120-volt high legs as phase A and phase B because they are 180° out of phase. But, duh, if they weren't then you wouldn't have 240 volts, you would have 0 volts. For a 2 HP motor that thing sure draws a lot of current.

I'm probably the only one here who would have passed on the deal, but it's because I'm too old to be rescuing old diamonds in the rough. I realized my folly eleven years ago when I saw my woodturning hobby had morphed into attempting to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. I abandoned that idea and bought a Robust American Beauty instead. It's the second smartest thing that I've ever done.
 
Bill Boehme said:
It's a single-phase motor as I suspected, but a lot of people mistakenly believe that a 240-volt branch circuit is two-phase because electricians typically refer to the 120-volt high legs as phase A and phase B because they are 180° out of phase. But, duh, if they weren't then you wouldn't have 240 volts, you would have 0 volts. For a 2 HP motor that thing sure draws a lot of current.

I'm probably the only one here who would have passed on the deal, but it's because I'm too old to be rescuing old diamonds in the rough. I realized my folly eleven years ago when I saw my woodturning hobby had morphed into attempting to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. I abandoned that idea and bought a Robust American Beauty instead. It's the second smartest thing that I've ever done.
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Bill,
I have this overwhelming desire to ask, "what was the first smartest thing?"
 
Daniel Henry said:
Bill,
I have this overwhelming desire to ask, "what was the first smartest thing?"
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Saying "I do".

Eleven years ago she said, "Why don't you get a Robust American Beauty?" I didn't waste any time as I lunged for the phone to call @Brent@TurnRobust. I don't know if he remembers this, but when I called he was driving home from Madison. He said that he had just quit his day job because he figured that he could eke out a living building and selling lathes. Anyway, he pulled off the road to take my order. I'm not surprised to hear that he has done more than eke out a living building and selling lathes since then.
 
Thank you everyone. Motor runs at 1780 rpm no load no blade. Bottom wheel spins at 470 rpm. Looks like 4,400 fpm. I like using the strobe light app on my phone. I’ll move further discussion to a bandsaw forum unless I have turning specific questions.

This forum is great. I’m 7 miles from the Bay Bridge on Kent Island in Maryland. 443-286-0089 iif you want to drop by.
 
Gerald Lawrence said:
Not an expert but when they built motors back then it was expected to last and made so it could be rebuilt. In an industrial environment probably would get rebuild in time and maybe more than once.
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Industrial motors are still repaired because they're way too expensive to discard as we do with consumer-grade motors. Early twentieth-century motors were large and heavy, but the efficiency wasn't very high compared to today's energy-efficient industrial motors. Today's industrial motors also have better reliability and are still heavy, but not as heavy as that early twentieth-century Leland motor. An impressive feature of Leland repulsion induction motors was that their running torque before stall could output four to six times the full load torque. Leland went through numerous acquisitions before finally being absorbed into GE according to Vintage Machinery.
 
Bill Boehme said:
It's a single-phase motor as I suspected, but a lot of people mistakenly believe that a 240-volt branch circuit is two-phase because electricians typically refer to the 120-volt high legs as phase A and phase B because they are 180° out of phase. But, duh, if they weren't then you wouldn't have 240 volts, you would have 0 volts. For a 2 HP motor that thing sure draws a lot of current.

I'm probably the only one here who would have passed on the deal, but it's because I'm too old to be rescuing old diamonds in the rough. I realized my folly eleven years ago when I saw my woodturning hobby had morphed into attempting to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. I abandoned that idea and bought a Robust American Beauty instead. It's the second smartest thing that I've ever done.
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Bill that’s a common misconception. Just one correction if I may. The phases are 120 degrees apart. 360 for the full circle.
I know…I’m nit picking!
 
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