26″ Crescent Band Saw Tear Down

The band saw has been sitting patiently in the corner of the garage since sometime in June. I promised to get a few projects completed before starting any work on the saw.

Last week I finally finished the last project on my honey-do list and was able to start the refurbishment. This first thing I did was take pictures. Lots and lots of pictures of every part from multiple angles. I’ll be using these to make sure that things go back together properly.

I’ve done a fair amount of research and to the best of my knowledge, Crescent Machine Co. didn’t make saws with big OSHA style blade guards until they were purchase in1945 by Pittsburgh Equitable Meter and Manufacturing Company, which later became the Rockwell Manufacturing Company. The guard on my saw don’t look to bad but aren’t original and because of that I’m going to remove them permanently.

26" Crescent Machine Company band saw

Lucky for me, whoever modified the blade guards used the original mounts. This is going to save me some grief when it comes time to make blade guards similar to those that came on the saw.

Original blade guard brackets

Taking the saw apart was pretty straight forward. I removed the blade first. My workbench is 46″ wide. I attempted to fold the blade up neatly but almost decapitated myself. After some practise with one of my smaller band saw blades and a pair of gloves I was successful.

26" band saw blade

Once the blade of death was out of the way, the rest of the saw came apart very quickly. I was able to tear it down to the frame while taking pictures and notes in an hour and a half. Here’s the saw completely tore down.

My plan is to start with the frame and then add to it as I work through each of the individual parts. This will hopefully free up room in the garage as the project progresses.

Stay tuned for the next update!

Crescent Machine Co. 26″ Band Saw

Earlier this summer while looking through the local Craigslist adds I happened upon a posting for a large band saw. There was no picture and the description didn’t mention a name brand or any specifics. The saw was about 15 miles away and out of curiosity I contacted the owner and made plans to see it. I called David and off we went. This is what we found…

I wasn’t expecting this at all. I thought it was going to be a big Delta or Rockwell and was pleasantly surprised to discover a 26″ Crescent Machine Co. band saw.

We looked over the saw, and after some haggling settled on a price.

Here she is, securely loaded onto a trailer. We removed the tables and motor to make it easier to move. You can see the main table in the upper right corner of the trailer and the 3hp motor below it. I built a wooden base/pallet to increase the stability and help in moving on and off the trailer. The base had tabs for fastening the saw to a floor. I used lag bolts to secure the saw to the wooden base. Using 3/4″ PVC pipe, we rolled the saw down the trailers ramp and into the garage.

We had to remove the top blade cover to fit into the garage. Everything looks and feels great. The wheels turn freely and all of the adjustments work without any apparent issues. If you’re familiar with Crescent’s line of machinery, you’ve probably noticed that this saw is different from their standard band saw. Crescent manufactured a piece of machinery called the “Universal Woodworker” which contained an arbor saw, jointer, shaper and band saw all attached to a single base. Is quite an impressive piece of machinery as you can see in the image below. Everything ran on one motor and each station could be operated simultaneously. My band saw was originally part of an Universal Woodworker. 

I couldn’t locate a serial number and probably never will because Crescent signed a single number to a Universal Woodworker which was typically stamped onto the arbor saw’s table. And because Crescent didn’t change many features on their band saws over the years it has been difficult to establish how old the saw is. I’ve looked through old catalogs online and the best I’ve come up with is somewhere between 1915 and 1930.

So what am I going to do with a 26″ band saw? Use it of course… But first I’m going to take her apart, clean everything up and restore her. Check back to see my progress and the finished product.