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Anyone have information about a Kalamazoo P43 horizontal bandsaw?

Dope

Cast Iron
Joined
Jan 16, 2016
Hello friends,

I've had an old Kalamazoo horizontal bandsaw for a while, and have been curious about when it was made. It has been around the block a few times but it still works great and cuts incredibly accurately. According to the tag on the machine, it's a P43 which I've never heard of, and could find literally nothing on (other than a few auctions with the same bandsaw). It's an 8x16 and based on the looks, I'd say 1950s? Anyone have any clue when this was made or have any sort of documentation or ANY sort of information about this bandsaw?

20210105_201823.jpg

20210105_201839.jpg

Dope
 
I see two outfits out of Kalamazoo that made band saws. One there publication list here:
Kalamazoo Tank & Silo Co. / KTS Industries - Publication Reprints | VintageMachinery.org

Another here. If you check the 100 page publication they had band saws going back to the 1940's, including a P model, but the number is not 43:
Kalamazoo Industries Inc. - Publication Reprints | VintageMachinery.org

Interesting, thank you. That 100 page publication is the first place I've even seen mention of this model. It looks like they're calling it a P-series / 816, made from 1939 to 1970, the specs match up. Must just be a precursor to the 816. I see Keith Rucker did a Kalamazoo P45 restoration on his youtube channel, it looks almost identical to mine except for maybe two details. I also saw one P48 at an auction, again it looked just like mine only slightly newer. I almost wonder...if they're calling it a P-series, maybe the number is the model year? I don't know why else they'd refer to an an entire series of machines like that. Maybe they called it a Pxx until the 50s or so, when it became the 816.

Dope
 
Well, after doing a little more research based on my theory, it seems to be correct! I started googling for P39, P40, P41, etc and found lots of very similar Kalamazoo bandsaws. I saw several people mention that the model year was the same as the model number, so I guess that answers that. It's basically a 1943 816. Much appreciated for the info that led me down the right path! I really appreciate it.

Dope
 








 
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