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Kysor Johnson Model R Horizontal Bandsaw Reconditioning

DIYShopTools

Plastic
Joined
Dec 22, 2018
Doubt many of you remember me as I've been dealing with nonsense in my life preventing me from participating in these forums as much as I would like. But I originally joined because I had some questions about this saw when I bought it for a couple hundred dollars at auction. I've read/referenced this site for much longer than that. But enough of my backstory. I'll get to the point. This saw was filthy and needed a few minor repairs to bring it back to good operating condition. It was primarily just cleaning and painting, but the coolant pump was missing and the seals on the hydraulic piston were shot. I contacted Dake and was told the seals for the piston would run me about $78. I couldn't justify this so I did what I could with some o-rings and silicone gasket-maker. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that it worked perfectly. As far as the coolant pump, I used a pump that I had similar to a universal auto fuel pump, but runs on 120VAC, and connected it to a steel flexible hose with just a quick connect fitting for my compressor as the "nozzle" since it's just flood coolant anyways. I spliced the power cable together with the power cable of the bandsaw. The intake/filter and hose were still on the saw so I still used them to feed into my pump and some random fittings connect the pump and steel flex hose. I added a few other minor odds and ends - like pads to keep the doors from banging into the body when opened, I added a link v-belt, and I replaced the casters (the originals were trashed). I went for a similar look to the current Dake saws without needing to hack up my saw. Here are some before pics

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And here are a couple after pics (I thought I had more, but will take a few more when I get home.

And as a kind of addendum to the first post, I also replaced the guide bearings and refinished the nameplates by painting them red and then sanding the red off of the letters, finally sealing them inside a thick layer of epoxy (they came out much better than I had expected TBH)

Oh. And I plastidipped the power cord black - the dirty white (more like tan) looked terrible on it

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And here's the final 5 pictures - including the remaining nameplates (I believe one is missing as there are rivet holes but nothing else. And it's located exactly opposite of the blade tension plate

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Questions/comments/advice is/are very welcome. This is my first shop tool restoration,so I'm sure there's a lot I could have/should have done differently. Thank you
 
Just as a quick update - my obviously rookie rebuild of the hydraulic piston with black silicone gasket maker and some generic o-rings that I already had seems to be holding up quite well. I pulled the blade all the way up and then completely screwed in the top knob to hold position and 24 hours later - it's still in the same position. So if anybody has one of these saws and the hydraulic seals are shot, you can save a lot of $ making the seals yourself
 
Nice work! I have a model J needing a lot of love and a couple little ones, model B I think. My J has a broken yoke on the top of the cylinder, gotta find or make one of those. They're great saws from all I've read though!
Here's what I'm working with, it was abandoned on its side behind the shop I bought last summer
de52d3f340e46869e9918eaae06d84d3.jpg



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Just as a quick update - my obviously rookie rebuild of the hydraulic piston with black silicone gasket maker and some generic o-rings that I already had seems to be holding up quite well. I pulled the blade all the way up and then completely screwed in the top knob to hold position and 24 hours later - it's still in the same position. So if anybody has one of these saws and the hydraulic seals are shot, you can save a lot of $ making the seals yourself
FYI I am rebuilding the cylinder(s) for my Kalamazoo bandsaw. The seals and fittings are standard hydraulic stuff available at any hydraulic shop. My old Kalamazoo had leather piston seals which they simply cross referenced to rubber which I had to trim to size with my lathe. I think It was $40 per cylinder for both seals.
 
Yikes I missed the plasti-dipped power cord. Spend a few bucks on new cord man. It's just a cost of doing business when dealing with old tools.


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15 years ago I bought a late 60's version model Kysor Johnson model J that had a worn out coolant pump and the motor was shot. It didn't look much better than Grant A's saw. I wired in an electric pump and replaced the motor.It still looks as ugly as a homemade bucket of crap, but it cuts metal just fine and that is all I care about.
 
Terrific job. Maurice T once told me as I was learning the trades, "do your work so it looks good, chances are if you go to that effort, it will work good too and pass inspection". I have always tried to pay attention to detail and it has paid off big.

You've got talent and I am glad you replaced the power cord and hopefully the splice method. I don't like all the expensive brass fittings doing turns but if you had a bucket full of them to use all the better.

This is the kind of project I like seeing on this site.
 
Nice work! I have a model J needing a lot of love and a couple little ones, model B I think. My J has a broken yoke on the top of the cylinder, gotta find or make one of those. They're great saws from all I've read though!
Here's what I'm working with, it was abandoned on its side behind the shop I bought last summer
de52d3f340e46869e9918eaae06d84d3.jpg



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That's a J Saw, which is bigger than a B or an R. Good saw and worth the effort to fix up if nothing major is broken.
 
I have a Johnson B saw that was a $20 Craigslist find. I put a couple weekends into cleaning it up and replacing bearings and it's a pretty serviceable little saw. I need to put a hydraulic downfeed on it because mine was missing when I got the saw. Here's a photo of it on an updated base with an infeed setup I built earlier this year. Makes handling 20+ foot lengths of tubing much better, and gets the saw up to a reasonable height. I swear the people that designed these things were all midgets!

JohnsonBSawAndInfeed.jpg
 
Nice Graham! I thought that infeed was a ladder at first lol!
And yeah the one I posted is indeed a J, I also have 2 little ones that I think are Bs. They need work too but not near as much as the J


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Nice looking job on the model R. Found one of those at a garage sale for 100 bucks that was in terrible shape, motor shot, about 15 pounds of chips in the pan welded into a solid mass from old coolant, the works. It was a really nasty stained green color (looked like the twin of yours). Replaced the motor, set up new power cords and auto shutoff, spent about 2 days cleaning it up. Still that crappy green/black color but it cuts like a champ. Maybe some day will get a new paint job on it! I went with an elevated platform too, built one with locking wheels. That thing is really short without it. Too much bending over!
 
Nice work! I have a model J needing a lot of love and a couple little ones, model B I think. My J has a broken yoke on the top of the cylinder, gotta find or make one of those. They're great saws from all I've read though!
Here's what I'm working with, it was abandoned on its side behind the shop I bought last summer
de52d3f340e46869e9918eaae06d84d3.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That thing is sweet man. Soooo much potential. It doesn't look like it's in any worse shape than mine. Just needing some TLC, but what's under all the filth is a well-built tank. I've not yet had the chance to use mine as I have too many projects started that I'm trying to finish first. With my primary focus being on finishing my rotary phase converter in order to power my Hardinge Chucker that I wanna get up and running soooo bad. And I'm almost done with the phase converter. But as soon as that's done, my bandsaw will get a LOT of use as I build my welding table next.


Out of curiosity... What's the issue with using plastidip on the power cord? It was in perfect shape, just not the color I wanted. I figured paint would probably crack/flake off and I already had black plastidip. I didn't see any potential issues with that. If the cord was cut/frayed/etc. then I definitely would have replaced it. But for strictly cosmetic purposes, I couldn't justify buying a new cable over using plastidip that I already had. However, if I'm missing something, I'd appreciate the help
 
Out of curiosity... What's the issue with using plastidip on the power cord? It was in perfect shape, just not the color I wanted. I figured paint would probably crack/flake off and I already had black plastidip. I didn't see any potential issues with that. If the cord was cut/frayed/etc. then I definitely would have replaced it. But for strictly cosmetic purposes, I couldn't justify buying a new cable over using plastidip that I already had. However, if I'm missing something, I'd appreciate the help

The plasticizers (or solvents) in the plastidip can attack the existing cord.
 
I assumed that the old cord was brittle and cracked, if it was soft then the only concern would be solvents in the plastidip and whether they will play nicely with the cord insulation. A new cord would cost about the same as a can of plastidip


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The plasticizers (or solvents) in the plastidip can attack the existing cord.
Thank you. I wasn't aware of that. I'll swap it out with a black cord on something that I don't use
I assumed that the old cord was brittle and cracked, if it was soft then the only concern would be solvents in the plastidip and whether they will play nicely with the cord insulation. A new cord would cost about the same as a can of plastidip


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Nah, the cord was in great shape. I believe it had already been replaced - which is why it was that awkward white. And yeah, I know the cost isn't much. But I already had the plastidip. And I was really trying to do it for the absolute minimum cost possible kinda as a way to show others that need a saw like this that if they're willing to put in the work, it can be had at a very affordable cost
 
Wow! I’m lucky to find this thread. Where did you find parts and such for this machine?
I just found a good working model R. I’m sure it needs a little tlc but works well as is. I want to get it restored so it’s something I can hopefully use for many years as I’m just getting started putting my shop together. Where can I find the guide bearings, belts and what ever other consumables you can thing of?

My Model R is set up for dry cutting. No try for coolant or a coolant pump.

It’s my first post. I can’t seem to find dates on everyone’s comments so I apologize if I’m reopening an old thread.

Also, what kind of paint should I use? Should I use a flap wheel and take it to bare metal or can I just paint over the existing paint after cleaning with paint thinner?


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