My Old Craftsman Powered Atlas
Back in '97, we had just bought 173 and we weren't exactly brimming over with cash, so a friend of mine gave me an old table saw. When I say old - I mean old! It was belt-driven, with the saw and the separate motor mounted on an old board. When I brought it home, I built a stand for it out of leftover pieces of 2x4, a chunk of plywood and some caster wheels I had salvaged from some long-forgotten project. Here she is:
As you can see by the page for my saw, the specs and narrative advertise a pretty solid machine, and you know what? It was! Let's think it through, built in '54, given to me in '97, and still running strong = 63 years!
The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time. - Henry David Thoreau
The rest of the story with my Atlas was that it had no safety features - at all. None. Nil. Nada. Zilch! There was no cover over the blade, no writhing knife, heck - there wasn't even a power switch! I added that the day I got it. The ol' Atlas was so devoid of safety features, my uncle (a bit of a woodworker) christened it the Table Saw of Death!
But that thing did every job I needed it to the whole time we've had 173! Then, that same uncle went out and bought himself a brand new, shiny Grizzly table saw, and gave me his old one, which was about 60 years newer than the Atlas. This one's a Ryobi, and has safety features!
I love it! It's got some power to it for sure, but somehow I just don't think it'll last as long as the Atlas. Well, I gave the old one to a neighbor, but thought I could still use the stand I had made lo these many years ago. So I painted it, changed the power switch out for an outlet, and figured I would use it as a general stand, particularly for the chop saw:
There ya have it, the story of the Table Saw of Death. So long old pal!