1947 Delta Bandsaws
The odd story of finding my two new-old favorite bandsaws…
It’s strange in the best of ways how life works out sometimes. A few months ago I’d built a scale-model 14” Delta, as a way to get to know “my favorite tool I don’t actually own yet”. I’d found one nearby over 3 years ago, being sold at a garage sale by a kind man who was quite ill, who openly told me he was not long for the world and would love to know his Delta ended up with someone who could appreciate it. He also had a rather strange, green antique drill press he talked endlessly about, which I mention here for a reason. His $500 asking-price on the Delta quickly became “$250, only if it’s for you”, and I would’ve gladly given him that if I didn’t happen to be broke at that moment. We parted ways and I’d planned to go back for it as soon as I could make it work.
As I found it a few years back, with its $500 price tag
Life happened, weeks became months, and by the time I made it back his way, he was no longer and the estate had been sold. Fast forward to just recently, when I saw a familiar strange, green antique drill press on Marketplace (a Canedy-Otto, for anyone curious), and message the seller, on the off-chance it's the same one... and the further off-chance he also ended up with the Delta. It was, and he did.
So the man who bought the tools… from the man I met who passed away… had himself also just died — the tools once again bought by someone new. You get the idea here. So years later, I ended up getting that $500 1947 Delta (the metal-cutting model with the gearbox, etc.) for $100, and after a bit of tuning and a few fresh parts – it’s now, unsurprisingly, simply my favorite tool.
The first (metal-cutting) one, as I brought it home.
Last week, I see another Delta pop up, for $100. It was one of those “I’m already driving there while waiting to hear back from the guy” finds...
... and now I find myself with a solid pair of 1947 Deltas, each one running as well as the other. (Interestingly, though the serial #’s tell me they’re the same year-model, the different badges seem to tell me this must be right around when Delta Milwaukee became Delta Rockwell.)
I meant this to be a quick post, but I guess it was a strange sort of story I feel may be appreciated by a few here. A few weeks back, I’d also just gotten a first print run of Delta shirts I’ve been wanting for a while now – for myself, and to sell to whoever else wants them too.
Feels even better wearing those shirts these days, after finding such an ideal pair of timeless machines – at the end of such an odd, winding road that led me to find them… that started out by making a scale-model.
So I guess technically... I now have 2-and-1/4 Delta bandsaws.
(Story originally posted over on the OWWM forum)
Somewhat related, both saws were missing wheel guard knobs, so I took a run at modeling & 3D printing replacements. Worked just fine, so I'll be printing a batch of replacements.
... and the first saw (metal-cutting model) is also... "missing" its retirement lamp — so I also modeled and printed one of those.
At some point I need to fabricate the arm/linkages and wire it up, but the actual lamp turned out geometrically indistinguishable from the real deal, and just needs a nice finish of the right paint.
About these shirts…
You’ll find the first Delta emblem shirts we’ve started printing over in the Shop – the red on Natural (shirt color) is a personal favorite. There’s a few sharp hats too.
