What kind of wood are you going to use for the wagon look? I've been looking on the internet at photos trying to figure out how you could do that. All the photos I have found so far show light colored strips with a darker inset. I was thinking that if you could reverse that to dark strips with light inset, then I have some thin mahogany strips that would work great for that.A little more breakdown....
I picked up the bearings today. They're made in Japan. I can deal with that. For about $23.00 my mind will rest easier while I'm running the saw, not being paranoid of a 50+ year bearing going kaput and sending blades my direction.
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Also, I finished breaking the saw down into multiple parts and took a few better pictures. Have a look at the album to see them. I left all of the smaller rusty parts soaking in some old Evaporust overnight.
Let me drop a little information here. I'm using the same gallon of Evaporust I've had for about six months. I've used that single gallon to de-rust numerous bolts, about 20+ hand planes (from a 220 to a number 7) and the stuff is still taking rust off. It has developed a wonderful odor, and looks like a 3 month old uncleaned fish tank, but it STILL REMOVES RUST. It just takes a bit longer…. So, I'm going to let the parts sit overnight and clean them tomorrow. At that point I think I'm going to pour it out and move on to my new gallon for the saw top and trunnion.
When I decided to kick this project off, two images come to mind. An old Woody Wagon, and this project that I couldn't get out of my mind….
I plan to make the new base in a way that reflects the paneling from an old woody wagon. I plan to polish all the steel, chrome and aluminum on the saw to a nice shine. This brought me to another idea….. Why not take my Incra back to the silver color underneath and polish it too? SOOOO, Today I did some research about anodizing aluminum. From what I found, anodizing is a pain to do without all of the right equipment and a good reason. On the other hand, stripping anodized aluminum requires a bit of drain cleaner or oven cleaner and a lot of elbow grease. Aside from the fact that this will most assuredly destroy any warranty my Incra might have, I worry about the structural integrity of the fence system after the process. I have had a time finding any definite information. This idea is up in the air for now. If anyone has any definitive knowledge on this subject, I could use some advice.
My thoughts were using mahogany strips with the inset made out of that birch plywood I told you about.
