Hi Garry
Wadkin were a British maker based in Leicester. They started in 1907 and by the late 1940s had become the largest manufacturer of woodworking machines in the UK. They were successful importing and converting Vonnegut moulder/planers from the USA in the late 1920s / early 1930s and eventually designed their own machines in the late 1930s. The company still exists in a much reduced form as
Wadkin Ultracare and they still have a
US operation as well
I believe that Burroughs-Green or Bursgreen were set-up just before WWII in the North East of England (Co. Durham) to build a new generation of "lightweight" classic woodworking machines and quickly established a range of machines popular in joinery shops, etc. By 1947 they had become a subsidiary of an old established woodworking machinery manufacturer, John Sagar of Halifax, West Yorkshire. Early machines (pre-1955 to 1957), whilst rare, are sometimes found with only a Bursgreen plate and no reference to Wadkin.
Around 1955 John Sagar sold out to Wadkin. Within four years most of the production at Halifax had ceased. Wadkin did, however, expand the range of Wadkin Bursgreen products and Bursgreen eventually grew to encompass several factories in Co. Durham, Colne in Lancashire (routers/CNC routers) and Scarborough (band saws).
If your saw has a Bursgreen plate it is probably a 1950 to 1955/57 period machine. If the makers plate says "Wadkin Bursgreen" it is a post take-over machine - more probable as Sagar were never very active in the US export market. Wadkin made inroads into the USA market in the 1960s to 1980s with table saws, pin routers, band saws and from the mid-1970s with CNC routers, but they dropped out of the market to a great extent in the late 1980s when they hit a trouble period.
The battleship grey machines were made up until the late 1960s or early 1970s, so your machine is probably a 1955/57 to 1970 period machine. The fence was radically redesigned in the mid to late 1970s, and this machine has the earlier "fore and aft" locking claw rip fence mechanism. I'm assuming that there is no sliding portion to the left side of the table top (which would make this machine a model BGS), so from the photograph it appears to be a
Wadkin AGS14 table saw, which will probably have a 1in or 1-1/4in saw arbor and run a 14in blade. These machines were considerably larger than the 10in and 12in AGS saws and generally came with either a 3HP or 5HP motor in the UK. One aid to dating is the trunnion - some time in the very early 1960s Wadkin changed the AGS from having a splitter mounted at the rear of the saw to using a crescent-shaped riving knife mounted directly on the trunnion. The later machines have lugs cast into the trunnion to accommodate the riving knife. The riving knife was able to take a cast iron or cast aluminium crown guard. Your machine has neither, so if you do buy it I'd strongly recommend finding or replacing those two parts. I'd also recommend adding an auxiliary short ripping fence as recommended by Barb Siddiqui & Richard Jones (who posts here from time to time - hi Sgian!) on
Wood Central
Main things to check on AGS/BGS-type saws is that the rise/fall and tilt are working smoothly and aren't too sloppy. The cast gear teeth can wear if they aren't greased regularly as can the worm gears - the worm gears are expensive but replaceable, the toothed sections cannot. Beyond that there isn't much to go wrong as these are relatively simple machines. Personally I think this saw will knock a Unisaw or PM66 into a cocked hat - but then again, I'm biased :lol:
Hope that helps
Scrit
Edited to repair broken link to Wood Central. Thanks, Sgian!
