wadkin PK restoration

[mtr1]

Well the £30 ph was what I thought you would need if you had business premises, website, insurance, etc. I dare say if you work from home you could work for much less, and still make a bob or two.

 

[Benchwayze]

I think it took me about 250 hours, so at £30 an hr I dont think someone would pay £7500 for a saw :lol: Saying that I have never earned £30 an hr in my life :roll:

Oh I don't know so much Wallace. People pay thousands for some of the Continental rubbish, and they're mostly combo machines, made of Aluminium and sheet steel. Well at lest they look that way. I would need to have a 'Feel... derrr..' to find out!!! :twisted:

 

[theowwm]

Looks like a lot of work to me.

That tenoner looks like an ECA. A very desirable machine. I've brought a lot worse looking machines home.

 

[wotcars]

Wow very impressed with the work done to the PK
one major thing thou is that brake is set to high if its stopping in 3 seconds
The brake should stop the machine in 9 /10 seconds
At 3 seconds you are putting a lot of strain on the motor
as a rule for its usually a maximum of 3 X run current to the brake current, So if the motor runs at 6 AMPs
The DC brake current should be a maximum off 18 AMPs

Not sure if you sorted the fence out but at 3 mm grooves in it a full skim across the face would be to much
as others have said you could get them welded them just a light skim across the face

Fantastic work job on the PK Ive rebuilt a few of these over the years as well as all other makes and types of woodworking machinery but could never justify 250 hrs on a machine

 

[wotcars]

I think it took me about 250 hours, so at £30 an hr I dont think someone would pay £7500 for a saw :lol: Saying that I have never earned £30 an hr in my life :roll:

Your Pk market value is around £1500 to £1800 at the very top end
Usally they go for under £1000

I rebuild, mend woodworking machines for a living , and if i spent 250 hrs on a machine I would be out of work as people would never pay for them

just an useless piece of info 1966 a wadkin BRA X cut saw was the same price as a mini back then , so relatively speaking that would mean a New Crosscut today would be around £16000

 

[wallace]

Hi wotcar, have you ever seen jack forsbergs pk if his saw was for sale for £1500. I think there would a queue half way around the planet Daltons the company that remanufacture wadkin machinery are selling a ags for £4500 and I think a pk far exceeds that machine. I agree that a pk normally goes for less than a grand. I've got three. But not everyone has the facilties and skills to take a machine to bits. Thanks for the advice about the brake and stuff, I altered the settings to reduce the strain being placed on the motor
Mark

 

[MickCheese]

just an useless piece of info 1966 a wadkin BRA X cut saw was the same price as a mini back then , so relatively speaking that would mean a New Crosscut today would be around £16000

That's not useless that's quite interesting. By the way welcome.

Mick

 

[Phil Pascoe]

No information can ever be called stupid. It's an oxymoron.

 

[johnfreudenthal]

Mark,

I'm a relatively new member looking for a PK. Can you assist me in locating then rebuilding a machine?

John

 

[yetloh]

just an useless piece of info 1966 a Wadkin BRA X cut saw was the same price as a mini back then , so relatively speaking that would mean a New Crosscut today would be around £16000

Sorry to be a pedant but the contemporary Mini was a cheap car which the current Mini isn't. A better comparison would be with one of the current crop of cheap small cars which would put it at around £10k. Admittedly it wouldn't be made in the UK although it might be made in Europe.

Jim

 

[condeesteso]

Not been here for a while, but the finished saw looks absolutely brilliant (p9 will save time). I guess you got the blade sharpened by now - noticed the smoke coming off it on the video.
14.5k visits to this thread... shows there is still a bit of interest in good old Wadkin =D>

 

[wallace]

Hi Douglas, yes the blade got a few new teeth and sharpened and has been lovely to use for the last 18month or so. The saw has recently found a new home and I have dragged another one in from the garden to be done. One thing I do miss is the dc brake, without one the blade takes ages to run down. I think old wadkin is having a bit of a second life as all the woodworking companys are going belly up their is lot of old iron for the price of hobby machines.

 

[condeesteso]

Hi Wallace, I read the chat above re potential values. It's probably a sad fact that some of that old iron will go to scrap. Some time ago I got involved in finding the new home for the Wadkin belt-drive workshop in Minster, Kent. From memory 7 machines, (including a fine ready-to-go 3ph massive radial saw, and a 3ph tenoner, the rest being belt-drive). Richard Maguire acquired the lot for £3.5k and I always felt that was a good result all round as they found an excellent home and the alternatives (given the site needed to be cleared) were looking very gloomy indeed.
Nevertheless, if you could restore Wadkins like your ts for say £5k to £7.5, I feel there ought to be a small but strong market. I think up to a point the classic car market is a similar model, where only the best actual cars are worth the big labour investment of good restoration and then they command very high prices. So a Sunbeam Alpine will never be worth the many hours work to restore properly, but a similar age Alfa Guilia ss will be very well worth it (and they weren't a long way apart in cost when new). Hence, Wadkin is an excellent starting point (outstanding engineering and quality from the outset), and £5 - 7k for a ts this good is not unreasonable surely - how much is a big Felder (for example)?
And it has been said that one reason Wadkin got into difficulties was their machines never needed replacing. In other areas we hunt down (or save for) lifetime tools, so why not on a fine Wadkin??
Just save as many as you can, that's all. :lol: =D>

 

[Flynnwood]

it has been said that one reason Wadkin got into difficulties was their machines never needed replacing.

I was talking with a Gas Safe engineer (who is approaching retirement) fairly recently.

He reckons that you can't buy a gas boiler today that will last more than 7 to 10 years.

Then we got into the innards of the boiler, the case, the brand names, the country of origin of parts etc and how the "same" boiler can be 100% more expensive than the other (with the same innards) in the UK. And still have less than a 10 year life.

Twas an eye opening conversation .... regarding boilers.

@ Wallace - this guy from days gone by (before brakes) would run it down by pushing wood against the blade - see 4mins 30 secs in ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J054S1n_Dgw

 

[wallace]

I think its a no brainer not to get this old stuff I have spent maybe 3K on machines in the last 4 years and have a workshop that could pass for a pros even though I am purely a hobbyist. I think the hardest thing for most is finding the space. I have sold a couple of machines recently because 'my eyes were bigger than my belly' and things were getting cramped. But I am still toying with the idea of getting a wadkin pattern miller machine that's on ebay. It would mean I would have to extend my shed again but its a fantastic lump of iron. I have had a few people ask me to restore machines but the thing that stops things is the cost of shipping to Australia, America

 

[Rhossydd]

I think its a no brainer not to get this old stuff

The problem is most of us don't have anything like enough room for these wonderful old beasts.

 

[markturner]

I was lucky enough to be the purchaser of the PK in this thread. It is indeed a lovely thing and Mark has done a great job in getting it to a working condition and bringing it back.

I have been inspired by the restoration done by Jack (tool163) on his PK, and, as mine has been used and started to get a bit tired since the glory days of its initial refurbishment by Mark, I have decided to try and bring it up to something approaching the standard of Jacks restoration, if possible. I would like for example to remove the brake box, use some more attractive conduit for the cabling, replace old bolts and screws, make some replacements for the quadrant and get all the paint and brass really shiny.......

So, for all of you interested in this lovely piece of history, I will start another thread detailing my efforts shortly.

Happy New year guys, rgds, Mark

 

[condeesteso]

Of course Mark, befores and afters required. Unlike Rhossydd, you do actually have a bit of space I recall :wink:

 

[markturner]

No problem! The biggest issue is that virtually anything is a two man lift........at least!

 

[markturner]

Oh, and the space is limited, as since you were there, I have got myself a Felder CF741S universal machine. But I had a bit of a reorganisation in the workshop and have made enough room for the new arrival. However, I will struggle to fit anything else in though....perhaps a good thing ! I can see this becoming a bit of a slippery slope like collecting old planes......which I now have over 50 of.......!