Old cast-iron machines are simple, and that's their charm. Most of what goes wrong with them can be seen in a few good photos and a short video, and most of what can't be seen can be fixed. What you want to avoid is paying for a complete machine and bringing home a project, with the wrong motor for your house, a missing fence, a cracked table or a seized tilt.
Start with the motor plate
Before anything else, ask for a clear photo of the motor's nameplate. It tells you the horsepower, the speed, the voltage and, most important, the phase. Most homes have single-phase power, so a three-phase motor won't run on its own in a garage. If the plate is hard to read, a three-phase motor has no starting capacitor, and four wires coming in give it away. That doesn't rule a machine out. It means you'll need a VFD, a phase converter or a single-phase motor, and our guide to single-phase, three-phase and VFDs explains the choices.
The plate also tells you whether a single-phase motor is set for 120 or 240 V. Many are dual-voltage and can be rewired either way, and the voltage you run it on has to match how it's wired.
Ask for a video of it running
Photos can't show a bad bearing. Ask the seller for a short video of the machine starting, running for half a minute and stopping. A healthy motor comes up to speed quickly and runs with an even hum. A growl, a rattle or a rhythmic thump points to bearings, a worn belt or something loose. On a band saw, a thump once per turn usually means a bad tire or a kinked blade. On a variable-speed lathe or drill press, ask to see the speed changed from slow to fast while it runs.
If the seller can't run it, assume the motor and switch need work, and price it that way.
Check runout if you can
Runout is wobble in the arbor, spindle or quill, and it's what makes a blade cut wide or a drill wander. The proper check is a dial indicator on a magnetic base, locked to the table and set against the arbor flange or spindle while you turn it slowly by hand. Unplug the machine first and turn it by hand. Never measure at speed.
You can't do that from a listing, so ask the seller to spin the blade or a chucked rod by hand on video, and watch the rim. Most arbor bearings on these machines are standard sizes. Delta's Unisaw parts list, for example, calls for 17 x 40 mm ball bearings, so a noisy bearing is a repair rather than a dead end.
Look hard at the cast iron
Cast iron is why these machines are worth buying, and it's also the one part you can't easily replace. Ask for photos of the table in raking light, from a low angle, so pits and cracks show.
- Rust on the surface is normal on a machine that's sat in a garage. Synthetic steel wool or 400-grit wet-or-dry paper with mineral spirits, on a rubber block, takes it off, and a dry, silicone-free coating keeps it off. Deep pitting is permanent, though it rarely stops a machine from working.
- Cracks are the real problem. Look around miter slots, at the corners of wings and at the trunnion brackets underneath.
- Flatness is checked with a good straightedge and feeler gauges, along each edge and down the middle. The usual rule is to regrind a table only if there's a gap of more than 0.005 in over a large area. A slight crown on a saw top matters less than a dish.
On a jointer, the two tables also have to line up. Lay the straightedge on the outfeed table, reaching at least 2 ft over the infeed. A droopy table can sometimes be shimmed, but tables that need grinding have to be ground together.
Work every adjustment
Ask the seller to crank the blade up and down and tilt it to 45 degrees, raise and lower the jointer tables, swing the band saw table, or slide a lathe's tailstock and tool rest along the bed. Everything should move smoothly through its whole range and lock. Packed sawdust is the usual reason a table saw's handwheels are stiff, and it cleans out. A tilt or rise that's seized, a stripped lock or a broken casting under the table is a bigger job.
Count the parts that go missing
Old machines lose their accessories long before they wear out. Check the listing photos against what the machine came with: the rip fence and its rails, the miter gauge, the extension wings, the blade guard and splitter, the cutterhead guard on a jointer, the tool rests and centers on a lathe, the wheel covers on a band saw. Each model page lists what should come with it.
Some parts are easy to replace and some aren't. Powermatic says parts for its made-in-USA machines are no longer being made, Oliver's parts business now runs through Straitoplane, and odd items like a Walker-Turner shaper's spindles or an early Unisaw's cast-iron motor cover take some hunting. A missing part should always come off the price.
Look at the wiring and switch
Insulation has the shortest life of anything in a motor, and old cords crack and harden. Ask for a photo of the cord, the plug and the switch. Plan to replace a cracked or brittle cord with proper flexible cord before the first cut. A magnetic starter is worth having, because a good one won't restart the machine on its own after a power cut, which is what OSHA requires on shop machines. Not every old starter does that, so check yours before you trust it.
Plan the safety gear
Old saws came with a guard, a splitter and anti-kickback pawls rather than a riving knife. UL has required riving knives on new table saw designs since 2008, but an old saw was designed around its splitter and guard, so make sure they're there. Jointers need their spring-loaded cutterhead guard, and belts and pulleys should be covered. If any of that is missing, budget for it before you count the machine as ready.
Date it and plan the move
A serial number or nameplate tells you when the machine was built and which version it is, which matters for parts. Our guide to dating old iron by serial number covers Delta, Powermatic, Craftsman, Walker-Turner and Oliver. Then plan how it gets home. A Unisaw or a Powermatic 66 weighs well over 400 lb with its motor, and an Oliver can weigh more than a ton, so read shipping a heavy machine before you commit.
A short checklist
- Motor plate photo: phase, voltage, horsepower.
- Running video: start, run, stop.
- Runout: a hand-spun blade or rod on video.
- Table: raking-light photos for rust, pits and cracks.
- Adjustments: tilt, rise, tables and locks on video.
- Accessories: fence, guard, miter gauge, wings or tool rests.
- Wiring: cord, plug and switch.
- Serial plate: the year and version.
Every model page has its own checklist built from these, from the Delta 37-315 jointer to the Powermatic 45 lathe. If a listing's photos can't answer one of them, that's the question to send the seller.
