Advice on Inca Major 341.018.

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Woodwormer

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Hi,

Brand new to this site so hopefully this question is ok.

Based in Dublin, Ireland, I'm in the process of moving some of my fathers tools to a new location. A lifetime collection of woodworking and carpentry tools in the mix.

Many of the items I can recall since when I was a child and many I've no idea what they are other than generically nevermind how to use them!

The one I definately do recall is an Inca Major 341.018. The machine was purchased in the late 70s and was only ever used for his own private work and not for commercial purposes. As a result it is in near perfect condition as is the many accessories with it. It even has the original user manual and several brochures.

I had a quick look through the manual and brochures and could identify the following extras by name:
> Mitre guide
> Extension table
> Mortising table
> Safety guard and more blades/accessories

So as a starting point I'm wondering can someone tell me something about this machine? Storage for all his tools including the Inca is going to be a challenge so we may even consider a fair offer on it so would really appreciate some honest objective views on this aspect too.

Thanks in advance.
 
i can't help a lot. there is a manual here http://imgur.com/a/0wUWg for anybody else looking. Inca is good kit. Swiss made at that age, and expensive in its day. it isn't rare kit (in the UK), but isn't that common, and in Ireland, I would suggest less common. It has quite a cult following in the USA. There si a yahoo group for inca, if you are interested.

i have an inca planer, and a bandsaw. if yours was not in ireland, i may be tempted to sell my kity and have another inca machine.

some pictures would help with giving you an objective view, and some discussion.
 
I have one of those. Its been my only table saw since I bought it new in the 1970s and I wouldn't part with it. Swiss made, mostly from aircraft grade aluminium alloy. It was an expensive item in its day, especially with the Inca stand and motor (I bought mine as just the saw and put it on a home-built stand with a UK motor to save money)

It was marketed as a precise cabinet-makers saw rather than a general-purpose saw. When properly set up its extremely precise though I don't think it was ever intended to stand up to the rigours of continuous heavy use - I'm purely amateur so its precision suits me well and I don't ever work it too hard. It's a very flexible saw and there were lots of optional extras. As standard there should be two aluminium extrusions, one at the front and one the back of the table. There is a single extension table which can be mounted either side of the main table. You could get extra tables and longer (1 m) rails. You could also get longer (1m) extrusions for the mitre guide.

The saw will take a 10" blade (has a 20 mm spindle) which gives a depth of cut of 3". It will easily cut 3" oak. One idiosyncrasy is that the table rise and fall only moves through 2" so with the table fully raised the blade projection is still 1". To get shallow cuts you need to use an 8" blade. For angled cuts the table tilts up to 45 degrees to the left. This removes one main source of inaccuracy in tilt-arbor saws because the spindle is rigidly mounted, but it is a bit hair raising to work on a tilted table and I don't do it - my table has stayed at 90 degrees.

There was an optional mortising unit which attaches to the right hand side.

If you have the basic saw with the mortising table look out for the standard accessories. There should be two throat plates, one with a narrow and the other a very wide slot (for use with dado and moulding heads but see below). There should be three wrenches, one for the spindle, one for the blade nut and one for the riving knife. The fence may have a micro-adjuster and there should be an L-shaped aluminium sub-fence which can be attached. The mortiser came with a set of cutters, but there should also be a pair of toggle hold-down clamps and a set of stops, which look like little black plastic top hats.

The main downside is that it was made and sold at a time when safety was less of a consideration. It's actually much safer than most current saws in use in the US because it has the European style of fence and a proper overhead guard and riving knife. However, there's no provision for dust extraction - the sawdust just falls through the base down a chute and onto the floor. The saw originally came with a pair of wobble washers and you can fit a dado stack. There was also a vertical tenoning attachment and a spindle moulding block with a spring loaded hold down. I've actually got the tenoner and a dado stack and they are both very useful, but would be regarded as too dangerous to meet UK and EU regulations for commercial workshops because there is no anti-kickback and the guard and riving knife are removed . There's also a simple finger-joint jig which works very well but has the same problem.

I've no idea what one of these is worth these days but if you can work round or live with the safety issues and it's complete and in good shape, I'd say its a very precise and quite desirable machine.
 
interesting Norman. I will have to set my ebay search back up.
 
If you can pick one up in decent condition for a sensible price, all the bits are there and you can tolerate the lack of dust control then it really is a great saw. The only problems I've had with mine are down to degradation of the nylon bits which let things slide freely - but they are easily replaced.
 
Many thanks for the input so far.

I'll take some pics this weekend but genuinely it is in pristine condition.
It's built into a bench exactly as per one of the suggested benches in the brochure.

The key question though is what do these typically go for or if it gets as far as its new storage what should I make sure its insured for?
 
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