Wadkin DR 30" bandsaw

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SnowMeister

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I live in New Zealand have been on the lookout for a large heavy older style bandsaw for my my workshop and also to restore.
I have found a Wadkin DR which are very hard to come by in NZ and I am wondering if anyone can shed some light on this particular model?
The machine badge states: Machine DR 666 S, Test SC1329, Voltage 380, Phase 3, Cycles 50
The motor badge states: WKT 35722 (or maybe WKT 35/22), 380/420, 420771-6, rpm 680

Can anyone tell me the age of this machine? Is it worthy of a restoration project?
Also I really wanted a direct drive and I would be interested to know from anyone if it easy / hard / impossible to convert a belt drive to a direct drive?
Below are a few photos
 

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I would say the Wadkin dr is the rolls royce of bandsaws.

Undoubtedly worthy of a restoration project.

Be aware they are large, about 7'0 tall

I think wallace on here has a website with wadkin nos, from memory it id the test no that gives some indication of age.

We love a resto thread on here, hopefully we will see wip photos :D
 
Man oh Man,what a lovely,wonderful, even beautiful piece of machinery you have. Every time I see something like this,my hands twitch and I go green with envy for I have neither the time nor space for a restoration. So, please send lots of WIP pics for us poor souls who are unable to do projects like this.
My best wishes for the work,
Frank S.
 
I underline the others support and envy! Superb machine.

I don't understand why you want to convert it to direct drive, though. The Wadkin engineers really knew what they were doing, and will have got the motor, the gearing, the power and the speeds right for the application. Belt drive will also isolate the blade from motor vibrations. So my first reaction is that function may deteriorate if you do this conversion.

Yes, pics and progress please, however long it takes!

Keith
 
I think Jack English restored one of these, search YouTube for that name.
 
Definitely one of the best bandsaws out there, theres only the big sagar and robinson that are maybe better. Yours is an early one before the dating I have so pre 1937. I love mine. Built like a tank and very capable. The tyres are vulcanised rubber and can be re crowned in situ easily. I wouldn't worry about it being belt drive. Heres mine doing a coin test for fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aQZhtbvToc
My only criticism is that they are quite loud but they are industrial. I do have to pick my times when I use it
 
the DR did come with an external drive motor like yours tho yours does not look like a Green lane Works job. I have seen some that run a flat belt to the drake drum off the direct drive motor saws. these are high speed saws with 8500 feet fer minuit blades surface speeds. 14" hobby saws run about 3500 SFPM. once you kick the dirt off them and tune them up there a great saw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v02KWA7my8

jack English machines
 
I have no own experience of that model but they surely have a good reputation. They are even more solid than my E.V.Beronius.

Something has happened to that saw in the past. The motor mount looks home made. If there isn't a burned out direct drive motor hidden behind the belt guard I think you will be better off if you make a more proper belt conversion. I doubt you can find the correct direct drive motor for it and a shoddy conversion job with a chineese motor would not be up to the quality standards of the rest of the saw.

This is the motor mount and V-belt setup I made for my bandsaw. It was lineshaft driven originally so it wasn't designed for having a motor fitted.
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The Wadkin DR is the last of the old Wadkin C frame designs for the early 20s when line belt machines were offered. The earliest of the D family of band saws was the DJ then DH line belt saws for the early 20s.






One of these saws was save in England by a bench maker a few years ago. you may know this chap :mrgreen:







Then there was the first motor drive saw the Wadkin &Co DNA





the Wadkin propellor logo is a motor rotor on later wadkin tags of the DH and tell me it was made some were around 1928 . This saw is a Wadkin & CO the propeller logo was carried for a few years after Wadkin went Ltd in 1936 on motors but BTH later took over.

Matty Melbourne found this in his collection
re the logo I don't know, but it may not be a propeller at all... possibly a pump symbol??
Could it be a Symbol for an electric motor ?
1928 Wadkin were one of the first companies to integrate Electric motors with their woodworking equipment in England.

sc00004e12.jpg


A little more on this bandsaw . I believe that the DH/DNA(A meaning it came from Green lane works with an electric AC motor Drive ) is a 28" saw With spoked wheels . They may even be cast aluminium pulleys. More information is need on this saw for documenting. What is interesting to note is how round the C fame is to the older DH. The upper pulley tension arrangement is centered under the wheel/pulley as well. The early DR boxed out the frame and made the saw larger in 30" and 36" there was also a hand brake add.

here is a DNA 128" with a "Test Number" of 6812 (28" saw) with a squared off C frame but only the Wadkin & Co cast in the upper hub guard (Older DN models had it cast in the frame) . This looks to be its next design change(1928). Note that the tension design of the upper pulley is retained from the old DH.



Some time in the 40s I believe all these old designs were reworked and the D range was changed again . This time they change the tension design and added the hand brake.This is my Wadkin DR with all the new features like Motor guard. back guard closing in the upper pulley that is no long rounded on top. Larger motors and drive systems are added and the blade guilds are upgraded. the DR was the last of the cast C frame saws wadkin made. The Bursgreen BZB was to take off from here and it would not to long before Wadkin went to a steel frame saw. Wadkin was late to do this as others had 10 years earlier .



Bursgreen was originally set-up in about 1932 by a Mr Burroughs and a Mr. Green (hence "Bursgreen") with the stated intention of manufacturing newer, lighter woodworking machinery designs based on the lightweight machines then appearing in the USA. The principle was to build a fabricated base with cast-iron tops or "thin skin" cast iron framed machine that could be built more or less "on-demand" as opposed to the traditional cast and machine a batch then common to the industry. To that end Bursgreen were certainly successful. By 1947 Burroughs Green had become part of John Sagar & Sons (Halifax, England - established 1875) one if the largest woodworking manufacturing companies in this country - and were selling through a new company, Sagar (Developments) Ltd.

you can see all in this 1955 Sagar machine catalog

http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/3015/4606.pdf

By 1954 Sagar and Bursgreen were trading as Sagar Bursgreen Ltd. and the two factories had been “hived-off” as Bursgreen (Durham) Ltd and Bursgreen (Colne) Ltd. Sagar in turn sold-out to Wadkin in 1956 and by 1959 all production at Sagar's Canal Works in Halifax had ceased with most of the production being transferred to the more modern Bursgreen works at Fence Houses, Houghton-le-Spring in Co. Durham and Trawden, near Colne in Lancashire. Wadkin Bursgreen took over some of the Sagar designs, such as the UO/S 18 x 9in combined planer/thicknesser and the UO thickness planers (which re-used a lot of components from the heavier Sagar GES 24 x 9in combined planer/thicknesser) but the Sagar products were quietly dropped after the take-over as they directly paralleled products from Wadkin’s heavyweight range (these firms were, after all, rivals). There is some indication that in the early period Wadkin intended to keep Bursgreen as a separate entity – production of one or two machines such as the Wadkin LM borer were transferred from Wadkin’s factory at Green Lane in Leicester to Bursgreen and rebranded “Bursgreen”, but by 1958 the brand “Wadkin Bursgreen” had appeared and continued to be used on the “lightweight” range for the next 30 or so years. Bursgreen in fact designed and built some heavy mainstream Wadkin products in addition to the lighter fabricated products, including the PP dimension saw (the successor to the PK and similarly all cast iron, including the base and even heavier), the all cast-iron BZB bandsaw (in 30in and 24"wheel sizes and big brother of my Sagar Bursgreen MZF), the BAO/S combined planer/thicknesser (up to 24 x 9in), the UX and UR series of pin routers and all of Wadkin’s CNC router production until the closure of Trawden in the 1990s. Some of the lower volume smaller machines such as the LQ recessor were transferred to them as well. However, after 1960 Wadkin never sold their machines as anything other than Wadkin or Wadkin Bursgreen.

jack English machines
 
I know this is an old thread (stumbled upon it while looking for something else), but seeing as the OP is a fellow Kiwi... :wink:
SnowMeister":2ir5dc9k said:
View attachment 3I live in New Zealand have been on the lookout for a large heavy older style bandsaw for my my workshop and also to restore.
I have found a Wadkin DR which are very hard to come by in NZ and I am wondering if anyone can shed some light on this particular model?
The machine badge states: Machine DR 666 S, Test SC1329...
RobinBHM":2ir5dc9k said:
I think wallace on here has a website with wadkin nos, from memory it id the test no that gives some indication of age.
Unfortunately, this DR is a "special" as indicated by the "S" at the end of the serial number - so it doesn't fit the test sequence list on wallace's site.

It was thought that the "S" indicated a special (a variation to meet a customers specific need), but now it seems most likely it indicates a machine sub-contracted out to another manufacturer by Wadkin.

There is a specific style of "S" machines where the letters of the serial and test numbers are much larger than the digits.
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These appear to be manufactured for Wadkin by Sentinel.
EPA1286s sc3626 NZ.jpg
EPA917s sc NZ.jpg


So if you're still trying to date your bandsaw, the test numbers won't help you. However, if yours has a Wadkin Ltd "tin tag" - as in all three pikkies above (as opposed to a Wadkin & Co. or Wadkin Ltd cast brass tag) then it was manufactured between 1936 (when Wadkin & Co became Wadkin Ltd) and ~1949 (when Wadkin Ltd went back to cast tags).

HTH.

More photos please.

Cheers, Vann.
 

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I've just driven past the workshop in my village (UK) previously used by a local toy maker. He passed some years ago and with his widow recently passing the house and grounds have been sold.Sitting outside, partially in a skip is what I think is a Watkins DR band saw. It's partially disassembled and out in the rain next to a skip. It's in much better nick than shown here however.
 
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