Yates American J-120 Band Saw – Introduction and Getting it Home

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This is the first part of what I hope to be a series on my Yates American J-120 Bandsaw. I hesitate to call this a restoration, but in many regards that’s probably what it is. I’m only planning to go through the mechanical and electrical parts to get it up and running again. I’ll also be cleaning the outside, but stop short of taking it all apart and giving it fresh paint.

While I’ve got a pretty healthy stable of three 14″ band saws, I’ve been keeping an eye out for one of 3 upgrade saws. Walker-Turner 16″, a Parks/Craftsman 18″, or a Yates American J120 (20″). I made a couple attempts at buying a Parks 18″ in the past, but all 3 efforts fell short of a deal.


Eventually, the right deal at the right time in the right (enough) location popped up for this J120. It came from another member on OWWM.org (Old Woodworking Machines), in Burlington, WI. The catalog weight of the saw was 615 pounds, but that included a 3ph 1HP motor. I’d say this one without a motor is probably closer to 540-550lbs if I had to guess. Not too heavy, compared to a lot of other 20″ saws.


The seller brought the saw to ArnFest at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL. ArnFest is an annual event through OWMM.org that brings people together for all things Vintage Machinery related.


There is a “Rucker’s Rodeo” that happens on Saturday afternoon where many such machine transportation swaps happen. It’s a great way for the OWWM community to get an impressive amount of old iron moved around the country.


One of the cool things about OWWM and the Rucker’s Rodeo aspect is that I don’t know any of the people who helped transfer the bandsaw from the seller’s trailer to my friends. Big shout out to the OWWM community at large.


My friend (and fellow OWWMer) Doug brought it back up from ArnFest (He’s brought 4 machines back for me now). It’s about a 6 hour drive, but it sounded like it was successfully uneventful. Thankfully, the weather was great this year, and no rain.


The saw sat under a tarp at Doug’s place for almost two months before I got up there to get it. Apart from 20+mph winds, it was a great weekend to make the 75 mile trip. In typical fashion, I got there, got it loaded, and I didn’t manage to get a single picture of it until we stopped for lunch on the way home.

Essentially, I made a skid before I went up there, which I strapped to the spine and screwed to the pallet 4×4 it was already on. We used Doug’s skid steer to help tip it and lower it part way in to the trailer. With the help from some wooden skates I made, we just slid it in to the trailer with the skid steer. That is trailer loading on easy mode, and I am grateful for the help from Doug, and the time he took away from corn harvest to help me. My son also enjoyed getting to see the skid steer, and explore the farm and Doug’s shop with my wife while I got things tied down.


I borrowed my dad’s 5’x8′ enclosed trailer with a popup lid. The saw fit great, if the saw were any bigger I would probably have needed to rent something. With the pallet on the base, the saw was around 7′ long laying on its back. After 2 hours home with a lunch stop, I was happy to finally have the saw on my driveway.


I was in a hurry, so I don’t have any other progress pictures, but once I got it home I backed the trailer up to the entry door to my shop. I got it all unstrapped and the other things unloaded from around it. I attached some casters to some 2×6’s, jacked the saw up in the trailer, and screwed them on to the skid. I put 3 sets of wheels on it, a pair of swivel casters at each end, and a pair of static casters in the middle, just ahead of the balance point.


My parents were visiting my brother that afternoon and stopped by on their way home. My mom helped wrangle my son, who wanted to watch, while my dad helped me unload the saw. We used a pair of 6′ long 2×12’s as a longer ramp and to not have to deal with the door threshold. With the center casters, we got the saw part way out of the trailer, and the center casters on the ramp before we tipped it so the other casters were down on the ramp. Then once the first casters got to the garage floor, the rear casters were on the ramp and everything was smooth and easy, no drama and no issues.

I had removed the table to fit it in the trailer (it may have fit anyway), but also so the trunions didn’t have to support the weight of the table hanging off of it the whole trailer ride home. As such, I’d guess we were down closer to 500 pounds plus the wood attached at this point, so it was mainly just an issue of size rather than weight for doing it myself.


Many thanks to all who were involved in helping me get this saw in to my shop, from the seller bringing it to ArnFest, the crew that helped transfer it to Doug’s trailer, Doug for bringing it back, taking time out of Harvest to help load, his niece who took the time to bring the skid steer over, my wife and son for going on an morning adventure with me, and my dad helping get it down the ramp and in to the shop.

I had a friend who would be in town about a week and a half after this, who said he would help me stand it up if I was ready. The race was on to get as much work done on it as I could before then. Some things would not get any easier to work on than having the bottom accessible.

Anyway, that will do it for this installment, stay tuned and subscribe to the notification emails to watch the rest of it unfold!

Thanks for checking it out.

Series NavigationPart 2: Cabinet Base and Motor Mount >>
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