Photo Index - Delta Specialty/Delta Mfg. Co./Delta-Rockwell/Rockwell Intl. - No. 1425 12" Belt-Drive Disk Sander

Machinery Photo Index

Manufactured/Badged by:
Delta Specialty/Delta Mfg. Co./Delta-Rockwell/Rockwell Intl.
Milwaukee, WI; Jackson, TN; Tupelo, MS

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Sander
Machine Size:	12"
Submitted By:	Keith Bohn

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	No. 1425 12" Belt-Drive Disk Sander
Date of Manufacturer:	1938 to 1942?
Serial Number:
Last Updated	2/15/2003 12:00:00 AM

Comments:

The back story on this (all vintage machines should come with a back story) is, Neener Dean and I were at an auction. OK, we were at a turtle hunt disguised as an auction and we had ball peen hammers. The carnage was laid out in five or six U-Store-It storage stalls. For the most part there wasn't much in the way of complete machines but there were beer flats, boxes and crates full of parts 'n pieces. I came across this blue milk crate (basket) with a bunch of recognizable parts in it. The disk was missing as was the arbor head casting. While previewing the auction I found the disk and returned it to its rightful place in the world.

Came time for this to be sold and it was lumped into the same lot with two five gallon buckets of files. The bidding began and it was a burly bearded guy and me doing all the bidding. We ramped the bidding up to the mid $20's when it dawned on me that this guy just might not be looking to own what I wanted to own. I cut bait and the burly bearded guy got the entire lot for $26. I asked him what it was he was looking for and he extracted "one" file from one of the buckets. THUNK! I offered him $13 (half of what he'd final bid) for the blue basket of parts and we both walked away happy campers.

Now comes the sweet part. Dean had bid on and won a lathe. There was an "extra" headstock with the lathe. Dean eye balls it for a minute and says, "Hey, is this the arbor head casting for your disk sander?" THUNK, Part II. Oh happy daze!!!

Now for the facts. The sander is a Delta No. 1425 12" Belt-Drive Disk Sander. Delta first showed this in their 1938 catalog along side the No. 1426 12" Direct-Motor Drive Sander. Paging through later catalogs I have found it all the way up to 1941. I lack a 1942 catalog for final verification but it does not appear in the 1943 catalog making me suspect that the production run for this sander only lasted four or five years. The No. 1426 did live on for many decades afterwards.

It originally sold for $24.85 without motor and stand so I got it for the "half of retail" we all aspire to.

Restoration took place over the span of a weekend. I sand blasted all the parts 'n pieces on a Saturday morning and had it primed by mid-afternoon. The first coat of paint went on before bed time and the second the following morning.

It was missing the faucet knobs and the degree scale for the table. The knobs were found in one of my rat holes and the degree scale was found on my 12" direct drive disk sander (it had two, only needed one). All that's left to make it complete is the metal tag that attaches to the front of the tilt-table.

Photo 1:

Comments: A true "basket case"
Source: Keith Bohn

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Photo 2:

Comments: Front view
Source: Keith Bohn

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Photo 3:

Comments: Back view
Source: Keith Bohn

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