DeWalt GE Radial Arm Saw rebuild Part 8, base, column and arm finale

I am way too old for this. Today I stayed home from work as I am heading back to FL for two weeks and I HAD to get all the rest of my parts painted, at least one coat before I leave. Nine hours of work with minimal breaks to

• take the top off the base
• take the base apart
• finish stripping the arm (that was last night actually)
• priming the arm (so was this)
• painting the arm 
• stripping the legs and base
• priming the above
• putting the first coat of paint on the above
• sandblasting some other parts
• priming and painting those parts
• wow, could there have been anything else!, oh, yes I thoroughly cleaned and polished the key for the column

Lugging around the column, the arm and the base, all of which are extremely heavy is taxing my body badly. It's 9 pm and I can barely function. A stiff drink is keeping me awake until I finish this post.

I am literally too tired to write this so, as they say, pictures are worth a thousand words.

The base as it came on delivery. The PO used, actually NEVER used this saw, but intended it to be a rough cut down saw, thus the 2x6 table.

The base after a relatively simple disassembly.It's tough to tell since the saw was painted brown but there is minimal rust on the legs and they are in very good shape. The base has some rust where it was in contact with the legs but it also appears to be quite sound.

After almost 90 minutes of flap-wheel grinding and sanding with a sanding block, the base is primed, poorly I might add, as I ran out of my good primer. It looks blotchy in the picture because, since I ran out of my good primer, which is grey, I had to finish with some white primer I had around. When I wake up I will surely look at this in the daylight and throw up; and decide to sand it and re-prime it.

I cleaned the column thoroughly with steel wool and Scotch-Brite, it came out pretty nice but the picture got lost in the cloud. Here it is painted. (the part that is cast iron)

Here it is primed, I just couldn't get this picture to post before the painted one.

Some parts I forgot to prep and paint, the housing for the bottom of the column(the elevating bushing and gearbox mount to this housing) and the bushing for the elevating handle rod which mounts on the underside of the front of the base.

Speaking of the elevating assembly, here is a good question. The long arm has the elevating gearbox at the bottom of the column. Here is the gearbox.

This thing was crudded up with greasy sawdust (Not shown, I removed most of it). What is the general consensus here? Fully clean this out and re-grease it? Or add some new grease and leave it. I'm for the former. Hmm, see this picture, another interesting question.

That looks like an oiler ( on the underside of the gearbox bottom), wonder why, the gearbox has grease in it not oil. Any thoughts or comments from the readers?

Shown here are the legs, primed and first coat of gloss white, the arm completed with two coats of paint. It will get its gloss coat tomorrow morning before I head to the airport. Also shown are what I used to flap-wheel these big items. A Metabo grinder, Benchmark Abrasives 120 grit flap-wheels (4.5 inch). These abrasives are available on Amazon for about $22 per ten pack. I used 8 to complete the legs and base.

And obviously, a respirator and a face mask. PLEASE use these safety items when doing this work, it's annoying but man you can screw yourself up if you don't. I did wear glasses under the face mask.

After I finished, and went to clean up the garage shop. I found the blade guard from this long arm. I had stowed it away and forgot about it. I am going to paint this white. I was thinking of having a vinyl decal made of the "DeWalt Keep Blade Sharp" with the arrow made in red. Comments?

I had hoped to test the motor and starter before I went back to FL. This is not going to happen so Part 4A is still in limbo. I am going to bed now as I can barely see the keys on my keyboard. See you in part 9 in about 2 weeks where I start putting this beauty back together.