Never ask a cannibal "what's for dinner?"

Although eBay can be a great source for replacement parts, you can often leave your life savings behind when dealing with the one person on the face of the Earth who has exactly what you need.  Another great source for parts comes when you're lucky enough to score an identical (or close) machine for a few bucks. Junk shops, flea markets, garage sales and Craigslist can  provide just the opportunity to acquire an entire machine for parts at a fraction of the cost of a single component, if you're lucky.

Anyone seen pawl...

One of the biggest challenges facing anyone who wants to restore vintage tools is the lack of availability of replacement parts.  Manufacturers of woodworking equipment from about 1950-1980 did a fairly good job of keeping replacement parts in stock, but those days are long since past - the victim of mass consumer loyalty to  "Walmart Nation" and the flood of cheap, disposable plastic crap from China that passes for "tools" these days.  Why repair old when you can buy new... again and again and again?

Liquid Wrench saves the day...

Restoration can be a painfully slow process when life keeps getting in the way!  Work piling up at the office and grass growing like crazy due to an early spring has kept me away from the toolshed, but I finally managed to get back to the DeWalt 780 and try to figure out a problem that I was having with the miter function.  Try as I might, I couldn't get the miter lock to release so that the radial arm could be rotated on the column.

Although I have a photocopied version of the DeWalt Instruction and Maintenance Manual for this saw, the photos leave a lot to be desired and the instructions just didn't seem to jive with any of my attempts to unlock the arm.  Further complicating matters, my manual lacked a parts list or schematic, so I had no corresponding visual representation of how the component parts were supposed to function.