Modern Woodworking

Rust Hunting in Georgia 2011.11.12

2011-11-14T03:59:00.000-08:00

Just a few things from a sale I hit on Saturday - this one was well advertised and apparently quite a bit had already been sold by the time I got there. I did miss out on a nice body vixen body file mounted in a tension handle (already have one but you never know). Everything that was left was fairly cheap - actually the stuff I bought was dirt cheap - most of what you see was in the quarter pile.

The larger of these hammers was the most expensive item I bought at $3 - guess no one wanted it. I think it's a useful size - about 2 pounds. The ball pein with a broken handle was a quarter and seems pretty well made - it's marked but hard to read.

I was hoping the micrometer was a Starrett - but no it's a Craftsman and the only one left that wasn't rusty that still worked (I left two others that were basket cases) - for a dollar I couldn't complain. I also got the Craftsman thread chaser for a buck.

I threw in the fret saw which I actually purchased at another sale for $5 - it's not as good as my old Millers Falls but I figured it would work as a backup. The real prize from the sale was this Atlas Steady Rest:

This was in the quarter pile. That's right, I found an Atlas steady rest that fits my 6" Craftsman-branded Atlas metal lathe for a quarter. Never would I have imagined ever, EVER finding such an odd-ball item that I can actually use so cheap. If you look you'll see that one of the "fingers" is missing. I believe I can find a replacement relatively easy (or fab one up if need be). I checked it on my lathe and it fits perfectly.

I asked about the lathe while I was at the sale - the guy said it was long gone and in really rough shape. The buyer claimed everything would need to be rebuilt (going from this part it just looks very dirty). No telling what it went for but I would have liked to seen it. Funny that the buyer missed this part.

Well, that's it for me - fairly slim pickings but I've had so much luck so far this year it's probably time for things to settle down (running out of space!).

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia 2011.11.06

2011-11-10T03:47:00.001-08:00

I hit the aftermath of a huge tool sale - sounds like the guy just picked up everything he could find and then left it to his widow to deal with (hopefully the same won't happen to me!). In any case, the sale started on Thursday so by the time I hit it Saturday morning, most of the better items were gone. Being the consummate bottom-feeder I still managed to find a few items - I spent a little over $30 for everything (it was discounted being the last day, plus I got some off for buying so much). Many of these items were marked $1 with I think $3 being the top price I paid (less discount).

First up a saw jointer, some new Stihl chainsaw blade files and a holder for same.

Next are some of my favorite "vixen" cut files:

And then some later Buck Chisels (they look crappy but I cleaned one up - stained but not pitted), a tiny press, brick chisel and a tap handle:

Here's a group of handled tools, an awl, dental pic, flat-blades for a brace, Marples driver, putty knife, some sharpening stones and a couple of utility knives (sucker for those - seems you can never find one when you need one):

A whole slew of replacement hammer handles, mostly in hickory or ash:

4 small cross-pein or ball-pein hammers (red-handled one marked Plumb):

A bunch of micro-Pony clamps:

A Starrett Horizontal Gage Holding Rod in box and a Starrett 6" rule with cover (incidentally, someone stole an expensive micrometer from the sale):

Here's a close-up of the saw jointer - marked Disston:

And that tiny press (like to call it an arbor press but I think it's for pressing circuit pins - in any case too "cute" to pass up):

The tap handle is marked "Morse" and "Made in USA"

And here are some detail shots:

Guess that about wraps it up - there were still a lot of tools at the sale - mostly junk or stuff I already had a lot of - One very decent Stanley #12 scraper with rosewood handles for $20 (decent deal) but it was missing the scraper blade.

-- John

Unisaw - Quick October 2011 Update

2011-10-25T03:58:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I finally had a chance to put another coat on the Unisaw case - next up is a bit of wet-sanding then another coat and I'm calling it done.

I've started assembling some of the interior parts - still deciding about the motor - I have new bearings for it but may put everything together and do the motor later. This project has been taking so long that I'm getting to the point where I just want to get if off the floor (it takes up a lot of space and I have to hear someone complain about it every time she walks by).

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - October 8, 2011

2011-10-12T04:02:00.000-07:00

Seems it's taking me a bit longer to post than usual. Part of that is due to my finding fewer things, as I don't have the time now that I'm once again working to scout out sails earlier in the week. It's also due to there being less stuff available - in any case the following comprises my finds over the course of two weeks.

This set of old "Monkey Wrenches" was found with the two Bypass Pruners below them. Kind of odd as they aren't really related. I love the wood "perfect" handles on some of the wrenches. The two pruners are very heavy and made of a quality you just don't find in modern yard tools - the top is marked "Pexto" and the bottom just "Italy"

I tried the Pexto pair on a whim and they are much sharper than the old Crapsman set I've owned for 15 years or so - hard to imagine carrying these all day as they have some left to them. I'd imagine a gardener's forearm looking like Popeye's from using these (but then again, those laborers from 75 or more years ago weren't the slackers we seem to be producing these days).

There's one other item that's not related to the rest - the Stanley #67 Spokeshave next to the pruners. I actually bought this from a fellow woodworker on WoodNet - it has the best rosewood handles I think I've ever seen on this particular shave - they're usually beat to death. These are so old they're black, looking more like ebony than rosewood. I don't believe this is a very common shave. It's missing the round sole and there's supposed to be a fence but it's usable as-is. This shave allows you to remove one handle and reposition it perpendicular to the other so you can use it in corners, I guess. An unusual tool.

The other two tools in the photo I picked up at the same sale where I bought the lumber from the previous post - that was on the weekend of 10/8/11. I had known about the collection of tools as I originally purchased a Delta 15" drill press and a Makita 15 3/4" planer there about two years ago. I had left my number and after a couple of unanswered inquiries, pretty much forgot about it until the daughter sent me an email about the middle of last week. These were the items I was interested in - I'm thinking about helping her to sell a few other items (still some equipment including a PC 24" Omnijig). In the photo above are the cutter and cap from a 7" Delta plane - set made in the UK (I saw the plane there - it had a replacement blade and was cast from a Record body so it was much later). I also picked up the metal file handle as I find those particular useful.

The lightweight mallet above I grabbed on a whim - not that I really need it but I liked the feel of it in my hand. The Craftsman drill-vise is in really good condition and was grabbed as it was originally used on the drill press I purchased previously.

The clamps are kind of interesting - well the "Pearlitic" are at least. I can always use these deeper-throated C-clamps.

That small brace bit I actually got for a quarter a a yard sale - the edge has been filed for a fine slot and it seems well made.

I'm a sucker for honing and sharpening materials and these stones seemed worth getting.

Next to the stones are the real find from the sale - the father originally owned a Unisaw and I'm not sure how this was missed - guess the purchaser just didn't know what it was. This is the first mortising jig I've ever seen "in the wild" - it's a bit newer than the one I already own (has one of the "indestructible non-slick grip" totes) so I'll probably use it for trading material or sell it outright. It also has the paperwork which I've never seen.

To the right are a couple of Craftsman branded handscrews - nothing exciting as these have plastic handles, but they do have a decent acme thread instead of that trash used in modern Chinese handscrews.

In this photo is a roofing or lathing hatchet, a wood crate tool and a concrete groover. As some of you suspect, I'm a real sucker for anvils - and couldn't pass up this small benchtop - it's marked but I can't make it out.

The anvil is marked but I can't quite make out the name (Valiant?).

The concrete groover is marked EC Stearns - I've got two vintage edgers so this will be added to those to complete out my masonry kit.

I don't know much about this handsaw other than it's massive, feels great in the hand and seems well made. It's cut at about 6-8 tpi (didn't measure so going by feel) and is very sharp. I think it will clean up great - I don't have it in front of me and the photo of blade lost the etch so I'll edit this when I can take a closer look.

Marked H S B & Co. The handcarved apple handle is in great shape - probably pre-war?

One hidden gem - don't know if you spotted it, is the Stanley $75 Rabbet plane, still in the box. This one is made in the UK.

In all, some pretty good stuff. There are still a few items left at the house I'm thinking about going back for, including a Craftsman quick-release vise.

-- John

Lumber Haul - 2011.10.08

2011-10-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

I scored a decent load of mixed lumber this past Saturday. Besides the photos there were enough shorts to pack about half the back of my SUV - I gave those to a neighbor who's doing some interesting sculptural pieces and can use them more than me (plus where to store them?). As with many of you, I "swore off" any new lumber after the last big load (that one filled my trailer about 4 feet high - luckily I managed to give away most to fellow GWA members and only had a handful of boards by the time I got home). The previous big load was free - and basically was going to be burnt as firewood if someone like me didn't come and get it. This load wasn't free but was very cheap and I knew that I could use some of it (particularly the thicker maple, cherry and mahogany).

What was really surprising was that the entire stack was surfaced planed with one dressed edge - basically furniture-grade FAS J2S (jointed, surfaced planed both sides) of very high quality. Everything was planed to 1 3/4" or 1" or 3/4" in thickness. I inventoried the lot and came up with the following dimensions:

Mahogany: 4 boards: 1" x 8 3/4" x 8'; 1" x 9" x 8'; 1"x 7 3/4" x 8'; 1" x 3 3/4" x 8'
Maple: 4 boards: 1 3/4" x 6 1/2" x 7'; 3/4" x 7 3/4" x 10'; 3/4" x 7" x 6'; 3/4" x 5" x 6'
Cherry: 8 boards: 1 3/4" x 5 1/2" x 4'; 1" x 9" x 9'; 1" x 9" x 10''; 1" x 5" x 10'; 1" x 5" x 10'; 1" x 5 1/4" x 7 1/2; 1" x 5" x 6 1/2'; 3/4" x 7 1/4" x 8 1/2'
Red Oak: 8 boards: 1" x 10 1/2" x 10 1/2'; 1" x 6 1/2" x 7 1/2'; 1" x 7 1/2" x 4 1/2'; 3/4" x 5 3/4" x 11'; 3/4" x 6 1/2" x 12'; 3/4" x 6" x 10'; 3/4" x 6" x 6 1/2'; 3/4" x 5" x 7 1/2'

The second pile includes:

Aromatic Cedar: 2 boards both at 3/4" x 4 1/2" x 8'
Poplar: 1 board at 1" x 5 1/2" x 5'
Walnut: 3 boards: 1 3/4" x 7 1/2" x 6'; 3/4" x 4 1/2" x 4'; 3/4" x 5" x 5 1/2'

There was also some misc pieces I didn't bother to measure (you can see some have profiles cut into them). I was very happy to get the mahagony in particular, especially at the 1" thickness with nice clear boards. In all a bunch of lumber that's now sitting on the floor of my shop as I don't have anywhere to store it. I plan to inventory the rest of my stash and perhaps cull some stuff - there's just too much for my small shop. Up next are the tools I also bought at the same sale.

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - September 3, 2011

2011-09-12T03:56:00.000-07:00

Just a few images from the weekend before Labor Day. I hit a sale on 9/3 with my friend John - it was well-advertised and the images showed lots of old tools - I was really interested in a right-angled brace in one of the photos. Of course it and anything else of any real value was long gone. The guy told me he had bought out the contents of a retired woodworker and most of the items had just been stored in boxes - he really didn't know much about what he had as the prices were all over the place. The items I purchased are at the top of this photo - the items at the bottom were bought at another sale.

I bought the two Groz shaves as I didn't own either profile - they were fairly inexpensive so I think I can work through the cheap manufacture with a little fettering. I thought the real prizes from that sale were the copper-headed hammer and the strap wrench (it's made so the strap can be replaced with a similar size in a longer length). I spent more for these than I probably should have but some times you go to a sale that has a lot of items and you just feel like you have to buy something (yeah I know) - which is what happened here. I don't remember exactly how much I paid but it was $20-30 - not the bottom-feeding I normally do.

The Hyde nail set you see - I've always wanted to try one. It's spring loaded so you can push finish nails in with your palm. I'm not sure if they're still being made. There were a couple of other similar nail sets or tools that help you hold finish nails but I passed on them - too pricey for what they were in my opinion.

The second sale happened quite by accident - this stuff appeared when I asked "Happen to have any old tools you don't want?" - got the whole box for $7.

The drills aren't much - Dunlap brace and a couple of "Made in Germany" eggbeaters. The rule is Lufkin, the perfect-handled screwdriver has a "6" and an English maker (haven't gotten out my magnifying glass so I'm not sure who). The Handyman blocker was probably never used. The real prize in the pile though is the Stanley 100 - first I've ever seen in the wild. It has a Sweetheart blade - I rather fancy the mini/micro planes - easy to tune and come in real handy in tight spots.

Last week I picked up some interesting garden pruning tools - images up soon!

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - August 6, 2011

2011-08-22T03:55:00.000-07:00

Another delayed posting - this one should have been made last week, as these photos are the results of my search on 8/6. I was buried this past weekend so it's just as well, since I wasn't able to do anything other than hit a couple of small yard sales, which didn't amount to anything (I did pick up a stack of James Bond movie soundtrack albums for a $1 each but this is the wrong blog for that). In any case, there were some interesting finds from my previous weekend - enjoy!

I hit two sales, the first was an advertised sale near Brookhaven that showed a few photos of tools in a garage - nothing real noteworthy in the photos but I did see a brace so I was at least hopeful - got there around 11:00 so anything really good would probably be gone, but that still fits into my "bottom feeder" mentality. The items were fairly cheap and included the small Stanley Sureform, a handle for an end vise, a small flat pry bar (these are my favorites for installing and removing trim), a Brown Brothers wrench, Craftsman wet chisel and some auger bits - most appear to be unused (one has the tip broken off). I also found a scribe for a Stanley (I think) combination square - since these are always missing I was glad to find a loose one. I gave up $10 for the small pile.

I didn't recognize the end vise but I think it's US made - only mark is a "BS1" with what appears to be a maple handle.

The second sale I went to was a bit more unusual - this was a sale in my own neighborhood where a retired widow was trying to clean out the basement before the moving trucks appeared the next day - people were scrambling around and I soon found out why - the $1 per long-handled-tool prices should have proved a clue. While I was there they opened her deceased husband's workshop - I was lucky to get the items I found as people were grabbing up things in droves. The first thing of interest were these two West-German-made metal-working hammers - they were hanging above a small post-vise mounted to the floor - it looked like I already missed out on one hammer as there was an empty nail on the left. Got these for a buck each!

I also managed to grab this Pexto 925 "Beakhorn" forming anvil - I hesitate to call it a hardy but in a way that's what it is, or perhaps it was originally sold as a portable anvil? I could see the shaft being slipped into a small slot in the back of a step bumper. I believe the former owner used it in the post-vise as he liked to work metal a bit as a hobby.

I also found this red pulley - no telling what he used it for - looks like something from a barn's hayloft door. It's marked "Durbin-Durco St. L. MO." and it's about 9" in diameter.

And finally, the best thing I found was this small propane forge - for $10 complete with regulator and gauge, I couldn't pass it up. NC Tool Company is still in business - they call this one the "Whisper Baby" - can't wait to give it a try! I think it'll work for the light tool work I like to do, plus I'd like to try making some knives...

I probably should have bought the post-vise but it was a small 2 1/2" version. I own a 6" so I talked myself out of it and by the time I thought someone else might want it, somebody else there had claimed it.

Anyway, I felt it was a pretty successful day - I think I spent less than $30 for everything so it was all way cheap - I like cheap!

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - July 24, 2011

2011-08-12T03:56:00.000-07:00

I realized today that I hadn't posted about my latest finds - and further that it had been a few weeks. As I've mentioned previously, the new job has most of my attention - it's going quite well. I originally was hired on a 6 month contract but they gave me an offer 2 weeks in, so starting the third week I became a regular, salaried employee. In any case, these are the tools I picked up the weekend of July 24th. I stopped at two sales (actually one estate sale and then my friend John once again called me about some files he saw at one of our favorite junk stores - managed to find a couple of other things there as well).

I'm pretty much a sucker for packaged old items - these files (mostly unused) are a good example. One of the boxes had a single file and some have some surface rust - however I'm still glad to have them.

Also found was this Irwin adjustable auger that had an extra vinyl wrapped auger with it - the latter had extra blades.

As seen in this photo:

I also picked up that Stanley "D" chisel that's not too bad. The Estwing mason's hammer was bought for a buck at the second sale.

As were the Stanley "Yankee" style screwdriver and the Snap-On wrench. I also picked up the nice drop-light, as the plastic versions I own always melt around the bulb - this one is heavy-duty.

Love these file boxes (I guess that officially makes me a "collector") - and here's some close-ups of the other tools:

This is the first metal handled square I've actually purchased, as I prefer wood-handles, especially rosewood, but I figured this one will still come in handy in the shop and will live near my drill-press.

That wraps up the week of the 24th - I picked up some amazing items just this past weekend - those photos soon.

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - July 20, 2011

2011-07-20T03:54:00.000-07:00

Well, finally getting a full time gig has certainly curtailed my hunt for rusty items. I did hit one sale and picked up the following though this past weekend:

One of the best things about going to rural sales is how cheap everything can be - in this case I spent very little money - less than $15. I always pick up wet/dry sandpaper when its very cheap as it keeps going up at the supplier.

The 000 and 0000 steel wool I bought as much for the packaging as for the nearly full boxes. Love the "Sun Ray" box!

The small shaped-rasps were cheap and I thought had the potential to be useful - I don't think I've ever seen them before so I'm not sure how they were offered in the stores?

As usual, I always pick up US-made clamps that are a couple of dollars or less - they don't shatter when they hit the floor like some of the Chinese-made clamps you buy these days, plus the little swivel-heads usually don't wear off (and the old clamps don't tend to twist when you torque them!). I think I've given up most of my newer clamps in favor for the old ones. I also like these old scrapers - this Craftsman one doesn't have any wear on the metal - I don't think it's ever been used.

The surprise find was this old Buck timber-framer's chisel - the handle is shot but the blade still has a few inches of usable cast steel left on it - it should refurb fine and for a two bucks couldn't be passed.

Both the metal squares are Stanley, a US-made No. 68 in steel and a 70's No 45-300 in aluminum - felt weird picking it up as I expected it to be heavier.

First aluminum Stanley I've found - then a couple of days later I came across another of the same model - weird how that works.

That's it for last week - now that I'm fully employed I won't be finding the exceptional deals as most of those are found on the Thursday-start Estate sales. Fortunately (or not depending on how you view it) I was able to root around sales while I wasn't working. Fun to do but bills have to be paid.

-- Best, John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - June 23, 2011

2011-07-02T07:11:00.000-07:00

Fairly light weekend for finding rusty things - seems people are already prepping for the July 4th weekend. I hit two sales and only found a handful it items at one of them - however what I did find was extremely cheap - I paid less than $10 for everything on the bench.

You really can't have too many rulers around the shop - I particularly like these thin stainless-steel rules - they have a thin cork backing to keep them from sliding off paper and I've found that any that are US or Japanese made are extremely accurate (they should be with marks going to the 16th of an inch). At $0.75 for the pair these are a welcome addition.

Next up are a trio of hammers - as a collector of mostly older, US made tools my hammers tend to have sturdy oak or hickory handles - however one hammer worth having is the metal-hafted Estwing - this lighter-weight framing hammer will join a heavier, textured face Estwing that I found buried on a job site many years ago. The only negative with these is that some tend to ring when striking a nail - I tested this one before buying and it's just dandy.

The two ball-peen hammers are interesting - the larger was made by one of the better hand-tool makers, Plumb (for some reason collectors go crazy for Plumb hammers, hatchets, axes, etc) - this example has had the head wedged in upside down and since the haft-hole is tapered a couple of big screws were added to keep it from moving - just dumb.

The smaller hammer is marked Champion - obviously made for delicate work - I don't think I've ever found a use for these (maybe I'm too ham-fisted for delicate work?) but they look cute hanging on the wall.

Estwing wraps their handles in some type of rubberized plastic - at least from the more recent period when this example was made. They always seem to be in good shape - whatever mix they used doesn't crack or deteriorate like some of their competitors, at least that I've found.

The remainder were some super cheap items that were worth picking up - the pin-vise is really well made. The adjustable brace-bit is unmarked. The two scrapers I use for cleaning off glass and are some of my favorites - years ago a friend of mine worked for a company that made a similar product so I'm well stocked with blades, so having a couple of extra of these are worthwhile.

In all, a very light week (and it looks like the July 4th weekend will be even lighter) - good for my wallet though. Hey after getting that super-cheap glue-pot last weekend I don't mind at all.

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - June 21, 2011

2011-06-23T06:29:00.000-07:00

I was kept too busy last week to do much hunting for tools at tag sales - actually I only stopped at one and ended up leaving empty-handed - when the weekend came along and I was too swamped and/or tired to do much searching. Then I got "the call" - one of my oldest friends in Atlanta lives several blocks from me and is also named John - when I think about it I've known him for over 15 years, having originally met him online as we both collect Japanese toys - it was only later that I discovered that we both had an interest in Mid-Century Modern furniture and design. A few years ago he was looking for a new place to live and somehow ended up in my neighborhood, which is a haven for Mid-Century Modernists due to the architecture. Most recently he's also been setting up a small workshop so he's also developed the tool bug. In any case, late last week John called - he was in front of some items in one of our favorite junk shops and wanted to know if I might be interested in some of them. Wow - it's great having friends. When he said "Glue Pot" my ears perked up - then came the price, $5.75 - I immediately said "Buy it!" I picked it up at his house a couple of days ago...

Remarkably, the pot appears unused and is missing only the optional lid. Now I can trash the old mini-crock pot I'm currently using.

It also came with what looks to be an unused pound of hide glue.

Cheered by this fantastic find - I stopped by a small sale earlier this week and found just a couple of items.

I got the trio of basically unused cans of solvents for a total of $2. Paid $1 for the Stanley Sureform and $5 for the unused 30' x 50' tarp - now I have no idea what I need that tarp for, but considering what you'd normally pay for one that large I thought $5 a worthwhile investment. At least now if one of the huge trees all over my yard falls on the house I might be able to temporarily cover the damage...

So the next day I thought I might swing by the same junk shop where John found the glue pot, to see if there was anything else interesting. I picked up the following for a total of a little over $10:

(That's the same glue pot, just grouped with the other items). When I spoke to John about the glue pot I said something about hide glue being used by traditional veneer users - so I wasn't surprised by the veneer saw - I was surprised by the $1.50 price though - this one is lightly marked "Made in West Germany" with no manufacturer's mark.

There was also this small wood burner with additional tips and a rheostat for $3.50 - hey I know it's not a Detail Master but its not $100 or more either.

I also picked up this router letter/number template set. I don't think it's great but the $4 price sticker sucked me in.

And finally there were these 3M paper holders - I think they probably originally held sandpaper - very heavy duty and they have a cool feature that allows them to hang from peg-board.

Not really much there that would qualify for "rust hunting" - more like bargain shop tool hunting, but since I didn't expect anything last week I'm glad to get what I did. The lesson learned here is to have friend's that look out for your interests - thanks to my old buddy John!

-- John

George Nelson Bench Project - an Introduction.

2011-06-17T06:07:00.000-07:00

So recently I scored a few classic pieces of Mid-Century Modern furniture - all in rather decrepit condition but salvageable. I thought I would start new posts describing the process of restoration. Yeah I know, another project (one of many) started but when will it be completed? In this case, all I've done is brush off the dust and spiderwebs, removed some staples and brought into the shop (my shop is really, really crowded right now - more on that in another post).

So this first pieces is the rather iconic George Nelson Slatted Bench, originally designed for Herman Miller in 1946 - I believe this was the first of George's furniture designs carried by Herman Miller (George became the Director of Design for Herman Miller around 1945 when HM moved into modernism and produced the very successful Herman Miller Catalog that we all so love today). I was told that my example was a 50's era bench - I'm not quite sure what distinguishes that era from others, but I'll do my best to describe what I've got.

Dimensions:
Height: 14"
Depth: 18.5"
Length: 48"
Materials: Birch slats on ebonized legs
Joinery: Saddle lap-joints and plugs (hiding?) for the bench top. Miters with dowels in the leg frames.
Fasteners: Large Phillips head attaching the legs to slats from beneath

My particular bench has a few notables - the legs have been painted (rather sloppily) with black paint, and there are stress cracks in the center of one side (someone or something rather heavy was placed on the platform).

Sloppy black paint is evident here. Note the plugs at the joining pieces on the end.

The slats have either been sloppily stained, or inadvertently stained by spilt liquids. Note the plugs at the lap-joints.

Screw head detail

Stress Crack Details

So what to do? Before I address any of the problems in the materials themselves, I did a small test to see if the finish was salvageable (what's the point of fixing the problems then finding the finish so bad all the materials would be sanded away into oblivion?). So I took out some 220 and hit the top slats in one corner lightly, to see who deep the patination and staining went into the wood. Luckily, birch is very forgiving...

The photo above was of just a few swipes with sand paper. There is some discoloration from the staples, reacting to the tannins in the wood (first slat at the bottom), but I think some oxalic acid will remove it if judiciously applied. The bigger question is what to do about those pieces with the stress cracks? There are two problem pieces - the cross brace is cracked on the end and the outer-most slat has two cracks. Right now I'm thinking of removing the outer-most slat and replacing it with a new piece of birch. The cross brace would be epoxied and clamped to produce a closed, solid end. This all depends on what and how this thing is held together. It's possible that those plugs you see in the lap-joints are just the end of dowels that have been trimmed flush - that would be the best scenario as I may be able to heat the joint to loosen the glue (I'm thinking the furniture makers were still using hide glue instead of the modern glues) and knock the pieces apart.

I would like to get the finish back as close to the original as possible, so I'll strip off everything, ebonize the legs and apply a wash coat or two of shellac to tone everything back to a slightly-yellow "patina", then shoot the whole thing in varnish. That's the plan, anyway, which is always subject to change as the project comes to completion. Stay tuned - more coming both on this and the other furniture pieces....

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - June 9, 2011

2011-06-13T06:24:00.000-07:00

Another horribly busy weekend, however I did manage to hit two sales.

The first netted some good woodworking and DIY books along with a Zyliss vise and hewing hatchet, also three Buck Brothers turning tools that are super heavy. First time I've ever seen that particular blacksmithing book in hardcover (fairly common in paperback).

I missed out on the box with accessories for $10 on the vise - saw the guy walking out with it and somehow didn't see it (must have been sitting somewhere else in the garage). I did score the main components for $15 even though the table-clamps are upside down...

This Falls City hewing hatchet (it's a single plane on the left side - I tried to get an image but it was too blurred) comes in handy when smoothing split logs - now if I can only find a broadaxe...)

These Buck Brothers turning tools are the larges/heaviest I've ever seen - happy to get the skew, scraper and gouge...

The last sale I went to netted me the brass fishing scale, the Stanley Handyman chisel, two brace bits (see photo at the top) and the blacksmith's tongs. I also scored a decent concrete hoe for $2 and a fiberglass handled Ames shovel for $3 (why is it that you always need shovels? They seem to walk away...).

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - June 3, 2011

2011-06-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

Hit a couple of sales over the weekend - picked up a lot of small items very cheap at one, then a few items at an estate sale on my street.

Nothing really special here - the pick-axe is a bit unusual. It's marked "Collins" and appears to be for mining? At least it doesn't have the wide spade bit on the back like most you see, rather a thinner point on one end. The haft is hickory I believe. That was found with the two saws. The rest I got at one sale.

The smaller, dovetail saw is unmarked and missing a screw so I'm not sure about the maker - I think it'll clean up but I mostly got it for the nice grip - it's covered in orange and green paint so I suspect it came from a school.

The handsaw has very little blade left and is a bit bent to boot. I got it for the nicely carved apple grip - it's also the first "The Simonds Saw" I've found in the wild (pretty much invariably they're either Disston or Warranted Superior).

Of the small items, there was this rubber 60's era Craftsman mallet (the head is still soft enough to stand an impact, no cracking at all) and this container of bear spray, which beats the heck out of that cheap pepper spray for home defence.

The trowel was a rather nicely handled one, the Stanley Handyman "Yankee Screwdriver" a bit different from my others in that it has a Phillips bit, while the mini driver is just marked "Made in USA" but appears to be Starrett by the knurl and red box.

I also got this trio of scrapers (one marked Sargent and another Red Devil - both hardly used) plus this nice Stanley Sureform.

The last few items include a trio of files (one with a great handle), a metal straight edge and a very nice condition Stanley "Handyman" metal level. (those things to the left are wire ties, used to attached cables to buildings and poles - they come in handy).

Nothing really special in the lot but still worth saving from the dump. It's funny, I've "lost" my crappy pick axe - one of those plastic-handled jobs you get at Home Depot so I just started looking around for a replacement, and now I've found two in two weeks. When it rains, it pours I guess.

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - May 26, 2011

2011-05-31T08:08:00.000-07:00

I once again got too busy to do much in the way of Rust Hunting last week - however while cutting through a neighborhood I spotted an "Estate Sale" sign - this was Thursday May 26. The sale was full of artwork by a local artist but not much in the way of tools - I did spot a Plumb axe and a hand-held miter cutter.

The miter-cutter is an imported "Lowes" (seems to be an art tool supplier as I believe I also own a canvas stretcher with the same mark) and is used mostly for paper mats and the like. I also found a Logan Mat Cutter last week at Goodwill so this will be a good accessory to have when I'm matting up prints and artwork.

The real find at the sale was this nicely handled Plumb axe.

The handle appears to be oak - I love the general feel and haft of this one.

As a bonus, this appears to be the original grind.

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - May 12, 2011

2011-05-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

I didn't get to do much in the way of Yard/Garage/Tag/Estate sales this week - although I did hit one sale held by one of those official Estate Sale firms. It was actually near the house and I managed to score a few items. While I was walking up to the house someone was walking out with a nice 60-70 pound anvil - I asked "How much" and his reply was $40 - a good deal for him so I was hopeful in finding a few things. When I got into the basement all the hand planes and many of the other hand tools were gone. I picked up a few misc. items and settled on a box of old files - at $3 it was worth it just for the Vixen that was in there (my favorite file type). I also found a Stanley framing square for $2, a container of large bolts for $1, a few hammer handles and a mason's hammer (all super cheap).

I then found some gear pullers (all Taiwan-made but of reasonably good quality) and a tool arbor with bearings and pulley (never know when you need one).

I then spotted the adz and axe and the two spalted maple slabs (3-4 inches thick and not punky) - I paid the most for the adz at $15 but the US-made pick was only $5 (mine disappeared so this was a timely purchase). I also found a heavy sledgehammer (not pictured) also US-made for $5.

I lugged those out to the truck and then went back to look for anything else and found some woodworking books upstairs.

I've long wanted a set of St. Roy's books and here was all three for a buck each - real score for me. I picked up the early Fine Woodworking tips book since it was all illustrations, the Gustav Stickley reprint (I have the original version but now I don't have to worry about trashing it) and an interesting booklet on knife making - seems the PO took a continuing ed class regarding same. There are some interesting ideas in it so it'll be fun exploring a few techniques. One other item not pictured was a small book on limericks illustrated by Edward Gorey - some Scholastic publication I've never seen - that went to my wife.

That's about it for now. We had our Neighborhood Yard Sale this same weekend so my Saturday was shot - wasn't able to make the GWA meeting either (shop tours so it was a double whammy as I really enjoy touring other member's shops). I did manage to sell a lot of things no longer wanted and even made a some money so my time was well spent.

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - April 28, 2011

2011-05-02T06:17:00.000-07:00

I stopped at a well-published estate sale on Thursday and picked up just a few items - most of the goods were outrageously over-priced (as usual these days) but I still managed to find a couple of good items. When I walked them up to pay I thought I would end up putting them back after hearing the prices given to those in front of me. Somehow Ye Ole Tool Gods were with me - the lady said "How about $15 for everything?" - SCORE!

First up is the set of mechanics tools - the Proto ignition wrenches are a nice pair to find, as is the vintage SnapOn ratchet - it matches the quarter-inch ratchet I found last year. I also like these 90 degree drivers and the Craftsman example was nicely made (they come in very handy).

The second set of hand tools includes a Stanley Hurwood #20 wood-handled driver, a pair of Porter Cable tool wrenches (which always seem to be missing) and a set of Klein dikes (the identical pair I already owned have part of the cutting edge blown out from a hot wire - don't laugh - so I was glad to find a replacement).

Stanley Hurwood - my favorite Wood-handled Screwdrivers

But the real find of the day was this 1935 Simmons "Keen Kutter" full-line hardcover catalog. This is the first of this quality I've found in the wild. With a whopping 2118 pages this book is a real beast having illustrations on just about every page and color plates. Besides having the expected full-line of Keen Kutter tools, there are also many Stanley tools, hardware of every size and description, Bicycles and replacement gun parts - you name it. It's an amazing book!

I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do with the book - at minimum I think it would make a good trade item - seems like it would also do very well on eBay, having a lot of cross-collecting appeal.

Oh I should explain the extra items in the photo - we've been slowly replacing all our storage containers for food with glass - preferably Pyrex - as we're trying to get away for storing food in plastics or metal. Those are two glass containers with lids, and an extra pair of lids I got in the deal. I did manage to score one extra item at a sale on Saturday - a "Power Rake" for $4 (it looked well made and was about the only reasonably priced item at the sale) - I found the rake on Lee Valley's website - seems it goes for about $40 or so - hope it works as good as it looks!

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - April 16, 2011

2011-04-19T07:03:00.000-07:00

As indicated in my previous post - I've been fairly busy with some varying projects around the house - (see this link to view my current "digging" project in another blog post) actually too busy to do much towards my Unisaw and also too busy to go to many local tag/garage/yard sales. I did see a post on the local CL for a Dake arbor press and managed to be the first caller. In the description it was called a "1 1/2 ton ratchet press" - since I don't own one in that range it would fill a need to I justified the cost of $75 even though I'm currently unemployed. I went to meet the owner of said press - turns out it came from her aunt's estate. Looking it over it sure seemed large for a 1 1/2 ton unit - it's also missing the arbor table plate (disc at the bottom that allows for different sized shafts) so I pointed that out and offered $50 which she accepted.

On the back of a small HF float

Dake Arbor Press No 1 1/2

Top View

As you can sort of tell by the size, it's rather large - I believer it weighs in excess of 100# and was made in Grand Haven, MI in the good ole USA.

I did a bit of research and it turns out the Dake No 1 1/2 is actually a 3 ton unit. The current version (which there are about 18 different models available, all with various configurations) sells in excess of $1000 new (saw the same model on eBay without the lever arm for $500) so I was quite lucky buying this one so cheaply. I currently own a Chinese 3 ton so this will replace that unit (may see if the plate will fit on the Dake). I think I can completely recover what I spent in selling the Chinese without the plate so that's the plan. This Dake model works like a dream - the ratchet allows you to advance with the arm in any position. In all a good day of rust hunting...

-- John

Unisaw - Quick Mid-April Update

2011-04-16T04:03:00.000-07:00

Only had a few moments to work on the saw during the last week or two - I did begin some sub-assemblies (front trunnion bracket) and painted the second coat on a few parts (feet, cranks, blade dust shield). I've been messing with a couple of magnetic starters to use on the saw - these are all three phase so I'll be converting for use as single phase 220. So far I've collected an old Allen Bradley, a Cutler Hammer and I may be purchasing a Square D just to make things interesting. More photos to come.

As usual, all the other stuff I do has been interfering - I've also been working on a bird house (my woodworking club is having a little contest this morning during our regular Saturday meeting) and the yard. My current project is to dig out the space beneath the rear deck (by hand I might add - shovel load at a time), then wheelbarrow the dirt out to various areas in the yard that need filling (we've lost so many trees that there are somewhat dangerous holes all over my wooded lot). I also moved 8 tons of dirt (by hand once again) out at the rental property (thanks to my friend Allen who took pity on me and helped move about half of it) to back-fill the rear drain after the water-proofers were done coating the wall.

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - April 4, 2011

2011-04-08T05:39:00.000-07:00

On my way to the local Home Depot I saw a sign for a Moving Sale - stopped by and the older gentleman, who was a retired electrician had a few bits and parts for sale in mixed boxes scattered about the driveway, as well as the furniture inside his home. I spotted a couple of things including two rusty Union marked chisels (one with a handle, the other without), a Proto Tools "Challenger" 9/16" wrench, a small brass wire brush, a 20A orange receptacle and a handful of replacement cord ends (male and female) in both 120V and 220V. I got the small pile for $2.

I hit each chisel with a wire brush for a couple of minutes - there's some pitting but these will make fine user tools - I've already added a handle (that fit the first try) to the mortise chisel.

I'm not sure if you can see the marks clearly, but Union is full marked on the paring chisel and half marked on the mortise chisel. As Union supplied many electrical tools I'm guessing the guy bought them as part of a set at some point for a job or something. He had some other chisels but they were well used and not much worth saving.

I worked around the house and at our rental property over the weekend so I wasn't able to hit any other sales - I did score pretty well during the week so I think things balance out nicely in any case.

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - March 31, 2011

2011-03-31T14:19:00.000-07:00

Spotted a sale this morning and made a quick flyby based on the photos. The sale was marked "Mid Century Modern" yada yada and that drew me to the photos. Looking at them the garage full of tools showed some promise. By the time I got there this afternoon it was fairly picked over - just missed a metal welding table with an enormous vise that sold to a guy for $60 - I don't think he even knew what he got with that deal - the vise alone was probably worth $100-200 so he got the vise cheap and the table for free. I did find a small group of files - seller wanted $30 for the lot but I decided to get picky (I've currently got a 5 gallon bucket of old files that keep getting in my way and didn't want to add too much to the pile) and only picked up the vixen files - I have a soft-spot for those - he told me $3 each. I kept walking around and found a Sears marked soft-bristle brass brush and a Starrett 12" combination square. Got the whole group for $17.

This is the newest Starrett I own with a smoth (non pebbly) slide

Mostly Nicholson

I went inside and the only thing I saw that was interesting was an old wood-topped work table - but at $60 I passed. It was at least 2 1/2" thick made from maple I think - very worn. The last I bought like that I managed to purchase for way less so I guess I'm spoiled. I did another pass in the garage and started looking at this old roll-away tool box. It's a bit rough - the previous owner was an auto mechanic. After pointing out some of the flaws in the boxes (the top is a Kennedy style machinist box) I haggled down to $35 for the top and bottom.

I've never heard of Huot

Seems fairly well-made

As a bonus I got the contents of the top

Both Course and Fine tins of Clover Compound

Now the bottom I recognized as I've occasionally found tools marked Proto Tools - especially wood handled hammers and wrenches. My understanding is that this manufacturer was more popular on the west coast rather than in the South East. Also, I believe the company was bought by Stanley at some point.

Box No. 9941

I may pick up some locks so the upper and lower will match the same key - if you've every accidentally locked one of these you'll understand why I'm considering it. In all, not a bad haul for a 15 minute drive. I swung by another sale that was nearby but didn't find anything at that one. Wonder if finding this now means the weekend will be extra fruitful or dead? No telling...

-- John

Unisaw - Completing the Arbor and Tables

2011-03-29T14:41:00.000-07:00

So a few days ago I got busy completing the arbor rebuild and starting the tables. The first thing I needed to do was address the big piece of the table edge that was missing (broken off - see the first post images and you'll see what I'm talking about). Ideally this would have a new piece braised back in, but frankly, I've yet to find anyone locally who I felt comfortable with doing the work. Cast iron is rather finicky - the technique requires heating the metal up to cherry red before welding so that the metals interlock, then allowing to cool slowly (like it sand) so you get a strong joint. When talking to any of the welders around here, the only process they know is to immediately start going at it with rod - after thinking about this a while I decided to just fill it as best I could with JB Weld. Since it's not a load bearing surface and wont be under any stresses, metal-filled resin just seemed easier to me (to work, particularly). I cut a few pieces of hard plastic and made a small form, mixing up the two parts and laying it into the void. The stuff was pretty much self leveling.

JB Weld within Form

Cardboard palette and Popsicle stick applicator

Allowed to dry and harden over-night

As you can see the color approximated the raw, cleaned cast iron. I continued to work down the resin using rasps, files and finally sandpaper

Ready for Paint!

While I starting taping off the tables and wings for paint, I also finished up the arbor rebuild. The first time I put the arbor together I wasn't happy with the result - the pulley could slide back-and-forth along the shaft about 3/32" - the threads on the bearing side were also a bit buggered so the retaining nut wanted to cross-thread. So before I torqued everything down and screwed something up, I took it all apart and made a few posts on OWWM to ask for some opinions. I knew I would need to chase the threads so with it apart it would be easier to get things to go together when assembled. One idea I got from the forum was to put everything together sans bracket so I could see how it would fit - that way I would know how much room I would have for the final nut and belvedere washer. While taking things apart the far bearing nearly fell out of the bearing - so I knew that was probably part of the problem. It was too loosely pressed in (the retaining nut wasn't applying enough force), so apparently what happened was that when I applied pressure on the arbor to press everything into final assembly, it loosened the far bearing - that was the slack I was seeing (understand there was so much slack that the spaces would slide - that's where I got my 3/32" of looseness). The second time was the charm - this time I applied a drop of blue LockTite to the far bearing, then made sure I got the retaining nut very snug. I did have one mishap - the punch slipped and hit the plastic bearing sleeve hard enough to scrape the coating, but not hard enough to puncture (luckily) so I went with the same bearing with the hope that it wasn't bad enough to warrant a replacement (only time will tell!).

Starting to press the bearing

Watch the spring washer so it doesn't get caught

You can see the small spot of coating where I slipped

TIP: Place small screwdriver blade under belvedere washer until nut is tightened

Slightly pry upward then go to a larger screwdriver (careful not to hit the bearing sleeve)

Final step to add the pulley lock (with a drop of blue LockTite)

Completed Arbor Rebuild!

I tried to group the photos together a bit, but in practice I actually went back-and-forth from inside to outside while I hit the wings with primer, then two coats of paint (if you look at the camera times you can see the order). I also got two coats on the underside of the table.

Primer

Paint

Table after Second Coat

Wings after Second Coat

In all I feel pretty good about where I am thus far. I still need to finish painting the cabinet, plus the motor cover, cranks, feet and pan, but those will need to wait for a clear day. I'm going to start the sub-assemblies and probably get the motor apart so it can be cleaned, potentially turn down the commutator and fit new bearings (may get new brushes as well).

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - March 26, 2011

2011-03-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

Picked up a few things during some "drive-bys" over the weekend.

The first group was composed of a handful of items found at my favorite "antique-junk" places. I often manage to find an item or two super cheap - they also give me a discount so these three items were about $9 after tax. I probably shouldn't have bought the awl but I liked the way the handle felt in my palm (I have large hands). The Stanley bevel still has most of the decal on the rosewood handle and the surface rust on the blade should clean up fine. The Stanley #36 is the first of these smaller metal levels I've ever found in the wild - this one has two patent dates and I believe it's fairly scarce, and worth the $5 or so I paid for it.

The second group was made up of the left-overs from an advertised estate sale that was full of hand-tools. By the time I got there most was picke-over and gone, which is alright by me (not that I need much more as I'm already at the point of being a "hoarder"). The good thing about bottom feeding a sale like this is that everything is usually discounted. In this case, 50% of the prices marked. I walked away from the sale for $5.50. I've had good luck on anvils lately - this one is hoe-made using an over-sized piece of rail. I like the hardened-rolled steel and size of this one - my intent is to use it as a bench anvil after a little clean up - weight is about 40 pounds. The Stanley Handyman 42 is in immaculate condition - it's a good size for those smaller saw teeth. I just liked the ball peen hammer - rather over-sized head for the handle with modified grip (this one will be grouped with a big lot of tinner's hammers I have that also have carved handles).

Stanley Handyman #42 saw tooth set

The last sale I hit was one of those were crap is heaped up in boxes and milk-crates all over the yard. I saw lots of rust and wood handles from the road so I walked up. I spent about an hour picking through everything and ended up with these items - each at a quarter (got it all for $5). Most of those handles are old file handles that have tools shoved in them (the bigger set are all nut drivers). The Dexter body filler knife/spreader has a rosewood handle.

In all a successful and very low-cost weekend of rust gathering.

-- John

Unisaw - Prepping the Table and Rebuilding the Arbor

2011-03-25T10:11:00.000-07:00

My next steps were to both start the preparation of the table/wings, and rebuild the arbor with new bearings. Here's a shot of what the table wings looked like - note the multiple coats of paint, rust and marred surface.

You can't see it in the photos but if you look at my first couple of Unisaw posts you'll see that there's a big chip missing from one edge. Initially I was going to abandon the use of that wing by using an extension table for a 52" fence. I've since decided to go with a shorter fence as the width of the previous would make it too cumbersome to walk around in my tiny wood shop.

I cleaned all surfaces as best as I could using a twisted-wire cup brush mounted in an angle grinder. I then media blasted using Black Diamond abrasive purchased from Northern Tool (great stuff and only a little more expensive than sand, and the threat of silicosis is minimized). Here's the table after blasting and shown with a coat of primer. Done with this for the day (trying to prune up the yard to get ready for the Friday yard trash pickup).

I had already started the arbor dissembly using my bearing puller:

I finished cleaning up the rest of the gunk on my grinder equipped with a brass wire wheel:

And a few days later pressed on the new extended-race bearing purchased from Accurate:

I had already pressed on the other bearing into the arbor bracket using my thumbs:

And then supported the hollow area between the two ears using a twobafore and a couple of cedar shakes (the taper let me sneak up on a tight fit), tapping in the bearing with a soft-faced hammer until flush:

It's suggested that the threaded retaining ring be installed with a drop of blue Locktite:

And that a punch be used instead of a screwdriver:

At this point both bearings have been seated and the arbor is ready to be inserted.

I set everything down and prepared for the next phase - finishing up the arbor rebuild and completing the tables. Sorry about the disjointed chronology - all this stuff was going on in between other projects and demands on my time so it's a bit spotty (didn't remember to take shots of the table underside, for instance).

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - March 12, 2011

2011-03-14T09:16:00.000-07:00

It's unusual for me to find more than one sale that has old tools - I guess when it rains it pours - I scored at two separate sales.

I saw an interesting ad on CL regarding tools and whatnot from an estate - seems the owner used to train horses and there were some dark, rather vague photos of bench vises. I shot off an email asking about any anvils or blacksmithing tools and got a reply back that there were some items. I arranged to take a look and found two anvils - both marked Fisher and about the same size. I bought the better of the two (the second had a back corner busted off near the hardie hole).

While looking around I found an older, cast-frame Workmate. I've been jonesing for one of these for a few years - I currently own two (a 79-001 type 4 and a later model 425 with a vertical clamping surface - both were found at yard sales, the former for $5 and the latter for $10). The cool thing about the very early models is that there are a number of cast metal parts. In this case, the "H-Frame" supports are cast metal instead of sheet steel. The Type 1 had orange-painted plywood "jaws" and cast aluminum supports (the type 2 is pretty much the same other than stamped metal supports and natural "wood"). In any case, I've been hoping to find one for some time - the Workmate is incredibly versatile - you'd have to own one (or three!) to understand completely. This example was in a long chicken house used as a stable - the Workmate was buried in about 10 inches of straw and wood shavings. Here are images after a quick hit of compressed air:

Original label

Has both sets of "feet"

Plastic knob over metal core

A bit rusty

Still visible Type 2 stamp

Complete with plastic bench dogs

There's quite a bit of info on Workmates and a Type Study to be found here: http://kirkhmb.smugmug.com/Woodworking/Workmate-Type-Study/

An here are some detailed photos of the anvil and a handful of other tools also acquired at the same sale. The anvil is marked "Fisher 6" and "1892" - it should clean up nicely and be ready for use shortly. Interestingly, the other anvil I passed on showed up on CL about a week later for $150: http://atlanta.craigslist.org/wat/tls/2261318630.html

This is the handful of miscellaneous tools I also picked up at the sale - nothing special but a good Stanley hammer, Stanley chisel, Stanley "Yankee" screwdriver, nippers and some type of air gauge.

The second sale I also found on CL - in this case the seller had a bunch of home woodshop tools listed with some photos - the inexpensive Craftsman pedestal grinder caught my eye. The base is the same as the 50's Craftsman shaper I currently owned. I emailed and got a reply the next day (Saturday) and was able to go right over and scope things out. Seems the seller had inherited the shop from an uncle and didn't really have the space to set up a proper shot, thus the sale. While there I also spied some other items that I was also able to purchase.

So as I was looking over his other items I spotted this drill press vise - as I've always wanted something better than the cheap Taiwanese thing I currently use, this is a welcome addition. It was also made in the USA which usually indicates a better quality item. I like that it tilts, however the bracket looks a bit lame.

I also spotted some 12" Craftsman wood-screw clamps - these are as good as any Jorgenson's I've seen and have long screws for extra capacity (at least they're longer than my Jorgys). There were also some "made in US" metal "C" clamps (the small one is marked "Wilton") and an old Vixen file holder with an aluminum Craftsman grip - from back in the day before Sureforms became the norm in doing body work. I like the tensioning turnbuckle - you can really bend the file to get at an inside radius...

In all a very successful day of rust hunting.

-- John

Unisaw - Parts Clean Up

2011-03-04T14:26:00.000-08:00

I was out of town over the weekend and didn't get back until Tuesday so these photos are from just before I left for Albuquerque. First the Unisaw cabinet - managed to spray a couple of coats on the interior and did coat one surface of the exterior (didn't take a photo of it though as I wasn't happy) - it was then that I saw many sanding marks and imperfections (I'd anticipated some but this really bugged me). I've decided to rough up the painted surface and re-shoot with primer, then hit the worst of it with some glazing compound (blocking with wet sandpaper) until it looks better. I figure this is the only chance I'll have to do this so I may as well spend a little extra time getting it right. Images of the cabinet up till this point:

2 coats on the interior surfaces

Dark Machine Gray on Interior (primed exterior)

As I've been working on the painted portions, I've started cleaning up the interior pieces - here are images of what's been worked on thus far - note the labeled baggies - as I dissembled the saw (over 3 years ago - ugh!) I carefully bagged the parts and took photos so I could have a reference in putting things back together. Most of the parts have been cleaned up on a brass wire wheel - some of the smaller parts were put into a vibratory tumbler. I'm replacing the carriage bolts for the base (had to cut two of them off that were frozen with rust) and won't bother with the square nuts (you don't see them anyway since the nut is tightened from the bottom).

Arbor Parts

Tilt and Elevation Crank Parts

Table Wing Fasteners

Top Fasteners

Trunnion Stops, Bolts, Washers and Pins

Trunnion Bracket Fastners

Motor Mount Fastners

Guard Bracket Mount

Blade Retention Washer and Nut

Blade Dust Deflector Fasteners and Sleeves

Arbor Support Bolt

Door Latch

Front Trunnion Parts

Crank and Door Knobs

Switch mount and cover

As you can see by the photo above the switch cover is really shot - I just purchased a reproduction one - I think I'm going with a magnetic switch so the reproduction plate will be for looks only. I've also recently scored a tilt plate and a serial number plate from a 60's model saw (along with the drive screws) - all for looks really as those I pulled off the saw were really shot.

While out of town the bearings for the arbor and motor made it to the house - if the weather stays lousy (rain in the forecast) I'll move on to those rebuilds and wait on the cabinet. Still a ways to go...

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - February 2011

2011-02-25T02:53:00.000-08:00

Had a chance this past Sunday to go by one of my favorite Antique/Flea places and spied a small hand-saw. It's unmarked and probably from a kid's tool box but the price was right (less than $3). Walking around I spied a Disston D-23 with a carved apple handle - it's a later post-nib but straight and cut at 11 tpi - also with a $3.50 sticker well worth buying - I tried to capture the etch but didn't quite get it. In any case both of these aren't bad to clean up. My total with discount was less than $6 with tax.

That's about it for tool hunting - more Unisaw updates coming!

-- John

New Lumber Yard - Eutree.com

2011-02-21T06:36:00.000-08:00

Saturday afternoon I took my neighbor and fellow woodworker John Stephens to visit a newly advertised lumber yard. This was the post I spotted on the Atlanta CraigsList:

Hardwood Lumber Sale
All lumber is Commercial Kiln Dried. All lumber is 4/4 unless noted. Minimum purchase $100, may offer package for all lumber in one stack.

Quarter Sawn Red Oak - 4 to 11 inch width and very clear, most will grade FAS - a portion has already been surfaced to 7/8ths. $2.50BF

Quarter Sawn White Oak - FAS Grade - $3.00BF - Some very large 6 and 8/4 sections perfect for bartop or judges paneling.

Black Walnut - 6 to 7 inch wide - $4.00 - some may be 8/4
Cherry - 1Common and FAS - 4 to 12 inches wide $2.75 to $3.75
Assorted Beech, Persimmon, various species also onsite and available.
Assorted Artisan Slabs and Hardwood Flooring also onsite and available.
All species are available already surfaced for a small charge.
We will be open to the public this saturday between 1 and 5. Our company is Eutree Lumber and can be viewed at www.Eutree.com

I thought the pricing looked very good and went to the website. As many of you know I'm a web geek, chronic recycler/restorer and something of a design freak - I thought both the web design and messaging were exceptional. Although many of the smaller lumber providers in the area have a similar method - buying trees downed by tree removal services for lumber - this was the first company that really extends the idea of using that as part of their marketing message (the web concept is that they don't "mine" forests, instead only preparing lumber made from hand-picked timber provided by tree removal services, in case the above doesn't make sense and you don't feel like going to the website).

I picked up John around 1:30ish and headed down to Mableton (that's on the west side of the perimeter right off of I285). As we drove, I realized that we would be going right past Hardwoods Inc (Eutree is on the same road heading south). There isn't a sign but an entryway on the Eastern side of the road - if you go you'll see huge trees stacked in the background with drying stacks on the North side and a couple of front-end loaders. I parked on the left next to this:

I'm not sure if you get the scale of that log - it's about 40 inches in diameter. I was greeted by one of the partners, Joel Tovi, who added us to tour he was giving to some other visitors. These are the warehouse shots:

Stacks of dried Red, White and QS Oak

Stacks of dried Cherry, Maple and Walnut

Wide Oak Boards

Slabs and Specialty Lumber

Those spalted maple slabs you see are from a 20+" wide log - it's also cut at 6/4 so you can see the thickness - what a beautiful table you'd get out of that one piece!

Really Beautiful Walnut

So when you look at the photo above, you'll see some really beautiful walnut that hasn't been steamed to that muddy gray color - one of the main enticements for using a small specialty lumber yard like Eutree is to get your hands on something with some character. This walnut is really exceptional.

Couple of slab tables

One of the partners is actually a woodworker - the advantage is that he knows what to look for in unusual timber and species.

Milled lumber air-drying, waiting for the kiln (man I need to get lose some weight! My friend John Stevens in on the left.)

More air-drying stacks

Joel Tovi shows the width of some QS boards

Slabs on a front-loader

The sawmill

Some of the largest Holly I've ever seen

To give you an idea of scale

Imagine what you can make from this Holly!

Eutree's newly built kiln

Two 6/4 Persimmon boards I purchased

Holly Log and 8/4 Spalted Maple Slab

Two Persimmon boards waiting to be added to my stacks

Before leaving I spied some really beautiful 6/4 persimmon - those went home with me along with a couple of gifts Joel offered me for a club raffle - a 6-8" diameter Holly log and an 6/4 spalted maple slab.

Overall I enjoyed my visit and tour of the yard quite a bit. I met two of the partners (Joel and Sims) and discussed at length what would interest area woodworkers the most in lumber. I stressed that unusual species that are atypical would be more marketable than those species that everyone in the area carries. Also thick cuts - their prices are already really good. They also expressed some interest in perhaps doing a presentation to the GWA class. The business is young, but that also makes them very flexible and I think they're off to a good start. If you're in the area you should definitely give them a try.

-- John

Unisaw - More Work on the Case

2011-02-19T15:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I completed the rust and paint removal by breaking out my Compact Air Needle Scaler - picked this up a few months ago when it was on sale for about $20 at Harbor Freight (http://www.harborfreight.com/compact-air-needle-scaler-96997.html). I also have a full-sized unit but it wouldn't fit inside the cabinet sideways, so I was lucky to have the "mini-me" sized version.

I've never tried using one before - had only heard about people having success when them in rust and paint removal. This pneumatic tool vibrates a series of fat, wire-like nails that force paint and rust off metal. It worked extremely well, especially for the corners and inside edges that I couldn't get to with the wire cup brush. I followed up with a tiny bit of media blasting then worked everything over with a dual-action sander. Finally I shot the whole thing with some primer.

Initial layer of Primer

Finished the primer around 3:00 PM

Today I took out the case and took a more critical look at any bad dents and scratches, which lead me to a some light bondo work. I hit the low spots, waited for it to dry then worked them out. I'm not looking for perfection so there are still many small spots - most will work out with some light sanding. I just knew that when I shoot the gloss gray on it that the larger defects (which are mostly dents) will show under my shop lights - so the effort was to make things better (A.K.A. minimum effort) and not worry about perfection. I didn't bother with the inside.

Light bondo and sanded out

I then re-sprayed the whole case with a second coat of primer and this is the result:

Once it was dry to the touch I brought it inside to completely dry and set-up. I guess it's time to order the bearings and belts.

-- John

Unisaw - More Paint and Some De-Crudding

2011-02-18T06:56:00.000-08:00

Atlanta has had some exceptionally beautiful weather the last few days - combine that with my lack of a job - and suddenly stuff gets done that's been waiting in the wings for years. I'm finally making some progress on the Unisaw rebuild - I've got most of the interior guts primed and painted (still plan a second coat of Rustoleum "Machine Gray"). I also got back into the paint removal on the case.

Shiny New Gray Paint

More Gray Paint

Even More Gray Paint

I also had a chance to work on the front Door latch - this is what it looks like cleaned-up (still need to clean up the knobs):

With the weather so nice I drug out the case - which I had started to media blast sometime last year but didn't get very far. I first tried to use stripper but there's so much old paint that it basically laughed at the stuff - I tried a couple of coats and only got about half way through the paint layers with scraping. Much too slow a process for me. I then started media blasting but with only a single stage compressor it too was excruciatingly slow (the pressure would drop and you end up sitting there waiting for it to build back up, remove another inch or two then repeat. After the first time spending about 2 hours and only getting about 10% removed I gave up).

Finally, while doing some cleanup in my shop, inspiration hit. I came across a braided cup grinder that I got in a mess of parts in a trade. I thought.... "hmm - wonder if this will fit in an angle grinder?" - I found my $10 Harbor Freight Angle Grinder, drug everything outside and stared going to town.

The cup in comparison to the grinder is just massive - probably why that little thing died after about an hour. It got to the point where it started smoking and all the torque was gone as soon as the brush hit the metal. Oh well - for a $10 grinder it worked plenty long enough for me, especially considering that I originally bought it for a single job (removing the top of a toilet flange in cast iron) so it paid for itself the first time I used it. I'll try replacing the brushes before donating to Goodwill. I got out my Makita angle grinder - funny as it's rated the same as the HF version (obvious knock-off) but the difference in torque is simply amazing. I learned that if one of these gets away from you you back away and unplug from the extension cord. That spinning brush wrecked havoc on the leaves and dug a furrow in the ground, slinging dirt everywhere. Happened more than once as my arms started to get tired (on the inside of the cabinet).

Twisted Wire Cup of Wrath

RIP Harbor Freight Grinder

To give you an idea of what I was working against - I noticed while grinding that the odor it was giving up was the smell of bondo - I'm wondering if at some time in the past someone just coated the whole case in bondo. It would explain the thickness (over 1/16" in most areas) and the red color.

I had to stop after a couple of hours for a phone interview (which went very well - have an in-person interview next week as a result). For about 2 1/2 hours worth of work, I was able to get 99% of the paint, rust and crud off - only needing to work the corners and edges to complete the removal. This method was so much cleaner and faster than media blasting that I would recommend it to anyone - just make sure you have earplugs, especially when you're working on the inside of the cabinet.

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - February CraigsList Find

2011-02-17T07:39:00.000-08:00

As with many a tool hoard... er collecte.. uh tool users, I tend to peruse the local CraigsList from time to time. Last Saturday I happened to find an ad for a "Machinists Protractor - $20" which piqued my interest. Looking at it closely I realized that it was a 20" Starrett Combination Square so I sent off an email indicating that I wanted it with a phone number. Here's the original ad:

I received a call later than morning - the seller indicated that I was the first email (pays to get up early!), verified that the $20 included the rule and other parts (always a good idea since the seller could have just been selling the protractor part of the square) and headed out to pick it up. The guy selling indicated that he had purchased it around 15 years ago for $100 but now didn't have any need for it. He also told me that he was surprised at all the calls he had received as he didn't think there was much need for something like this these days. I told him that I wanted it to use for woodworking which also surprised him (he didn't see any reason to have increments in 64ths for something like wood).

Anyway, I've always wanted a 24" length Starrett Combination Square and that's what I got, a number 16 rule with square, protractor and center - this one was wrapped in oil-soaked rags with only a hint of rust in a couple of places - there is some grime that needs to be cleaned up but otherwise it's not bad at all. It's also missing the marking pin but fortunately I have one from another that I an add to make this one complete.

In all a good day of rust hunting - I'm naming this one "Spivey" after a former owner.

-- John

Unisaw Rebuild - Starting the Painting Phase

2011-01-30T08:53:00.000-08:00

So this is my latest progress on the 1948 Unisaw rebuild (that I started a few years ago) - OK so there were a few things that got in the way (like building the shop around it, a few bench and furniture restorations, converting the house to a tankless hot water heater, you get the idea) but I'm committing to finishing this build, hopefully in the spring of this year (2011). I won't bore you with the rest of the dissembly - it wasn't too bad except I found a few things that needed replacing, starting with the front Trunnion Bracket - there was a weld done on one of the "ears" that fold over the top and connect the bracket to the case. It's a common area to break - if the cabinet is slammed from the side or tipped over the casting there has a tendency to snap. At first I worked on the weld and was going to paint, when someone on OWWM.org offered one up for sale at a reasonable price. I continued with the dissembly and started media blasting. All of the internal parts are completed and in primer except for the arbor bracket itself - I saved this one for last as I wanted to take some extra care with it. I also started blasting the cabinet (as of today I'm about 5% done on that - multiple coats of paint - why someone would want to lay on red, especially with a brush, I'll never know)).

These photos show the various parts media blasted, cleaned up a bit with a file (anyplace where the casting was a bit rough - I didn't go overboard but figured since I had everything apart I should go ahead and work out what looked really bad), sprayed with primer and in most of these photos, at least half-way painted with Rustoleum Dark Machine Gray (the light gray is the primer). I intend to load up the parts with two coats of Gray. You can't see the tape, but those parts like the gearing that need to be exposed were cleaned and taped off. There's also a wood dowel in the yoke to keep out most of the paint.

In the photos you'll also notice a few new parts that weren't part of the original - Since this is going to be a "user" saw, I wanted the features that I liked best in the Unisaw, starting with the four corner feet instead of the cast iron plinth block (there in the following photos in the back, far right). Besides looking better to me than the plinth, it also provided me with the option of adding a dust shoot from the bottom - I remembered someone on OWWM.org offering up a custom welded plated and contacted him - got this for a very reasonable price (it's in the second photo below, far right). I also found a reproduction goose egg motor cover that will allow me to seal things up better for the DC - that's the big mound.

While media blasting I found another issue - one of the cranks was cracked across a spoke - I put a WTB on OWWM.org and had one on its way in a couple of days. I also spent some time cleaning up the "Delta" door plate - used acetone, rubbing with a lot of patience and it came really clean (surprisingly) but did take some time. The last photo is of the arbor parts (cleaned and polished on a brass wheel) - next step is to blast/prime/paint the arbor bracket and set the bearings.

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - January Estate Sale

2011-01-26T07:51:00.000-08:00

I managed to hit an estate sale last Friday and picked up a handful of tools. Someone in the family was a hobbyist woodworker - the largest piece of equipment was an older Shopsmith with a full compliment of accessories (bandsaw, etc) - there was also a European bench that was already long gone when I hit the sale (probably a good thing as I wouldn't have room for it anyway and they tend to be very pricey).

Most of the prices were reasonable to high (as usual) - I passed on a later model Disston handsaw at $10 and a few other tools, but did manage to pick up a set of Footprint cabinet maker screwdrivers - these are the flat haft type with oblate handles in beech. I also found a #15 SnapOn Phillips driver, a "Sears" marked grinding wheel dresser (appears unused), a rosewood handled putty knife (partial to those) and a Sargent hole punch (second of this type I've found). Most items were in the $1-2 range with $25 on the screwdriver set. Nothing real special here but all good user tools.

Footprint Bench Screwdriver Set

Made in England

Snap-on SSDP102

Sears Grinding Wheel Dresser

Super Hyde Putty Knife

Sargent Hole Punch

Not too bad for a brief stop. In particular I've been thinking about a set of cabinet drivers so those are very welcome.

-- John

GWA Field Trip to Makita Plant in Buford GA

2011-01-15T04:14:00.000-08:00

On January 8, 2011 the Gwinnett Woodworkers Association made a field trip to the Makita plant in Buford, GA. We arrived about 8:00 AM to a brisk morning (this was before the snow/ice that hit Atlanta and locked up the city for a week).

I knew that the plant existed and I believe the club may have visited it many years in the past, however this was my first trip so I wasn't sure what to expect. There's an interesting "Makita Workshop" room where all their current hand tool line is on display - I was especially impressed by their "beam saw" - basically a circular saw with a blade large enough to cut timbers for timber framing (wish I had gotten a good photo of it - I want one!).

Our hosts were very cordial and offered up donuts and coffee (you can see the empty box in the photo above). There was a separate table with many of their more common hand tools in "cut-away" form (love stuff like that):

The main demonstration and classroom is in an adjoining room - there were so many in attendance that we filled that room and over-flowed back into their Workshop (I took these snaps through the door):

The talks centered around some of Makita's award winning technology (batteries and their most recent brushless motors). In the next room we got to try out many of the tools (driving screws, etc into wood) - I think they gained many converts to battery tools from our group:

One of the things I really like about the GWA are these field trips as they allow us to view and experience woodworking related subjects that we would normally only see in photos (like these) or in video. I think everyone had a great time.

-- John

Basement Shop Progress Pics 2010.12.12

2010-12-14T07:40:00.000-08:00

I figured it had been a while since I posted images of the shop - at this point I guess the shop is really an ongoing effort - I'm not sure if I'll ever get it to the point where I'm totally satisfied. From the last group of images, I've put in the central pipe for the dust collector and started placing my workbenches - but it finally hit me that I've got too many tools, so many of my project tools will need to go - some I'll put on CraigsList while others I'll part out an put on eBay (or list on the Old Woodworking Tools org site as sale items).

This first image shows how I tied in the Grizzly Cyclone into the over-head duct system. I tried to minimize what was overhead and did so by running a main trunk line down the center of the room with "y"s leading to each side (one exception was a duct running along one end with drops to a long bench which I'll show below). There are also two drill floor drill presses shown, both 14" Deltas (the one on the left was probably from a school shop with "DRILL PRESS" stenciled on the side. The one on the right is a very old 1937 Delta model with split-phase motor and round cast iron stand - got that one for $15 (it's in an earlier post). They both run but that older model needs a tug on the belt - need to figure out that motor soon.

Here's a shot of the duct work - note that to maximize space I've suspended my longer clamps from the ceiling using "J" hooks they sell at Home Depot - it's very effective. I added some additional "y"s for future expansion with covers mounted over them. The cover you see will go above the bench mounted on the wall to the left.

This is the main trunk looking towards the back of my shop - note the old turning tool display mounted on the door - I was given that during one of the GWA shop tours and thought it would be a cool way to display some of my older turning tools (they're old Buck, Walker Turner Driver Line and Delta - non-HSS).

Towards the other side the ducting runs next to my ambient dust collector - I got this brute during an Amazon sale for $130 - it has both a remote control and timer and works very well in clearing all the airborne dust - I can set the timer for 30 minutes and the dust is gone by the next time I come into the shop.

Now on to the "new" workbenches - I originally had planned to build a long bench along the far wall next to the dust collector. Last year I went to an estate sale in the neighborhood (a neighbor was relocating to Florida for a job) and got these two Craftsman all-metal workbench cabinets (no top) for $10 each - I wish I had taken a photo before I cleaned these up - they were basically a rusty heap from being stored in an unconditioned storage building outside. I treated the rust, sanded, then shot these with primer and rustoleum. I didn't spend too much time on them since they were going into the shop - I think they turned out looking nice (there is a little pitting on the lower drawers but you have to get in close to see them. Here's the left 8 drawer cabinet:

And here's the right 10 drawer cabinet:

I put a few chisels into the left to see how they would work out - all of these are users:

You can see some of the over-spray and the drawer slides - like I said previously I didn't spend much time doing these and just wanted the rust gone. I used some 1/4" nuts and bolts to mount the two cabinets together.

Next I had to figure out what to do with the top. I wanted to mount a radial arm saw in the middle but wanted a base for it, as well as some work space before elevating the ends to support stock. I was driving through the neighborhood and spotted some split open cardboard boxes with wood sticking out on the curb - it ended up being two boxes of pre-finished maple flooring. The ends were slightly "dirty" - I believe they were exposed a bit to the elements and probably left-over. In any case, I'm glad the neighbor was throwing them out as I think they'll make a fine workbench. Not bad for free. You can see my Dewalt MBF on the table behind the stack - that's going in the middle of the workbench.

I spent some time getting the cabinets as level as possible - those are cedar shakes custom cut to be hidden yet provide the leveling I needed for the benches. I marked the floor in case I needed to move the unit (which I probably will need to in order to attach the top).

So I next needed to figure out the top. I decided to cut tongues along each cut end so they will fit into a groove in a skirt - the skirt will be made of maple and would attach to a sub-frame made of 1x material - I wanted to get the base as low as possible so it's just slightly larger than the cabinets. There are some holes in the top of the cabinet that are used to attach a top. This is the sub-frame with a piece of maple flooring to illustrate the overall idea. Each board will extend from back to front.

I built the sub-frame using pocket screws - it's amazing how well those guys work - each joint is also glued with Titebond 1:

Since I wanted to be able to take everything apart if needed, I had to devise an assembly/disassembly plan. Bolts would come up through the cabinet and into nuts/washers in the sub-frame. The top will be one unit held together with the skirt, then screws would be used from the skirt to attach to the edges of the sub-frame. To pull this off, the sub-frame needed to have counter-sunk holes. I did these using a forstner bit in a hand-drill. Note, to start I first marked the holes using the actual hole placement from the cabinets then drilled for the bolts with the frame upside-down - that way they would align from the bottom. I next flipped over the sub-frame right-side up and used a spade bit to start the counter-sunk hole (if you've ever tried to hand-hold a forstner you'll know why I did that first) - once the hole was started I switched to the forstner and drilled down to a depth that would allow the bolt to clear and still have room for a washer and nut. Here's what that looked like.

I'll take additional shots when I finish the top - the weather was nice this fall so I got back on my Unisaw restoration, media blasting parts and getting primer, and in some cases some finished coat on them. More pics soon.

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - August Estate Sale

2010-12-08T08:25:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been to one of those bittersweet estate sales where there's tons of wonderful items but most have either been sold or are out of your price range? I actually like those as there are many possible gems to be found. In this case, a member of my woodworking club (GWA) passed away and another member was helping to liquidate the tools and clean out the basement. There were some great vintage items there including an old Delta drill press, a Powermatic 12" planer in unbelievable condition, a Dewalt RAS, an older Delta Shaper and an amazing Rockwell Gap-bed lathe. By the time I had gotten there the better items had already been picked through and were gone (including an old Delta mortise sled) - the better stationary tools were either pricey or I already own an equivalent so I couldn't justify purchasing. What was left were many of the handtools hanging on racks or pegs on the walls - good thing I like those sorts of items as well (actually I've gotten to the point where I prefer handtools over power).

The great thing about those items I ended up with is that because no one being interested in them, I was able to pretty much buy the "whole wall" or the "entire contents" of cabinets and drawers. There were a couple of interesting hand saws, in really great shape with very little use (still sharp!).

Also included were a big pile of chisels, all very well honed with protectors on the edges...

And I'm always on the look out for sharpening stones...

And check out these rosewood handled putty knives...

And old American made screwdrivers...

This is a pile of steel American made clamps...

And just to add to the mix are these machine bits (that's a Delta mortiser and several Delta spindles)...

One of the real finds were these carpenter rasps - all carefully used and sharp, and of course American Made! There's an interesting brass level (plumbers probably?) and a Brown and Sharp 1" micrometer in the back along with a couple of Tap handles and brace bits to the left...

Better view of the spindles and some super large/heavy mortise chisels...

Some awls, a burnisher and a couple of combo-rasps, a bearing scraper and metal file holder...

Close up of the micrometer and level (that's also a Dewalt RAS planing attachment in the back left)...

Boxes of misc hardware, motor pulleys, belts and machine handles...

I did score this great Delta grinder with sharpening fence (dirty paper too!)...

And finally, this really cool deco metal cabinet - hard to believe all this stuff fit in my SUV...

The cabinet has ended up being my storage container for finishing supplies. All in all, a good haul of items I really didn't need but couldn't leave behind...

-- John

Rust Hunting in Tennessee July 2010

2010-08-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

I had the occasion to visit my hometown of Clarksville, TN for my 30th High School Reunion (Northwest High School Vikings 1980). While there for the weekend I visited a few antique stores and the local flea market. At the flea market I found this over-sized Heller rasp which appears to be unused. Most files and rasps now on the market are now made out of the US - you'll need to either find some old-store stock (I occasionally still see some Nicholsons on hardware store shelves) or spend the money on an Auriou (look at Tools for Working Wood as a source for these - excellent but a bit pricey). I was quite excited at finding this unused Heller - at $7 it was quite the bargain. When I paid for it the guy asked if I had horses - seems these flat rasps are used to shape down the hoof or some such.

I next found this really huge and awesome rosewood-handled Try Square - it's the largest I've ever found "in the wild" and only needs a light cleaning (the images make it look worse than it really is).

Tool Group

I then found the rest at a local antique store, at very good prices. The Disston backsaw has two medallions but otherwise is in good shape with sharp teeth. The Millers Falls plan is the equivalent of a Stanley #4 with rosewood tote/knob and red painted frog. Finally the brace is a Stanley 10" also with rosewood handles.

Disston Backsaw

Millers Falls Plane

This final image is of my Try Square collection - many are Stanley, the others are unmarked.

Try Square Collection

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - July Estate Sale

2010-08-07T04:19:00.000-07:00

Like any old tool nut, I like to visit estate sales that show images of interesting tools. In this case it was a well-advertised sale up in Cuming Georgia - the images showed several pieces of equipment and many hand power tools so I thought I would give it a go. When I got there the prices were fairly high - there were several larger pieces of equipment and each was listed at $800 or more - included from memory were: Delta 14" floor standing drill press, early Delta scroll saw (with retirement lamp), late 40's Unisaw, very early four-footer Delta Heavy Duty Shaper, early Delta 14" Band Saw (with retirement lamp), Delta 6" Jointer and a nice early Delta Lathe. There were parts and attachments hanging everywhere, most weren't with the tools they belonged to. There were also many hand tools piled on tables, a fairy decent saw till full of hand saws (no super early - more like post 1900), old routers, hand drills, etc and piles of veneer, scraps and hardware. It turned out the guy used to restore antiques, so everything he had was geared toward that task.

As I moved around I slowly accumulated a pile - the problem was that everything was priced fairly high and I'm basically a cheap bastard (or bottom feeder if you will). I already have so many tools it's hard to justify buying unless the price is fair to super cheap. Anyway, this is what I ended up with:

1. Rosewood, brass bound level priced at $30 - this is the nicest level I've ever run across "in the wild" and the price seemed very fair - obviously used but not abused. Marked Stratton Brothers, Greenfield Mass dated late 1800s.

2. Two rosewood handled gouges.

3. Two Split-nut Tenon Saws (one at about 15 tpi, the other around 12) at $15 each marked Sheffeld England

4. Large Starrett compass - got this as it was well made and one of the largest I've ever seen - got home and then noticed the manufacturer.

5. Two 14" Delta Drill Press spindles (mortise and shaper).

6. Extra Long Delta Lathe Rest (this was $10!)

7. Delta Motor condom (never know when you might need one!)

8. Stanley aluminum bodied min-router

9. Jacobs chuck key

10. Wire and thickness gauge

11. Small bag of ebony and rosewood scraps

12. Small pile of teak (looks to have been salvaged from a bench or something but already cleaned up/planed to 1/2" or so)

Like I said, I got the stuff relatively cheap but not totally bottom-feeder priced - the pile was $130. The most interesting thing in my opinion was the level, but the extra long tool rest isn't something you come across every day.

GWA Field Trip to Hardwoods Inc

2010-05-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

On May 1st, 2010, my woodworking club, the Gwinnett Woodworkers Association (GWA for short), visited Hardwoods Inc. in Mableton Ga. Hardwoods, Incorporated is a wholesaler and retailer offering one of the largest inventories in the Southeast of specialty hardwoods and related products. GWA members were exposed to a guided tour of the kiln facilities and lumber yard that lasted a few hours and afterwards were able to purchase lumber at discounted pricing - I managed to score three sticks of Honduran Rosewood for an upcoming project at about 50% off. These are the photos I took as we were shown around the gigantic facility - if you ever get a chance to go to s similar kiln/lumber yard facility you should go - for a woodworker it's like going to the Holy Land...

I'm not sure if you can get the actual scale of the building from this shot - at the beginning of the tour we were in the retail space - the racks behind the speaker are all full of retail sales items

The warehouse buildings are quite massive - most of those stacks are 8/4 sticks about 12 feet long.

These conveyor type contraptions help to move sticks as they're graded - quite a job

These stacks were all of 8/4 poplar getting ready for the kiln (so what you see is all wet) - quite a site seeing so much hardwood.

These shots are of the kiln - the control stations in the back let you set the temperature and humidity.

These massive doors slide apart so the pallets of wood can be moved in or out - the smaller door allows the kiln operator access to check the moisture content of the wood - something that's done multiple times as the wood is dried (usually over a period of many days).

The plan re-uses saw-dust as fuel for the kiln - this shows some of the furnace with valves to control the mix.

That's about it - thanks for looking in.

-- John

Drills and Drivers, Screws and Screwdrivers

2010-03-15T04:30:00.000-07:00

I got to thinking about this last night - yesterday I was driving some Phillips head screws using an impact driver - if you haven't had a chance to use one then you don't know what you're missing. I was at a friend's shop when I spotted his Makita driver and asked him about it - wanting to demonstrate, he quickly grabbed the driver and a 4" decking screw, threw a 1" board on top of a 4x4 chunk of pressure treated and drove the screw in just a few seconds, without stopping or doing short bursts (which is what i usually do) - the screw went in like butter. The difference is the super short ratcheting that the impact driver supplies (just like an pneumatic impact wrench) - the clutch for the ratcheting doesn't kick in until the drive feels resistance - then it ups the torque value exponentially (my own Dewalt driver delivers 2700 lbs of torque according to specs). The result is that the screw drives very smoothly and the tip doesn't strip (at least it doesn't if the tip is 'fresh'). Other advantages of these impact drivers: they're lightweight (not needing the other functions of a drill they don't have multiple clutches or mechanisms for drill, hammer, clutch, etc); they have shorter barrels so your hand is closer to the work and they fit in smaller spaces; they have a built in light that shines on what you're driving (many newer screw-guns and drills now have this feature as well). Disadvantages include: you're more apt to break a screw off in your work (extreme torque can work both ways); one can't use these to drill holes very well (the chuck is a locking type for a hex-shaped shaft, that doesn't include any type of Jacobs style gripping action for round drill bits); non-impact bits pretty much disintegrate with use.

Another reason I thought of all this has to do with my having to remove some hinges and latches from some old cabinet doors - these doors had about upteen coats of paint on them so it was quite a task - it was also away from my shop so I was wishing I had a brace with me. Why a brace? One sort of forgotten advantage of the brace is for the amount of torque that can be applied to a slotted screw using a flat-tip screw brace bit. Using a large brace (12" swing), plus with the amount of pressure you can exert on the pad, you can worry off just about any slotted screw - which is what these old hinges had under all the paint. As it was I managed to remove them all but it took much more time than it normally would have had a brace and flat-tip bit been involved.

So last night the thoughts of the day ran through my head and I started thinking about drivers and screws - this naturally (at least for me) got me thinking about different types of screw head-types and what I knew about the flat tip, Phillips and square drive. So this is what I knew (through anecdote, discussion, etc):

The square drive and screw was actually patented by a Canadian named Robertson – thus it’s called the Robertson drive in Canada and it’s ubiquitous in use north of our borders – this drive actually pre-dates the Phillips drive and screw in the US.
The Phillips drive and screw was invented by someone in the US who sold the rights to a company who marketed it under the Phillips name. Initially there wasn’t a good way to manufacture the screw heard (and there are variations with up to 6 or 8 vanes/slots) so the patent pre-dates the actual manufacture by some years. I had also heard that the Phillips bit was developed for the manufacture of airplanes (something to do with the attachment of the aluminum skin – the recessed head discouraged drag and the shape of the slots allowed for the head to “cam out” rather than the screw being over-torqued and the threads being stripped).
According to what I’ve heard, the Phillips screw and drive owes its use in the US to Henry Ford, who wanted to use a product in his vehicles that was patented and owned by a US company rather than one outside our borders.
It’s obvious in retrospect that the Phillips drive is inferior to the Robertson’s drive due to the built-in design (the desire to cam out instead of stripping). Strange that it’s used on everything and has pretty much replaced the slotted screw and driver – well it is easier to register and use than a slotted fastener. But why has it taken so long for the Robertson drive to gain popularity among US users? I first saw the Robertson screw being used by outdoor deck builders – makes sense as the drive head doesn’t strip – the worst thing about a stripped head when building decks is that it takes off the coating that prevents rust – once the head starts to go the coating causes rusty spots that are very un-slightly, in a very short time.

So what of the above is true and what isn’t? Doing a little research it appears that these same stories are found and accepted all over the web. A bit more research will be needed before anything conclusive can be ascertained – however one thing is indeed certain – the Phillips drive and bit for most woodworking is indeed inferior for many reasons.

Next topic: the Monkey Wrench!

-- John

More Chisels Than You Can Shake a Stick At...

2010-01-17T11:08:00.000-08:00

I recently was asked to teach a hand-tool class for the Gwinnett Woodworking Association, my local woodworking club - I choose to focus on Chisels, Gouges and Draw Knives (that last I justified purely to the form of a Draw-knife, resembling a chisel with a handle on either end, sharpened along the end). To prepare, I gathered up what I had that qualified in those categories - it's funny how you accumulate things. I didn't realize I had so many - I'm not even sure this is everything, as I'm sure I have some stuffed away in boxes.

In case you're wondering, here's the lesson plan:

Wood Chisels, Gouges and Draw Knives

What are these and how are they used?
These are bladed, cutting or shaping tools, usually with an extended handle for striking or leverage for prying. They are used to shape wood by removing material. They’re primarily used during the fitment of wood parts into project components, or for decorative carving.

What is a Wood Chisel?
Wood Chisels are hand tools used to shave or chip wood. Wood Chisels can be operated by striking them with a hammer with some care. There are two main types of wood chisels – those used by carpenters and those used by woodworkers.

Carpenter chisels are broken into types by size and usage:

• A butt chisel has a short blade that ranges from about 2 1/2" to 3" long. It is used by pattern-makers, cabinetmakers, carpenters and do-it-yourselfers for carving, paring and similar work. It can be used with hard-faced hammers. These usually have tang handles and often have metal plates on the end to aid in striking with a hammer. Butt chisels generally have 30-degree bevels.

• The firmer chisel usually 3 ½” to 6” and is meant to be lightly stuck or used for hand work. .which is used mainly for cutting deeply into wood. It should be used with soft-faced hammers or with hand pressure alone. Firmer chisels are usually the same length as bench chisels (see below) but of thicker, heavier steel, usually straight sided. For paring and striking with 30-degree bevels and socket handles.

• Stanley also had a chisel that fit between the butt and firmer that they called a pocket chisel – it had a 4 ½” blade with their firmer chisel at 6” – these also have a 30-degree bevel.

• Framing Chisels are larger, longer chisels usually an inch or larger wide. Some were designed for paring with beveled edges and 20-25 degree bevels and some for striking with square edges and 30-degree bevels. Framing chisels usually have hooped, socket handles.

Framing corner chisels are framers forged into a 90-degree angle to clean out corners. Generally 30-degree bevels. Usually with hooped, socket handles.
Millwright or Factory mortise chisels are very long, very heavy mortise chisel designed for heavy striking with heavy, hooped handles. Many were 16” long and often made by manufacturers like New Haven Edge Tool who specialized in large chisels. Always with hooped, socket handles and a 35-40 degree bevel.

• English “Pigsticker” mortise chisel is a short, stubby, fit-in-the-tool-chest, tang-handled mortise chisel with un-hooped handle designed for striking with 35-40 degree bevels.

• Slicks are large, very heavy 2-4” framing chisels with long handles up to 24” designed for paring large timbers with 20-25 degree bevels. Never struck. Always with socket handles.

Woodworking chisels are broken up into types by usage:

• A bench chisel has a longer blade, usually 3 ½” to 6” and is meant for workbench use, lightly stuck or used for hand work. It generally has a 30 degree bevel and beveled edges.

• Paring chisels are long, thinner chisels not designed for any striking, only paring with 20-25 degree bevels. Some have "cranked" handles for clearance and were primarily used by pattern makers making negative patterns in soft pine. Others are skew cut to reach into corners, and a “dovetail” chisel is diamond-shaped to clean female sliding dovetail sockets. Paring chisels usually have tang handles.

Cranked Paring Chisel – the blade is offset so the handle is above the surface of the work. These are mostly used by pattern makers to get into areas that are below the surface of the work piece.
Skew Paring Chisel: has a 60 degree cutting angle and is used for trimming and finishing.
Dovetail Paring Chisel – these have nearly a diamond shape to clean female sliding dovetail sockets.

• Sash Mortise Chisel is a medium length mortise chisel for bench use, generally with un-hooped handles. “Sash” comes from window factories, and there is some confusion describing medium length and long length mortise chisels as factories generally used the longer chisels but the medium ones are often called “sash” chisels.

Blade types are generally divided into registered and beveled.

• Registered Chisels have sides that are square to the back – the extra metal provides more blade strength for really tough jobs where the handle is struck to remove large chunks of wood

• Beveled Chisels – have sides that are beveled to make it easier to fit the chisel into corners. These days the beveled chisel is much more common than the registered chisel.

Chisels have wood or plastic handles. Wood handles are available in both tang (the end of the blade or tang fits into the handle and is reinforced with a metal ferrule) and socket type (a projection from the handle fits into a socket in the blade). Plastic handles fit only tang construction.

Quality woodworking chisels have large, ergonomically shaped handles for a comfortable, sure grip and better control. Blades should be of high-quality carbon, heat-treated steel with precision ground cutting edge. In addition, carpentry chisels should have crowned steel strike caps to help center the blow (why these are often called “pounding” chisels).

Japanese Chisels

The better quality Japanese wood chisels are made from laminated steel. There are different types of metals used in each chisel. The better ones are laminated by hand, over a charcoal fire. The combination of the metals makes a chisel that takes a very sharp edge, and is hard enough to maintain the edge for a long time. This technique produces a tool that have a harder edge, usually a hardness rating of Rockwell 64, compared to their western counterparts of around 62 on the Rockwell scale. There are two basic metals used in these chisels, white steel and blue steel. The names come from the color of the paper the steels are wrapped in. White and blue steel come in various grades that vary in carbon content. Both have low levels of impurities. White steel is a simple carbon steel. Blue steel contains alloying elements, and sacrifices some sharpness for edge retention, toughness, and corrosion resistance, although it is not stainless.

Japanese chisels have hollows in the back side, the wider ones having as many as four hollows. These are intended to help in the flattening of the back of the chisels.

Wood Turning Chisels

A lathe tool is a woodworking chisel designed to cut wood as it is spun on a lathe. These tools have longer handles for more leverage, needed to counteract the tendency of the tool to react to the downward force of the spinning wood being cut or carved. In addition, the angle and method of sharpening is different, a secondary bevel would not be ground on the tool.

Woodworking chisels range from quite small hand tools for tiny details, to large chisels used to remove big sections of wood, in 'roughing out' the shape of a pattern or design. Typically, in woodcarving, one starts with a larger tool, and gradually progresses to smaller tools to finish the detail. One of the largest types of chisel is the slick, used in timber frame construction and wooden shipbuilding.

What is a Gouge?

A gouge, one type of chisel, is used, particularly in woodworking, woodturning and sculpture, to carve small pieces from the material. Gouges are most often used in creating concave surfaces. A gouge typically has a 'U'-shaped cross-section.

• If the angle of the plane of the blade is on the outer surface of the curve the gouge is called an 'incannel' gouge, otherwise it is known as an 'outcannel' gouge.
• Gouges with angled rather than curved blades are often called 'V-gouges' or 'vee-parting tools'.

Types of gouges

• Straight Gouge

• Fishtail Gouge

• Spoon Gouge

• V-parting Tool - used for parting, and in certain classes of flat work for emphasizing lines.

• Veining Gouge - a specialized deep gouge with a U shaped cutting edge

• Framing Gouge – a large (2” or wider) gouge used to scrub wood for fitment in timber framing construction.

Gouge Parts:

• Sweep – The curvature of the cutting edge of a carving gouge. A lower number (like #3) indicates a shallow, flat sweep while a high number (like #9) is used for a deeply curved gouge.

• Bent – the curvature of the gouge length –

Long Bent – A gouge, chisel or V tool where the blade is curved along its entire length. Handy for deep work.
Short Bent or Spoon – A gouge, chisel or V tool where the blade is straight with a curve at the end, like a spoon. Use for work in deep or inaccessible areas.
Back Bent – A spoon gouge with a reverse bent end. Used for undercuts and reeding work.

• Cannel – the curved inner surface of a gouge

Besides wood carving, gouges have a place in woodworking and timber framing. Gouges can be used to quickly wear down the surface of wood that is hard to reach with other tools – much like a scrub plane. Large gouges were used by timber framers in this manner in conjunction with the slick chisel to fit mortise-and-tenon joints.

What is a Draw Knife?

A drawknife is a traditional woodworking hand tool used to shape wood by removing shavings. It consists of a blade with a handle at each end. The blade is much longer (along the cutting edge) than it is deep (from cutting edge to back edge). It is pulled or "drawn" hence the name, toward the user. The draw knife provides a quick and simple way of removing large amounts of stock from timber billets. Much loved by the green woodworker, these tools have been with us since the very dawn of woodworking. There are two or three styles with variations, the most common are:

• Straight-bladed with handles set at ninety degrees to the line of the blade, also known as the English pattern

• Curved bladed style, with handles in line with the cutting edge, also known as the continental pattern.

• Folding-handles that allow the user to adjust the angle to gain maximum leverage

• Scorp - Also commonly called an inshave, is a deeply curved drawknife that has the perfect regular sweep and handle angles for rapid, aggressive shaving to finish the shaping job begun with the adze. Its deep sweep takes heavy cuts without excessive effort and without tearing at the edges of the cut.

Generally draw knives have a 20 degree bevel with a 5 degree or so back-bevel. The trick to draw knives is mastering reading the grain of the wood.

Who uses Chisels, Gouges and Draw Knives?

• Everybody that works with wood will at some point need at least a single chisel and the techniques to use it.

• Traditional furniture makers
• Timber Framers
• Wet Wood workers.
• Carvers

Buying
• Retail Stores
• eBay
• Yard and Estate Sales
• Craig’s List
• What to look for

Look for all the parts (iron, handle, *ferrule, *strike plate)
Look for cracks or chips, especially around the ferrule
Look at the length for stress and condition of the edge for bluing
How flat is the back? Convex back = bad (takes too long to knap)
Look for excessive pitting due to rust
Cheap pot-metal or sheet metal materials and soft plastic in general = bad
Metal striking plate is more of a carpenter’s chisel
Anything marked "Stanley", "Witherby", "Winchester", “James Swan”, "Chas Buck" or "L&IJ White" is generally going to a collector for too high a price unless they are part of large, handle-less lots.
Good brands include older (not newer) Greenlee and Buck Bros, New Haven Edge Tool, Ohio Tool, Crossman, DR Barton, Underhill, Union Hardware, Jennings, Sargent, GI Mix, Shapleigh Hardware, Eric Anton Berg, Dickerson, Gillespie, Wye, Dixon, PS&W or PEXTO, Robt Duke, Fulton, Merrill, Butcher, Stiletto, Hibbard OVB, Simmons Keen Kutter, Lakeside and several other old makers and hardware store brands are every bit as good as the collector prizes and are much less expensive. Most unmarked chisels of that era were usually made by one of the above makers for a hardware distributor and are also generally excellent.

To avoid:

Stanley Defiance
Eclipse
Newer Greenlee, Buck or Stanley socket chisels made in the 1960's and later
Any chisel with a vanadium finish like used on today's mechanic's tools

Tuning

Flattening, Grinding and Filing - ,

• Flattening the back - the first step in sharpening a chisel. Once the back side is perfectly flat, and polished to the required degree, the front and side edges need to be addressed.

• Hollow Grind of the blade or chisel edge

• Stones or Scary Sharp method

• Micro bevel

• Stropping

Removing Knicks
• Flat Grinding perpendicular to the back past the knick.

Rust Removal
• Evaporust or Electrolysis
• Phosphoric Acid (Parkerizing)

Rust Prevention
• Waxing
• Bluing

Safety
A sharp chisel gives you great control and allows you to remove paper-thin slices of wood, but it can be dangerous if you’re not careful.

• Never chisel toward your body or place your hand in the path of a chisel
• Clamp small projects.
• Cover the chisel blade when it’s not in use.
• Store chisels in a safe place, away from children.
• Wear safety glasses when striking a chisel with a hammer.
• Wear close-toed shoes (nothing like spearing a toe)

Demonstration

Short demonstration of chisel, gouge and shave use (paring, mortising, gouging)

Web Resources
• http://www.wkfinetools.com/
• http://ruckus.law.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/oldtools (email list)

Credits:
• Bob Smalser
• Scott Grandstaff

(my notes were liberally taken from materials written by the above and from the web resources listed).

-- John

Deltacraft: 19 Charming Chairs

2009-12-23T06:53:00.000-08:00

This is a cross-post to my Magazine Scans blog - up for grabs is a scan of the 1940's Deltacraft publication "19 Charming Chairs" - this one includes measured drawings.

Deltacraft: 19 Charming Chairs

-- John

Tools Explained: Definition of Tool Terms

2009-11-07T03:16:00.000-08:00

This was posted to the Old Tools list (I think I've seen it on OWWM.org as well - not sure but this list has been going around for a while and I thought I'd make it part of my blog).

Tools Explained

DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, "Oh, shit!"
SKILL SAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.

BELT SANDER: An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle... It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course the more dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads.
If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race..

TABLE SAW: A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

BAND SAW: A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.

STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER: A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms.

PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to make hoses too short.

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit.

UTILITY KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.

Son of a Bitch TOOL: Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling "Son of a bitch" at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.

-- John

Using Evapo-Rust for Tool Restoration

2009-09-17T06:36:00.000-07:00

I've been using Evapo-Rust for about a year to clean up rusty tool parts. I've had a gallon that I would re-use and it's finally died on me - what happens is that it gets to the point where it's not getting into the pits (if the metal is pitted) and after wiping the part flash rusts pretty quickly. Looking back over the documentation it states that a gallon will treat 300 pounds of metal. I can attest that I've put way over that amount in the gallon I've been using (I filtered the liquid when there was too much sediment). When it starts to fail it creates a yellowish/greenish slimy sludge that sits on top of the part in the bath - this stuff wipes off and I'm assuming that it's a mildly sulfurous compound (no eggy smell though).

Some tips:

1. Make sure you have enough to submerge the part completely or you get a watermark from the dip - this is almost impossible to remove.

2. When not using, reseal in the container as I believer there is some dilution with exposure to air.

3. My process is to dip, usually overnight as most of the parts are heavily rusted, remove next day and wipe down - if there's a lot of rust I'll hold it next over a garbage can and scrape a bit, which removes the heavy stuff - use a wire brush, sandpaper or razor blade. If it's still rusted put it back in the wet. When you're satisfied that the rust is off, re-dip and let air dry - it keeps it from flash rusting (says 2 weeks but it actually lasts longer).

4. For irregular shaped objects I place 4 mil plastic in a plastic over-sized tub, then shape the plastic to conform closely to the part - put a couple of blocks of wood underneath so the plastic isn't sticking to the part or you'll end up with water marks areas not derusted.

5. Best price I've found is at Harbor Freight - they have gallons for $20 and you can use a coupon (I get 20% off coupons in the mail or via email).

6. More info here: http://www.evaporust.com/

-- John

Wine Rack for Joe and Kathy Black

2009-07-30T07:31:00.001-07:00

Wine Rack for Joe and Kathy Black
Originally uploaded by johnnyapollo

Wine rack based on some dimensions taken from racks at Winter Haven's Bean and Grape. Design changes include back panel (original had vertical rails on front and back) and addition of reinforced face frame (desire to add doors at a future date needed the reinforced face frame). Also original only held 10 bottles per shelf, this version holds 11 ("Mine goes to 11!" - Spinal Tap) for a total of 110 bottles.

Dimensions are 84 3/4" Tall, 48" Wide and 12 1/4" Deep. If I were to build anohter I would have spaced the shelves slightly further apart (1/4") to accomodate larger bottles.

WoodpeckerHouse1

2009-04-18T04:03:00.001-07:00

WoodpeckerHouse1
Originally uploaded by johnnyapollo

My woodworking club was having a bird house contest. I started thinking about a bird house I built with my dad as a kid - he came home one day with a few cedar shakes someone had given him and we built a small bird house together that hung in the yard for many years. I looked through my collection of old magazines and found one that I liked in a 1940's issue of Home Craftsman. After deciding that I hadn't done anything worth showing lately, I thought it would be something I could bang together quickly but wanted to add the challenge of building the whole thing using hand tools.

All the cuts were made using a short stanley tool box handsaw - I found the teeth too aggressive for all the cuts so I also used a cheap pull saw with finer teeth (this inspired me to find and begin learning more about handsaws and techniques - I'm still in process there). Everything was assembled using wood glue and small brads and it's every close to what I originally built with my dad, other than this design being "stretched" upward for a woodpecker. The hole was drilled using a brace and adjustable bit.

If I were to try doing this again I would figure out a way to remove the bottom for easy cleaning - otherwise the whole thing was very quick to build - took about an hour to cut into pieces (had to re-cut a few things - I also drilled the hole in the wrong place the first time so the front was made twice - second time I got a chip out on the back as I was getting impatient to finish). The main pieces were glued and clamped over night and small brads added the next day - no pre-drilling on the nails and you can see where I got splits on the roof shingles (those shakes are a lot more brittle than I remembered). The only sanding was done to round-over the hole a bit. I did some light planing on the edges.

So anyway, nothing super special about this but it was all done with handtools and surprisingly I got second place in the "most functional" category. The contest was held on 3/21 and I built this the two days previous in the evenings.

Atlanta Woodworking Show 2009.01.23-25

2009-01-24T05:15:00.000-08:00

I'll be attending the Atlanta Woodworking Show this weekend and manning the GWA booth from 10-12 - come by and say hello.

Info here

-- John

Basement Shop Progress Pics 2008.09.28

2008-09-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

The ceiling is finally sealed up - next on the list is finishing the ducting for the DC. I managed to move all the rest of my lumber (temporarily stored in another are of the basement) onto the existing racks - looks like I have room for about another couple hundred feet before it's at capacity - as it is what's on the racks is probably close to being unmanagable.

I also got the ambient duct collector up - got this Jet unit when it went on sale at Amazon last year. It works well filtering down to 1 micron with multiple speeds and a remote control (it can be set with a timer as well).

One of the ways I was able to manage the project was to move all my mechanics tools and metal working items into another area of the basement. I picked up a metal rolling workbench with wood top for $10 at a neighborhood yardsale (bought it and rolled it two blocks to the house - I bet that was an odd sight). I've yet to mount the swivel radial vise as I didin't have long enough nuts/bolts, but you get the idea. I also moved my HF Drill Press by the bench as a dedicated-to-metal driller. I'm either putting a cabinet or some peg-board above the bench - haven't decided yet. Across from the bench is another short cabinet with my 3 Ton arbor press and two metal roll-away tool boxes. I'm still looking for at least a 20 Ton Hydrolic press to add to the mix as well and a small metal lathe. Here are some pics:

Finally I used the aisle leading into my workshop as a place for storing files and reference books. This was put together with scrap Standards and Brackets I've had banging around in my rat-hole for years, along with some salvaged pine shelving. Beneath is a metal barrister's bookcase housing binders with a complete collection of Woodsmith and Shopnotes. The cardboard magazine holders have a complete run of Wood Magazine and Fine Woodworking (some left-overs are in a box on the floor - have to figure out a way to get those on the shelf). The bookcase also haa a shelf full of small motors on it as well as an original vintage red Swingline stapler.

I've started placing some equipment but haven't gotten anything "in stone" yet. May reconfigure depending on how things lay out.

-- John

Basement Shop Progress Pics 2008.09.18

2008-09-23T03:39:00.000-07:00

Got the brackets on the John Sterling standards loaded up with a Walnut tree I've had stored in the carport for 2 years. This tree was taken down over 20 years ago and cut up into about 50 boards (at least by the time I got it there were 50 - I'm not sure how much was actually produced as some had been used and there are missing pieces of the stack when aligned). The nice thing about having all the wood from the same tree is most of the color is the same once finished. There are also some interesting figure where the tree split into two trunks. I think it sat on the ground for a while as there are pin-holes along some boards where various insects had eaten into the sap - anything that was suspicious was cut away. Another interesting aspect - most of the wider and thicker boards were the straightest and had minimal checking and splitting - there's evidence of stickering on those - the smaller boards were probably just piled up with weight, I suspect. I also had some red oak and the rest of that haul of sapele in the carport so it's now all on the wall.

I also managed to get another length of the ceiling sealed up. Next up is the Jet ambient dust collector.

-- John

Basement Shop Progress Pics 2008.09.02

2008-09-03T06:29:00.000-07:00

Finally got the cyclone mounted up and it runs fine in its new position. This time I used the stand - I looked into wall mounting but didn't feel comfortable with the type anchors I would need in the block wall. An alternative would be to build a torsion box wall for the unit to attach to, but after calculating the amount of room it would also take, it made better sense to just use the Grizzly-made stand.

Note the cut-out in the ceiling to clear the motor housing. It's wrapped in insulation to cut-down on noise and I was careful to isolate the entire unit from touching the walls or ceiling, to help cut-down on vibration. It's still loud, but mostly from the on-rush of air, rather than from the unit itself.

You might wonder how I got this guy assembled - normally you would put together the bulk of the cyclone on the stand on its side, then tilt it up into position (the manual recommends 3 people). I didn't have that luxury both in man-power and in ceiling height. I noodled this one for a while before coming up with a method that worked. I first built the top of the stand and attached the cone and impeller housing before laying on its side. Next I built a wood platform with castors that fit inside the stand. I then tilted up the whole unit until it stood on the wood stand and set the motor and impeller on top, attaching with the supplied bolts. I next rolled into position. Once in position I was able to determine where the cut-out for the motor needed to be and I could finish up the ceiling with the unit rolled out of the way. Once that was done, I rolled back the unit and slowly added blocking to front and back, raising up the whole unit the thickness of a 2x4 at a time. This took some time and I did have one accident where most of the blocking fell and the unit crashed into me - luckily the back edge was still supported and I was able to hold the unit up until I could get blocking back under it (I do have a nice large bruise on my left arm as a temporary record of the event).

Once the unit was up about an inch higher than the bottom stand legs, I nudged the wood support until I could get the right back leg attached, the nudged and rotated the stand until I could get the opposite leg attached, rolling the stand towards me so the back corner leg was exposed. I put a 4x4 block "leg" under the front corner for some extra support and attached the leg in the back corner. Using this same support I rolled out the stand, holding the unit upright to pass the temporary leg. I finally attached the front leg and was able to tighten everything up - I ended up needing to shim the front leg to accomidate differences in floor height to level. There were a few moments in there that caused the ole sphincter to tighten, but it wasn't too bad. I did feel like I had been in a fight the next morning with soreness all over. Nothing like holding up 300 or so pounds of top-heavy metal by yourself while maneuvering around, with a possibility of the whole thing falling on you at any minute to get the stress up.

Finally I attached the filter and placed the dust canister underneath. One thing I didn't think about was the need to remove the cannister - I'm going to have to keep space open next to the unit so it'll roll out. I'm thinking right now of placing a piece of wheeled equipment there so it can easily be moved for dust canister removal.

Here's a close-up of the motor cut-out. Everything is well wrapped in HVAC metallic tape, as are all seams throughout the ceiling - this is to isolate as much dust as possible from the rest of the house.

I also started working on one of the metal/wood workbenches I picked up in that haul that included the Walker Turner sander. This bench was pretty rough - paint flaking off everywhere on the metal stand as it had been painted an institutional green. As the underside showed a gray I decided to go with Rustoleum Dark Machinery Gray, over brown primer. The entire stand was first sandblasted to removed as much of the old paint as possible - it's not perfectly smooth but it'll do as a working table.

The idea was not to get this to furniture quality, but rather to create a reliable work surface without paint flaking off everywhere. To that end I also sanded and filled the maple butcher block top - it had actually been flipped at some point so the worse surface is face-down - it's filled with hundreds of drill holes, cuts and scrapes. It must have been used in a metal shop where people liked to use it to support drilling - it also had numerous burns and spills saturating into the wood. I got off most of the muck (oil and metal shavings) using 80 grit (both sides), filled the worst holes then re-glued/clamped some strands that had delaminated, before I surfaced again with 80, following up with 120 and 220 on the top and edges. I also replaced the missing threaded rods that hold the ends together (3/8" threaded rod donated by fellow GWA member, Tommy Roland - an artisan if there ever was one and nice enough to share his knowledge and experiences). Here's a side view after one coat of BLO.

I plan to put 2 or 3 more coats of BLO on the wood portions before waxing with paste wax. I prefer the natural oil finishes for something like this that will get banged on, rather than film finishes that would crack with constant pounding and use - after all, it's not fine furniture. I've also completed about 1/2 of the space as far as sealing with HVAC tape. Still to go is sealing the rest, re-hanging my lumber on the standards you see in the pics, hanging the ambient dust collector, the ducting and some task lighting. Oh and placing the equipment - there's still that.

-- John

Basement Shop Progress Pics 2008.08.11

2008-08-18T03:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the latest progress pics - things are going along slowly but surely. The image above shows what I'm doing with the ceiling - to improve sound dampening I put some R30 insulation between the joists and am using some foam-cored 1/2" board. It's sort of a mega-ceiling tile that's screwed in with taped joints (that's metallic HVAC tape). Each piece is hand-fitted to eliminate gaps - the idea is to provide something that's removable but still blocks out dust and as much noise as possible - the foil backing should improve the lighting a bit. I wired everything to a 100 amp sub-panel with 3 dedicated 20 Amp 240 circuits - you can see in the photos the metal conduit drops on the block wall (exterior of the house, underground). I also have my old shelving standards along the block wall which are attached using a hook at the top and then Tapcons into the block. Speaking of the block wall - originally I wasn't going to paint it but with everything else going on I decided to hit it with a couple of coats of DryLox - it should create a more stable environment.

I also brought in more of the wood I had stored out in the carport so it would start acclimating to the change of environment - my basement is at about 50% humidity via dehumidifier - much less than what is normal in the Atlanta climate. You can see the pile peeking from behind the stack of equipment in the next photo.

I guess I should mention the Grizzly Dust Collector - it's a 2HP Model GO440 - don't think I have in previous posts. I purchased this on CL super-cheap from a guy in the Florida pan handle. Seems he was looking at it on the Grizzly site and said something about wanting it - his wife overheard him and bought is as a surprise Christmas present. He hung it on the wall in his garage shop then realized his truck wouldn't fit in the garage - so it had to go. He started the pricing fairly high, then week by week started lowering it - when it got to something I felt was worthwhile I wrote the guy and asked if he ever came up to Atlanta - turned out he had a cousin in Noonan and was willing to bring it up - I met him with my trailer right off an I85 exit. He had only partially disassembled it, which will make it super easy to reassemble. Considering I was looking at units in the $1K+ range for my needs, I'm very happy to have found this.

In photo 2 you can see the space in the far corner - that's where the cyclone is going - I was originally going to put it in the adjoining room but had some worries about the furnace and other pilots there igniting any fine dust - there's also a large beam and ducting which would have been routing the DC ducting troublesome so I opted to take up some of the precious space in the shop area. I originally thought about a wall mount but by the time I figured out a hanging method it made more sense to use the Grizzly stand. It sticks up between the floor joists above so I've wrapped the area in a box-shape so the motor is isolated - there's additional insulation to help with noise. I've actually made a bit more progress than this so I'll have updated photos soon.

-- John

LatheFront

2008-05-24T13:57:00.001-07:00

LatheFront
Originally uploaded by johnnyapollo

My latest find is this late 30's Boice-Crane 46" Gap-bed lathe. This one is rather special with what looks to be the original paint (complete with labels), tail stock, tool rests and extra spindles. This is the first I've seen with metal legs and it's pretty much a user (after a little clean-up).

Latest Acquisitions 2008.03.23

2008-03-23T19:54:00.000-07:00

Thought I would take a moment to describe the latest in old 'arn that I've gotten over the last few months.

First up is this 24" Rockwell Scroll Saw Model 40-440 Serial Number FP-1467. This was from a Craigslist ad listed for $75 - reduced to $65 because the seller couldn't find the insert (ended up buying one from an OWWM member for $8). I'm not showing the stand, but it was also included - typical Walker Turner/Delta/Rockwell with splayed feet and square bolts. This example also comes with the cast belt cover but not the light (one could only wish - those are going for crazy money these days). It also has a magnetic switch installed so it was probably used in some production environment (guessing there). Very nice Delta/Rockwell motor with knurl for hand turning.

I've been looking for a while for a cast iron stand for the 6" Delta Joiner (see earlier post) and finally found one - in this case with a working joiner attached! The joiner is missing some parts and has some slop, but does have the coveted porkchop guard - I may end up parting the joiner and concentrating on the earlier one I purchased. This stand is fairly complete (has both back covers and 2 knurl knobs). I haven't removed the motor but it's a beast and probably better than the one I got with my other 6" joiner.

Next up are a couple of old hand-drills. The 5/8" Van Dorn I ended up getting while picking up a Rockwell Radial Drill Press (I'll have pics up in a later post - forgot to take them). Got it for $25 - it's slow but has tremendous torque.

I picked up these two hand drills at to separate yard sales for a couple of bucks a piece - both are Craftsman - the one on the left is the better of the two and has replaceable bushings.

Found this Franklin Electric motor converted to a single disc grinder. It was $5 and I figured I could use it for something.

I spotted an ad for a few misc. 3 phase motors and in the middle was one listed as a "driver" so I took a chance that it was a Walker Turner - turned out I was right. It also came with the reversing switch - I'm not sure what it was used for - at first I thought a shaper but at 1/3 HP probably not. Not bad for $10.

That's it for this post - I still need to take some pics of the Rockwell Radial Drill Press I picked up, as well as a Sears Dunlap 8" table saw. I'll have those posted soon.

-- John

My Basement Shop Construction - an Introduction

2008-02-28T07:36:00.000-08:00

I thought I needed to start writing a bit about my shop construction. About two years ago I finally decided that something needed to be done with all my tools. I had been pulling my tools out into the yard to do anything "dusty" like cutting trim, ripping on the table saw, etc. It's a bit of a pain but clean up is relatively easy - I can pull the hose from my compressor and hose off everything before pulling equipment back inside. The only issues were with weather and waning light - if I got caught in rain it basically sucked, or if it got dark on me it made it a lot harder to complete a project, so I ended up being rushed right when I probably shouldn't be - this compounded mistakes. So I started looking at my basement and how I might leverage some of the space for a workshop. I decided that I could hook up a dust collector and do some stuff inside, but it took a bit of ingenuity as there wasn't a lot of space to move lumber around, especially sheet goods. So at the time the DC was only used for my bandsaw (I would occasionally use my miter saw inside, but the shop vac worked better at collecting the dust shot by the blade back to the built in port). At the last house, I erected a 12x16 workshop on the side-yard. At some point I might do something similar at the new house, but for now it's a lot more economical to put something into the full basement.

My house is about 2400 sq ft of finished space, with a full basement (400 sq ft of the basement is finished, which leaves about 2000 sq ft of storage or potential work space). The basement is peculiar in that the floor has two levels - the center of the basement mimics the sunk-in floor of the living/dining/kitchen area above (so each end of the basement appears to have a raised floor, when one is looking across the entire space). The ceilings are also fairly low - about 72" to the bottom of the floor joists above from the poured concrete slab. This provided some challenges. There is an addition that expands the master bedroom, with a "gardening" room below, which I use to store yard tools and other 'crap.' This room also has an exterior door that opens to the back yard, with the original door to the house separating that space from the rest of the basement. The old door is hollow-core and badly delaminating - more on that later.

So my initial thinking was to take the back quadrant (actually a sextant if you divide each level by two front-and-back) of the basement by the back door/"garden room" to build out. The space was about 13'x33', but I would have to factor in space for the furnace and hot water heater, which were also in that area. I started a floor plan and also began a materials list. That's when I realized that enclosing the furnace, etc would really limit the space and take a lot of extra time to do. Plus the doors I would need to install would be in awkward places, further limiting the available space. The solution was to use the adjoining space towards the front of the house. The only issue being the need to move my boxed and palletted book collection elsewhere. So the challenge was to consolidate my collections and bring them towards the furnace space, while leaving enough room for pass-through and access to the house systems (furnace, etc). That took a bit of thought and brought me up to early last year.

Starting about October of 2007, and committing to building out the front sextant of the basement, I began making some plans. First, I wanted to keep costs down while having the most flexibility. I also wanted to reuse some of the lumber and sheet goods I had accumulated and saved that was now taking up valuable space. The room ended up being rectangular at about 13' wide and 33 feet long (two walls are cinder block foundation while the other two are limited by the drop in the floor on the short end, and a demising support through the center of the house for the long wall). There would be two doors - one opening up into the bulk of the basement, and the other approximately in line and the same size (32") as the door leading to the "garden room" (no need to have the door larger than the exterior door as anything built to move outside would have to exit through the exterior door). I would also replace the door into the "garden room" for better security, change this door and exterior door locks to mach and work with the same key; and finally to rework the house alarm so I could enter through the back and input an alarm code, instead of coming in through a normal exit and having to disable the alarm from the first floor.

I would also wire the room with at least 3 240v 20 amp circuits and 4 120v 20 amp circuits, with lights wired into the regular house wiring via 2 120v 15 amp circuits (good idea to have lights on a separate circuit in case there's an issue or need to disable the sub-panel). The idea is to have enough power to leave equipment plugged in with one circuit dedicated to dust collection. More than likely I wouldn't have more than one or two pieces of equipment in use at the same time, so it became a "power management" exercise. Through all this I did a lot of research on what other woodworkers did - what worked and what didn't, and made some decisions based on my research and needs (woodnet.net is a great source for ideas, as were Google searches). The lights would be suspended and plugged into switched outlets, so they could be moved for best effect once the equipment was laid out. Also, the receptacle would be located above 4' from the floor, in case sheet goods were laid against the wall it would prevent them from being covered.

I had enough left-over bead-board from previous projects so I would only need to buy 1 sheet to complete the two walls, I also had enough salvaged plywood to sheath most of the walls, that came from part of a neighbor's addition that had rot along the bottom (cut off the rot and the bulk was still usable). I purchased some interlocking floor pads at Harbor Freight (4 pack at $5.00) so most of the walkways would be comfortably covered. The walls would be painted and I would have lumber racks on two of them (I have a stack of Walnut and Sapele currently in the carport along with a pile of misc hardwoods like purple heart and mahogany, so the racks would need to be able to store at least that amount).

I started collecting materials as soon as I knew roughly what I wanted to do. I started scouring Craigslist and saved a lot there. I got lucky and found a 100 amp service panel to use as a sub on CL for $30 complete with the 20 amp 240 and 20 amp 120s that I needed. I also bought a box of misc electrical supplies including 250' of 12-2 wire, nail-in and remodeler-boxes, wire nuts, switches and outlets for $30 off of CL. I still needed a 100 amp breaker for the main panel - a Cutler Hammer (which happened to have the most expensive components - go figure) - the retail for that breaker was more than $100 but I managed to find one on eBay for $25 shipped. I also just recently found a pre-hung metal clad exterior door on CL for $40 to replace the delaminated one. Of the two doors leading into the space, I bought and modified a hollow-core pre-hung for the entry from the basement, while the other was a salvage from one of my neighbors who replaced all his doors - I just had to buy a door-frame kit that was fortunately on sale at Home Depot for $14). All this helped to keep costs down. Finally, I found some lumber racks made of 2' galvanized pipe angled (about 5 degrees) into the edge of 2x4s with lag screws - 9 of those were $25 (and I managed to score a bunch of woodworking mags and books for another $25). I modified those for my shop racks, attaching them to the long wall I built so I've got about 20' of usable wood-racking on that wall. I used some John Sterling standards and brackets on the block wall - those were all on close-out at Home Depot so were very cheap.

Some other considerations include soundproofing (sound travels and is very loud in the rooms above) and some type of ceiling sheathing - I want to use something thin and reflective to not lose ceiling height and improve visibility. Also, with stationary machinery it makes sense to go with ducting to the Dust Collector, which in itself won't be powerful enough for my needs (there goes the budget!). All along I've been picking up used equipment to use in the shop, so I've relatively got everything I want (there is some opportunity to swap out some things for better or old arn, as the case may be and I'd like to have a metal lathe but those are all outside the scope of the shop design and build). I also created a small space in the pass-through area to use as an office, mostly to store diagrams, magazines and woodworking reference books. I might also commandeer some additional basement space to store wood and unused/project tools. I'm also leaving my automotive tools outside of the woodshop to free up space and make things more efficient - though there may be room for some exceptions. Finally and perhaps the most important, is to seal everything up to prevent the escape of dust into the rest of the house - so I'll be spending a lot of time closing up cracks and gaps, and caulking seams.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any shots of the space before I started putting up walls - the two walls were basically studs on 16" centers, with the top plate attached to existing floor joists and the bottom plate attached with Ramsets into the concrete. I then sheathed using the left-over bead-board and recycled exterior 3/8" sheathing - note the paint, the lines are where battens were nailed to the exterior. These images were shot on 2008.02.06:

I salvaged several doors that one of my neighbors was throwing out - he had replaced all the interior doors with new, so I reused on 28" door for the short wall. I bought a pre-hung 32" door for the long wall so it would be the same size as the door leading out of the basement. Note the position of the four 48"x2 bulb lights - you can see the outlets mounted on the wall - I zip-tied the cords so there's about an extra 2 feet of range for repositioning. You can see the light switches in these two photos - 3-way so the lights can be turned on/off from either door. The pre-hung had to be shorted about 8 inches to clear the supporting beam on that wall - I now wish I had taken a bit more time and shortened it from the top instead of the bottom - the knob is lower than normal - not uncomfortably so, but it is a nagging detail. I'm not sure if it was worth all the extra time it would have taken to modify both the door and frame - it would have been easier starting with base components (I think I would have if there was a 32" door in the salvage pile, but alas the largest was only 28 inches wide).
I then shortened the wood racks mentioned earlier and lag-screwed them into the new studs - the top screw goes into the supporting beam the top of the wall is attached to. These shots were taken on 2008.02.19:

Because of space considerations, I'm building my Miter station along this wall beneath the racks - it will actually be a bit shorter than usual to clear the bottom pipe. The drill press will be placed in the corner behind the door.

-- John

Tools from September 8th 2007

2007-10-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

I went to a really unusual estate sale on the 8th - the basement was full of old tools that had belonged to the home owner's father. Amongst them where the following:

Walker Turner tabletop Drill Press
Delta tilt-table Table Saw
Craftsman 1/2" shaper (unusual, cast iron round table and guard)
Boise Crane snowflake Bandsaw (looked to be 12 inch) table top model
Walker Turner bench grinder
Walker Turner Sanding Machine setup

There were also several work benches, bits and pieces, hand tools, etc. there was also an assortment of small old motors and many threading taps. Looking over everything - the pricing seem pretty close to what I would expect collectible retail to be - for instance the bandsaw was priced at $400 - the drill press had already sold so I'm not sure what it ended up going for. The table saw was priced at $350, etc. The sanding machine setup was the thing that interested me, as I had never seen anything like it - it had $350 on it and apparently I was the only one interested as I'm to pick it up the following week for $200. It came with what looked like most if not all the parts plus two original WT wrenches (and the dust collector underneath)

More images from the original CL post:

This is what I ended up bringing home:

Includes the two tables (one mounted with the sander), the WT sander, the Craftsman Shaper and a box of handtools, sand paper and bits.

Detail Pics of the Sander:

It turns out that the sander is a Walker Turner SM900 and is actually pretty rare. It came with a little vacuum and bag that hangs underneath (the bag is ripped though - dry rotted) - you can see it in one of the photos of all the parts. It also originally had a sliding table (I've got the two rails) to make it into a stroke sander - I think the table was in the basement stacked on some other things. The "stroking block" might have also been amongst all the bits but I wouldn't have known it was part of this setup.

The Craftsman Shaper is also unusual. It appears to predate most of the numbered tools you usually see produced by Sears. It's entirely made of cast iron, stand, table and fence. The base has "Craftsman" "14" Bearing" and the "Patent Number 1893080" I looked up the patent and it was assigned to C.A. Roberts in 1932. The blue paint looks to be original.

Turns out that this is a Craftsman branded Herbert's Shaper. Patent Link: http://www.google.com/patents?id=w3s_AAAAEBAJ&dq=1893080

-- John

Some tools I acquired on 9/12

2007-10-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

Figured I should do an update - I picked up a few items on 9/12:

There was a gentlemen down in Florida that posted looking for a home for a Dewalt RAS - he was looking for someone who would appreciate it as he didn't have it in him to restore or even use it - the price was "free." When I saw the post I PMed him and told him if he couldn't find a new home for it, I had a friend that didn't live to far from Vero Beach (where he lived) and I thought he wouldn't mind picking it up for me. I was contacted a while later as no one else offered to take the saw - he also pitched an old Drill Press he wanted $50 for - a Champion Blower and Forge 50E (there's a couple of images on OWWM.com) - I thought it was interesting and hey - anything that looks kinda like a sewing machine couldn't be all bad. My friend Joe Black picked up the tools some time ago and came to visit during that weekend - how's that for a Rucker from someone who doesn't know what that means?

Dewalt MMB-23 - complete/working with wrench. Has some rust but nothing a little electrolysis can't fix I don't think:

Champion Blower and Forge 50E - interesting old DP - has an old working GE motor, probably from the same era:

Second set of tools came from an Atlanta CL ad - it showed a blurry picture of a mess of tools on a table - I could make out a small Delta Jointer and figured I couldn't go wrong for $50.

Included were:

Dayton 14" DP Model 3Z305
Delta Rockwell Homecraft 4" Jointer with an old Serial Number tag F-4768 working w/motor
Craftsman Lathe 103.23881 with rests, original CMan Motor and turning tools
Couple of cheapie grinders, oak mallet and an old metal hand drill:

-- John

A couple of new Arn finds

2007-09-08T06:16:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted - been caught up in a few other projects (restoring the Robert Green site over at ModusModern, working on my broke truck, and others to name a few). I did pick up a couple of new "old" woodworking tools that might be of interest though. These are from the week of August 13th, 2007 so I've had a little time to look them over (pics were taken the day I got the shaper though).

Saw an ad Monday (8/13) for the Jointer for $50 and picked it up on Tuesday. It's a bit unusual and not exactly the same as those similar models on the OWWM Mothership - I think it's pretty early by the serial number tag and it's missing some bits (crank handles). It spins up well on that crappy 2x4 homemade stand and the Dayton motor works (even though it sparks a bit). The table is a bit rusty but doesn't look pitted and the rest is in pretty decent shape. Shouldn't take too much to get it right.

Saw an ad for the Craftsman Shaper on Thursday (8/16) and picked it up on the way home from work - $100 with 27 cutters, wrenches, etc. He threw in the Rockwell miter gage since he didn't have the original, optional Craftsman one. I like the original stand - also the serial numbers are slightly different from those on the OWWM Mothership so I think this is a new entry.

I've been told those cutters go for $5 a piece so I basically got the Shaper for free. It's neat and ready to go - I'll probably do a bit of clean up and tweek it some but otherwise it's ready to profile some wood! The miter gauge I'm addingi to my Unisaw.

-- John

Creating Modern Furniture Book

2007-07-31T16:09:00.000-07:00

Posted on one of my other blogs about my latest interesting woodworking book find: Creating Modern Furniture:
http://johnnyapollo.blogspot.com/2007/07/modern-woodworking-book.html

-- John

So what's modern about this?

2007-07-16T07:17:00.000-07:00

OK - so the title is a bit misleading. It reflects my interest in modern furniture - my interest in tools is just the opposite - the older the better. I like old iron (or Arn) powered tools that were built from the turn of the century up to the 60's. Those heavier, cast-iron tools just run so smoothly that they are a wonder to use. I also like hand tools - old planes, spoke shaves, chisels and saws. There's something about the tactile sensation of using hand tools that are a decided break for me. I'm not sure where that's from (probably got it from my dad).

In any case, I'm still working on moving my shop around so I haven't been good about restoring the Unisaw - I have been busy acquiring new arn, however:

Rockwell Motorized Miter Box Model 34-010

The base and lower swing arm are painted iron, with an aluminum fence and motor housing. Looks almost like they took an aluminum 10" circular saw and changed the housing to fit the swing (could be wrong - I used to work with a vintage circular saw and the handle was more in a top position). It runs great - currently has the blade it came with mounted and needs a thorough cleaning. Pics below:

I got this from a Danish guy who worked for House of Denmark and Dansk for many years. He would bring home the broken floor pieces that were headed for the trash and fix them up in his shop - nice double-viced handtool bench in there (that he was keeping or it would have come home with me). Most of the wood he had was some type of discolored white oak - almost looked like reclaimed lumber or possibly barn wood so I passed - (however I did end up going back for it and picked up an old Bang and Olufsen stereo as well).

Dewalt RAS MBC Rel. 22 Serial #140358

This one comes with the original paint in pretty decent condition and it appears complete and runs sweet. The guy who had it was given it by an old neighbor whose husband had passed away - seems he was the original owner and bought the saw new. I walked away with it for $75 (his asking price).

After I loaded up I asked if he had any of the dirty paper or the arbor wrench - he said no and I about drove off when he said "I do have a Dado set that was given to me with saw" - he threw it in for free. Thought it might be of interest - I've never seen a box that had to be renailed shut like this one - still has the original oil paper:

Delta 6-in. Dado Head No. 33

No idea where I'm gonna put this saw yet - it joins my 790 and 7730. I really don't have room or need for 3 saws - man the slope is slippery indeed.

-- John

Unisaw - Part 3 Continued

2007-06-13T03:45:00.000-07:00

Took some additional images from the last stage, these include the broken tooth (near the bottom, 6th):

These images show the ground out front trunnion bracket (the welds have been ground down) - there's a small hairline gap in the inside corner - I'm having it touched up this weekend as well as some slight voids.

The inside of the case isn't bad - not much rust at all, mostly at the bottom (expected). No weird cut-outs or anything - just some clean-up. I've already banged out some edge dents that will be followed up with a light coat of body putty.

The base has ruts but mostly surface with little pitting - I think it will clean up well with the sandblasting - any rough spots I'll hit with body putty. There are two holes that were cut with the castors - I'm not yet sure what to do about those. Welding to the cast iron seems excessive.

Once I have the trunnion assembly pulled apart I'm starting on the motor rebuild - I may go ahead and take it apart so the commutator can be turned.

-- John

Unisaw - Part 3 Dissembly

2007-06-11T18:47:00.001-07:00

For this phase of strip down, I managed to remove the motor and blade raise and tilt wheels. Many of these photos I took for later reference, as I know I'll need them at some point for reassembly:

I managed to remove the trunnion assembly and brackets without pressing out the worm gear spindles. I was at the point of dissembly this past weekend where I had the guts loose, but couldn't figure out how to get them out. I basically tilted up the back trunnion bracket while jockeying the front and moving the trunnion assembly back and forth until the back bracket had room to come out. Once that was done removing the "rest" (the "tilt trunnion bracket - the piece that holds the front of the trunnion assembly up on the front bracket) allowed the whole assembly to be removed in one piece. So now I have the front and rear bracket, plus the trunnion assembly, which is where I stopped in hope of finding more info on what's needed to tear it down - I got that from a recent post on OWWM.org (Old Woodworking Machinery.org - great site with a large group of woodworkers and old machinery collectors who are great about sharing information).

As you can see in the last pic, I've already got the ring apart from the base (ended up having to cut two bolts that were badly stripped) and banged out a few dents - everything is ready for media blasting (case-wise). I hope to get more dissembled this week so I can blast this weekend. I'll follow that with some body work, primer and paint.

-- John

Unisaw - Part 2 Dissembly

2007-06-11T03:26:00.000-07:00

Since I mostly have time only in the weekends, the Unisaw project will come in dribs and drabs. Here are images from the first stage of dissembly - I actually started this 2 weekends ago and managed to get into the interior yesterday (Sunday 06-11) buy haven't edited the photos yet, so I'll probably post those later this week. In any case, here are the initial tear down images:

There are close-ups to my "big surprise" - the welded Front Trunnion Bracket. I've since ground it down (you'll see pics in my next batch). In the last photo is the serial number label - it was covered in several layers of paint - this is what it looks like after rubbing down with "goof off" - I've not got to replace the missing red and black for the label, but will wait until I remove it to complete.

-- John

Modern Wood Screen Wall

2007-06-09T07:06:00.000-07:00

Saw this on another board I frequent:

http://www.owwm.org/viewtopic.php?t=25269 (have to be a member to log in so I've reproduced the post below)

Poster is the Carl Kunkel, son of "Mr Sawdust" Wallace Kunkel (famous for his work in promoting the Dewalt Radial Arm Saw). Read how the screen is put together - it's meticulous and well thought out.

More info on Mr Sawdust here:
http://www.mrsawdust.com/

His Post titled "Fung Shway!"

Hi all, Here's a 16' trellis/wall I made and installed this week in a 17 story apartment in the Village NYC. From the pictures, it doesn't look like much but it was quite a bit of work. It's made of clear cedar and the designer specified he didn't want to see any nails or filled nail holes so I had to fashion 560 aluminum plates (4 holes apiece, 2 countersunk) in order to screw the 1"x1" slats to the posts from behind using all stainless steel screws. The slats are set into a 2 step Dado, one for the plate and 1 for the slat. I pre-stained all the material and it all had to fit in a small service elevator.

The back is 1/2" marine plywood painted a gloss red and will have special lighting inside. The right side of the wall gets a 1"1/2 thick marble slab. The install was a bear as they always are in NYC. It always amazes me what those NYC designers come up with but it pays the bills! Anyway, here's a few pics..

Posts with plates

Staging

Installed

You can see his RAS (Radial Arm Saw) in the top photo - and by all the dadoes cut in those posts for the plates, it was put to good use.

-- John