By
swirt on June 23, 2012 at 11:50 pm in
tools •
Comments Off
Every old tool fan has a story of the one that got away. Some great old gem of a tool that slipped through their fingers for some reason or another. My most recent one still makes me shake my head in disbelief.
I’m not fully up and running with my new garage bay workshop. To me it looks like a poorly organized mess of chaos. To passers by, it must resemble a workshop enough for them to comment as they walk by while I have the garage door up. My small, unassuming workbench sits sadly in the middle for all to see.
There’s a nice old guy that walks our neighborhood on a daily basis. He usually stops and chats for a few minutes if we are in the front yard. The other day he is walking by while I am pushing my son on his tree-swing, but I have the shop door up. The old guy says, in a thick German accent, “Vat, dey didn’t leave you da vorkbench?” I ask, what workbench? Enter the most cruel line I have ever heard uttered… “An old massive vorkbench vid a top dat tick.” and he holds his fingers about 7 inches apart. Then just to add insult to injury, he says, “It had a great big vooden vise on the front, it was amazing.”
I inquired of the next door neighbor that knew the prior owners of the house quite well. Apparently the man that owned the house had a great uncle that was a woodworker in days of yore and the workbench belonged to him originally. The prior owners of our house were headed to an assisted living place and had no further use for the massive workbench. They were afraid they’d have to throw it out and they didn’t know how to dispose of it!!! Apparently some guy came in at the last minute of their garage sale and bought it from them for next to nothing. The day we first looked at this house to buy it was the day AFTER their garage sale. “Missed it by that much.” are the words that keep haunting my brain.
Time for a beer and a session of reading Christopher Schwarz Workbench Book while I shed some tears for the workbench that got away.
Previously
- Good Plane Advice – Good Physics
This video is amazing and clearly shows the effects of a chip breaker with a much steeper angle on the front of it (think snow plow rather than ramp) and setting it closer to the edge of the blade than “conventional wisdom” would have suggested. The video very clearly shows that the chip breaker works […]
- Rustic Outdoor Lamp Posts
My workshop in FL is still not ready yet, so here is one from a collection of things from my time in NY that I had not gotten around to posting. On our property I needed some outdoor lighting to keep our B&B guests from bumping into things in the dark. Any of the modern […]
- Kids Builds at Lowes and Home Depot
While my workshop is being reconfigured, the only real woodworking projects I have been doing lately are taking my 3 yr old to the Home Depot Kids Workshop and the Lowes Build and Grow Workshop a few times a month. Both stores really do a nice thing of providing the kits, tools and work space […]
- No Waste – High Tech Timberframing
I watched this video and was impressed by all the cool automated technology used to create the timberframe components. But I also thought, where’s the fun in that? Industrially precut timber framing has become the predominant house construction method throughout Japan. In this documentary, Bakoko explains the process from factory floor to building site. […]
- Vaughan Hammer – Sad Gloat
I am still suffering from a severe case of workshop withdrawal. The entire contents of my workshop are still residing in a 5’x8’x8′ U-box pod waiting for us to move into a new house. Overall I have to say I am happy with the U-box service…just sad to be without a shop for the duration […]
- Band Saw Set-up Video
I have a Craftsman 14″ bandsaw that is a twin brother to the Rikon (the Rikon has a few more refinements). I am not certain whether Rikon makes the Craftsman or some third company makes both the Rikon and Craftsman. Either way, I saw this video about fine tuning at setup and I wanted to […]
- Barn Moving
In general, timber frame structures are incredibly solid and stable. Here is a great example of the stability when 344 people gathered to lift a barn and move it by hand and foot from one location to another.
- Mallet Head Angle
I’ve seen this issue come up and get discussed on several forums. A joiners mallet is pretty simple to make, so it is a quick and satisfying shop project to get one constructed, but then the question arises, “what angle should be put on the head?” This is an important question with advice ranging from […]
- Tuning Up a Cheap Spokeshave
For years I have been keeping my eye out for a rounded bottom spokeshave (convex, front to back). I have an old Stanley 151M flat soled spokeshave that works quite well and I wanted a vintage round bottom Stanley 151R to match. Unfortunately they seem to be kind of rare, or on eBay the photos […]
- Chisel – Long Lost Brother
Tool owner stamps always intrigue me. When I pick up one of my old wood planes and look at the layers of old owner stamps on them, I wonder who they were and what they did. Were they carpenters, or just hobbyists? Did they pass them on to their children? Did they save up for […]
- Portable Chisel Rack
For years I have kept my chisels in a drawer. I keep covers on the tips so they don’t damage each other, but as my chisel collection has grown, the drawer has gotten crowded and is just not the best way to store and access them repeatedly. So I decided to make a chisel rack. […]
- Old Tools Passed On
I was fortunate to spend several weeks around the holidays soaking up some sun in Florida and spending time with my family. Time with my wife and son on the beach was gift No 1 and brings a smile to my face just thinking about it…especially as I look out the window now at the […]
- Making Chisel Handles
In the last post I showed off some newly made socket chisel handles and justified the use of octagonal shaping on the back section. If you liked the finished product and wanted to see how I made them, then this post is for you. Ideally, if I were some kind of master sculptor I could […]
- Replacement Chisel Handles
I have an odd collection of chisels ranging from a couple of modern plastic handled abominations to several old Stanley 750’s , an old Witherby, a PS&W and a D.R. Barton. I am gradually replacing the plastic handled chisels as I find older socket handled varieties. I like my old chisels, some belonged to my […]
- Early American Lumber
I found this painting online. It was first published in the National Park Service publication New Discoveries at Jamestown: Site of the First Successful English Settlement in America. The painting is artist, Sydney King’s interpretation of the lumber industry in colonial Jamestown. I find the painting fascinating as it focuses on so many aspects of […]
- Saw: Atkins 53
My son and I were on our way to the grocery store the other day, and on the way there, we saw a sign for a barn sale. I got a big smile on my face and said, “Do you want to go see if they have any old tools?” … he answered… I’m pretty […]
- Cheney Hammer
I wrote a while back about my Grandfather’s Belknap Bluegrass Hammer so now I turn my old tool spotlight to my Father’s Cheney Bell Face Hammer with the very cool and functional ball bearing nail holder. This hammer was made by the Cheney Hammer Co. in Little Falls NY. The head on the Cheney hammer […]
- Clamp Handle Supersize
I have a few of the standard Bessey F-clamps. They are well made and seem to hold up well. My only real complaint with them is that the handles are too small in diameter. The small diameter makes it more difficult to tighten them enough. To improve them I needed to make a quick and […]
- Clamp Rack
My clamps have been pretty much an accident waiting to happen. They’ve been hanging from various pieces of floor joist from the ceiling of my basement shop. It’s been on my to-do list for a while to make a clamp rack. It is funny how sometimes things just cause certain items on a to-do list […]