Am Try project

It is done.

And better yet, it saws wonderfully. The old girl looks pretty good for being around a hundred years old. It took me a while to run the last leg of this race but yesterday I got my act together and finished the rehab.

What took so long was my wait for a couple parts I used a local metalsmith to fabricate. The stock guides are L shaped braces that I wouldnt call vital, but they are damn handy. They sit in shallow dados in the bed and clamp into place with a thumb screw clamp behind the fence.


When you place the stock on the bed, you snug up the stock guide to support the piece in place against the back and forth friction of the saw stroke.


Yes you could hold the stock with your hand, but that may be more difficult when dealing with crown mouldings. They make using the saw much nicer.

I tried to fabricate these by myself  couple of different ways. I bought the flat and round steel stock and first I tried to drill and tap the end of the steel bar for a machine screw. I tried to be careful and take my time, I drilled the appropriate hole and used oil to lubricate the process. Yet my tap broke off inside the steel bar.

Crap.

So I went to plan B. I had read another online account of a similar rehab where the author fabricated his using a two part epoxy. I picked some up and gave it a shot. Again I followed the instructions carefully but I couldnt get the epoxy to hold up to even light handling. I was doubtful about it, but it was worth a shot.

One thing I dont have in my skill set that I would love to learn is welding. I cast around and found a local metal smith / artist who was willing to throw down a couple quick welds for me. After a few weeks I was able to stop and pick up the pieces.

Now I was in business. The only metal fabrication part I had left was a top bar that connects the two towers and keeps them from racking while youre sawing. This was a simple piece of flat stock, (the same as I used for the stock guides) and it took me re-taping and replacing one of the thumb screws with a replacement.


A couple of screws connected the saw box to a off-cut of 1x12 pine. Now I can cinch it to the bench with a couple holdfasts and store it underneath when I dont need it.


All that was left was to sharpen the saw itself. I always kind of work myself up about before hand and when its over I think, "Damn, that wasnt so bad." For certain its not that difficult of a thing to learn, and the more I do it the better Ive gotten.

One of the turning points for me was taking a saw sharpening class with Mark Harrell over at Bad Axe Tool Works. I wrote about that experience HERE. Working with Mark taught me to trust my the feel of the file and the things my eyes were seeing and has let me do away with the guide blocks and jigs Id been using up to this point. Knowing what to look for has improved my sharpening greatly. Hes teaching more of these classes. As I understand it a couple times a year. Drop by his site and get in contact with him about dates and details. Its so worth it.


Once I sharpened the teeth I used another piece of pine off-cut to test my work. Another trick I learned from Mark. I scribe a square line and saw it, burying the saw to the back. If the saw follows the line, were good. If it appears to pull to one side or the other, a little sharpening stone on the toothline will adjust that.

This time things turned out just right. No stoning necessary.


Now would be the moment of real truth. Would the miter box give me accurate cuts? or would more adjustments be required?

I grabbed a piece of cherry scrap and gave it a shot.

90 degree cut checked out perfect. No light creeping under the trisquare blade when it was checked.

Encouraging, but what about 45 degree miters.


According to my miter square. Accurate as can be. Im a happy boy!

There is only one more thing Im curious about with this saw. Its a little steel disk with three holes. It was attached to the back of the saw when I bought it. It has two beveled screw holes flanking a threaded center hole.



In doing some research on this saw I downloaded a Stanley Tool Catalog from 1914 from a site called Rose Antique Tools. The part is listed as 109 a Stock Guide Plate.


And in the direct picture of the saw box, you can see it in use. Its obviously an attachment to set a repeatable cut for length. I just dont understand for sure how the Stock Guide works in conjunction with it.

I wonder if the stock guides I had made up should have one with an oblong slot down the center. After that its getting another thumb screw made. Im not sure Im ready to go through all of that, but it would be cool to know.



Ive looked around some and not found any reference or seen any pictures of this part in use in the wild, and Id like to know how it works. If you have one, or some good pictures of one, maybe youll consider sharing them with me. Please drop me a line at oldwolfworkshop@gmail.com so I can share that information here. Id appreciate it.

Either way, Im calling this done (at least for a while) Old tool rehabs like this are fun distractions, but I am always happier when Im done with them and can get back to making saw dust. There is a certain satisfaction in making sawdust with a tool youve saved from the scrap heap, and there is no better way to get to know and understand a tool intimately. In the end Id rather spend time fussing with wood instead of fussing with tools.

Ratione et Passionis
Oldwolf

Well it was time... time to begin to put the pieces, the stages, together. Until I began I had no clue how I was gonna manage the angled leg thing and get it spaced right. It seemed to me things would be simpler if I were to attach the legs to the bottom shelf, and then attach that assembly to the bottom of the bench top.
Now all I had to do was come up with the how...

I had some left over chunks of face glued 2x4s from cutting the legs, about 14 inches in length. Well 6 inches of clearance from the floor seemed reasonable, so I cut them into 6 inch long chunks and used them to prop the bottom shelf at that height.

I then straddled the legs over shelf and measured off 6 inches from the edge of the shelf to the outside edge of the legs and clamped them into place. with the clamps tightened I pulled the riser blocks and checked everything for relative level. I made a few gentle adjustments with a mallet until I was happy :) and tightened the clamps again,

I then chucked up a very long 5/16ths" drill bit, drilled the holes for the carriage bolts, tapped the bolts home and tightened them up complete with lock washers to help cut down on the loosen-age that happens over time.

I admit carriage bolts are a bit of a let down for me as I am such a joinery freak, but I had to keep in mind that we live in a rental and someday I may want to move this beast out of the basement, and there is no way it would fit up in one piece, thus no wedged mortise and tenon or anything more fancy, just carriage bolts and lag screw for attaching the legs to the top.

I then lifted down the leg assembly, and flipped the benchtop over bottomside up. Starting to play with things I grabbed my end vise and made a discovery, The top was too thick to allow the flip up bench dog on the vise to be effective. I had to remedy this.

I laid the vice down and measured out the area I would meed to remove and the depth I needed to remove. I then chucked a 1" moticing bit into my router and blew out the area to about an inch depth

This done I positioned and lag screwed the leg assembly to the top. Then it was upstairs to beg and plead with the first lady to com help me flip the whole thing over. Im lucky she loves me because she came down and helped

I could not wait to test out the height, I desperately wanted the workbench to also act as an out feed table for my table saw, I tried my best to judge and measure, but with the angled legs it would have been easy for someone like me to make a mistake, the disaster would be too high because then I would have to either shorten the workbench, or rethink the shop layout I decided on. I bellied up the saw to the bench and threw a board on it.... lot of suspense and maybe a drum roll. The height on the bench was perfect, dead on perfect, I could not believe it myself.
I made several mistakes on this project and I hope to learn from them for the next time, but to at least get this important detail right felt good.

I threw the boards of the bottom shelf and nailed them into place with 4d finishing nails. And I do believe then I called it a night..

good night all

Oldwolf