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There has been some discussion lately about using the electrolysis method in the restoration of old woodworking machinery & equipment.  This technique is not limited to the heavy cast iron of old "arn"; it can be used on sheet metal also.

There has been some discussion lately about using the electrolysis method in the restoration of old woodworking machinery & equipment.  This technique is not limited to the heavy cast iron of old "arn"; it can be used on sheet metal also. About four years ago I discovered that my neighbor was preparing to throw away several old toolboxes that he had inherited.  He had already cleaned up with a wire wheel and salvaged those hand tools that he wanted and thought he could save.  Unfortunately, he had already thrown out a bushel basket of wrenches, sockets and such that he thought too far gone.  IIRC, there were seven boxes total; and he was happy for me to take them out of his shop to experiment with.  On closer inspection, two of them were too far gone to bother with.  One was totally rusted through on the bottom, the other was a hip roof box that I thought was to rusted and thin.  It was a small hip roof, old, box - and I found a home for it with a buddy working on doing up a "rat rod" pick up truck and he wanted something like that to bolt to the bed; it was just what he had been looking for.   Of the five remaining boxes, I stripped them down.  Drilled out the rivets holding nameplates and carry handles and scraped off as much surface rust as I could using a wire wheel on a drill.  I likely spent a little time here also with a body hammer and dolly.  Some where in better shape than others.     Following the general clean up, it was time for the electrolysis tank.  A more detailed description of this process has been posted in other threads; here is a link to the process: http://wiki.vintagemachinery.org/RustRemovalByElectrolysis.ashx   I used a 30 gallon plastic trash can, battery charger set on 2 amps hooked directly and a piece of iron pipe that was laying around.  I used plain baking soda for the electrolyte, likely taken directly from the refrigerator or freezer with the explanation that it was time for a new box anyhow     From the pic above, it is cooking pretty good!  Not sure now, but I think that each box was in the "can" about 4-5 days?  I checked them each morning and just left them in until they were clean and any remaining paint just scraped off with a plastic scraper.  As I recall, I put the box in with the lid closed and put the sacrificial rod on the backside, the next day or day and a half, bring the sacrificial rod to the front side and then a couple days with the lid open and the rod positioned so as to draw the rust out of the inside of the box (where the rust was the worst).  As far as I know, you cannot leave them in too long - the chemical process just slows down to nothing as the project metal is converted to a rust free surface.  May be wrong on this, YMMV...  A couple of items to note in the above pic, peeking out from behind the can you can see a few more of the "project" boxes.  The long Klein box on the bottom, a short hip roof box and a red box missing the drawer.  There is also a tray in there, most of the boxes were missing the trays, or the trays were beyond saving.  The long Klein box was long enough that I had to do one end, and then flip it 180 degrees to do the other end.   After the electrolysis bath, I washed them down and done any additional "body work" necessary to make them presentable.  Flash rust occurs if these parts are not painted in short order.  I don't remember any additional steps before painting, but may have given them a light scuff.  A couple of the boxes were painted with Rustoleum hammered paints.  That is really good stuff, tough and the textured finish covers up a bunch of dings and scratches that would otherwise show up.  The other boxes got a coat of whatever I had on hand and felt like using.  The exception was the Craftsman boxes, and those I went with a machinery gray on purpose.  Nothing special here, just rattle cans of paint I had on hand.  These are tool boxes after all, and old tool boxes at that.  They show some abuse.  They are what we would call 20 footers in the trade.  They look pretty good from 20 feet away!   After the paint was dry I riveted on new latches on those that needed them - which was most of them.  I also made new trays if needed, and for one box a new drawer.  These parts were made from sides of washing machines, or dryers.  I have a friend that recycles metal and will give me anything he has on hand that I can use.  You can see in the bottom of the Klein tray being fabbed up that it was likely some type of appliance in a previous life...     So, what has become of them?  The best of the whole bunch was a Craftsman box.  I gave it to the neighbor.  He was pretty shocked to see it returned in that condition!  The other Craftsman box sits in my Duster with a few handy tools to have on a trip; the small red hip roof is in the son's Pontiac; the Klein has my long torque wrenches and other fragile measuring tools and the small red (now green) box is full of router bits and accessories.             This was a fun project that didn't cost me much; but gave me a lot of satisfaction. I recently did another tool box using a rust converter.  It did not come out anywhere near as nice as these - I would call it maybe a 30 footer...

Introduction We are excited to announce that Larry Buskirk is back and ready to assume his duties as the Old Machinery Forum Host! Larry has been a member since July of 2011 along with a small hiatus from us as life happened, but he has returned to the fold, and we are very happy he is back. When Larry first came aboard he demonstrated his keen prowess in the art of restoring old machinery, and he kept coming back to share his expertise with others and a few of his own projects.   It wasn't long before Larry shot us a message and asked us "You all should install an Old Machinery Forum!". After much cajoling and convincing us admins, the forums for Old Machinery were born, you can all thank Larry Buskirk for firing up our Old Machinery forums!   I had a personal run in with Larry from the early days, I had an old Walker Turner drill press that I started to restore, and the on/off switch box was a mess, the wires were all jumbled and they were disconnected and I could not get it to hook up and start. Larry asked me to call him and see if we could get it squared away, within 10 minutes by just a phone call, Larry walked me through the identification process of each wire, and which wire connects to the other, and by the end of the night I had a Walker Turner that was spinning away! He really knows his stuff folks.   Projects One of Larry's projects he shared with us was his Delta 700 Scroll Saw Restoration.     Larry has also helped us start a unique file sharing gallery for machinery decals that are needed during the process of getting that old machine back to specs and color. All the decals uploaded into this gallery were done by our Machinery Forum Host. https://thepatriotwoodworker.com/files/category/25-delta-mfg-co/     Just a heads up, when a decal is submitted in the decal files sharing category, they are auto-populated into the Old Machinery Badges and Decals Forum. https://thepatriotwoodworker.com/forums/forum/46-old-machinery-badges-and-decals/   Duties Larry will be hosting all the forums under the Old Machinery category. He'll will be our main go to man for the art of restoring old machinery, or not restoring old machinery! Hey, just post your old machinery topics here, so we can all talk about them and learn. Restored or not, Old Machinery is just flat out cool. Larry will be able to assist members in posting their topics or editing images, or inserting images, correcting up on that post that you wish you had not posted, he will be able to remove or change content for you. And of course his main duty here, is to be here for you while you restore that old machine, bringing it back from the dead.   In other words, welcome back Larry! Great to have you aboard, again, and assuming your duties here in the Old Machinery Forums! Now, get to it folks! Dig em up, un-bury them, rescue them from salvage, and take up your neighbor when they offer you an old machine that appears to be useless, because I guarantee you, once you get it in your shop, and you interact here for the resto process, you'll have a working machine that is made better than most machines today, at a fraction of the cost.   Cheers!

We all have our favourite workbenches, some slapped together on a strict budget, some costing as much as a small car. This one, however, is a bit different! We feed the wild birds here, and I like to watch them go about their daily routines and occasionally take pictures. Over the past eight months or so, I've noticed some strange behaviour. It began with a pair of Red-breasted Nuthatches, and recently a pair of White-breasted Nuthatches have started using the same tactics, Our main feeder is a wooden one, rather rustic, with split birch branches edging the tray. One corner has a tapered gap between the two branch ends, and this now serves as a crude 'vise'. A bird will swoop down, grab a sunflower seed, jump over to that corner and place the seed in the gap. He (or she) will then hammer away at the trapped seed until the husk splits, whereupon the husk is tossed aside, and the bird flies off with its prize. This is repeated countless times a day, yet there is never a squabble over who gets the 'workbench'. They wait their turn, almost as if they had a schedule planned out! Who are you calling a 'birdbrain'?   John

Well it's early, but we couldn't wait to show off our beautiful tree.  Decorated with only lights and turned ornaments.  Thanks so much again to all of the members of The Patriot Woodworker who donated their beautiful pieces.  There is still plenty of time and more room on the tree if you would like to help! Merry Christmas! Jim

I finally finished the restoration on the Crescent Universal Wood Worker. I've been putting in a lot of hours on my real job so I have only been able to work on this one on weekends, took almost 3 months to finish.
Here's a pic of it before I started. It's been sitting outside for decades rusting away.

My goodness they are here! I recently purchased two Spofford braces on EBay and man are they beautiful! I first saw these braces being used by chair maker Curtis Buchanan and contacted him and asked him what the heck is that beautiful stylish brace he was using while boring holes in his Windsor seat. He replied back they were the Spofford split chuck brace, and he loved his.
I got mine in yesterday and I bored a few holes with mine, and they are absolutely a joy to use. They are very comfortable, light, and they have a direct feel to them as I'm boring. It's hard to explain, but I can actually feel how deep they are boring, I think it's because of the direct transfer of energy from hand to auger, instead of the traditional braces you have some mechanics between the user and the auger, such as a ratchet or large chuck mechanism.

Today I started working a quick project that's going to be a Christmas gift for a friends son. It is going to be a 6" reflector telescope that does not have a tube. My friend didn't want a telescope he would have to hide in a closet but instead keep it out where people can see it. This is what I consider a weekend project because the wood cutting is kept to a minimum.

Today I started working a quick project that's going to be a Christmas gift for a friends son. It is going to be a 6" reflector telescope that does not have a tube. My friend didn't want a telescope he would have to hide in a closet but instead keep it out where people can see it. This is what I consider a weekend project because the wood cutting is kept to a minimum. As with any wood project you can keep this as plain or as elaborate as you want. The most difficult parts of this project is making the octagon mirror box and ensuring the focal lengths are correct. I added pictures of what the scope will resemble when this project  is assembled. I haven't decided the color of the stain yet. I will post pictures as the work progresses.

Got the angel ornaments done.  There is 30 of them.         Started with an inch and a half square blank, turned it round and measured two inches for the body and three quarters inch for the head.     Drilled a 5/8" hole in the bottom 3/4" deep and hollowed it out some to take some weight off.     Turned the body.     Shaped the head and cut the ornament free.  Turned it around and put it in the chuck to sand the top of the head.         For the wings I put another same size blank in and rounded it off and cupped the end.  Also measured off for the width needed.         Shaped the front of the wings and left a 3/16" stud to glue into a hole in the body.           Parted it off and set up the drill press to drill a hole on each side of the stud and took them to the scroll saw and cut a "V" for the wings.         I used halos and caps purchased at the craft store glued together with Goop glue and held them on with a small brass eye and attached a hook to hang them with.               Put the finish on all done.    

Good evening all, A couple of months ago my wife told me she wanted a potting bench for the patio. I was looking for ideas on the internet but I did not want to spend a lot of money building it. Well there was a local mattress factory was going out of business and they were gutting the factory building to make room for the new business. The workers began piling up cabinets, benches, storage racks and mattress frames outside with a free sign on it. I went down and picked up a storage rack with wheels plus a bunch of other free wood and went to work. The frame of the potting bench was made from the A-frame storage rack. I cut off the upper portion of the rack and built . the table on that with mattress frames. The upper rack is an old towel rack I picked up from Goodwill for $1.00. Since the bench will be outside most of the time I sprayed it with BLO to protect the wood. The bottom line is that it is functional and Momma likes it. Total cost of the project $5.00 and three hours of my time.

Hello All,
I am new to the forum and I am happy to be part of the club. I love to restore antiques and decided to tackle my second band saw project. My first was a 1941 Craftsman which I use on a regular basis. I picked up this saw from a friend who is buying a motor home and becoming a snowbird. He had owned the saw since he picked up from hid dad about 40 years ago. I have been told that this is a Parks 20" band saw that was made around the turn of the century. It is made of cast iron and weighs about three hundred pounds. The original wood bed rotted many years ago and was replaced with 1" box tubing. I plan to paint this beast dark forest green and dark burgundy. The current motor is an old Dayton but I found a period correct motor for it here in town. I am having some custom 129" blades made from a company that charges about $20 ea. I am still looking for more information about this saw so if anyone has more info on this beast it would be greatly appreciated. I really would like to know the year it was made. This saw should be a great addition to my shop.
 
 

next will be my kind of carving also my favorite kind of woodworking. This is parts of three different patterns to come up with this size thingy....
Just finished scroll sawing the outside of this pattern. Its 1 1/2" maple and it sure does strain the saw.
 I think I will be inserting a few names somewhere in or on it. 

next will be my kind of carving also my favorite kind of woodworking. This is parts of three different patterns to come up with this size thingy.... Just finished scroll sawing the outside of this pattern. Its 1 1/2" maple and it sure does strain the saw.  I think I will be inserting a few names somewhere in or on it. 

I really like turning maple, many times with the intention of embellishing it as the grain can lend itself to that. Now and then however you stumble into a piece that would be a crime to embellishment at all. I feel I hit the jackpot on this particular piece of wood, at least as far as it having beautiful grain.

I really like turning maple, many times with the intention of embellishing it as the grain can lend itself to that. Now and then however you stumble into a piece that would be a crime to embellishment at all. I feel I hit the jackpot on this particular piece of wood, at least as far as it having beautiful grain.             Didn't put my normal zentangle pattern on the bottom of this one, the grain was just too spectacular. Hated to even sign it but found the "plainest" spot I could.     Steve

Is that even a "thing"?    Unlike clamps....sometimes one should draw the line...?

I think all of us appreciate what @lew does for all of us here on The Patriot Woodworker.  His skills and generosity are off the charts!  We received a package here at Easy Wood Tools today...     Thank you Lew
 

Is that even a "thing"?    Unlike clamps....sometimes one should draw the line...? Spent some time in the shop, tonight....cleaning a few drills....braces are in 6" sweep up to a 14" sweep.   Stanleys, Millers falls, a 12" PEXTO, and even a couple marked Germany ( and NOT West Germany, either) Some of these needed to see the wire wheel....rust spots.   Some needed a drop of oil, here and there...makes them turn a bit better ( pun intended)....I can understand this mob of drills....may get rid of a couple duplicates..maybe...however, it is a different thing with these critters.. Do I really NEED 10 of these?   The biggest is a Millers Falls No. 2-01.....the smallest has a new chuck.. Hard enough to tighten the chucks on the larger ones...Craftsman 1/4" chuck...takes a key.    There are two Craftsman drills here..black handle I thought was a M-F No. 5..is a Craftsman. All blue with the red knob?   Stanley Handyman.  Light coloured wood handle has a surprise... Slides open to store bits in the handle... Millers falls, Granit, GM CO.,   And a Goodell-Pratt...The gray-framed Craftsman and the big M-F #2... Did a test drive into a few knots.   I  was wiping these down, oiling them up, wire wheel as needed ....Two others got to join the fun.. May give the G-P a test, later.....may just keep the better ones...in a small, medium, large set up...Not sure IF I need 10 eggbeaters.. Bad enough with at least that many braces..and squares.. Will see how this goes.....have planes to sharpen, a few well used chisels to freshen up... Normal Downtime  after a Project...   Too many drills?

I think all of us appreciate what @lew does for all of us here on The Patriot Woodworker.  His skills and generosity are off the charts!  We received a package here at Easy Wood Tools today...     Thank you Lew  

Monday, I posted that I’m building a farmhouse table.  Gene Howe requ stew that I keep y’all posted on the progress so here it is.  The top is flat on both sides and I have made the skirt and stretchers.  BTW, the stretchers are done but on in this picture.  Everything is mortised and renowned and Inhad to increase my mortising skills.  The legs are 5” square and my mortifying machine only raises to 4 1/2” so I cut the mortises with a plunge router and chilled the ends.  Speaking of legs, they were purchased and on leg was an 1/8” out of square So the mortise and tenon was “interesting”.   

Monday, I posted that I’m building a farmhouse table.  Gene Howe requested that I keep y’all posted on the progress so here it is.  The top is flat on both sides and I have made the skirt and stretchers.  BTW, the stretchers are done but on in this picture.  Everything is mortised and tenoned and I had to increase my mortising skills.  The legs are 5” square and my mortifying machine only raises to 4 1/2” so I cut the mortises with a plunge router and chilled the ends.  Speaking of legs, they were purchased and on leg was an 1/8” out of square So the mortise and tenon was “interesting”.   

Doing nothing this morning I thought I would compare Amazon and Wood Carvers Supply with the same 1/8"bits I use all the time since Woodcarvers supply has the original numbers beside their numbers in their catalog.. These pictured on the left side of the page are the ones I use most ll the time... the 1/4" bits are too big for getting into tight places but some are okay for starting the process. I think I ordered these in the middle of 2015 so they have lasted through all my clocks and still look like new once I get them out of the bottle of lacquer thinner and clean them up with a real fine bristle brush..
 

Project details
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Remember, "What's It" is not always woodworking related!

 

 
 

Doing nothing this morning I thought I would compare Amazon and Wood Carvers Supply with the same 1/8"bits I use all the time since Woodcarvers supply has the original numbers beside their numbers in their catalog.. These pictured on the left side of the page are the ones I use most ll the time... the 1/4" bits are too big for getting into tight places but some are okay for starting the process. I think I ordered these in the middle of 2015 so they have lasted through all my clocks and still look like new once I get them out of the bottle of lacquer thinner and clean them up with a real fine bristle brush..   The second set of numbers and letters are the ones Amazon uses like the T-18D and T-14D and you have to be careful for they also have other numbers and letters added here and there so the prices will vary up  so be aware . These pictures here are of a light grey with no color added.     I did order more different kinds but only use the 4 numbers circled so I spent money on some not necessary in my carving... When looking at Amazon they do have the second set of numbers but not all the bits are available for sale. The number RS-34E is listed for 25.50 at Amazon where Woodworkers Supply has it for 14.50. I had to keep looking for Amazon has lots of identifying letters and numbers close with all kinds of prices so be aware. Some of their items are fine grit where all these woodworkers supply numbers are course grit.. Some of the exact number bits are the same price as each supplier but if there is any difference, Amazon is higher.   The machined cut carbide bits are good for some places but the real course models will dig fox holes before you can blink your eyes.. so change out  the bits before a screw up can't be repaired. The finer cut models will make a smoother surface on the wood than the nugget type bits.   These Saburr and also Nugget brand are long lasting and clean up good. When first starting I like to use the 2" Carbide Nugget brand wheel which has to use a 1/4" shaft so I have to switch to my air tools for the first wood removal.. This is on page # 3 of the Woodworkers Supply catalog. I just mentioned this because anytime I go to Amazon I just assume their prices will be cheaper than anyone else but that's not the case when comparing these exact items!!!