1923 Crescent Universal Wood-Worker No. 108 Restoration Complete (Tons of pics)

[Shane Whitlock]

"Back From The Archives "

 

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.

 

Things got off to a rocky start ... The owner had it sandblasted before I picked it up. I told him to not let the sandblasters sandblast any machined surfaces and to call me as immediately after it was done. Well he didn't listen. Every surface was hit, the table tops felt like sandpaper, and he let it sit outside for two days after they were done and you guessed it ... it rained both of those days turning everything back to rust again.

A pic of me unloading it ... look at all that new rust.

 

Sitting in the shop ready to be to begin restoration.

 

Every part was stripped from the machine, rust removed and then painted or polished.

I began by tearing down the jointer first (using my own jointer to store the parts) …

 

and finished with the band saw.

 

The base was lifted so I could get to the underside and strip the rust and give it a new coat of satin black paint.

 

The lineshaft was tore apart, new babbit poured in the bearing blocks, and the pulleys polished and painted.

 

 

The owner wanted brass washers on all the nuts and bolts so I spent a day and turned over 200 washers on my old South Bend lathe and polished them all by hand.

 

All the parts were cleaned of rust, new babbit also poured for the band saw, jointer, shaper, and table saw, and then the fun part .... painting and putting it all back together.

My wife is a real trooper and helped me with all the heavy parts. A cherry picker also comes in handy. (sorry about the smiley face but I had to cover up the boobie shot .. lol )

 

 

New rubbers for the tires and some gold pinstriping and the machine is finally done, well almost done ... I still need to make some flat belts to run it. Right now I just have some mule tape on it so I can get some measurements.

 

 

 

Nothing looks better than satin black paint with gold pinstripes and polished hardware.

 

 

 

 

I'll be glad to have this one done and out of my shop so I can get to work on my own machines.

 

Hope you enjoyed all the pics, more can be seen here ...http://shanewhitlock.com/photo/v/misc/crescentuniversal/

 

Thanks for looking,

Shane

Edited November 7, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[John Moody]

Wow and wow. You do some outstanding work. Where there was once rust now stands an outstanding machine. Thanks so much for the trip through the restoration and all of the pictures are great.

You are so correct that black satin and gold paint make it look like it just came off the show room floor.

 

Thanks

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[Wayne]

Shane,

 

What a great job. From rust to richness. You did a great job on an old machine and now it looks brand new again. You definitely have a talent for this. Great job and thanks for sharing.

 

 

Wayne Mahler

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[Harry Brink]

What I would think of as junk, you turned into a fine piece of woodworking machinery.

 

Great job!

 

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[Greg Coleman]

That is one absolutely beautiful machine!

[Ace HoleInOne]

Nice work...you're even great at pinstripes too! Ever pinstripe cars in the day?

 

-Ace-

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[Bob Kloes]

Shane, 

 

Your work here is incredible. I have a friend that just got a universal woodworker. I sent him your web site. He may contact you. I am so glad you posted about your work here. Really makes this something to see. Thanks again my friend for showing us this. I look forward to seeing what you come up with next!

 

Bob

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[Ron Dudelston]

Shane,

That is magnificent! I have about 1000 questions to ask you about it and if you're going to be in Branson I'll ask you then. One question for here. Did you have the top ground?

 

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[BobHall]

And that's the way it's done folks! Shane congrats on another beautiful job.

The guys over on OWWM.ORG are all drooling and saying good things too, drop by sometime.

 

Regards,

 

Bob

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[dave rybak]

Shane,

Another outstanding job!  I had to sign on to this site just to see more of this wonderful restoration!

Miss your post`s on the owwm site but now I have another site to visit! Thanks!  LOL

Let us know when you get the belts made up and things come to life.....

See you`ve done it now! you have people knocking on your door to restore their machines!

 

How fun is that??

Dave

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[Shane Whitlock]

Thanks for all the replies guys, I appreciate them, and I am glad you enjoyed the pics of this beautiful machine. It truly is impressive and was a joy to restore.

It could easily be put back into service, it's all ready to go, but sadly, this machine will probably never cut another piece of wood ... at least it's not going to the scrap yard.

 

It will be on display in an old building that was a lumber mill back in the 1800s so I'm glad others will get a chance to enjoy it and hopefully gain an appreciation for these old machines.

 

Ace, I must confess, I hired out the pinstriping. I have always done my own striping and do a fairly descent job at it, especially if it's curvy stuff, but I can't draw a straight line to save my life, I shake way too much, so I decided to have a pro do it ... I'm glad I did, he did a great job.

 

Ron I thought about having the tables ground but even though the sandblaster hit them with some pretty course media you could still see the old planing marks in the metal and they still had a lot of character, so I spent about 4 hours on each table and worked them with some fine grit sandpaper, which I don't recommend doing, followed by scotchbrite pads and steel wool and then topped off with some paste wax. I am happy with the way they turned out.

 

Bob and Dave, glad to see you here! If you get a chance please post some of your restorations here. John brought back the Old Woodworking Machinery forum and we would all love to see some more restorations.

 

Thanks again for the comments everyone,

Shane

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[Wayne]

I just can't help but coming back to admire your work Shane.

 

Wayne Mahler

 

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[Ron Dudelston]

Shane,

I worked machinery rebuild for a number of years in the auto industry. 

Learned a lot about scraping and fitting so I know how many hours you put into that. 

Its truly a work of art.

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[Ray Van Haecke (ravan)]

Shane,

 

Truly another masterpiece of a restoration.

I look forward to seeing your work because of your attention to all the small details which always seem to pull the entire projects into an artful whole.

The pin striping is masterful and seems so period-correct. Not a small detail by any means, but a very necessary one for that machine.

Any guess as to how many machines were manufactured?

 

Ray

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[John Moody]

I love the way those tables turned out. I would have guessed that had been ground also.

They really look great, but then the whole machine looks that way.

 

I just keep coming back to this post to admire it and the work you put into it.

 

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[Harold Weaver]

Excellent job Shane!! I'm still in awe of the old Oliver 270D and that wonderful color.....

[Shane Whitlock]

Thanks again for the comments guys.

 

Ravan, glad to see you here, I'm not sure how many of these machines they made. I do know they made them for several years. There's dirty paper on them on the Vintage Machinery site showing the Universal Wood-Worker and the Variety Wood-Worker from 1910 to 1945, so I'm sure they made a bunch of them in that time.

 

Thanks again,

 

Shane

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[billy g. desoto]

What a beautiful job. That is not a combination machine nor a combination of machines, it is a woodworking system!!! Should be mounted on a turn table, in a glass cage not to be touched. What a fine job. Keep up the fine work, Shane.

 

Bill

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[Ken Rasmussen]

Once again Shane you have raised the bar.

 

Wonderful job!!

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk

[rickbaro]

Nice work there Shane!

 

I feel your disappointment that the machine will not be used, you've certainly made it capable, and it would be good karma. But the world needs museum pieces too, and you've certainly taken it to that level.

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by Larry Buskirk