Old chisels can be brought back to life using these simple steps. If ever there was a type of used hand tool that was a good candidate for restoration, it’s a chisel. Lots of good deals on old [...]
From the Archives: You don’t have to own a lathe to make replacement handles that will feel like an extension of your hand. A few months ago I had to face the unpleasant truth about my chisels. [...]
“So this is what they used to look like. Wow!” That’s what I told all my friends after spending hours completely disassembling, cleaning and polishing a Porter-Cable Model 507 Extra Heavy-Duty [...]
I bought this old 18” bandsaw for a song from a used machinery dealer over 30 years ago. “It came from a local high school,” he said. “I heard that it was purchased by the school back in the [...]
Below you can see pictures of the restoration of the rosewood knob, which belongs to my Record SS plane (read part one here and part two here). After gluing a piece of rosewood onto the knob’s [...]
As I mentioned in the previous post, one of the primary reasons for a missing knob base is a traumatic fall that results in the bending of the knob screw (or threaded rod, depending on the plane) [...]
I’m not sure if I qualify as a tool nut–machine crazy is more like it. I started out using a ShopSmith, but I now have 17 industrial-grade machines. It all started when my wife saw an ad in [...]
As a collector and restorer of numerous bench planes, all stemming from the classic Stanley Bailey design, I can confidently say that the two components most prone to breakage or damage over the [...]
About 30 years ago, my girlfriend led me to a dark, cluttered basement workshop to meet a sweet, 70-ish gem of a man: her grandfather, Hayes. He was surrounded by a lifetime’s collection of [...]
While our new 1955 Crescent band saw was brand new on the pallet, that doesn’t mean it was in ready-to-go condition. The tires had deteriorated over the years, and we had to deal with the [...]
Logan has finally found a band saw he considers to be adequately large — a 36-inch 1955 Crescent that was purchased as government surplus and never used. In this video, he walks you through the [...]
For anyone that has met me, you’ll probably know that I have a pretty happy-go-lucky personality. I enjoy helping others, sometimes to my own detriment. One thing that I’ll always do is try and [...]