My Shopful of Old Iron

steve morris

Member
Messages
52
here are some pics of my shopful of oldies, i'll post pics of individual machines over the next couple of days

so pic out and id the oldies!!

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some will be obvious, some are more obscure Canadian machines but they were all available stateside, primarily at montgomery wards
 
that dewalt chopsaw is almost an oldie as well, it would actually be allowable on owwm under their rules(20+ years old, not asian origin)

its 21 years old and made in the US!
 
I'd be suspicious if you used that shop or not if there wasn't that bucket of shorts in the one picture, the whole place is way to clean ;) :D

Its interesting how much more attractive the lines are on a lot of the old iron. I can't decide if its inherent or if its conditioning but things like that bandsaw sure are pretty. Thanks for sharing!
 
first is my 1940's Delta/Rockwell 1160 tilt top table saw

i bought this a few years, it had been well taken care of but when i first saw it, it was a pile of parts on a pallet!! what a jigsaw puzzle

the bearings had been replaced but with the wrong ones so the blade was way off centre in the slot and the blade wobbled like crazy.

new bearings and truing up of the blade back washer solved those issues.

i was fortunate to find NOS bearings, spindle and many other parts, most of which i didnt need

i dont think the 1160 ever came with the cast iron base, i think that base is from a jointer. but it fits perfectly.

the motor is a 30 yr old 2 hp, runs on 240 and is buried deep in the cast iron base.

one issue with the 1160 is that its tippy because of the small footprint. i resolved that with the shopfox mobile base, its bolted to the cast iron base and is expanded to be larger on the right side

tilties are somewhat different to use, but i dont even think of it anymore. the table also goes up and down for depth of cut which can be a nuisance if you use outfeed support, i use the ridgid fliptop stand when i need it.

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I'd be suspicious if you used that shop or not if there wasn't that bucket of shorts in the one picture, the whole place is way to clean ;) :D

Its interesting how much more attractive the lines are on a lot of the old iron. I can't decide if its inherent or if its conditioning but things like that bandsaw sure are pretty. Thanks for sharing!

i does get used, everyday, and its not usually that neat and tidy. dust collection is always a pain, even more so on old stuff

its a double car garage and the flooring is "wood" laminate, very easy to sweep and gentle on tools and old knees!

this is my main jointer, late 40's beaver 3800. beaver tools were designed and made by the callander foundry in guelph, ontario, canada. rockwell bought the foundry and the beaver line of tools in 1954. many rockwell and delta tools were made there after that

ive rebuilt 3 or 4 of these jointers, this one came out of an old very wet barn, a very rusty pile of parts. interesting design, the cutterhead and pulley are one piece and there is no spindle. the cutterhead runs on a pair of tapered roller bearings inserted into the main casting. a simple cleaning and repack with fresh grease brought them back. note the fence tilt system, that must have cost a fortune to make. its a shortbed jointer, the extensions were an option. rebuild was simple except for rust removal, tables were coplaner, all the parts were there

its powered by an old wagner repulse induction motor(has starting brushes), i rebuilt that, although not much to do except a decent cleaning. the motor is mounted in the forward position to allow for a dc system under the jointer. the cabinet is shopmade using castiron legs that were available from beaver at the time

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as far as pretty lines, i'll get a pic of my three bandsaws, modern ryobi, 1935 beaver and the 1915 crescent side by side!
 
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for those who dont frequent the turning forum, here is my wood lathe

its a 1940's henry power tools aka craftmaster "boat tail". 36 inch bed, 14 inch max dia. inboard

powered by a Hoover 1hp with a 5 speed jackshaft and 4 speed head stock, motor is reversible(switch on the motor's side)
 
And a homemade hand wheel on the lathe unless I miss my guess. Looks like a sweet little turner.

Love the cabinet under the jointer. That's some quality work and really fits in well with the overall antique equipment collection. The fence is indeed an interesting design, looks dang solid.
 
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ive built several of those cabinets over the years, different sizes for diferent machines. down to two of them now, the jointer and a taller(longer leg) under my scrollsaw

the "handwheel" on the outside of the headstock is actually a quick change faceplate, made by OneWay, there's another smaller faceplate to fit the same hub hanging on the cabinet. it does function as a handwheel too, although usually as a hand powered discbrake!!
 
my previous lathe, a beaver 3400, used the same stand. i had a section of lathe bed bolted to the stand on the outboard end for toolrest setup
but it was too low for the bigger lathe. outboard turning is coming later! i do have the spindle adaptors for the LH thread for the chucks and faceplates already and that brute of a motor is plenty powerful
 
this is my other jointer, a beaver 2800. this is actually the same as a rockwell/delta homecraft 4 inch model 2801 but made in Canada after rockwell bought beaver in 1954

my fil bought this brand new in the late 50's and used it for many years. when i got my hands on it, he had replaced the driven pulley with the wrong bore and ruined the spindle. he used a 1/2 inch bore pulley and a piece of beer can instead of the very hard to find 7/16 bore. my fil was a duct tape and bubble gum type of repair guy!!

i had the spindle cleaned up, bored out a 3/8 pulley to 7/16, replaced the bearings, paint etc etc. i also had to correct badly worn table ways so that they were coplaner.

it works great, i use it regularly for small pieces of figured wood after jointing on the big machine. it gets a regular honing, so its razor sharp

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next is my parks planer. im not sure of its age but late 40s early 50s from several clues

i havent done much to it, this basically how it arrived. just a general tuneup, sharpening and honing. a total rebuild is in the works for this winter

it came with the stand shown, nicely built, i added the dust collection hood.

it was powered by a modern 2 hp doerr farm duty motor but when i found this 3 or 4 hp leland repulse induction motor for 50 bucks..... well the rest is obvious

i rebuilt the old motor, it was so heavy, i couldnt lift it let alone jockey it into the stand. a couple of ramps some prybars, etc etc

it will run on 240, 20 amp but barely. i had to replace the breaker with a new one

here are some pics including rebuilding that monster motor
 

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I've heard lots of good things about those old parks but haven't had the pleasure myself. It's pretty amazing how much more copper there is in some of those old motors for the same nominal horsepower compared to a lot of modern ones. Basically built to run forever.

I hope the 2h found a good home as well ;)
 
On the jointer when you fixed the table coplaner, was that "just" shimming or did you end up having to do deeper surgery? (I say "just" acknowledging what a pain that can be)
 
the 6 inch beaver was coplaner as were the other 3 or 4 i rebuilt
the 4 inch rockwell beaver was terribly out, i suspect quality control issues at the old beaver factory after rockwell bought it
yes i fixed it by shiiming the outfeed table with brass shimstock. did that 5 years ago and its still good.

the parks is quite a machine, there were very few planers around that were affordable for hobbiests, not like todays plastic and aluminum lunchboxes. the parks was also sold under the craftsman name at sears/roebuck for several years. its a heavy brute, all solid cast iron

interestingly sears also sold this little machine, a manual feed 6 inch planer, affectionately known as the "alien". i had one for a while

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next are the bandsaws, ive a few and more than one of some of them

these are the ones i have right now:

the Crescent 20 inch, covered well in another thread, easily my oldest tool at 101 yrs old

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and a pre war beaver 12 inch. this is actually a 1935 walker turner bn100, beaver imported some american made stuff, likely to test the market. of course WW 11 got in the way. beaver was made by the callander foundry in guelph ontario. rockwell bought the foundry and everything else in 1954

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and the newly acquired simple simon, also a 12 inch, a work in progress

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i'll post some pics of other bandsaws ive had, all interesting machines in some way

1940's(post war) Beaver 15 inch, this saw is made using a one piece 4 ft tall aluminum casting, quite a piece of casting work. i redid 3 or 4 of these, sold them all!

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1940's Beaver 12 inch, cast iron saw unlike the larger one, nicest 12 inch saw ive ever seen

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1940's Henry power tools 12 inch saw, aka craftmaster, unknown generally in the states, but montgomery ward sold them, made in london ontario, canada

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The Wood Lathe

i posted pics of this in the turning forum, but here it is again for those who dont visit there

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its a 1940 Henry Power Tools, aka craftmaster. made in london ontario. henry supplied bench vises to the allied forces during ww11, but diversified into small power tools after the war

the machine has a 4 speed in the headstock and i added a 5 speed jackshaft using old rockwell shaft hangers. its powered by a 1950's Hoover 1hpmotor

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related to the lathe is this old craftsman grinder, age unknown. i now have the wolverine grinding accessories added, its used strictly for lathe tools
 
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