The Workshop

The first machine I located was an old Craftsman table saw. One Craftsman table saw quickly became two, a good way to assure one functional machine. Full restoration was not undertaken on this machine in favor of waiting until I'm able to acquire the ideal vintage table saw. I did, however, clean this one and I painted the base. The paint color was determined by what was on hand. I apologize to the future owner for not maintaining the original color scheme. For me, the Craftsman is useful for what can be done on it rather than for its appearance. It has a one horse motor and a 10 inch thin kerf carbide blade which provides good cutting ability despite the lack of horse power. The fence is made from heavy angle iron and is clamped to the table with a pipe clamp; simple and effective.

The companion tool to a table saw is the jointer, a tool that can put a perfectly flat face or edge on a board. I have always preferred the glue edge produced by a table saw blade to that of a jointer but the jointer is required to get the first straight edge. It took several tries before the jointer story was finished.

The first jointer to join my new shop was an old Delta 37-110 4 inch jointer, circa. 1952. I found it on Craig's list. I completely disassembled it and cleaned off the parts only to discover a crack in the casting where the fence clamps to the bed. Despite this the machine was painted and new bearings were installed. Once reassembled the jointer worked well but eventually the crack developed into a break and the fence was no longer rock steady in use. I decided to sell it, for parts, and put the proceeds into the next jointer.

The gods of Arn came to the rescue and presented me with an opportunity to purchase the deluxe version of this model, the 37-290 4 inch jointer from 1973. Again, Craig's list was the vehicle. It was much better quality and still over thirty years old. It went through the entire refurb process and worked very well once it was reassembled. But I still yearned for a six inch jointer and kept steady watch for one to show up somewhere.

About six months after the 37-290 was put into service a Powermatic Model 50 6 inch jointer hit Craig's list. It was in frightful condition having sat on concrete, under a leaky tarp, for years. You can get an idea of what I was faced with from the picture. The rust was heavy everywhere. This was a prime candidate for a spooge tank which I learned about at OWWM.com. I set up three of varing sizes and had great success in getting rid of the heavy rust.

The spooge tank relies on electrolysis to reverse the process or rusting. It is slow but extremely effective. The process also removes paint quite nicely. The solution that the parts are immersed in is safe to touch and the electrical power required is low voltage so there is no worry of getting toasted. It is an economical process that produces great results. More about the process can be learned on the OWWM site.

Each part was prepped for painting with care and then painted. I used gray because the machine had gray on it when I picked it up. During the stripping process there was no evidence that it ever was the usual Powermatic green. You would notice that in really tight areas, and under the nameplate, that get missed by those repainting a machine. Because of this and the serial number, there was speculation that it is a mid 50's vintage. New bearings were installed in the cutterhead and motor. The cutterhead also received new knives.

After assembly the work surfaces were waxed with carnuba paste wax. The jointer hummed beautifully when it was first turned on. The first joint was as smooth as silk. It has been a joy using this machine and I feel it was worth every hour of work. The remaining quest, for this machine, is to find a complete original cutterhead guard for it.

Back in the days of my original shop I had a Delta 17 inch drill press. I loved the versatility of that machine and the power it had. It even received one of those Mack bulldog hood ornaments that can be seen to this day on Mack trucks. The bulldog was mounted on the front of the drill press's upper belt guard. It was the one machine that I kept, just in case, when I closed the shop. It had been moved twice when I finally decided I would never need it again. It was sold along with a fortune in tooling for $100. I have lived to truly regret that decision. In 2007, I would manage to collect four Delta drill presses before I setteled down to the two that I found most useful.

The first drill press appeared on Craig's list in mid January '07. It was a Delta 11-100 11 inch bench top model. Since I was drill press crazy, it was snapped right up. I really should have waited for a floor model but I was impatient to be able to drill holes and mortises. I cleaned it up but did not strip the paint as it was in pretty good shape and would be very hard to reproduce that speckly look. I was still very new to this old arn thing and not so inclined to do a proper and complete restoration of this drill press. It quickly qot a mortising chisel kit to complete the project. No sooner than I put it into service, two weeks after geting it, a Delta 15 inch drill press showed up on eBay and located in Milwaukee.

A very complete Delta 15-207, manufactured in 1950, the year my wife was born, was right there on eBay with a local pickup in Milwaukee, WI. How lucky could I be? Unfortunately the bidding went way over my desired amount so I had to go higher. In the end, I won the auction and the price was really fair. I was just hoping for one of those ridicolus deals you hear about.

The 15-207 was completely disassembled and each part stripped of paint and the grease cleaned off. Next each part was repainted and then reassembled. Lubrication was applied as required and the drill press was ready to test. To date, it has managed to perform all tasks put to it without any problems. The belt changing for each speed is very quick to do as well. This press quickly became a favorite and would eventually become one of two that would remain in the shop.

About a month later a Delta 17 inch drill press appeared on eBay and again it was located in the S. E. Wisconsin area. It was a Model 17-205 floor mount drill press manufactured in 1951. It was in bad shape with heavy blue paint even over thick greasy grime. That made those areas easy to de-paint! But this was the machine of my dreams, the machine that I never thought I would have again. The week of waiting for the auction to end was like when I couldn't turn 18 soon enough. I put in my last bid and went to bed hoping for the best but prepared for the hated email telling me that I had been overbid.

The new day started with the churning computer being wrested from it's sleep. The email program was started and in came the new mail. To my surprise, I won the auction and the drill press was mine. Now to arrange to pick it up. My son had offered the use of his new pickup truck to get it to my home. We met at the old machine shop where the drill press was, paid for it and watched as the forklift gently laid the press into the bed of the pickup truck. We had put some heavy cardboard down to protect the bed liner. The drill press was then blocked in so it wouldn't move during the trip home.

During the trip back, someone cut in front of the pickup truck and my son had to brake suddenly. The drill press shifted forward despite the packing. The rest of the trip went without further incident and we unloaded the press utilizing the dis-assembly process. That is where the machine is converted to smaller pieces for easier unloading. After all, it is a 310 pound machine! We soon discovered that the drill press had taken a bite out of the bed liner when it shifted. The bed liner was just short of being punctured. I felt really bad about that but my son said that someone had to be first to make his new truck not new anymore. His exact words were "you definitely struck the christening blow".

The 17-205 went through the entire resto process including new bearings. It took many weeks to get the project done. During the resto, I was able to get my hands on a Repulsion Induction motor for it. This was like the cherry on top of the sundae. The motor was resto'd as well. It was a great day when the last part was assembled and the drill press was wired for use. As usual, it just hummed as if it was brand spanky new way back then. I let it run for ten minutes while my mind wandered back twenty some years, jumping from thoughts of mortising to thoughts of boring jewelry box trays. This beautiful drill press became the other press that would remain in the shop.

About mid March of 07, I was offered a collection of parts that would make up a Delta DP220 14 inch Drill Press. I would provide a few hours of help setting up a computer network in a person's home in trade for the parts. I performed the work and received the parts which would eventually become my fourth Delta drill press. The machine was missing its serial number tag so I never knew what year it was manufactured. The drill press was stripped of paint and cleaned up. Next were repainting, reassembly and wiring. Upon completion, it looked nice and certainly was functional, but it somehow wasn't perfect with the missing serial number tag. In the end, this press and the 11 inch press were sold to help other machines into the fold.

The next machine to appear on Craig's list, in late April, 2007, was a Delta Light Duty Shaper. It was a 43-120 manufactured in 1976. I offered less than asking and the offer was accepted. This was the first time I offered on a machine before seeing it. I drove almost two hours to pick it up. Upon seeing the machine I regretted the offer as the motor was missing its tag and all the belt guards were gone. The fella said it was a two horse motor. It came with the fence and one rusty cutter. I loaded the shaper and headed home.

This shaper went through the complete resto process including new bearings. I was able to pick up the guards affordably and upon the first spin it hummed like new. Having no idea what horse power this motor was I learned how to use an amperage meter to read the current drawn as the motor ran. I submitted my findings to the OWWM. The consensus was that the motor was around 3/4 horse power. So it is not as powerful as I would have liked but the light duty shaper won't be asked to do any heavy work.

In the old days I had a fairly complete set of cutters and rub collars and a cabinet grade Delta shaper. Now I have only the one cutter I bought after the shaper was returned to duty. The plan is to generate funds for more cutters by making things and selling them.

In early May, 2007, a Delta 14 inch band saw appeared on Craig's list. It was a 28-290 (born in 1959) sitting on a CI (cast iron) base. My eyes popped out of my head when I first saw it. The base did not show in the listing picture nor was it mentioned. So I was quite in the rush to blurt out "I'll take it!" and get the man paid the very reasonable sum he had asked for. I slipped my hand truck under it and wheeled it out on the drive in preparation to disassemble it enough to get it into my vehicle. It was a heavy machine even in pieces.

As I disassembled the band saw the previous owner and his wife watched me load each piece. It didn't take long to get all of the parts safely into my vehicle. I bid the seller goodbye and drove home still very excited over this find. I never would have thought this would happen to me, a CI base under one of my restored machines. The picture to the right shows the band saw as it was being re-assembled.

This machine went through a complete restoration and received all new bearings and even new fancy polyurethane tires on the wheels. This is the first resto I did where all original screws, bolts, nuts, and washers were replaced with their stainless steel counterparts. The oval headed machine screws that were used in the CI base had their slots all lined up in the same direction as demanded by my OWWM mentors.

The beautiful CI base was not to be with me long as it became the focus of a trade for a Delta 6 x 48 sander, a machine that I felt was really necessary for the things that I wanted to do. I was able to find an enclosed base that would work on the band saw.

In early June, 2007, a Walker Turner 12 x 36 Wood Turning Lathe appeared on Craig's list. It too had a CI base but no identification tag. Its vintage (the 50's) had to be determined by its features as compared to lathes in old catalogs. It had the variable speed mechanism which I had not ever worked with. The lathe had been stored in an old single car garage and was quite rusty but still had all of the usual accessories. The seller graciously helped me take it apart and load it into my vehicle. It also is a heavy machine which my vehicle can attest to.

During the long ride home I thought of all the things I did on a lathe in years past. Would I still have the guts to put a steel chisel to a piece of wood spinning so fast that it was just a blur?

This machine went through a complete restoration and received all new bearings which is not easy with Walker Turner machines. Walker Turner chose to not use standard bearings in some of their machines and this lathe is one of those machines. To forever fix that problem, I had a machinist friend resize the shaft for a standard bearing. This is the second resto I did where all original screws, bolts, nuts, and washers were replaced with their stainless steel counterparts. As with the other CI base, the oval headed machine screws that were used in this CI base had their slots all lined up in the same direction as previously explained.