Some Well-Deserved Time in the Shop
Well, I finally got a solid weekend to “piddle” in the shop. It felt good after several weeks away.
Restore an Old Grinder. The first thing I did was restore a hand-cranked grinder 
similar to this one pictured here. It was made in the early 1900’s by Luther Grinder Manufacturing Company out of Milwaukee. It’s a “Best Maide No. 1551″ with a “Dimo-Grit” wheel. (You can view a 1920 catalog here.) I had to disassemble everything, clean off the rust and old paint, repaint each part, reassemble, and add oil to the “crankcase.” I’m not sure if I’ll actually use it to sharpen anything, but it looks great and works like a charm! I was actually quite surprised at how well it worked.
Table Saw Tune-Up. I took some time Saturday evening to work on my table saw. It’s been a couple years since I really took the time to clean out the underside and lubricate all the moving parts. I’m one of those poor souls that has a Sears Craftsman saw. It’s okay, but not the greatest. But since it’s all I’ve got, I have to take care of it. I used some tips from Craig Ruegsegger in his Table Saw Tune-Up seminar. The first thing I did was vacuum out all the dust. I used a small, old brush to help loosen years of accumulation. Then I used Boeshield T-9 to lubricate the drive screws and rack for the blade height adjustment. It was no small task to get a spray can up underneath where I needed to. I ended up tilting my saw forward and resting it on a five-gallon bucket so I could still operate the blade height wheel. Once that was all done, I tighted the handwheels for the height and bevel adjustments. I was pretty happy with the results, but the height adjustment is still not as easy as I’d like.
Drill Press Tune-Up. Finally, I took some time Sunday afternoon to work on my old Rockwell Radial Arm drill press (it’s similar to this one). Let me just say that I would recommend at least considering a radial drill press for woodworking. They’re nice because of the large table area, and I can tilt the head (instead of the table) to drill angled holes. (Mine’s got a large melamine auxiliary table with T-tracks.) And I can move the entire head assembly in and out for greater reach when I need it.
I’ve notice recently that there was a fair amount of vertical “play” in the quill shaft of my drill press. Fortunately, I still have the original owners manual and it gave instructions on how to fix it. All I had to do was find the locking collar at the top of the shaft, loosen it, slide it down to take up the slack, and retighten it. Wouldn’t you know it, mine was rusted to the shaft. I ended up squirting some PB Blaster (good stuff!) on it and let it soak for a few minutes. I found a long bolt that fit the threads where the set screw was located and used it to get some leverage to work the collar loose. It worked!
So, I feel good about having some productive time in the shop. Now, my wife wants me to build some bunk beds for two of my boys. I suppose that means I’ll actually have to build something rather than just “piddle” in the shop.