OldTools Archive
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69069 | "Paul Pflumm" <p.pflumm@w...> | 1999‑10‑09 | Bio |
It seems I have to write a bio so I can ask my question (and gloat a bit perhaps too). I am a thirty-five year old attorney, until Monday anyway. I practice in Shelburne Falls, Mass., which is about ten miles west of Greenfield. Not surprisingly, there is a lot of Millers Falls stuff at tag sales around here. My mother was an antique dealer. So, I spent a large chunk of my childhood at antique shows. The tools of course, were just about the only thing I found interesting at most of those shows. When I was about 12, I even picked up a couple of cheep paint covered wooden planes, cleaned them, and tried to sell them in her booth. That was the end of any attempts to be a tool dealer. My, ah, accumulation of tools has its basis in two sources. First, I have inherited some things from my machinist grandfather. These include a forties craftsman lathe and b*nd saw, and a starret combination square with protractor head and center finder, and a few other measuring tools. Unfortunately, when his stuff was divided up, I was quite young, and my cousins made off with most of it. My second source was an old pattern makers toolbox my Dad bought cheap when I was young. All that is really left of that now is a few saws, a 271, marking gauges, and a couple other odds and ends. I am afraid to think what I may have lost or destroyed as a kid, using those tools for such things as a tree fort in the woods. After college, I apprenticed for a year at a commercial cabinet shop in Maine. We mostly used tailed equipment, but I learned that there was definitely times and places when hand tools were faster. There was this one guy, Torque, who would spend days designing and building a r**ter jig to avoid having to use a plane for five minutes. I also learned that had a slight weakness when I saw something for sale that said Starret on it. When the eighties real estate boom went bust, so did my job at the cabinet shop, and my access to large p*w*r tools. Thus, my steady accumulation of hand tools since then. I mostly buy tools at tag sales and flea markets. I am definitely a bottom feeder. To spend more than ten dollars on a tool is rare. To spend thirty is extraordinary, in fact I can't remember ever spending thirty dollars or more on a hand tool. This hasn't stopped me from building up a small accumulation of good tools. Planes seem to be something that everyone recognizes. Ignoring block planes, I have a Stanley 5C, a chromed 4 with three patent dates, a 3 (that needs a lever cap), 12 (that needs a blade), a 72, 78, 80, and 271. I also have Millers Falls numbers 22, 15, and 14. Millers Falls apparently used the length of a plane for its number, so those are equivalent to a 7, 51/2, and a 5. (I think) Bottom feeding can be good. Replies Author Date 56679 Bio David Sawyer Wed 10/27/1999 57203 Bio James Gemmill Sun 11/7/1999 57204 Re: Bio Bill Webber Sun 11/7/1999 57205 Re: Bio Jim Erdman Sun 11/7/1999 57206 Re: Bio garyallan may Sun 11/7/1999 57208 Re: Bio scott grandstaff Sun 11/7/1999 57209 Re: Bio James Gemmill Sun 11/7/1999 57210 Re: Bio TomPrice@a... Sun 11/7/1999 57227 Re: Bio Minch Sun 11/7/1999 |
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70711 | Bill Webber <hihouse@e...> | 1999‑11‑07 | Re: Bio |
Welcome aboard James. But, please no more weighty quotes! SWMBO was looking over my shoulder as I was digesting Mr. Carlyle's observation when she remarked "well, he got the first part right!" James Gemmill wrote: > Fellow Neanderthals, I would like to introduce myself to this august > body of tool using animals. > Snip > Regards, > James Gemmill > > "Man is a tool using animal. Weak in himself and of small > stature, he stands on a basis of some half square foot, has to > straddle out his legs lest the very winds supplant him. Never- > theless, he can use tools, can devise tools; with these the > granite mountain melts into light dust before him, seas are > his smooth highway, winds and fire his unwearying steeds. > Nowhere do you find him without tools. Without tools he is > nothing, with tools he is all." > > Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) > > __________________________________________ > NetZero - Defenders of the Free World > Get your FREE Internet Access and Email at > http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html > > -- |
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70712 | Jim Erdman <jlerdman@y...> | 1999‑11‑07 | Re: Bio |
--- James Gemmill |
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70713 | garyallan may <garyallanmay@y...> | 1999‑11‑07 | Re: Bio |
--- Jim Erdman |
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70715 | scott grandstaff <scottg@s...> | 1999‑11‑07 | Re: Bio |
> But 5 of them is a good start. Don't forget Bedrocks and some Guage would be nice and don't forget Ohio, Chaplin and then V&B.......................... Hey, you guys over there, grab those grease mops and pave the way, we got the boy pointed downhill already! yours, Scott ******************************* Scott Grandstaff Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca 96039 scottg@s... http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html |
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70716 | "James Gemmill" <jlg4880@n...> | 1999‑11‑07 | Re: Bio |
Who's "V&B"? > Don't forget Bedrocks and some Guage would be nice and don't forget > Ohio, Chaplin and then V&B.......................... Hey, you guys > > yours, Scott __________________________________________ NetZero - Defenders of the Free World Get your FREE Internet Access and Email at http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html |
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70717 | TomPrice@a... | 1999‑11‑07 | Re: Bio |
James wrote: >Who's "V&B"? > That would be Vaughn & Bushnell who made an interesting variant of the Stanley Bedrock design. They don't call us the Support Group From Hell for nothing. With our help, you'll soon be zipping head-first down the Slippery Slope with a rocket stuck up your a.. er, welcome! **************************** Tom Price (TomPrice@a...) Will Work For Tools The Galoot's Progress Old Tools site is at: http://members.aol.com/tomprice/galootp/galtprog.html |
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70735 | Minch <ruby@m...> | 1999‑11‑07 | Re: Bio |
Date: (Date Unavailable) Jeff wrote concering a mostly glass box. Jeff - why not make it all glass. Glass abrdes beautifully with the blue sandpaper, and clear silicone will stick it together so it won't come apart - will even stick it to a wood bottom. You could abrade a mitre, or polish the edges and do a butt joint. Run a piece of high grade masking tape along each joint about 1/32" back from the actual joint - that would be 4 pieces, 2 inside and 2 outside. Apply a generous bead of caulk, squeeze the pieces together in a jig, wet your little finger, then drag it across each side of the joint - inside and outside. Do this a couple of times, but do it quickly before the caulk skins over. Pull the tape, and Voila! Then move on to the next joint. If you get good at it, you could do 2 joints at a time. The tape and wipe technique is a caulker's trick and works against brick, wood, metal, on cars, houses, and boats. If you get good at it and are using the right kind of caulk, you don't need the tape - say a window frame against the trim - which we all have probably done. Ed Minch Done to much o' that |
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70765 | Kirk Hays <khays@o...> | 1999‑11‑08 | RE: Bio |
> >Who's "V&B"? > > > > That would be Vaughn & Bushnell who made an interesting > variant of the > Stanley Bedrock design. They also made socketed firmer chisels, to judge from the rust-laden specimen I pulled out from under some enormous railroad wrenches at rummage last week. Handle splintered, lots of meat left, what the h*ck am I going with a 1 inch firmer? Guess I'll figure it out. Kirk Hays Cedar Mills, Orygun |
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