OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

274653 Bill Ghio 2021‑10‑08 Do you trammel?
I don’t often need to use my trammel set, but every once in a while I do need to
layout a curve beyond the reach of my largest dividers. I found this set in an
antique shop about 25 years ago. They were laying, dismantled, in a
patternmaker’s tool chest that had been well plundered without regard to whether
the tool was complete or not. There was a full set of curved bottoms but the
plane body was missing. The trammel bodies were there as was the beam, but no
points. I brought the trammel parts and a user made 14 inch mahogany bevel home
with me.

This is a big set, the beam is 31 inches long. So I made the points six inches
long as that seemed to fit the scale of the thing. I found some mild steel rod
that fit the brass clamps. Holding one end in a vice I filed the other end to a
four sided taper ending in a point. That then became an eight sided taper and
then sixteen. You know the drill. Then I chucked the tapered points into a drill
press an ran the file against the spinning point till it was all nicely rounded.
Then polished with fine papers. Being finely polished, even after all these
years there has never been a spec of rust. One nice feature of the trammel is
that you can replace the point with a pencil when needed and it fits just fine.

Photos are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/77280442@N.../albums/721577199832
63196/with/51565531718/

The last pic in the album is an early trammel set. I always thot they were
Stanley, but looking at the drawing in Walter’s big book they appear to be
different. I find no manuf. marks. Anybody recognize these? FYI, the short
center shaft screwed into the beam is a pencil holder that can replace one of
the points.

Bill

Recent Bios FAQ