it's a type 18 or......

I used the plane ID write up on the hyperkitten website to help me figure out which plane I have. I used the yes/no flowchart and it said that I have a Type 18 from 1946 - 1947. This write up is awesome. There is a ton of information posted that would satisfy anyone interested in learning about Stanley planes and it's history. It's worth the time to read a few pages to see if it grabs your interest.

I tried first to use the time frame write up to find out what type/year my plane is/from. It lists by year(s) what Stanley did to improve, change, or add/remove things to their planes. There is a side bar to this that you use to see if anything Stanley did applies to your plane. This is the one I tried to use first and all I did was get confused.

At the very front of the toe of my plane there is "BAILEY" cast into the plane.  Next is a raised ring casting for the front high knob. Behind the knob is cast "Made in the USA". My frog has a raised u shaped ridge down the middle.  My frog adjuster knob is brass, 1 1/4" diameter, and has diagonal knurling on it. The lateral adjuster has STANLEY imprinted on the top of it. At the very end after the tote "No 7" is cast in the plane.


I thought I had a type 14 or 15 at first based on what Stanley introduced and what was on my plane. Stanley introduced some of whats on my plane starting in the 1920's. I couldn't get everything that's on my plane to match the time line the author wrote about. Stanley had an annoying habit of moving/removing what they cast on the planes at whim. You may have a tote/knob of rosewood or hardwood painted black or red. I couldn't see any way to tell if my plane was a handyman special or if this was Stanley's everyday model besides the bedrock planes.

The flowchart is very to useful to find out what year your plane is from (TYPE). My plane is 60+ years old and although I don't think I'll put another 60+ years on it, maybe I can pass it on to someone who will. I read something by Patrick Leach where he dismisses the BS with flattening the bottom of jointer planes. It kind of makes sense to me when I thought some on it. He says that the old guys used these planes to make a living. They used these planes day and day out without worrying about if they were flat. They just used them.

You can't argue with that reasoning when you look at some of the furniture and other goods that these old guys made with these planes. Were they flat? I have not come across anything (I've read) about how to flatten a metal plane or even if it was an issue from this old guy era.

accidental woodworker

there is happiness in Mudville and more......

I checked the stock I want to use to make my mirror project and it's the same as it was yesterday. There is a hint of a bow but it hasn't increased. While perfectly flat would bring joy in Mudville, I'll settle for happiness and deal with what I got to work with.

Before I get into the dovetailing I want to weigh in on the book review mania that's going on lately about Sir Chris's new book the Anarchist's Tool Chest.  Any review I would give would be incredibly biased and one sided. He could write about collecting snot filled celebrity handkerchiefs and I would read it.

All I am going to say about the book is this. If you read his blog then you are familiar with his style. It doesn't change with this book. It's the quintessential Christopher Schwarz who writes passionately about hand tools and what I think is an earthy, down home, your best friend telling a story, book. If you buy the book for these reasons you won't be disappointed with the 400+ pages.

Now down to dovetailing. The first decision I had to make was where to put the pins/tails.The big decision is the tails on the top/bottom and pins on the sides. I don't want to see tail end grain when looking down onto the top of this project.

my lee valley dovetail jig

I consider this jig to be my dovetail training wheels. It helps to keep my balance while sawing.  I want this project to be as perfect as I can get it and I'm not quite ready to saw without it. It's because of this jig that I've tried to free hand dovetailing a couple of times. Eventually I will retire this or pass it on.

sawing the ends sucks

This is  the one hard spot I have with this jig. It is very to hard to clamp and saw the tails on the ends of the board. I put this piece of scrap on the end to give the clamp more purchase on something solid. It keeps the jig steady while I saw the tails. The other thing I noticed about using this jig is that I don't use my off fingers to keep the saw up against the jig as I saw. I am pretty much using air to guide my sawing. I am getting better at using this jig. It was what I needed to get me going and try to do it free hand.

tails all cut 

I am real good at nailing the line exactly. When I checked the opposite side I sawed from there were a few that weren't on the line. Even those were ok because it was just sawdust in the kerf making it look like it wasn't to the line. I only had to cut one more to the line on both boards. Now if I could transfer this to the cutting and fitting in the rest of the dovetail process.

removing the waste

 This is as far as I got with cleaning up the tails. It's the bride's b-day and she and I spent the rest of the day antiquing. I'll have to finish this up tomorrow.

All was not lost today. I had a good time with the bride and I did find something for myself. I first found some nice panel saws but the handles were shot. They were split in numerous spots, missing parts, and worse of all, they were starting to dry rot. One plate was straight and the other was toast. The biggest surprise is the price the guy had on these - $25 each. No thank you, have a nice day.

The last place we stopped at before heading for the barn I found a stanley #7 for $25. It was tired looking but didn't show any signs of abuse. There weren't any rust pits on the bottom or sides. The blade and chipbreaker just had what looked like surface rest. I took a chance on it and bought it.

left side

head on

bottom

frog looks pretty good

broken down to parade rest

The only part I couldn't remove was the screw that holds the adjuster tab on the back of the frog. I've only  done a cursory check but everything seems fine. I didn't see any checks, chips, or cracks anywhere. There is a hole drilled in the heel - most likely used as a hang hole. The tote and the knob both appear to be painted black. My precision straight edge on bottom looked good. I didn't see any light using a flashlight on the backside. I am still going to look into having a machinist level the bottom.

I am not a collector. I don't feel any need to go nutso and try to get everything back with original stanley parts. I plan on using this as my everyday joiner. So my main aim on the restoration is to get it back to user status. I'll post more as I make progress.

accidental woodworker

it's starting to go south.......

It's now one day after the clamping experiment. It's not going as well as I hoped but it's only been one day. I laid a straight edge on the boards right after I unclamped them and they looked ok then. Now I'm getting a sinking feeling about this.

Short board #1

I am shining a flashlight behind the straight edge. Just about at the center there is a little sliver of light telling me it's starting to bow. Board #2 doesn't show as much light but it too is bowing. I am not sure that I want to use these if they go south more than this. I didn't forget my last pig headed attempt to dovetail bowed boards.

Long board #1

long board #2

Both of the long boards show about the same amount of light. I checked the other end and it's about the same. I am hoping that there will be joy in Mudville on saturday when I start/try to dovetail this together. I'll try it with a little bit of a bow but if it's gets any bigger I'll trash it. Then I'll start over again at square one.

As an aside did you see the new Moxon vise kit that Benchcrafted has for sale? I don't think I'm going to search for thread boxes anymore. Instead I'm going to start saving my pennies to buy the kit.

accidental woodworker

a dead battery and July 4th......

The battery in my camera died right after I took my stove pics and posted them to my blog. Great, I beat the dreaded low battery I'm shutting off now warning. What I didn't know was that once you get out of the blog you're writing the pics you were going to post are gone. I wrote some and intended to finish it later. Well the words stayed, the pics are history.  That's what happened with yesterday's post with no pics.

Update:  I just found out that I have a Picasa photo album that has every pic I have ever imported to the blog to post.  I don't have to keep re-loading the pics (I have a lot of duplicates) every time I go out of the blog and come back in. Software has never been my forte but I learned something today. Alright, I found it totally by mistake - but I did find it.

yes, the light is on

see the light is on 

On July the 4th I did this hoping for the best and not knowing if it would work. It spent 3 weeks on this saw bench cooking.  I still have to wait for an answer.

both sets of clamped boards were bowed

out of the clamps and flat for now - I am going to sticker them for a while

I am thinking that this might work. As I loosened the clamps I noticed that there wasn't any pressure being exerted on the clamps. A good sign because that means the bow was gone - for now.


This is just a pic of something that amused me and you'll be able to see that it doesn't take much to hold my interest.

the hole left by the step drill

I used one of my practice dovetail corners to make the drilling platform. I now have a pyramid shaped step drill impression in it to hold my limited attention span. Been wondering if there is any way I could use this..... Simple things for simple minds.

accidental woodworker

didn't raise one bead of sweat......

After I came home yesterday from work all I did was futz around with my daughter's stove project. I had ordered a step drill from Amazon and it came yesterday.  I  immediately opened it and put it to work making the hole for the light.

The bottom of the stove is just a thin piece of sheet metal painted black. Not having used a step drill before  this, I wasn't sure how this would turn out.  I marked the center of the metal piece and punched it with my smallest nail set. (the drill still wandered when I started to drill) I then made a U shaped platform that I could clamp the metal to so I could drill without shredding my fingers. I drilled it down to the 1" mark and unclamped it and checked the fit. The light wouldn't fit, the hole was too small (the pkg said drill a 1" hole). Re-clamped it and drilled the hole to the 1 1/8" step. This time the light fit.

The step drill left a pyramid shaped hole in the platform that matched the step drill in reverse.  Simple things can amuse me for hours.  You could easily see each step from 1/8 all the way to the final depth of 1 1/8".  The hole it cut in the metal wasn't to bad. It was clean and there was all one little curly hunk of metal to get rid of. I ran a file over the hole on both sides just smooth everything out.

I expoxied a small rectangular piece of 1/8" ply around the hole so the light clip would have more meat to clamp to.  I sprayed painted it black to blend it in (white on black might stand out a tad too much).  I checked the light and I was disappointed. This stove is basically light tight so if daughter #2 is planning on using this as night light it's not working. I hope she has plan #2 as a backup. She did mention a flickering candle light....

As much as I loathe going to woodcraft to buy wood, I am going to bite the bullet and go this saturday. They charge too much a board foot on all their wood - more then my usual source.  It just doesn't make sense to drive all the way to New Hampshire just for a few pieces of walnut/padauk. NH has an awesome short bin section while woodcraft is hit or miss for shorts with it being mostly miss. It's $30 just for the gas round trip and the gas to woodcraft  round trip is about 90 cents. Woodcraft wins.

accidental woodworker

I'm getting good at puttering.....

The weather broke today and it's cloudy, drizzling rain, but a much welcome respite from the last week or so. Just when I could spend some comfortable time in the shop I'm so damn tired I have to prop my eyelids open with toothpicks. Maybe tomorrow I won't be so tired.

I did do a little of this and that on a couple of things. The first was my stove box. On sunday I routed and glued in some 1/4" wide cherry strips. I then routed a square recess in the four corners. Today I took it out of the clamps. I still have to plane the 1/4" strips flush with the box.

stove box

I decided to put a walnut (or maybe padauk - which ever is cheaper) lid on this box. The recess I routed in the corners is going to get the lid material too. It's about 1/2" square. I did this because the 1/2" strip of cherry was too close to the corners of the box and it didn't look good. My thoughts on this are by putting a 1/2" piece of walnut (or padauk) in the recesses it will balance everything out. I wish now that I had used a something other than pine for the main body of the box. There is always the next time.

big ass screws

I bought these 18", way too big, extended capacity, what the hell was I thinking, screws from the Wetzler clamp company. I got these so I could make myself a Moxon dovetail vise (cheaper than a thread box). I did measure the thickness of my vise material and I still thought that these would be okay. Well sports fans I wrong again.

The hunk of wood in the back is the result of my playing around with my half assed theories trying to get this to work. The end piece propping up the board is a garter like thingy that should have four holes for screws in it that it doesn't have. The pic on the web has them and I plan on the ringing the chimes at Wetzler about it. The no holes blew a big hole in my grand scheme on making this work. The fact that I can't reverse it 180 didn't help the plan neither.

I did try the screw in the flange on the wood scrap and it's a  loose and floppy fit. I don't think this is going to work without me spending a lot of calories and money on it. I had to revise on the fly what my original plan was and plan two isn't much better. Not that the original was foolproof to begin with.

I had to make a garter out of something that didn't involve a machinist or a lathe. I was looking at extra large fender washers and I found one with a .406 ID, 3.0 OD, at 1/4" thick for 10 bucks. I need two - 20 bucks plus S/H. I planned on cutting each one in half and making some screw holes for securing them to the vise.  I was going to install them at the handle end of the screw. But before I can do that I have to file a round recess for the garter. Tried it and I don't think that's a viable plan of action.

My brain cells must have been fighting for oxygen when I thought I could make this work.  I spent a little time searching the WWW for thread boxes (again) before I was forced to check my eyelids for light leaks. Thread boxes aren't cheap. I'm not thrilled with spending this much money for something I will probably only use once in what's left of my lifetime.

Another plan gets flushed  down the toilet and I have to re-start and try something new. The joys of woodworking, will they ever end?

accidental woodworker

I love this plane......

I  bought the LN 4 1/2 smoother a few months ago and I've been using it more and more as my go to smoothing plane. I have 2 other smoothers which I would rate as pretty good, and one step above firewood. These three planes span about 30+ years of woodworking for me. With each plane I have learned something new and acquired new skills along the way.

one step from firewood plane

I got this plane when I was 22 (I'm 57) and this plane has been a constant lesson in frustration for me.  I just can't seem to get anything about this plane to work as it should. There are two main problems I have with plane. The first is the adjustable mouth doesn't want to work as it should. I have to take it apart and set it where I want it and hope that it doesn't shift on me when I tighten everything back up. This is just too much of a pain in the ass to do when you want to change the mouth opening. So I set it a long time ago and I haven't changed it since.

The other problem is the chip breaker. I followed the advice of Tage Frid in his woodworking book #1. I just can not get this to work with the chipbreaker unless it's set more than an 1/8" away from the tip of the blade. Any closer then this and it clogs and jams the mouth with shavings. I tried everything from leaving the mouth wide open to setting it as narrow as I could get it along with playing with how close the chipbreaker was to the edge of the blade. I filed and honed the chipbreaker for a month of sundays and still no luck. I polished it so much you can use it as a mirror to shave your whiskers. You can't see one speck of light between the blade and the chipbreaker. Take one pass and you'll have a plane choked with shavings jammed under the chipbreaker (if I set it at 1/64").

Other than these two annoyances, I like this plane. I like the feel of wood and this is a comfortable plane to use. And once I learned how to sharpen, I actually started using it more. Wood on wood has a different feel than what you get from a metal plane. But these two problems I have with it have demoted it to the status of one step above firewood.

pretty good plane

This is the plane I bought a couple years before I got out of the navy when I was stationed in Norfolk, Va. That makes this one about 19 years old. I think I cut my teeth on this plane as I used it for everything along with a record #5 I bought around the same time. I learned as I tried different things. Some worked and some didn't. As I was doing right or wrong, I put it away into the brain bucket. Hopefully the lessons learned won't leak out.

 The chipbreaker/blade ass'y is no where as fussy as it is with the firewood plane. I can hog a lot of wood off or I can be anal and take a sub thousand shaving if need be. No jamming or choking this ass'y.  Much easy to use than firewood plane. Much easy to adjust in every way then the plane above. With this plane I learned how versatile a plane can be. At times I felt it could do everything and anything except butter your toast in the morning.

Mr Awesome

I think I have finally reached a level in my woodworking where I can appreciate the quality that just oozes out of every ounce this plane. Instead of the fits and starts of my woodworking career while in the navy, I can devote some serious sustained, consistent time in the shop. My skill level has increased ten fold since I retired and there is still more for me to learn. And I am learning more each I pick this plane up and use it.

I've written a blog about this plane and about Lie-Nielsen tools before. This plane is heads above any other smoother I own. I have 2  #4's and a #3 and it's like comparing go karts to Cadillacs. Both will get you to and from points a and b, but the Cadillac does it with style.

55 degree frog for the 4 1/2

I originally got this middle pitch frog when I bought the plane. I planned on using it only for smoothing something that required a high angle (I had 2 other smoothers). I got it because every custom smooth plane maker has a frog that's between 50 and 55 degrees. After getting it and using I changed my mind. I wanted to use this as my everyday smoother and the middle pitch frog wasn't necessary so I got the regular 45 degree frog and I fell in love with it instantly. So I have the high angle when I need it and it's easy to swap out and back.

Look at this frog. There are no stamped metallic parts on it. There are no grinding or milling marks anywhere on it. Even the tab at the end of the lateral adjustment lever is held on with two screws. There is no visible rivet holding the round dot that moves the blades left/right. This is the frog that came with the plane. I have not done anything at all to it. This is just an awesome piece of equipment. I'm sure that older manufacturers made good quality tools back before electricity, but for my money LN is now the place to spend it.

accidental woodworker

this is all I did.....

The heat and humidity may be good for glue ups that will set up in nano seconds but other then this it sucks. I just don't want to do anything in this oppressive weather. It has a good side, the more I sweat and more weight I seem to lose. From my navy days in subs - one gallon of water is roughly eight pounds.

I tried to fix my miter box saw handle and I don't think I did that well. I tried to pry it apart but I couldn't budge that headless screw. After grunting, groaning, and swearing for a while I got pissed and cut it off on my bandsaw. I thought I'd make a nice clean cut and re-glue it and all would be well in Mudville.

When I got it apart I saw why there were gaps where the person before me had glued it back together. He didn't clean up the breaks, didn't put back/lost some chips, and I don't think he applied enough pressure when he clamped it. There were two loose chips that fell out after I made the cut. No evidence of glue on one side at all.  I think he applied the electrician's tape to the thin part of the bottom of the handle after the glue up to try and keep everything in one piece.

My attempt

There are four splits on the lower part of the handle. The 3 black lines are the major ones and there is a nice clean on between the two on the left that glued up and disappeared. The second bottom one on the left opened up when I glued everything back together. That may be trouble in the future. Maybe the electrician's tape isn't such a bad idea. It isn't a great glue up but it's going to have to do for now. My plan is to use this until I can find another one to replace it with or learn how to make a replacement.

I scraped this down some and I still have a little more to remove. I am going to put  BLO on it followed with amber shellac. I don't think there is much more to do on this as the calorie count would be wasted.

I did a little work on #6 cabinet. All I got accomplished was the second piece of molding between the drawer units. I glued it up yesterday and this morning I took it out of the clamps. I smoothed the miters with my  4 1/2 smoother and it's done. Ready for finish, no need for sandpaper, and no need for a scraper. I am starting to be a convert to not using sandpaper.

drawer unit separation molding

That's it folks. I have no desire to be in the shop working at all today. I may go down again to putter a little but even thinking of doing of that is making me sweat.

accidental woodworker

Xmas in July.....

Santa used Fed ex to bring me an early Xmas present. It's from England made by a gent named Philly Planes. I bought his mini panel raiser about a month ago.  I am no expert on planes, wooden or metal, but I do know quality. This plane from across the pond has the stamp of quality on it.

right side view 

I got this plane because I want to get away from being tethered to a power cord. Since I like to make boxes, this made sense to me as the first wooden profile plane to buy. Besides making lids/panels, Phil states that it can also be used to make drawer bottoms. I don't know about that because I prefer 1/4 ply for that. Maybe this plane will change my mind.

business side of the plane

The plane body is very crisp and true to the eye. I haven't gone anal and shot laser lines and used a micrometer to check it (yet).  I really like that it is plain and simple with just a chamfer on the upper body. The first gripe I could moan about is the very bottom of the channel for the blade is a tad rough. The channel here isn't clean with crisp walls and a flat bottom but is it really necessary here?

bottom view  you can see how crisp the lines are

front end view -  raised panel profile

cross grain cutter and wedge

This cross grain cutter was a real bear to get out of the slot (yes I took the wedge out first). I am going to let this be until the plane has had a chance to acclimate to my shop. Besides being a little tight in the slot, it's also not sharpened very well. It's somewhat sharpened like a cutter in a marking gauge. It's dead nuts for looking like Frank Klausz did it.

cutter and it's wedge

This cutter is reasonably sharp. It's amazing to me that I can recognize what is sharp and what needs to be sharp. The blade bevel still shows grinding marks without any polish that comes from honing. The blade is also not ground straight across but at a slight angle. I might have to learn how to free hand sharpen after all.

The last point to gripe about is the wedge itself. It is clean and crisp until it gets up to the top where it loops into the circle thingy at the top. It's a tad rough (tool marks) and not smooth (not completely round) from where the circle starts at the bottom till where it curves around and meets the  flat side at the top.

I think I now understand when Sir Chris writes about planes being well made but not to the insane standard of Clark & Williams. Philly's mini raiser is definitely well made but not to the insane level of C&W, not that I have even see a C&W plane. I have read a lot of reviews by Sir Chris on them including the one he did on Philly planes a few years back. He made this comment there too.

Since I'm a little kid and this is an early Xmas present, I had to try it out real quick even though Phil says to wait a bit. It cut the mini panel profile pretty well. I clogged the plane on the second and third passes. (technique?) I noticed that although the blade is sharp it could use a good honing. It cut the profile and stopped cutting when it bottomed out. Profile is ready for finish, no sanding required.

It might have gone better if I had more practice with using wooden profiled planes. This was my first and only time I've used one. I've learned from this that I need more time on pond to figure out all the nuances of using this type of wooden plane. I am looking forward to breaking it in after it's acclimation period and this damn heat wave passes.

I believe that I have a good quality plane that is going to give me years of service. It has a few minor bugs that demoted from awesome to damn good. The minor things are easily correctable and shouldn't take more than an hour to fix to my liking. Overall I would grade this plane as a 9.5 on a 1-10 scale.

My father always told me it's the little things done that even unseen, often make a big difference between you and someone else. I think that this is what Sir Chris refers to as the insane level but that is where insane quality comes from.

accidental woodworker

I think I've got the ID.....

I did some quick detective work yesterday morning before work started (I get in 1 1/2 to 2 hrs early) and it paid off. I think I have figured out when my box was made and what Stanley called it. The 2358 on the quadrant of the miter box (that's the 1/2 circle thingy with the numbers and degree scale) isn't a serial number. This is the model number of my miter box. Later miter boxes based on this one got their model # from the size of the saw that was used (I think).

I punched "2358 miter box" into the WWW and I found a manual for Stanley miter boxes Nos. 2244A-2246A-2358A. The only differences I can see between the models is the size of the miter saw. From the listed capacities my saw barely gives you an inch more at 90 and about 1/2" at 45. I expected the capacity for this box (with the biggest saw) to be a lot more than this.

The importance of the manual isn't the different models but exactly what the various parts on the box are and what they do. It explains how to set the depth of the saw on the saw posts (I wasn't sure how). It's two pages in length and the few illustrations are well drawn. You can easily see what each part is and where it is on the box. I wish it had a lot more info but it's better than nothing at all. I do believe in OJT (on the job training).

The Pat 1952512 is the US Patent number for this miter box. It was applied for in July of 1932 and was granted on March 17, 1934. The author on the patent is named Austin L. Stowell. I'm not sure if he is the actual inventor or if he is just someone from Stanley who wrote the patent application.

I bought the patent blind without knowing if it would pay off or not. It paid off and I have it and it doesn't tell  a lot in respect to how to operate the box. Mr Stowell  explains how and why it's greater than sliced white bread but there aren't any sizes or dimensions of anything given at all. The manual from the WWW doesn't give any sizes/dimensions either.

The other info I got from the WWW is basically useless as it is not specific to the 2358. They are similar but there are differences they would tell even a casual looker they're not the same. Some things are the same such as a screw on the back of the legs that keeps the box from sliding in use. I suspect that the screws on other common items might be the same . I'm betting that the holes for the length stop rods are also going to be the same but I haven't checked that yet.

I now know who, what, and little of how about my miter box. If mine is from the 30's, it's in better shape than some people I know of the same age. It won't crosscut 12" like my power chop box, but it will certainly do it a lot quieter.

accidental woodworker

latest addition......

UPS came last night and dropped off a miter box for me. I bought it from my wife's cousin who lives in North Carolina. I think it's a Stanley 358 but I am not 100% sure. It  matches what I was able to find out about it today on the WWW,  but I am no expert.

Nice orange table

Got ahead of myself here. All of these pics are the after ones. I was like a kid at Christmas last night playing with this. I just didn't think to take pics then. The box shows use but it doesn't appear to have been abused. A cursory check revealed no cracks or missing/broken castings anywhere. The saw plate is almost exactly 5" wide,  the stated width in the Stanley catalog. I don't think this has been sharpened too many times.

Numbers for the sides and along the front it is marked in degrees

Back view with a few paint splashes  I like the blue color of the body

saw plates and nuts

Saw plate was pretty much clean. I intend to go anal on it and try to make it look even better. I numbered the saw nuts so I can put them back where they came from. Got this tip from Matt C at the saw blog. This is a disston saw made especially for Stanley for this miter box. This saw is a monster and I can see why Matt C is charging 50 big ones to sharpen them.

handle needs help

Yes that is a screw in the handle. To the right of the screw head is another one that doesn't have a head. The black goo on the handle is from the electrician's tape that was on the handle to cover a split.  I get the impression that whoever did this was in a hurry and just wanted to get back to work. I guess he just never got around to completing the repair.

This leaves me boating up the creek watching my paddle floating away downstream. I really don't have a clue as to how to even begin to fix this. Or if it is even worth the calorie expenditure.  I think I'll wait till next month when Matt Cianci is done sharpening my saws and I'll ask him what to do with it.

left side of handle and saw plate

right side of handle and saw plate

I did manage one cut before I took the saw apart

I found something on miter boxes and based on the size of my saw, which is 28" long x 5" high, it makes my box a Stanley 358. I can't find any marks anywhere on the box marking it as a model 358. The only mark I found on it is on the front saw post. On one side is the number 23 or 28 and the other side is Pat 1952518 or 195251B.

I would guess that my box is about 85% complete. Most of what is missing is no longer available through Stanley parts. From one website, tooltrip.com, I found that most of what is missing (screws, flat metal stock, and round bars) is easily obtainable through just about any hardware store. You can also get some reproduction parts from him. On the lumberjock website, I found someone who did a rehab of a Stanley miter box that looks exactly like mine. 

Update 7/23/11    I found out from Patrick Leach that tooltrip.com is defunct and Stan hasn't taken the site down. It still has some info on it that could still be used. You just can't buy anything.

I went on ebay to try and find some parts and someone is selling a miter box just like the one I have. The Stanley name plate on the angle quadrant even has the same number as my box (2358). I think that this isn't a serial number but some kind of numbering/model id from Stanley. I've go to do a little more reading and digging on this.
Once this weather breaks I'll start on my miter box rehab. Until then I'll just putter and try not to work up a sweat.

accidental woodworker

making two at once.....

The bride says that I make too many boxes but daughter #2 had only a two plastic bags to keep her stove and it's parts together. Not that I need an excuse to make another box or two. And they do need to be protected against my cats wanting to play with them.

I glued and clamped the two boxes on sunday and took them out of the clamps on monday after work. It's now tuesday, it's hot, humid, and I really didn't feel like sweating gallons of liquid out of every pore in my body. So I just puttered a little here and a little there and got a few things done. I'll do the same as long as this heat lasts.

This is the reason for two boxes

This is the stove (taken apart) and all the accessories that came with it. Daughter #2 wants a light in the interior of the stove, so that's what the light is for. I don't have a drill bit large enough for the light so I'm going to have to be creative and think of something. I wonder if a saw tooth forstner bit can cut thin gauge metal?

box for the stove

Those little verticals lines about 1/2 way up (or down) on the box are where the saw cut for the biscuit blew through.  I checked my practice piece again and I can't see how it didn't blow out there but did on my box.

blow through all gone (almost)

I cut a shallow 1/2" wide dado across each biscuit cut blow through. I am going to glue some 1/2" cherry strips in them and blow out scars are all gone.

8 strips cut and fitted

I cut and fitted all the strips for each of the dadoes. After I was happy with the fit I glued them in place with hide glue. The strips were a tight fit but I clamped them just in case one end decided to pop out.

accessories boxes

The thickness of this box is about 1/2". It's why I couldn't make one box for everything. The stove box thickness is 3/4" and I didn't want to plane in this heat, so two boxes. The divider in the top box is two different thicknesses also. Same problem, not enough of one to make it. It's just tacked in place on the bottom with a couple of spots of hide glue. I glued four thin pieces of oak in the four corners to hold the drop in box that's sits in the front here.

I am really hurting for lid material. The only stock that I have large enough is MDF or 3/4 ply. Since I'm expending a lot of calories on these boxes, I definitely don't want to use them. My thinking is that daughter #2 can use the boxes for something else once she gets them to her new home and unpacks the stove & etc.

Along with my lid dilemma, I have to find hinges and lid latch but I could make a form fitting lid that would eliminate that need. Problem solved. Take an Attaboy out of petty cash and take the rest of the day off with pay.

accidental woodworker

#5 finished......

I got my knob from Lee Valley today along with the other goodies I had ordered at the same time. It sure didn't seem like a whole lot of  $49 worth of stuff I really couldn't live without. I bought some micro drills from china - FYI don't waste your $5 on them. I also got two other knobs and a couple of drop down brass handles.

I started to finish #5 by taking the door off the hinges. I figured out where I wanted the knob to be and drilled a hole for the screw. I then drilled a 3/8" hole on the exterior of the stile because the knob has a washer like thingy on the bottom of it and I wanted the knob to be flush. I then drilled a hole on the interior side of the stile so I could recess the head of the screw that holds the knob. After I got done dancing with this I cleaned the glass, installed it, and nailed the retaining strips in place. Put the hinges back on, stepped back, and ooh-ed and aah-ed repeatedly.

too small for a  #7

Next time no bead board

I don't like the bead board look for this cabinet. The bride loves it but I think next time I'll use solid wood or 1/4" plywood. The cabinet is little on the modern-ish looking side of the equation. It would look alright in my opinion if I had used a wooden shaker knob and not the italian one. Funny how a knob can change how something looks to you.

Left side view

right side view

I don't know who is going to get this but for now it's sitting next to the other pine cabinet in the boneyard. In another couple of weeks or so cabinet #6 will make it a trio of homeless cabinets.

accidental woodworker

a little of this and a little of that.....

Very slow weekend for me. I did a little work on #5 and #6 cabinets and I started something totally new. It came from daughter #2 and it came from from deep center field. She bought something at a flea market and I would have never thought that she ever buy something like this. The little girl isn't so little anymore.

she bought this

This is a miniature cast iron cook stove.  This is just the main body. There are numerous parts I didn't think to include in this pic. She went back to Illinois after her short visit and left the stove and all it's parts with me. Of course I had to make a box to safe guard all of it while she's gone.

box for the stove

box for the stove parts plus drop in box

I wanted to make one box for everything but I didn't have a board long enough to do that so I made two. I made both boxes with miters. The stove box I also biscuited and they punched through on all four sides. It didn't do it on my practice scrap piece so once it's out of the clamps I'm going to have to think of some way to cover the holes. I have some cherry strips left over from #6 that maybe I could do something with.

I didn't biscuit the stove part box because I knew that it was too thin, it was a board that was warped that I had  hand planed reasonable flat and thin. I used two band clamps when I clamped it up and they did a good job of squaring it up. The smaller box is made out of some scrap 3/8" pine with a 3mm (about 1/8") plywood bottom. It's not mitered at the corners, on this I used rabbets all around.

I tried to make a handle for the drop in box (the small one in the front) with some left over 1/8" brass rod but it ended up being an inch or so short. Found this on the next to last bend I was making. I'll have to go on a road trip to the hobby store and get some more.

#5 with a magnetic catch - the tiny dots

These magnetic catches are a little on the big pain in the ass to install. Everything seemed to go wrong for me when I tried to install these. First I made the hole a wee bit too deep. Then I found (I measured it) that the stated size of the catch isn't the 3/8" diameter listed on the pkg, it's a tad under and probably metric. I epoxied the catch in place on the cabinet side and that brought it even. Then as I was gently tapping it in place I put a rosebud  on the side of the cabinet. Ouch.

I then repeated my it's too deep dance on the door stile catch. This time it was almost a friction fit for 3/8". This catch installs with a screw which isn't included. Lucky me I found a brass plated steel screw that fit (being magnetic helps). I had to put a small piece of wood in the hole to build it up. Trying to get a thin piece wood shaped into a reasonable 3/8" diameter is a cute dance.

I finally got done filling everyone's dance card and got them all signed. I am not impressed with this catch at all. It is supposed to be a super duper rare earth  magnetic catch with a lot of pounds pull resistance. It works ok but I don't think it's any better than the other magnetic catches I have used. It's one good point is it has a small footprint.

one of two molding details for #6

This molding is going to be the separation between the door of the upper cabinet and the top two drawers. I still have to make one more that will be the separation between the top and bottom drawer units. I had to thin this molding down a tad so I will have some clearance for the door swing and open/close action of the drawers. I'm thinking of using solid cherry boards on both the top and bottom of this cabinet. Still time to decide on that.

#5 coming along

I finished installing all the strips on #5. I planed everything down even and smooth and I got rid of all of the burn marks and the saw marks (I didn't go anal on this). For the most part the strips are even and flush with the outside of the cabinet. There are a couple of spots on the inside that aren't but I am not worried about them as they are hard to see.

At the bottom of the cabinet are some white oak strips that I am going to use as drawer glides. I am not thrilled with the thought of solid wood, or plywood, moving on plywood. I am going to put these on the sides as well as the bottom. I shouldn't have any wearing problems with this set up.

accidental woodworker