| Blog series by FeralVermonter | updated 128 days ago | 4 parts | 3294 reads | 16 comments total |
Part 1: Starting From Scratch
Long story short, I’m one of those folks who’s been “hit hard” by the recession. For the last few years, I haven’t been able to find work through the winters. But I’m not writing about that—it just sorta sets the scene. In my better moments, I can convince myself that I’m keeping up the Vermonter tradition of “making do,” but it can be stressful, and frustrating. One of the better ways that I’ve found to cope is to think of...
Part 2: To Set Up Your First Shop
The first mistake, at least if you’re wired like me, is in thinking too much. If it’s your first shop, just go out there, slap a couple of boards on a couple of sawhorses, and start playing around. The thing is, if it’s your first shop you probably don’t have a really good idea of how you’re going to work, in your own shop. So think about it for an hour or two, then get out there and get something you can work on slapped together. You can always change it a...
Part 3: To Rehabilitate a Craftsman Radial Arm Saw
If I were to add up every hour I’d spent in the shop, trying to get things up and running, at least half of that time has been devoted to the painstaking rehabilitation of an old Sears Craftsman Radial Arm Saw (model 113197751). The backstory: I picked this thing up, years ago, back in the auction days–for a dollar. Just couldn’t resist, even though I didn’t really know what it was, or how to use it. Naturally, it ended up under a pile of junk up in the barn for the next ...
Part 4: To Restore a circa-1940s Delta Jointer
Honestly, I thought I did my due diligence on this one. I really did. Fortunately, I haven’t made any serious mistakes. Just a bunch of goofy beginner ones. Aw, heck. I’m a goofy guy, and a beginner to boot, what can I say? It was awfully fun, and I learned a lot—and I got a jointer out of the deal. I will say this, however: what I’ve learned so far really helped on this job, (much of which I learned right here, on this site!) enough so that ...
