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3K views 12 replies 10 participants last post by  craftsman on the lake 
#1 ·
After a long time

I was 22 years old in 1976. I was in college to get a teaching degree and at the same time also attending the Maine school of Guitar making (luthiery). For the next few years I made guitars and sold them to college students. I finished about 20 of them. When I graduated from college I had to live out of state and after two years of that got married. Work and family took me away from the smell of brazilian rosewood and sitka spruce.

Move ahead to 2008. I'm back in Maine at the old family home where I started. My tools, stored in barrels and boxes are pretty rusty. Drawknives and planes need reworking. My power tools are circa 1970's mostly. Bandsaws, and belt sanders. I've torn down a wall and expanded my workshop to about 25ftx25ft. It's sheet rocked, painted, and spiffied up. Right now I'm enjoying just assembling the shop. I'll take some pictures and post them soon.

The net has been a great help with sites like LJ's to give ideas and show how to do things. I've picked up a smartsharp and it has greatly eased my ability to get my old chisels and plane blades back up to speed.
 
#7 ·
I will add the call for pictures. Construction posts showing the progress of a project convey more that only a finished post. But it sounds like your fun is just beginning to get interesting.
 
#9 ·
Shop coming along/antique power tools?

As previously written, I am resurrecting my woodworking after a 30 year break. My shop has been insulated, heated, sheet rocked, painted, and woodworked. I have started to take my older trusted tools on one at a time. I purchased most of them when i was around 20 years old. Searc hing the internet I've found manuals for them again at of all places; Vintage tool sites. Has so much time passed that the tools I last worked with are now antiques?
This week I completely disassembled my 12" craftsman bandsaw. All of the blade setting screws and thumbwheels were rusted in place. The table had rust. The bearings were okay though as they are sealed bearings. There was 30 year old mahogany sawdust inside it from the last guitar I had made.

Well, with lots of elbow grease, wet/dry sandpaper, naval jelly, oil, silicon, penetrating oil, and a lot of adjusting etc., etc. I now a have a clean, almost new looking, perfectly alligned bandsaw. Gee it works slick.

My craftsman belt sander was easy. The only thing at issue was the rusted sanding bed. It's a 6" belt sander that uses a 48" belt. I had an old belt. I turned it inside out and ran it that way with a block of wood on the top. The belt sander sanded itself clean. After a little touchup and a wipe down with gasoline it looks great.

I have another belt sander and bandsaw, those central machinery ones from china. Functional but not great. I cleaned them up too but didn't spend as much time on them. They're working fine. I put a course sanding belt on the sander for rough sanding and a wide bandsaw blade on the saw for rough bandsaw cuts.

My Delta 10" table saw needed some work on the table. It's not great but as good as I can get it for now. I too took it all apart, cleaned up the mechanism and lubricated all gears with liquid graphite. After a new belt it hums pretty smoothly.

Next, I have to tackle my planes I have a bunch of them some long bed wood, some short, and a couple of sweet longbed steel planes that I used to use to take guitar tops and backs down to just under 1/8th inch thick. My new smartsharp did a good job on my chisels but I don't have the adapter for the plane blades. I think I'll make one.

Jointer needs some work too. That's going to be a trip. And Yup, 1976 (approx) Craftsman 6 1/8".

I'll post some pictures sometime. Lots more to do. Thanks for reading.
 
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