I decided that the Craftsman 22124 was the right saw for me. It fit my shop, and came with a biesmeyer fence, which was really what cinched it for me. That fence is a $350 upgrade to any other stock fence… and it’s the gold standard that all other fences are measured against. As far as I could find, the Craftsman is the only table saw in the $1,000 price range that comes with that fence.

All that said, there was no way I was going to spend $1,200 (retail) for it, and was keeping my eyes peeled online for coupons, sales, etc. I joined the Craftsman Club, thinking that maybe it would be on sale through that… but my club membership hadn’t gone through… anyway…

I had about an hour to kill yesterday early evening, and figured I’d stop by the big Sears in the area. All the smaller stores I had gone to didn’t have that model on display, and I really wanted to get a chance to “futz” with it.

I head to the tools… see a distinctive grey full cabinet… there it is… wow, that fence is smooth…. top looks immaculate… yup, cabinet mounted trunnions… wow, the miter guage has a really nice extension to it, and it’s a perfect fit for the slot… wait… what’s that… a clearance tag??!?! “Originally $1,199 Clearance $849”

I talk to the guy, it’s the floor model only. They’re being told that the bigger tools are only going to be sold through catalog, and need to clear out the big inventory. (By the way, if anyone’s in the market for a Craftsman Jointer or drill press, and are near Burlington, MA, now’s the time!)

After a little negotiation…(Yeah, but the fact that you can’t deliver… I’m going to have to rent a truck, figure out how to get it onto the truck, I’m going to need a mobile base… ) we settled on $749, which I’m very happy with. I even bought the two years onsite warranty, ‘cause I figured I had gotten such a good deal, why not pay to have someone able to come to my house to fix anything that’s gone awry?

Now all I have to do is figure out how to get it home…

Thanks to all of you for your advice, I know knotscott’s going to be pleased!

Of course, my interest was piqued… I saw that PurpLev was going to have to pass, as he had no way to get a slab of that magnitude into his car, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to either… So, I figured I’d see if we could help each other out.

I got in touch with PurpLev, commandeered the wife’s mini-van, and we were off.

Arriving at our destination (after battling rush-hour Boston traffic), we laid eyes on a sight that would make any LJ drool…

All free for the taking…

We found a couple of sections we liked,

and PurpLev set about cutting the 16 foot lengths into more manageable sections.

It was a bit of a challenge… the depth of cut of Purp’s circ saw was about 1/8 inch too short, which meant flipping and cutting from the back side.

And we hit a few nails…

But finally managed to get two full 16 foot sections into the back of the van.

What a score! Honestly, the most challenging part of the whole endeavor was man-handling the 8 foot section into Purp’s (no-disrespect!) crowded workshop.

Keep your eyes open… we’ll see what ends up coming out of this.

And, riddle me this… How many LumberJocks does it take to drag a 3 foot by 8 foot section of hard maple out of the back of a minivan and into a crowded workshop?

I did a bit of research, I think it’s a Type 1 (circa 1877-1891) Stanley 127 Liberty Bell:

The combination of trademarks on the blade and toe is what leads me to think it’s a Type 1… the toe is somewhat visible here:

It’s in decent shape, considering the age… the tote and knob are solid, with just a bit of chipping on the spur of the tote, the beech body is only slightly cracked around the mouth, there are a couple of chips out of the sole by the toe:

But other than that, it’s solid, reasonably flat, and considering it’s well over 100 years old, it’s held up pretty well.

According to Patrick's Blood & Gore, these planes are generally “found in dogmeat condition and have very little appeal to collectors/users, but antique shops don’t realize this since most of them are priced way more than they are worth as firewood”.

Gotta love that guy…

Not sure if I’ll refurbish this one, or leave it as-is… maybe a bit of both, clean up the blade and chip breaker, leave the rest…

Y’all have given great advice thus far, WWLJD? That is to say, what would LumberJocks do?

Much better looking under there than I had expected…

Small Plane Before:

and After:

Large Plane Before:

and After:

What a transformation!

I’m enjoying the instant gratification that comes with this type of project, and I’ve always enjoyed taking things like this and bringing them back to life.

I also fed my new addiction and got a Solar smoothing plane for $6 on ebay… it came today.

Once I’ve got these guys up and working, I’m going to dedicate some time into really learning how to properly tune, sharpen, and (fundamentally, really) how to actually use hand planes. I’ve never in my life put plane to wood… I’m getting myself into it the right way, by taking apart the tools, learning how they go together, making them my own before a single shaving makes its way through the throat.

More later…

After perusing the various blogs about plane restoration here on LJ’s, I decided a simple first step would be to get ‘em taken apart and do a first round cleaning.

I looked at David's blog, and though I was intrigued by electrolysis as a rust-removal process, I thought to myself “Isn’t that just really an electroplating going on? Is it really getting rid of the rust, or is it putting a new layer of steel on top?” I may be wrong, but that outlines exactly how electroplating is done, in this case using rebar instead of Nickel, chrome or gold.

I did, however, figure that I’d give the Kaboom a try, and wow. Instantly years of grime just melted off these planes. I took them apart, and put them into a plastic bucket lid, sprayed the heck out of them with the Kaboom, and gave them both a quick once over with a toothbrush, wiped them down with a paper towel, and wow, I was impressed with the cleaning power of Kaboom!

Here’s the larger of the two:

And the smaller of the two:

I was shocked to find red paint on the logo, and frog, and a metal colored lever cap!

I’m beginning to think that the smaller one was in a fire or something… the front knob is all charred:

and the handle in the back looks like something melted into the finish:

I had luck using the method that grumpycarp recommended when I flattened the sole of my little plane, so I’ll probably use that again, and since we’re not talking serious heirlooms or valuable planes, I’ll likely just use the old “elbow grease, Steel Wool, Sandpaper and WD-40” method for getting the rust and such off.

I might end up “re-jappanning” them, probably again using grumpycarp’s recommendation, and I do have a chunk of rosewood that I need to make into something, so I’ll probably turn a new knob for the little one, and I might just try my hand at carving a new handle too… it’s a bit sloppy in the fit, and it would be a fun project.

I’ll post progress along the way

The longer of the two is about 14”, the smaller about 9”

I’ll clean them up and post the results.

I really want to learn how to use these planes, I haven’t had much success with the other one I picked up for a buck! It just digs in no matter how I set up the blade. Any advice would be helpful…