Langdon Acme Rehab

Greetings!

I have looked to this site for a long time as a reference and resource, and figured I’d join the party.

I am in the process of “rehabbing” a pre 1909 patent date Landgon Acme Miter Box. I use the term “rehab” rather than restore. To me, “restore” seems to evoke a vision of a white gloved antiquesroadshow-type who will scold me for cleaning off the rust and dust. For the life of me, I could never understand why people (apparently the ones with all of the money) love something that looks like a yard sale reject. Rehabbing the thing means it is going back into service, better than its prior condition.

But I digress.

The box I am working on now is a circa 1900 74C I originally bought for parts for about ten bucks. The front arm strut was broken and welded along the way in a manner that would now allow the front saw post to extend or retract. However, when I got it home I discovered that while the weld was good (I have bounced it around more than a little and it will hold), there was no clean up of the weld itself. What the heck – for $10 I am going for the angle grinder. After I cleaned up the weld, the front post traverses the slide smoothly.

So out comes the tub and the Evaporust. Took it apart and soaked the parts and a day later no rust.

So I figure I’ll repaint it. What is interesting is that on the pre 1909 Patent date versions, the paint on the work plates (I know I am butchering the correct part names) is not the typical Millers Falls Red I have seen on most Langdon boxes. I scrape all the way down to the isteel, and no red anywhere. The plates were originally painted… SILVER?

I have looked at the catalogs available and the 1904 catalog shows the exact box I have. Unfortunately, it is not in color. So for any Landgon experts out there, were the plates originally silver, or did someone refinish this box at some point along the line? I have dug into every corner and crevice of those plates, and it is silver all the way. Which leads me to believe the Millers Falls red came into use sometime post 1904, and possibly with the 1909 Patent models.

I bought the box for parts on a nice 1909 Patent date 75C I have had for a while. I’ll tackle that one after this one is done. Some interesting differences. Like the stop rest. The 1904 catalog version has a stop gauge that had a rounded and extended hooks at the top. The 1909 patent date one has the regular straight angled gauge.

One thing they share is the stock rest. That is the rest that moves in a channel front back to front to position work on the box. I need one more of those. I suppose I could locate a “sex bolt” and a fitting carriage bolt and grind the rim off of the sex bolt before I force a marriage of the two, but I was wondering if there was a source for these bolts. I don’t have a metal lathe, but it looks like you could take about 1/2 diameter steel rod, cut it down to about 2 inches in length (about the length and diameter dimension of the stock rest), and drill and tap it for an appropriate carriage bolt. There is a knurl on the original part that I’d have to figure out how to put on.

Anyway, hello to everyone. Glad to be a member of this community and I look forward to participating here.

Jim