Well ya would have ta get me goin’ guys, that is, by talking bout the old tools.
I’m a couple of years younger than you Dale, but like you, in the mid 50’s I would stop by the Sears store in town a couple of times a week on my way home from high school. I tried to pick up one or two Craftsman wrenches every week. I still have and use all of them.
Dad was a mechanic back in the 20’s & 30’s and I still have and use his body tools, dollies, hammers and spoons. He left me his Thor 1/2” drill from the 30’s that has so much torque that it will spin you around if the drill bit catches in the hole.
I’ve restored a 16” Lodge & Shiply engine lathe and a round ram Bridgeport from the 40’s that are the mainstay of the machine shop. Also a 6” Logan lathe from the 50’s that gets used most every week. There’s a big old Buffalo drill press with a #3 taper out in the barn from WWII area.
My wood working machines are all restored equipment from the 50’s, “cast iron rules” as the younger generation says. I just finished a Delta wood lathe last year from the mid 50’s that I have been using for spinning metal. I use a Craftsman drill press that pop bought in the 50’s down in the basement for wood working along side a 60 year old Delta band saw.
I collected and use hand wood planes, some of which are over 100 years old, and I still use some of my grandfather’s wood working tools that he brought from Ireland when he immigrated at the turn of the century.
Not only are these tools better made than the new ones, it is actually faster to grab one of them and do a small job than bother setting up the router or other power equipment. Lots of old chisels in the drawer and for a one time dovetail it’s easier to cut it with the old hand tools than set up the dovetail jug.
Hell, I still gas weld stuff from time to time. I bought some RG45 rod at Weldstar last week and the counterman said, “we don’t sell much of that any more,” to which I commented, well when ya quit handling it, I guess I’ll just have to use coat hangers!
There is also the bond with the past when you lay your hands on an old tool. Something that ties us to a simpler time when people took the time to “do it right.”
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
