After nearly 70 years in production, Shopsmith, the maker of the Mark V and Mark 7 woodworking machines, is on its last legs and facing liquidation unless a person or group buys them.
I never used a Shopsmith but always see used ones for sale on Marketplace. My understanding is that the accessories were proprietory so you were locked into only their brand of stuff. It didnt seem very user friendly to me, so I never considered buying one.
Did you own and use a Shopsmith? How is the machine? Was it a “jack of all trades, master of none” type of tool? I’ve always been curious.
Do you have a boatload of money and want to buy the company? Now is your chance. They may be liquidated by the end of the month. They are located in Dayton, OH and apparently it’s how Scott Phillips got his start with his TV show “The American Woodshop”. The story goes he worked for Shopsmith at the time and did some How-To videos on using the machine. Someone saw his videos and asked him to do a new woodworking TV show (or something like that. He knows the story a lot better than I do).
A few weeks ago, my buddy Rich and I went out to Wings and Rings to watch the Bengals football game. While there, we shot the breeze and I mentioned that I bought these pipe clamp lifters online. I told him that they were made on a 3D printer. He told me that he could make those on his 3D printer and that there is a website called http://www.yeggi.com where you can search for free downloads of woodworking tools and jigs.
I checked out Yeggi and saw that they had Golden Ratio calipers and asked if he could make a pair. I bought a pair on Etsy years ago but they were smaller than I thought they would be. Rich made me two larger size on his 3D printer.
Then this weekend, he came over and gave me more stuff he printed for my birthday. I was shocked when he handed me this box. It was completely printed with my logo on it on his printer. Then inside were over twenty french curves I can use for designing furniture.
Then he gave me a really cool set of roundover jigs. This was another free plan he downloaded. It comes with seven different sizes. It’s an awesome gift!
So now my mind is spinning with what else he can print for me. I told Rich I’d pay him for his time, but he said when he puts in the download, he just goes to bed and when he wakes up in the morning, the item is printed. He told me just to pay for the filliment. What do you think I should have Rich make next?
Last weekend, I ventured out to an antique show in Urbana, OH. I got there around 8:00 am and walked around for a couple of hours buying a handful of tools. I was happy with what I bought as I just go to these antique shows because I enjoy going regardless of what I buy.
I decided to make one more pass around the fairgrounds when I decided to go down a little part that I didn’t visit before when I stumbled upon this guy.
A huge tool chest full of tools. The guy selling it said he took out of a house in Troy, OH from a woman who had it in her garage. It was her Dad’s tool chest. She had nowhere to keep it as she was moving into a retirement home, so she had to ged rid of it.
I looked inside at the tools and immediately noticed a Stanley No 8 and 5 Type 4 prelateral planes and an early version of a Stanley No 45 Combination plane. The guy told me he wanted $350 for the chest and tools and that he’s had a few offers for the chest alone. He then told me he’d sell all the tools in it for $200. At this point, wheels were spinning in my head as to where I was going to put this thing as my shop is already overflowing with tools from the auction I went to a few months back.
Then the guy told me he’d take $300 for everything as he really wanted to get rid of it. At $300, I might as well buy the whole thing as the tool chest alone was worth more than a $100. I told him I’d take, but I had to go to the ATM and get some cash.
I came back, gave him the money then drove into the fairgrounds to put it in my truck. I was stoked! In 35 years of collecting antique tools, I’ve never bought a tool chest, let alone one with a bunch of tools in it.
When I got home, I decided to look at the tool chest more closely. It was a pine box dovetailed together with brass hardware on the corners. Inside were mahogany tool bins with veneered banding on top.
Underneath the veneered bins were two tool totes for various tools and parts.
Removing those bins, were two more filled with auger bits and chisels.
Underneath those is where the planes were. There were only two bench planes but he had a decent collection of molding planes with most stamped J W ROOF.
I brought everything in my basement and cataloged all the tools that were inside. There were over 100 with a lot of them being small drill bits and hardware. There were a nice collection on incannel gouges along with metal working punches and wrenches. I’m trying to figure out what he did for a living but it may be impossible to figure out as who knows what tools are missing and which tools were just thrown into the chest over the years.
With the age of the Stanley planes, I estimating that the chest was made in the 1870 -80’s Now I need to decide what to do with it. Nevertheless, what a great Birthday present to myself!
Life has been keeping me busy with my job and antiquing with my wife on the weekends. It seems my shop time is a few minutes a week and even then, I spend that time restoring old tools. But when I saw these pipe clamp holders on an Instagram ad, I had to have them.
I’ve been fighting with my Jorgensen pipe clamps for decades. When they came out in 1980’s they were a must have woodworking tool, so I bought as many as I could afford as a teenager. Fast forward 35 years, I still use the heck out of them. The issue, is that when I use them, they have a tendancy to roll over during glue ups.
These fixtures allow you to slide the foot of the pipe clamp into a pocket and lifts it a few inches to allow you to turn the handle without hitting the bench. Simple and straight forward. Even the height of the fixture is short enough that if it is in front of back clamp pad, it won’t hit the wood being clamped, which is nice if I’m clamping a panel that is wider than my bench.
The guy who sells these makes them on a 3D Printer. They’re about $30 for four of them but they’ll last a lifetime. If you have these style of Jorgensen pipe clamps, it’s a no-brainer. I know they sell newer versions of pipe clamps with a taller base that do the same thing, but I don’t want to spend the money to replace all my pipe clamps.
You can find this guy on instagram @artisanmadethings.
I went on the World’s Longest Yard Sale again this year. We traveled five days traveling from Russel Springs, Ky to Eaton, Ohio, at the I -70 line. It seems harder and harder to find tools. Mainly because the same vendors have the same tools I picked through the previous year. Nevertheless this is what I got.
A couple of Milers Falls planes. These are getting pricier every year as more people realize how well they work.
A bunch of Stanley bench planes and one Craftsman No 5C for $5.00. I’ll buy the parts planes if the price is right as I usually have the correct part to make it complete.
Two Stanley No 48 tongue and groove planes. One is missing a blade, but they’re relatively easy to make. The other has a user made wooden fence that is too narrow to work.
I bought this lot for $20.00. The guy didn’t know what the sun plane body was. I believe the screw handle is from a mitre clamp.
An ivory slide rule and a 2 ft caliper rule I have never seen before. Plus, there are a few odds and ends.
I found the Holy Grail of paste wax. A full can of SC Johnson paste wax for a $1.00. I hit the lottery. lol.
I bought 600 sheets of sandpaper for $20.00. 300 each of 150 and 220. I love cheap sandpaper. The number one rule of sandpaper is to use it like someone else is paying for it.
I only spent about $250.00 for everything, but my wife, Anita, made out well. She bought a whole lot more and spent a whole lot more money than me. You can check out her Instagram page at mybuckeyehome to see what she bought.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the tool auction of Jim “Rooster” Brown. I knew Jim a little bit. He always helped out the Amish Tool Auction in Adams Co Ohio every 4th of July. I went to that auction every year for over fifteen years, and it was always something I looked forward to every year. Jim would help out the auctioneer Hess Auction Co as they sold Hostetler’s tools. I would always end up with a boatload of tools. So much so that one year, my Mom got mad at me for all the money I spent (about $500) when I came home with my loot.
Since it was an auction, I never spent too much time talking to Jim because he was too busy holding up and handing out tools during the auction but when I did talk to him he was a super nice guy. I remember one year, a Stanley No 444 Dovetail Plane came up for sale, and I ended up winning it for $200. Jim yelled out, “He stole it!” Everyone laughed, but I was happy that I did indeed steal it. I owned that plane for many years until I had to sell it due to being unemployed after losing my job.
Jim was a collector of Ohio made tools. He had thousands of them after collecting for decades. His collection consisted of hundreds of molding planes, cooper tools, axes, and saws. The first part of the auction was all of his axes, so I had time to look around and examine all the woodworking tools. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.
Dozens of panel raiser planes, multiple scroll saws, cooper jointer planes, dozens of plow planes, and several tool boxes full of tools that sold as a complete set.
There was a Stanley No 1 plane that sold for $1450.00, and this panther saw that sold for $2625.00. I’ve never seen one in person, and I doubt I ever will again. Some of us thought that the winner overpaid, but one just recently sold for $3500.00.
This Ohio Tool Center Wheel Ivory Tip Plow Plane sold for $2700. The gentleman who won the bid was a personal friend of Jim’s, and he would show it to him every time he visited his home. He was ecstatic that he won his friends favorite plane.
This workbench sold for over $1400.00. I hope it won’t become a kitchen island but you never know these days. lol
This was Jim’s obituary. He worked for the post office for 30 years and was a founding member of the Ohio Tool Collectors.
During the auction, I started to get more involved and bid on the tools. Some of the hand planes I wanted went a little too high for me as a couple of Stanley No 2’s sold for $300 each. At first, I didn’t think I’d win anything, but about halfway through, things started to heat up for me. When they got to the table with all his panel raiser planes, they sold “Choice” off the table. After a couple of rounds, the auctioneer sold all the planes on the table at once. I thought to myself, “Holy shit,” so I got in view of the auctioneer and kept bidding. By the time the bidding ended, I ended up winning all the planes on the table (about 25) for a few hundred dollars. Then, a few minutes later, it happened again, and I ended up buying a second table full of planes for one money. After that, it was full go for me as I was bidding and winning multiple lots.
In the end, this is what I ended up winning. A total of 166 tools. The most tools I ever won and the most money I ever spent at an auction. But boy, did I have fun!
When I got home, I wrote in my book everything I won and what I paid for each tool. I could hear Jim call down from Heaven. “He stole it!”
Sometimes life gives you an opportunity you didn’t know existed.
My friend Tim called me last summer saying that he cuts the grass for our old Junior High Shop Teacher, Mr Morganroth, and he had some old tools he wanted to sell. Mr Morganroth was our shop teacher in the seventh grade. In class, we would make swordfish and ducks out of a piece of walnut, then attach painted metal for the fins and the wings. The class was the basics of woodworking, where we learned the simple steps of using surform files, grades of sandpaper, and cutting things out on the band saw. These simple steps got me hooked on woodworking, and I started to slowly build a shop in my parents’ basement when I was in high school.
Mr Morganroth said he was moving to Tennessee and wanted to get rid of some old tools he had been collecting asking if I would be interested in them. I told Tim I was but wanted to know what he had beforehand, so he sent me a few pics from his phone.
Tim sent me the photos, and I took a close look at them and I said I was interested, but I don’t want all of them since a lot were just common tools. Unfortunately, Morganroth wanted to sell them all at once, so I just let it go and forgot about it.
Then, a few weeks ago, Tim called me again and said Morganroth really wanted to get rid of them, so I contacted him directly and asked him to send me better pictures of what he had. Morganroth said he wanted to sell everything but the cooper’s tools as they were his grandfather’s.
Understanding that, we went back and forth for a few days, and I gave him an offer for the tools he wanted to sell (I really had my eye on the slick at the time). He responded that he would think about my offer.
Then last week he got back with me and said he’ll include the cooper’s tools as well and he’ll also throw in some woodworking books he had. I made him an offer higher than the first one I gave him, and he agreed to the price.
Friday, I went over to his house and picked up the tools. He had them hanging in his house for 30 years. He said his kids have no interest in them as neither of them work with wood, so he was glad they were going to a good home.
I brought them home and clipped them off the barn wood they were attached to to take a better look at them. The tools on the bench are the tools that his grandfather used when coopering. I plan on keeping them together as a set. I’m even considering making a tool chest for them.
It’s an incredible honor to buy old tools from the man who got me started in woodworking over 40 years ago.
I bought a Disston D8 Thumb Hole Rip Saw and wanted to restore it. The saw was in pretty good condition when I bought it. The only issue it had was that the back of the handle was broken with a chip missing from it. It’s a pretty common issue as that is where your thumb and index finger ride when sawing, so it’s under a lot of friction.
I wanted to repair it, so I carefully carved out an area to glue a new piece of apple wood in its place.
After the glue dried, I shaped and sanded the wood to match the rest of the handle. It came out well , it just needed a little bit of wood putty to close up the gaps between the new wood and handle.
After the putty dried, I sanded the whole handle and applied a few coats of shellac to it. The handle looked nice, but the putty stood out like a sore thumb.
This is where I put my artistic hat on. Playing with a paint kit, I mixed up a few colors of red, brown, and yellow, mixing them around to get the best matching shade I could create. It wasn’t about creating the perfect color but laying three different colors down so that it would blend with the rest of the handle.
After a few minutes of painting, I was happy with how it turned out, so I let it dry.
The saw came out nice, and the broken end of the handle won’t dig into my skin when I’m using it. Now that is all left to do is to sharpen the blade and put it to use.
Several weeks ago, I bought a yardlong picture at an antique shop. Finding a frame to fit the picture is next to impossible, so I knew I had to make one.
I looked around for some wood and found a piece of ash from a project I made a few years ago. Ash is not the ideal wood to use with molding planes as it has a lot of moving grain. Preferably poplar or mahagony would be the ideal wood, but ash is what I have.
I ran my complex molding plane over the board and slowly cut the profile in the wood. It took about 20-30 minutes for me to cut the profile.
I then took the board over to the table saw and ripped the molding 1″ wide.
I didn’t want the sides of the frame to be flat, so I carefully gouged out the middle, starting with carving gouge, then switched over to my No 6 hollow plane. Then I finished up with a piece of sand paper wrapped around a 1/2″ dowel.
I cut the rabbets for the frames on the table saw. I made three moldings that were longer than what I needed. I wasn’t concerned about the ends of the molding because I was going to cut them away anyway.
Using my Stanley No 150 Miter Box and my miter trimmer, I cut the piece out.
The molding pieces are now looking like a frame.
After I cut all the pieces, I dried fitted them together to see how the corners met. If they needed attention, I would carve and sand the ends to meet each other.
The final frame looks pretty good. Now it’s up to my wife, Anita, if she wants to stain or paint it.
This is the first time this year where I have had time to work in the shop, and it felt great. My job keeps me busy during the week, and the weekends are often antique hunting with Anita. I’m glad I had the time yesterday.
I’m not sure which branch of the military these men served or when the picture was taken, as there is no stamp on the picture, but they may have served in WWI as many of the yardlongs I’ve seen are early 20th century. All I know is that these men fought and may have died for our country, so they need to be honored by being put into a frame and hung on someone’s wall.
A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I were antique hunting in Dayton, Ohio, where I ran into this old level in the back of a barn. I figured it was a Stanley Rule and Level Co level, but the amount of brass in the front intrigued me as it wasn’t the usual design I see all the time.
I really don’t restore levels too often, but I decided to ask how much it was as I thought it would be a fun little restoration project. After the lady told me $10.00, I took it home.
Restoring it was pretty straightforward. I applied some citrus based paint stripper on it to remove the old grime, then washed it off with a soapy dish liquid. Then I applied elbow grease to buff out brass with steel wool and liquid brass cleaner. Then, coated the level with a few coats of shellac.
You can see on the side that it’s faintly stamped 11, which I figured makes it a Stanley No 11. Stanley made No 11’s in mahagony and rosewood. When I was cleaning the wood, I got excited thinking the level was made from rosewood, but I’m pretty sure it’s mahagony. The fact that the brass is only the corners and not completely covering the end makes it an older level.
You can see the Stanley Rule & Level Co. so it’s possible it’s before they acquired their plane line.
I’m not sure how to date the level as I am unaware of a type study on Stanley Levels, but if I had to take a guess, I’d say it’s around 1860-80’s in age. And it’s in pretty nice shape for being as old as it is.
Does anyone know how old it is? Drop a comment and let me know.
MVFlaim Furnituremaker 