Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT 1950s Craftsman Garage retro remodel

[bobadame]

The yellow tool is a jig for filing saw chains while they are still on the saw. The Nichols tool could be used as a dolly for shaping or straightening sheet metal trim.

 

[novaboy009]

Yes! Let's roll!

Everyone, tell me your story on how 1950s Craftsman Garage has helped you in your garage or a project you've worked on. Already have a few submissions.


We'll start with something cool.

The 1950's Craftsman garage turned me on to the world of heavy duty, american made, vintage power tools. After reading this thread, I have compulsively searched c-list and ebay for items on my checklist. I've scoured the vintage tool forums. I've talked to neighbors, grandparents, uncles, friends and strangers to hunt for select items. I'm attending my first estate sale this weekend.

I've spent two days just sitting with my grandfather and talking about his old tools. We haven't talked this much since I was a little kid. It's nice to reconnect with family, especially as he has started to fade a little.

This garage has created a monster........

 

[ckadams00]

You have the same saw? PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES!!!

Do you have the extensions? Solid or webbed? Would love to see some pictures...feel free to throw them up in this thread. I hope that my resto will come in handy for you

You are WAY ahead of me, mine is sitting unrestored and in pieces (save for the new bearings ordered) until warmer weather lets me work outside. Your thread is a huge help . . .but I keep wondering how you make such huge leaps ahead every two or three days when it seems to take me months to get a tool redone!

 

[reddog289]

Love your garage too. I has given me some hope in getting mine up to par. But has also made me mad I never did pick up the Craftsman wood planer a few years back from the guy down the street.

 

[fredlangva]

I didn't really consider "finishing" my garage until I stumbled across the forum looking for storage ideas. Once I found all the great threads, I was hooked.

I've reread Dave's thread 3x now and still enjoy the posts. I have quite a few Craftsman tools for the 70's that are still servicable. Dave makes it hard on me having to fight the urge to replace them with their parents

I may not have as great a theme going yet as Dave, but I have been inspired to add a bit of pizzazz to the shop and tying everything together.

We have a lot of very creative folks here on GJ and Dave certainly leads us all to dream a bit and try something different.

 

[onewaydave]

The curved tool, that I think is the same Nichols, is for working concrete while laying or tuck pointing brick.

I'm not going to play 'cause I have all those. But its real cool that you are doing this.

Ditto on the spark plug gaper.

Dave.

 

[elenatederov]

thnx for sharing great job i want to give to +rep

 

[Red Leader]

WE HAVE A CONTEST WINNER(S)!!!


Novaboy, love the story about you connecting with relatives over the power tools! How cool is that? Congrats, you are the first contest winner!


However, Machine_Punk got me in a soft spot as well...I LOVE garages with really unique, creative, or outstanding themes. I think he has a winner on his hands with the Aerodome Studio. So, his entry gets honorable mention!

Novaboy, let me know your address and I'll get the wrench sent out to you and machine_punk, send me yours and have your choice between the a set of the Picador gauges or one of the vintage chalk snap lines!

Also, I believe I have some other items to send out as well! I owe Firefyter-Emt a Delta table saw insert and Titaniumboy an EXL wheel spacer! I'll try and get them all out together but just give me a little time boys and I'll make it happen.

Thanks!

Now...for the next contest...

 

[Red Leader]

Love your garage too. I has given me some hope in getting mine up to par. But has also made me mad I never did pick up the Craftsman wood planer a few years back from the guy down the street.

I didn't really consider "finishing" my garage until I stumbled across the forum looking for storage ideas. Once I found all the great threads, I was hooked.

I've reread Dave's thread 3x now and still enjoy the posts. I have quite a few Craftsman tools for the 70's that are still servicable. Dave makes it hard on me having to fight the urge to replace them with their parents

I may not have as great a theme going yet as Dave, but I have been inspired to add a bit of pizzazz to the shop and tying everything together.

We have a lot of very creative folks here on GJ and Dave certainly leads us all to dream a bit and try something different.

I appreciate both your guys' feedback and words. I'm humbled that others would find this an interesting project and it is feedback like this that keeps me encouraged! Also, keep in mind there are more contests to come, so I hope you continue to join in the fun!

-Dave

 

[Red Leader]

You are WAY ahead of me, mine is sitting unrestored and in pieces (save for the new bearings ordered) until warmer weather lets me work outside. Your thread is a huge help . . .but I keep wondering how you make such huge leaps ahead every two or three days when it seems to take me months to get a tool redone!

Every two or three days? Are you sure you aren't in a coma?


Just kidding. Really it has taken the entire winter and more. But I'm hoping to put the finishing touches on it soon. It really will be a fabulous saw.






ps - I still want to see pictures

 

[Red Leader]

Red Leader,

PM sent. Thanks for your generous offer.

On a separate note, did you buy your giveaway prizes on purpose from yard sales, or are they coming bundled with tools that you're buying?

Titaniumboy

Sorry I missed your question. I got most of this stuff in a HUGE estate tool find. Actually, it is a really cool story. So summer of 2010, I'm looking for a table saw (at this point, I had no 'Craftman Garage', nor any vintage tools of any kind!), and I wasn't even particularly looking for anything old, but when I saw a C/L ad for an older Craftsman table saw, something jumped up inside me and told me that I had to check it out. Well, it turned out that the son old a gentleman that had passed away 12 years prior was selling his fathers estate and his friend in the construction business was helping him sort it all out and put it up for sale in his warehouse. I wish I had gotten there sooner...I found it after all the tool dealers had come through, so I could have only imagined what it was like before them, because when I found it it, it was a gold mine. This guy's father did everything - served in WWII, did construction, woodworking, welding, auto mechanics, you name it, he did it...and he had the tools to back it up. That is where I found the Craftsman radial saw I have now as well as countless other jewels including a Craftsman table saw, my Atlas drill press, the tool boxes posted not too long ago, many small hand tools, metal organizer bins, my Wards motor/grinder, and a bunch of other stuff. They were pretty sentimental about it. They wanted the stuff to go to a good home.

I feel like the best way for me to honor that request is to use the stuff I got there to help raise my son and teach him what a guy should know, with the help of these old tools.

 

[machine_punk]

WE HAVE A CONTEST WINNER(S)!!!

However, Machine_Punk got me in a soft spot as well...I LOVE garages with really unique, creative, or outstanding themes. I think he has a winner on his hands with the Aerodrome Studio. So, his entry gets honorable mention!

Thanks for the kind words! Anyone who wants to see what I am currently up to in my garage just needs to follow the link in my signature...

M_P

 

[tomstin]

Okay guys, here is a sneak peak of some of the upcoming contest items. I need some help identifying some of them!

I think this is a saw blade filing jig?

Chain saw chain sharpening jig. You mount a round file in that long section and set the angles for the particular chain. The yellow section clamps to the bar with that black tang holds the tooth of the chain in the right place. Not really that old.

 

[Red Leader]

Welp, ran into some interesting news today. Apparently imageshack is giving me until March before they delete anything over 500 pictures on my account. I have a little over 1700 currently.

Do I bit the bullet and upgrade to the premium account for $2/month indefinitely, or try to find somewhere else to host them?

I'll mull it over on my way over to ScoutKid's place tomorrow to pick up the Craftsman radial arm saw AND BASE that he is ever so generously donating to the 1950s Craftsman Garage shop/project

 

[M. Blue 240]

I'd switch to Picasa(google). I use google for everything; blog, pic hosting, g+, chrome browser, phone. Picasa is fairly straight forward and easy to use. plus its easy to upload from your android phone or attach to a gmail.

 

[Wingnut65]

I bit the bullet with Photobucket for the $2/month when I was working hard and updating and I exceeded band width. I was going so fast, I dreaded the thought of updating all the links for all the images.

I'm interested in other options as well. I'll have to check out Picasa. I guess updating 400+ links isn't all that bad to make sure they will remain visible if I the hosting funds stop.

 

[98TJ]

I just upload my images to my facebook account and pull the url from there.

That allows me to share what's going on with distant friends and family and I can pull images for use on the forums.

For free.

 

[GirlnAgarage]

Welp, ran into some interesting news today. Apparently imageshack is giving me until March before they delete anything over 500 pictures on my account. I have a little over 1700 currently.

Do I bit the bullet and upgrade to the premium account for $2/month indefinitely, or try to find somewhere else to host them?

I'll mull it over on my way over to ScoutKid's place tomorrow to pick up the Craftsman radial arm saw AND BASE that he is ever so generously donating to the 1950s Craftsman Garage shop/project

Geez, and I left photobucket for the bandwidth problem and went to imageshack thinking it'd be better.

I just upload my images to my facebook account and pull the url from there.

That allows me to share what's going on with distant friends and family and I can pull images for use on the forums.

For free.

This might be a pretty good, and free, solution right here.

 

[machine_punk]

You can keep 1,000 images here on GJ (up to 5,000, if you are an alliance member). Although, I'm running out of space quickly here (about 700 of my 1000 used so far. I'm getting ready to set up my TheAerodromeStudio.com site, where I will be able to keep my pictures myself (for the price of a domain name and hosting account each year). I know that sounds like a lot, but for less than $100 every two years, you have a lot of online storage. For those of us who have a serious garage story to tell, that's not much for the exposure you could get.

1950sRetroGarage.com -- how does that sound!

I went with GoDaddy for my domain name and hosting account. (If you decide to, please PM me, so I can give you my name to use as a referral).

M_P

 

[Wingnut65]

Dave, Regarding your 12 Gauge comment...

... I hear you on the angle grinder...my goodness, it would mean that I wouldn't have to hold up my 40lb table saw table under the wheel to polish the sides of it

Wouldn't it just be easier to hold up the 20 lb grinder to polish the heavy things??

 

[Red Leader]

Dave, Regarding your 12 Gauge comment...

Wouldn't it just be easier to hold up the 20 lb grinder to polish the heavy things??

Haha you know what was my first thought after reading that? If I were a caveman, I'd be the guy driving around with square wheels

 

[GirlnAgarage]

Haha you know what was my first thought after reading that? If I were a caveman, I'd be the guy driving around with square wheels

 

[Red Leader]

Guys (and gal!),

Thanks for the thoughts on the the photo solution. Until I figure it out I don't want to needlessly add more pictures (SORRY!)

In other (better) news, I stopped by scoutkid's place and picked up the radial saw. He is a true gentleman and was just a great guy. We talked and laughed about how we don't have enough shop space and I got to see some of the awesome remodeling work is is doing on his house. I warned him that I'd drag his garage thread up from the annals of time and bug him to start working on it again

Miraculously, we somehow got the cabinet base of the saw to fit in the car. Everything came home in 1 piece (technically 2 pieces)

The radial saw is interesting! It has what looks like a replacement motor, as the actual motor has a gray plastic housing that definitely looks of a different vintage than the rest of the 'power bronze' saw.

Also, I took the side covers off the motor hangar to inspect the bearings as the whole thing had quite a bit of play. At first, I thought the worst since I've heard that on these saws that they are not adjustable and once they loosen up they are no good anymore.

NOPE! NADA! WRONG!

This saw has 4 rounded bearings, 2 on a side (a more modern design from the very first Accra Arm?) and I was thinking to myself when I first saw them "Hmmm...if I wanted to make them adjustable to take up the slack, how would I do it?" My first thought was adding an adjustable plate that one side of bearings would mount to and have it slotted so you could adjust them in or out. Then later, my brain thought "No no no that's silly" and all of the sudden I remembered how the Parks/Craftsman saw's bearings are adjustable thorugh non-concentric bolts. That's it! That would have been my solution.

Except they were already ahead of my 50 years ago.

One side already has non-concentric bolts!!! Yay!

Now I just need to figure out if I can order these bearings still.

Its a good, albeit somewhat non-productive day in the 1950's Craftsman Garage

And a huge thanks goes out to scoutkid for his generosity. I'm glad I could help him reclaim some shop space back

 

[smschriefer]

Dave, what bearings are you describing? On mine, there are 1/4" ball bearings on each side for the main arm and then a grouping of 20 or so 1/4" ball bearings for the swivel adjustment to turn the blade perpendicular to the table for ripping lumber.

 

[chevtrux53]

sweet beamer!

 

[SpeedinLemon]

Hey RL -- Sorry to hear about the picto problemo....I'm using the free GJ storage as was mentioned above...works well for me, but I believe you've said before you often post pics elsewhere as well and that might not be the best solution especially with your picture posting proclivity. AND given your propensity to post a plethera of phine photographs I would second the previous motion for Picasa. What's with all the "P" words?? Anyway...Picasa is free and a ton of storage space and easy to use at multiple sites. I wouldn't envy the task of updating your previously posted links though!

On a more serious note....When's the next contest??

 

[Red Leader]

Okay guys!

I have been slammed at work but I have good news!

Machine_Punk - chalk line sent!

smschriefer - Unisaw throat plate sent!

Titaniumboy - EXL wheel spacer sent!

Novaboy - speed ratchet sent!

 

[Jack Olsen]

The workaround for the Imageshack problem is to open a new Gmail (or other) email account and then use that address to sign up for an additional account for your next 500 pictures. I have 900 in my current account, and I'm going to try and delete 400 (which I'll hope aren't linked to threads). I've already started a second free account, and will keep doing that every 500 pictures.

I'm a little irritated that they presented themselves as unlimited and then changed the rules. The good news is they're still better than the alternative, since Photobucket limits bandwidth.

 

[Red Leader]

The workaround for the Imageshack problem is to open a new Gmail (or other) email account and then use that address to sign up for an additional account for your next 500 pictures. I have 900 in my current account, and I'm going to try and delete 400 (which I'll hope aren't linked to threads). I've already started a second free account, and will keep doing that every 500 pictures.

I'm a little irritated that they presented themselves as unlimited and then changed the rules. The good news is they're still better than the alternative, since Photobucket limits bandwidth.

Jack,

I totally thought they were unlimited too! Sounds like they did change the rules somewhere.

My goal is to really pare down what I have in there so that all the 500 images I can have in there are ones in this thread, then move on to a different source. I'll pay the $2 a month until I get all the pictures changes and/or moved over.

Something I've needed to do for a while was to print out this entire thread so that I have a reference just in case anything (like the photos) get deleted. I'd do it at work but I'm a little scared that they might make me buy the next toner cartridge for the printer!

 

[Red Leader]

Nice build man. I'm diggin the vintage machinery...I plan collecting vintage woodworking equipment since buyin a 1950s Dewalt RAS got me kinda hooked on older stuff. Just signed up on OWWM yesterday!

Thanks Elena I'm glad you are enjoying it! Getting into vintage tools, heck, vintage anything is a fun and educational way to learn about our history. Right now I am also on a vintage clothing kick since I've needed to upscale my wardrobe for work and I've been finding some pretty amazing things, mostly from the 1950s-1960s (I try to stay FAR away from the 1970s) but have also found a couple of things from the 1930s-1940s. I've found the same rule that applies to the tools also applies here: older is better

 

[Red Leader]

Hey RL -- Sorry to hear about the picto problemo....I'm using the free GJ storage as was mentioned above...works well for me, but I believe you've said before you often post pics elsewhere as well and that might not be the best solution especially with your picture posting proclivity. AND given your propensity to post a plethera of phine photographs I would second the previous motion for Picasa. What's with all the "P" words?? Anyway...Picasa is free and a ton of storage space and easy to use at multiple sites. I wouldn't envy the task of updating your previously posted links though!

On a more serious note....When's the next contest??

Thanks for your thoughts on the photo sharing. I'm getting it worked out but it will take quite a bit of time to migrate away from Imageshack.

Well, since I just got out the contest prizes from the first round, the answer is soon! Although first I'll need to take a look at the Homecraft saw/jointer that was also a contest item and get that thing up to speed

 

[Red Leader]

Dave, what bearings are you describing? On mine, there are 1/4" ball bearings on each side for the main arm and then a grouping of 20 or so 1/4" ball bearings for the swivel adjustment to turn the blade perpendicular to the table for ripping lumber.

You know what, you're description and picture was throwing me off because from the photo you shared and the original cutaway illustrations of the 1959 Craftsman catalog, it appears as you say. However, it looks like in 1960 they changed the design to the DeWalt style, which is 4 bearings, 2 on a side, that ride in the groove and are adjustable for wear. Totally different style. The saw I have is dated 1960.

I didn't know they switched it out and I'm not sure why. Why was that first design so short lived? Did they have problems with it? From the literature, it appears as though they significantly tested it, so it seems odd to me that they would just all of the sudden change designs completely a year later.

I'll try and get a picture of it up soon. The sucky part is that those bearings are near $30 a piece from Sears!!! I'd rather take that $120 and invest it towards a Red Star Multiplex or a Delta 30/40C:

 

[smschriefer]

I have never seen a Craftsman saw like those pictured and then I realized, you were using those as illustration. My saw was in production all through the 60's, but there were cosmetic changes as the years progressed. Mine is a 10" and I think you must have the 9" saw. Here is a link to the 60-61 catalog and I think yours is on the cover and page 2 while mine follows yours on pages 3 and 4.

http://www.roseantiquetools.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/196061craftsman10.0mb.pdf

 

[smschriefer]

Oh! Another GJ member that I sadly can't recall their screen name has an old BWM Isetta that he is restoring and an awesome blog devoted to it. Great read, but not why I am telling you this. I am telling you (and all the other followers of your page) because he does Electroless Nickel Plating to many of his parts. I think you might like it for nuts and bolts and other sundries. Here is a link, check it out! http://bzisettas.blogspot.com/2009/09/electroless-nickel-plating.html

And the company he uses for supplies... http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/electroless.htm

WARNING: Once viewed, you will want to purchase and nickel plate everything around you!

The fellow GJ'er is kyrbz. He has an item under fabrication on turning Corian knobs for the Isetta and that is where I stumbled upon his blog. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2104620#post2104620

 

[flybefree]

SMSchriefer. Darn you and your link. Just saw a glimpse of the world of nickel plating...now I need to learn how to do that too!

Shaun

 

[smschriefer]

Shaun, it looks deceptively simple. I haven't tried it, but I know I will. As we discussed before, I am an enabler. Remember, vintage tools are only a gateway drug. lol

 

[Red Leader]

I have never seen a Craftsman saw like those pictured and then I realized, you were using those as illustration. My saw was in production all through the 60's, but there were cosmetic changes as the years progressed. Mine is a 10" and I think you must have the 9" saw. Here is a link to the 60-61 catalog and I think yours is on the cover and page 2 while mine follows yours on pages 3 and 4.

http://www.roseantiquetools.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/196061craftsman10.0mb.pdf

I know which saw you are talking about, but this one is definitely a 10"er.

Costmetically, it looks exactly like yours and every other power bronze 10" Craftsman RAS, but the bearing setup is very different as it looks like it doesn't use that molded housing and individual bearings. A picture will clear a lot of things up - I'll try and get one up soon.

If worse comes to worse and I'm not able to do anything to get the saw back in running shape...I can use the bottom Craftsman cabinet as a nice 'vintage Craftsman' base for a different tool.

 

[Red Leader]

Contest Time!


Okay, I'll make this an easy one -

How many power tools (including plug-in hand tools) reside in the 1950's Craftsman Garage currently?

Only 1 guess per person and the first one to get it right wins!

Note: Even I don't know haha ...I'll have to count up when I get home.









Let's hear those guesses!

(but watch out for GirlInaGarage...she's good at guessing!)

 

[gts340]

27. I really have no idea. 27 is a warm number.

 

[Toolfool]

21......