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Joe, who made that pliers set? It looks quite useful & handy for small jobs as you say.

Go here https://www.habitat.org/restores and (scroll) put in your ZIP code to see if there are any local to you.

When I wrote the above, I didn't have time to search for Scott Wadsworth's great idea for loosening pliers. This morning I found it — see his 2 minute youtube:

I have bought a good number of old pliers (lineman's and those with a box joint) from places like Restore. That is, they usually have a lot of rust and gunk in the joint to the point where they don't easily open. Various penetrating oils work, but what I've found most useful as a first...

The drawknife (#3) needs two new handles; one's missing entirely and the remaining one probably isn't in good shape. Then clean off the spoodge and rust, and sharpen and hone the blade. Do these and you have a great hand tool for rough shaping planks & debarking wood billets and small logs. Fun...

I have two old Stanley chisels (1-1/4") that are sharpish but not enough to cut wood cleanly. I call these " the bench chisels" and use them whenever a job needs a thin edge that won't cut anything if used sensibly. Reminds me that I need to get (or ruin) another couple of chisels about 1/2"...

That should clean up nicely. (I always think of these as a kind of early Vise-Grip.)

I'll let others more knowledgable debate the physics of vise design, but this DIYer prefers the shrouded or shielded design precisely because it keeps the oily or greasy screw threads from collecting debris.

I have a question that I have never seen an answer to. Why do some vises have a lead screw that's fully exposed to sawdust, metal bits, and other debris? Is it just a matter of economy, that it's cheaper to build a vise without a covering over the screw?

Here's the 2x4 foot plywood work surface on the WM. Color's a bit strong, to say the least. I intended a warm color, but 8 square feet of this particular stain got a bit overwhelming, so I toned it down a little with dark walnut stain. Does bring out the wood grain! Anyway, it'll get beaten...

Made a plywood 2x4 foot work surface this afternoon with a full length 2x4 (inch) spine, glued and screwed in place. I notice that the wood jaws — doubled at the closure edge — are just a weee bit thinner than a 2x4 (inch) board is thick. So given that tiny bit of clearance, I'll be easy to...

Fishwatcher — I can see adaping your idea: getting a sheet of 3/4" plywood, cutting a 2 x 3 (or 4) foot section of it, screwing a 3 foot length of 2x4 down the plywood's long dimension, and clamping that in the WM's jaws. With smoothing and chamfering of the plywood sheet, and maybe a coat or...

Thanks for the ideas. Mounting plates with 2x4 cleats are clearly one way to go. I started in on this thread, got to about page 7 or 8, then hopped to the end and worked back. Crazy, but with 2,500+ posts and only 24 hours in the day...

That's good to know about the top-release levers. I'll be careful with them. Luckily I have enough room in the shop — at least for now — that I can leave it set up at full height off to one side, with no need to stow and unstow frequently. I noted the early (all aluminum) models had metal...

Yep. Mine is coded as 977063 also. Unfortunately, mine has a couple of torn out areas (about 1/2 in across) that go through all the pages because the damage happened when the paper was folded small. My plan is to print the complete PDF manual from your site and keep that as the working copy...

And to judge by the knurled adjustment ring it's likely a WW2-made wrench. Cleaning the adjustable jaw may reveal a date...

Very pleased to discover this thread. A couple days ago I bought a 79-004 type 1 at the local Restore for all of $16. It's in essentially unused condition; it has the manual, all the rubber feet (adjustable and non), the four bench dogs, and the power strip, but no extension cord. It's perfect...

As a matter of interest, the variety of theater-made or -modified knives is quite wide. (Although postwar or recent fakes are doubtless among them, given the market value.) See: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=theater+knives+wwii&t=ffsb&iax=images&ia=images

I would expect personalizing to be done by individuals to get a better & more comfortable grip if their hands were smaller than average (say). If a knife got even average field use, it would be hard to prove who-dun-it without assembling a largeish collection of obviously lightly used 225Qs...

My hunch, based on the varying shape of the roughening on less-worn examples, is that the gouges were put in by freehand. After the overall shaping of the leather disks was done, somebody on the line held the handle up to a spinning abrasive disk and rotated the knife freehand (perhaps while...