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I was dropping off a load of scrap at a local yard when I saw this welder in a pile of motors, The fellow at the counter said he'd sell it at .50 a pound ( my guess is that it weighs nearly 200lbs). This thing is nearly the size of an apartment stove and has two cast iron wheels on the back...

Drives, that's a good cross-section of some of the better manufacturers of the time. My vote is for the Malls, but I wouldn't mind seeing the Stanley, either. -James Huston

Drives, the A-2 may be small, but it was an incredibly popular sander in its day (1936-1958), and was made in gigantic quantities. Check your oil and try it out, I think you'll like it. A few words on the subject from an owwm thread I did recently- This little fellow ( 2"x21" belt) is chiefly...

Drives, K.C. made grinders for everyone: Walker-Turner, Stanley, Skil, Atlas,Snap-On,Millers Falls,Cincinnati Electric,Thor... Everyone and their brother that wanted to add a bench grinder to their line went to them, Wissota, or Brown-Brockmeyer in those days. -James Huston

Drives, ask away! The flat belt on the engine lathe is a rubber belt harvested from a rip saw for milling lumber; I would like to use a leather one, but the countershaft pulley doesn't quite match up diameter-wise to the headstock pulley ( some clever fellow in the last eighty years married a...

I bet quite a few people here can lay claim to a workshop full of old machinery; here's a few shots of my shop, -James Huston

Drives, the paint remover does a nice job of stripping paint off of wood; the carbide discs aren't really harmed by nails, but the discs will get paint buildup ( a wire brush works wonders for cleaning them up). I think it handles oil-based paints a bit better than latex, but I was grateful to...

Sioux started out life as Albertson & Co.. They made automotive parts, then valve tools, and a number of drills. In fact, if you've ever seen a Milwaukee close quarters drill, it's based on a Sioux design. They had a line of valve grinders, a number of bench grinders, and, of course, buffers...

Drives, I don't own any Mall stuff ( my shop is literally only Porter-Cable related tools), but I've worked on several of them, especially the sanders and saws. Mall was bought out by Remington's chainsaw division in the early-ish '50s.Remington took the patents they wanted and pitched the whole...

The sander you have is a 503; the 504 had no provision for dust collection. On the subject of Porter-Cable sanders, meet the family. This is one of every worm drive belt sanders Porter-Cable made. Left to right: 500,503,T-4,T-33,T-3,BB-10,B-10,B-4,B-5,A-3,A-2. The A-3 became the 504, and it...

B&D went through a period of cat-themed names; the Sandcat of course, the Wildcat 9" angle grinder, and the highly successful line of Sawcat circular saws. I haven't worked on a Sandcat in ages, but they were the best conceived and best built of all the belt sander designs Black and Decker...

Roberts, that's some pretty impressive handy work ( especially the splitter!). The kitchen island puts me in mind of a shaker pantry box. The 503 is a great sander, and one of the longest produced power tools of all time ( 1950-2009). The Sandcat was the only truly successful Black and Decker...

Oh, the T-4 is cheap to feed, but all the extension cord is where they get you... I needed to flatten/clean up a board to make a filler panel for behind the lathe. Normally, I'd just feed it through the planer, but the board in question, a 14"x6' piece of oak, has been riddled with nails in its...

It's a matter of a few seconds to change belts, Drives. You just twist a lever to lock the idler pulley back, swap belts, release the lever and turn the tracking knob to get the belt running true. The biggest downside to the T-4 is that you can't just pop into a hardware store for belts, as...

I'll have to take some photos of the cabinets, but in the meantime, here's a picture of a sander that must have got sand kicked in its face one too many times because it's firmly in Charles Atlas territory, It's a Porter-Cable T-4 from around 1938. 1-1/4 hp General Electric motor, 4"x27"...

The earlier Porta-Bands were prone to stress fracturing where the guide stop mounts; these were often welded back together. I wouldn't lose sleep over it, it looks like a solid repair. My 524 has several welds from being dropped- not the prettiest but it works just fine. -James Huston

The wear and tear parts, like tires, brushes, switch and cord are all readily available, and Skil worm drive oil will fit the bill. The only thing to watch out for is a failing worm gear ( the bronze one), but barring that, you'd be hard-pressed to destroy a Porta-Band. -James Huston

The 55 Porta-band came out in July of 1962 and was made until April of 1964, when it became the 555a. The biggest difference was in the blade guides, which were made taller to offer better support. Porter-Cable introduced the idea of a portable band saw for cutting metal with the 524 in 1955. I...

Drives, you're right on the money about moving the lathe- I'm forty now, and if my bride and I don't move in the next ten years that lathe will likely keep me company down here until my beneficiaries come up with something. They may decide to bury me with all this stuff, like some kind of...

The shop is only accessible through a narrow door that doesn't quite line up with the back door of the house and down a set of steps, so getting tools and materials in and out is sometimes tricky. I actually took the metal lathe bed through a basement window by taking it off the truck with an...