The Good Intentions Paving Co.

[Mavawreck]

Just sharing some pictures of my work area, a roughly 16 x 20 basement shop in a townhouse. Moved up to Delaware about 2 months ago, hoping to only be in this house for about 2 years or so before moving into a house with designated shop. This is my first time having my own space, previous areas have all been shared rental spaces or loaned corners of garages. Primary focus will be getting everything cleaned, organized, fixed, sharpened, in some cases sold, etc so that when that the next shop will be focused on non-tool projects. Unfortunately not really wired or ventilated for much more (and shares space with a B vent furnace and the laundry room.

As for the name....I have always have thought it was just a particularly clever play on words so I decided awhile ago it would be the fitting name for my shop.

Yes, the floor has a pretty significant dip....



My 1950's Snap On top cab I purchased from a member here, thanks Rich!
Slated to get some body work and loving, but for the time being its been put into service. It is slightly wider than the Craftsman bottom - one project I'd like to complete is making an oak top for the bottom cabinet that makes the two boxes fit better together both physically and visually.











My $20.00 flea market Snap On tool cart. Has a snap on serial number, but blue paint underneath the red? Using it to store all my corded power tools.



Still cleaning and organizing...





Woodworking tools are really my passion;





Walker-Turner waiting for restoration



1930s Hobart Coffee Grinder someone turned into a grinder, I'm going to try to modify it into a bit more refined buffing setup for my vintage tool habit.



Keeping as much gennie steel away from the rat rod pack that I can.



The head!



Vice grips came with this man sink.

 

[dlenkewich]

That's a nice sink ya got yourself there.

 

[Mavawreck]

That's a nice sink ya got yourself there.

Thanks!

No injection pump to be seen so the plumbing down there backs up from time to time. It is a real sweet place!

 

[Ray Kelly]

Looks good!! I wouldn't worry about the floor. it looks great!!

 

[1/2 Cup]

mmmm Model A radiator shells, do you have a safe to store them in.
Keep up the good work!

 

[Mavawreck]

mmmm Model A radiator shells, do you have a safe to store them in.
Keep up the good work!

No, but they are all hanging up now. I 'accidentally' another one. My ebay strategy is to drop dumb numbers on things and forget about it. I won another one at a price I never thought would win it. Really clean original early '28 with nice original plating.

The main focus lately has been getting my Grand Wagoneer up to Delaware and finding storage for it. I have been casually searching for a few things, a vice and a miter box being one of them.


Picked up this beauty on craigslist last week. $35.00 with the original saw. Nice to buy something that isn't a ******** project. Its clean, its sharp, I can use it tomorrow.

 

[Bib Overalls]

That sink and the absence of a proper toilet paper holder scream "man land."

 

[Mavawreck]

That sink and the absence of a proper toilet paper holder scream "man land."

Thanks! What you can't really see is that someone framed the walls out of 2x4s and that textured plastic they put over commercial fluorescent lights. Additionally, it has a shower curtain for a door. Really a magical place.

 

[spotco2]

Just be glad you have a door, all I have is a tree...

 

[Mavawreck]

I've been looking and looking for a vintage vise and haven't come up with one at a price I'm comfortable with. Worth mentioning is my workbench came with the rental house and is not quite up to par either. So in a moment of despair, I bought the $20.00 Bessey from Lowes today and made some quick jaws for it. It'll be fine for now, already gave it a work out this afternoon.

 

[Bricen18]

looks good keep the pics coming

 

[Mavawreck]

Working on some candy machines that I'm turning into terrariums. One down, three to go.



Legs for the stand



And an old Coca Cola cooler that will be turned into a planter. Put a new bottom in it, primed it, spot puttied some of the worse areas. It ain't fine craftsmanship.



Got some more junk hung on the wall.

 

[Mavawreck]

Finally finished up my second to last semester of graduate school the other week and rewarded myself with some time in the shop. I haven't been down there other than to wash clothes and fix a christmas present in over a month and it has become quite a mess. Next semester will be worse, so I'm trying to focus on cleaning up and getting rid of extra tools.

These were my grandfather's sawhorses that I inherited. They were actually built at the Maritime Museum boat shop in Beaufort, NC. They'd gotten a little worse for wear and one had a broken stringer going down the bottom. They had previously been braced with a spindly 1x2 screwed to the leg braces. I found a relatively clean piece of pine leftover from the last tenants and remade the bracing with a tenon at each end. I started to get out my wood putty and sander to clean them up further, but then realized they were just saw horses - so clean, repair, maintain, and use. I knocked off the saw dust and rough spots on them and the first coat of milk paint is drying now.









The Coke cooler project has snowballed. I originally intended to knock off the loose paint, shoot it with some rustoleum and roll. However, somehow I find myself block sanding and contemplating buying vintage graphics for it off ebay. We'd bought this thing from a thrift store for our wedding to hold drinks. It was in rough shape but cheaper and more interesting looking than a new plastic box. I said if the bottom stayed in it through out the ceremony, I'd fix it and make a plant stand out of it. Well the bottom stayed in it and here we are.






This is a terrarium project I started an embarrassingly long time ago. The legs and walnut tops are finally done. Now just cleaning,painting, and reassembling the candy machines. Which is not as much fun to me as I thought it would be. Three more machines and countless parts to clean, paint, and buff to go. They wont be functioning, we're going to put plants and maybe a goldfish or two in them.







This is what we started with....





I fund my hobby by selling tools. Otherwise, it really wouldn't happen. So a few months ago I bought another collection of craigslist and started running them through the baths this weekend.

Everything will be cleaned, tuned, and sold.



Yankee 2100 brace that I'm having feelings for. It's too banged up to be a collector piece but they are really made impressively well. I'm having second thoughts about parting with it now that I've cleaned it up. It had a lot of surface rust on it, so I didn't go overboard. 800/1500/2000 on the metal, then polishing compound and a few coats of wax. Took the chuck apart, soaked and greased it.





Freshening the handles on two yankee screw drivers with boiled linseed oil.



Lousy cell phone picture of when I picked it all up. It was a load of sweaty carp.

 

[jeffmoss26]

Very cool!!!

 

[Mavawreck]

Very cool!!!

Thanks!

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

Those are not just saw horses - they border on folk art - with the human looking legs and all. I didn't notice that detail till you painted them.

Someone had a sense of humor at that boat yard . . .

I also approve of your shop name - one of my favorite sayings

Cheers

Jim

 

[Bib Overalls]

Hound Dog you got neat stuff.

 

[Red Leader]

Looks like a shop where things get done!


Nice Craftsman bottom roller you have there

 

[Mavawreck]

Thanks for all the compliments guys, I really appreciate it. Funny thing, this is the first time I've actually had a space that was all mine. I'm looking at these pictures and thinking how I need to keep it cleaner and more organized. Keep fixing the broken and cleaning the tarnished.

 

[Mavawreck]

It finally happened.....



Dream came true here. All there with the exception of the slow speed pulley. Minimal arc of shame. Met an awesome local member of OWWM in the process.













Sitting besides its cousin....

 

[HSpencer]

Outstanding restoration shop!! You are very fortunate to find those items. Thanks so much for caring about when America was a real manufacturing nation!!! I would love to have as many items as you have to begin restoring. Problem around here is that people are beginning to wake up to the actual value of this type of material, like your recently scored drill press. THEY know WE want this stuff now, and bargains are "no more" on most of it. I hope you did well price wise on yours.
You have a good place to work, and it seems you will be getting a larger shop later on from your comments.
Thanks for sharing!!!

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

 

[ihrescue]

Its deceiving but you really have a lot of stuff and some great projects for restoration. I have a gum ball machine waiting paint. Trying to decide standard red or get creative. Good luck on your two year digs.

 

[Mavawreck]

Thanks for all the compliments!

I'm 3 months from finishing graduate school and it has been too cold to paint, so not a lot has been accomplished on my long term projects. Slowly squirreling things away as I come across them. Have been working on some tools, 50% of them have already or will soon be resold.

Stanley No 5 that started as an incomplete parts plane found in that green box above. It has a new home in Texas.



Old Starrett hacksaw that was a rusty mess, can't remember where that one shipped to.



Stanley No 4 that is almost finished from the same green box collection





Disston backsaw that had a rotten handle, I cut out a section and pieced in some walnut scrap.





1940's Atkins that really isn't worth the time but I hate to see good tools wasting away. Plus I need the practice polishing metal and tuning saws.

Bottom saw in the picture;



Currently;





Stack of spokeshaves awaiting a tune.



A few more Disstons in que.

 

[Mavawreck]

Outstanding restoration shop!! You are very fortunate to find those items. Thanks so much for caring about when America was a real manufacturing nation!!! I would love to have as many items as you have to begin restoring. Problem around here is that people are beginning to wake up to the actual value of this type of material, like your recently scored drill press. THEY know WE want this stuff now, and bargains are "no more" on most of it. I hope you did well price wise on yours.
You have a good place to work, and it seems you will be getting a larger shop later on from your comments.
Thanks for sharing!!!

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

Thanks! Paid $100.00 for the press, which was a fair deal I think. I would have gone higher if it had a low speed kit on it. It'll be something to keep an eye out for.

Hoping we will be getting out of here in sometime 2015, but we'll see I suppose. Trying to make the most of the space I've got.

 

[captain14]

You have done a good job on the tool restorations. Can you provide an overview on what you did with some of the tools. Soaking or hand polishing to remove the rust and years of grime?

 

[Mavawreck]

You have done a good job on the tool restorations. Can you provide an overview on what you did with some of the tools. Soaking or hand polishing to remove the rust and years of grime?

Thanks! I've been playing with a few different methods. Trying to get results without over restoring.

I've used electrolysis in the past, for most of this small stuff it takes too long to set up and requires too much supervision in my current digs. So I have a rubbermaid tub that I keep evaporust in. Most everything with rust starts in that if it will fit. I made a shallow frame that I lay a trash bag over to soak longer items in. When I'm done, slit the back and let it empty into my rubbermaid tub for reuse.

For metal polishing, I'm still working on my procedure. Sandpaper is expensive and time precious. Currently I work through the grits up to 1500 and coat with Johnson paste wax. I spend more time on cutting surfaces than I do anywhere else. On the saws, I haven't had one valuable or nice enough to worry about raising or preserving blade etches. I'm sure I'll deal with that one of these days.

Wood items - depending on how bad they are I chemical strip and completely refinish, sand, or hit with steel wool and freshen with a few coats of linseed oil. The planes I've been working on are not particularly valuable from the collector sense, so massaging them back into respectable user tools has been my main focus. Spending hours putting a furniture finish on the totes just isn't in the cards, specially to get them out of my shop ASAP.

I do need to get my grinders set up for sharpening and buffing. That would help a lot to increase my quality and reduce my consumable expenses.

Since the wrenches below were mostly just greasy rather than rusty, I started with denatured alcohol on a cloth. Then used a soft brass bristle wire brush. Finished with liquid metal polish that is a little more aggressive than brasso and a few coats of Johnson paste wax to seal them.

Before;



After;



Before;



After;

 

[captain14]

Thanks for the update. I will read through this later today.

 

[Mavawreck]

Still banging along. Approx 4 weeks left of grad school between myself and my degree.

I've picked up a few new additions (some more vintage tool boxes, hand tools, and a buffer)

Making arrangements to have my bandsaw shipped up.

Making a large pile of things to sell/give away to get this into a working shop. More progress, more organization, less sentimental junk.

 

[Bricen18]

Good work on all the projects. I enjoy looking at the before and after pics.

Good luck in the last stretch of school.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mavawreck]

I've been doing some re-arranging and making some headway.



Picked up a NOS Disston miter saw at the flea market with a much more comfy handle.



Really starting to get into working with hand tools



I've bought every handsaw I came across, a few are keepers. The rest are for sharpening practice and resale.





Getting better at raising etches





Started to get some color on the coke cooler resto. My inlaws are in town for the next few days, otherwise I'd be finishing it up.

 

[HSpencer]

Whatever you do, don't let those Henry Disston hand saws get away from you. They are real treasures. I have a couple of those which were my grandfather's. One is a rip and the other crosscut. Hang on to them!!!

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

 

[Mavawreck]

Yup! I'm keeping the thumbhole disston and the back saws. I've actually got a few more than I could ever need at the moment, so the extras will be sold to fund other endeavors.

 

[Mavawreck]

Got some color on the coke cooler. Giving it a few days to harden and then I'll start wetsanding out some of the imperfections. I think it looks pretty good for a bondo and spray can in the back yard job.



Of course at this point, we begin to suffer from scope creep. My wife wanted to be able to roll it around and I'd like to avoid wrecking the hardwood anymore than it already is. So some sort of dolly will be necessary. I picked up a douglas fir 4x4 and some poplar dowels to make an appropriate dolly for it.



I was afraid that I wouldn't be happy with a repro vinyl decal, so I decided to take a little artistic freedom here. Not to mention I'd been itching to try hand lettering. So I picked up a one-shot paint kit and a few Mack lettering brushes.

I will be attempting to recreate this sign on one side

 

[Mavawreck]

And I picked up a few more saws this morning at the Flea.



And I thought this Plvmb deserved an over restoration. Currently wet sanding with 600, going to 2000 then hitting it with green rouge.

 

[Bib Overalls]

Amazing work. If you don't mind, what is your grad school major? I've always believed what you do for fun should be 180 degrees from what you do for a living.

 

[Mavawreck]

Amazing work. If you don't mind, what is your grad school major? I've always believed what you do for fun should be 180 degrees from what you do for a living.

Thanks!

MS in construction management, which is technically my field but the focus was on the conceptual aspects of long term projects and I deal with the real aspects of short term projects. So I can now say that I now do not know what the hell I am doing in two spheres instead of just one. But it was worth it.

 

[HSpencer]

That PLVMB is nice. Not sure I have ever seen one before. Very interesting!


Best Regards
Herb Spencer

 

[Mavawreck]

Thanks! I figured you'd like this one...

 

[Mavawreck]

Moving forward with the cooler project. This is going to be a challenge.







Restoring a big old pile of chisels. Not worth the effort, I just think they should be saved.



And I've ended up with a big old pile of impact sockets over the past few years. Most of the time they are in good shape, but the finish is worn/ugly. I don't really need them so I figured I'd try cleaning them up and selling them. Soaked them in mineral spirits and wire brushed them, wiped them with a few coats of gun blue, then buffed the gun blue with fine steel wool and machine oil. They don't look perfect and new but they are much improved. Didn't take hardly any time at all.

Here is about 1/3 of what I went through today.

 

[Sunbimmer]

Great stuff you're doing there, thanks for sharing this I'm very interested in your stories, keep them coming please.