×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

I'm starting my next, albeit much smaller, project: Restoring a 67 year old Stanley 'Miter-Box'...

I'm starting my next, albeit much smaller, project: Restoring a 67 year old Stanley 'Miter-Box'...

I'm starting my next, albeit much smaller, project: Restoring a 67 year old Stanley 'Miter-Box'...

(OP)
My next 'restoration' project is a Stanley No. 150 'Miter-Box' manufactured in 1949 (at least that's the date on the owners manual). Now this is obviously a much smaller project but I think it will be as gratifying as the first since this was my father's miter-box. Now I don't know whether he acquired it new or not, but he had been using it as long as I can remember.

Here's a few 'before' shots:







Currently I'm using one of those newer plastic Miter-Boxes with the fixed 90º and 45º saw guide-slots.

I've got it all apart, including the parts held together with drive-pins. Only needed to use a bit of WD-40 Rust Release Penetrant to free-up the threaded parts. I've still got to de-grease and clean all the parts before I start to strip the paint. Not sure if it's worth going back to the sandblasting shop or not as there's are only three larger painted parts and three smaller ones. The plated ones (for the saw guide) just need some cleaning and polishing with a Scotch-Bright pad. I'll decide after they've soaked in the de-greaser for a couple of hours. Perhaps I'll use paint stripper and wire-brushes like I did with the head of the sewing machine. That turned out OK, so that's what I might do.

Anyway, I'll keep you all updated. BTW, if you go out on the web, a fair number of people have worked on restoring this particular Miter-Box as it has all the trappings of a classic tool from another era in America. And when this is done, I've a got a couple of old 'Rabbit Planes' from about that same era that I might clean-up and restore back to original condition.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: I'm starting my next, albeit much smaller, project: Restoring a 67 year old Stanley 'Miter-Box'...

I have a newer manual miter box that I use for all kinds of things. Must-have tool.

RE: I'm starting my next, albeit much smaller, project: Restoring a 67 year old Stanley 'Miter-Box'...

So much nicer looking than my plastic Stanley PoS. It claims it's 45 & 90 but I'm, not convinced - or at least the process capability on the related tolerance is pretty crummy.

Posting guidelines FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?

RE: I'm starting my next, albeit much smaller, project: Restoring a 67 year old Stanley 'Miter-Box'...

Do you have a "Back Saw" to go with the miter box John?

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

RE: I'm starting my next, albeit much smaller, project: Restoring a 67 year old Stanley 'Miter-Box'...

(OP)
Yes I do, but it's a fairly new one. Not even close to being from the era of the Stanley Miter-Box.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: I'm starting my next, albeit much smaller, project: Restoring a 67 year old Stanley 'Miter-Box'...

That is very nice, looks properly made. Far away from this era of plastic and cheap die castings.

RE: I'm starting my next, albeit much smaller, project: Restoring a 67 year old Stanley 'Miter-Box'...

Restoration is a neat hobby. I have never restored anything myself but I can imagine how satisfying it must be to see the finished product. I live vicariously through the guys on the tv show "American Restoration". If you have never seen it, you have to watch it (I think its just re-runs now). But people bring them things to restore and some of them are almost unrecognizable due to the poor condition. Each guy in the shop specializes in something different (sand blasting, powder coating, mechanical guru, etc). They restore everything from Coke machines, peddle cars, golf carts, arcade games....
Its a must see for any restoration enthusiast.

RE: I'm starting my next, albeit much smaller, project: Restoring a 67 year old Stanley 'Miter-Box'...

Certainly a novel project, interesting to see it finished.

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)

RE: I'm starting my next, albeit much smaller, project: Restoring a 67 year old Stanley 'Miter-Box'...

(OP)
Well, I've finally finished my miter-box project. It took longer than I had expected, not because of any problems but simply because we've been busy the last few weeks and I managed to just put that finishing touches on it this morning.

Here's some shots showing the finished project:





I followed a similar process that I did with my previous sewing machine project where I first stripped off the old paint, cleaned the metal parts and painted the iron pieces first with a couple of coats of primer, then a couple of coats of Dupli-Color black enamel and after repainting the lettering I applied two coats of Dupli-Color Clearcoat. The original wooden platform looked like it was Redwood but I decided to go with something a bit harder, in this case a nice clear piece of Maple. I gave it a couple of coats of light Maple stain and then a couple of coats of clear matte finish urethane.

And here's the miter-box in working mode (as noted previously, my 'back-saw' is not quite of the same era):



I have one last step to take and that's to mount the miter-box on a scrape of lumber that when I need to use it, I can just hold it in place with a couple of C-Clamps as I don't have enough workbench space to permanently mount it as it was intended to be used.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: I'm starting my next, albeit much smaller, project: Restoring a 67 year old Stanley 'Miter-Box'...

That should even please my previous employer, The Stanley Works.

Looks good.

Ted

RE: I'm starting my next, albeit much smaller, project: Restoring a 67 year old Stanley 'Miter-Box'...

Looks nice John. smile

RE: I'm starting my next, albeit much smaller, project: Restoring a 67 year old Stanley 'Miter-Box'...

Probably better than the original.

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources