Thread: New tools

I kicked my wife's jeep out of the garage for the summer so there is plenty of room.........

Originally Posted by Learner

Lord Randal, I have never come across a file like the bottom one. I couldn't enlarge it but it looks like they have s bit of saw tooth cut. I am guessing it 'might have been used
for fast, roughing out of lead filling, then on to a less aggressive file. I still use lead quite often. You do indeed have world of files to choose from. You have a rare and valuable friend
in the Dr. and his family.

Thanks Tom,

I have learned from cleaning the auto body files that the user really needs to keep the file clean. I have removed far to much "stuff" (bondo?) and lead from those files.
I do not know if a person should chalk the auto body files when using on lead,.... but lead can sure fill up a files gullet! ....

and yes, Dr. Molenaar was a very special person.Born 100 years ago, he missed most of high school due to an illness, was a chicken farmer til the age of 24. Applied to the University of Minnesota to be a Medical Doctor. Talked his way in. Then graduated 6 years later as a MD. Taught himself Cosmology, Poetry, and Blacksmithing. Then built his home, part time after work, over a span of 10 years, by himself.

Originally Posted by 32t

I kicked my wife's jeep out of the garage for the summer so there is plenty of room.........

I must of jinxed myself with this last statement.

I got home from work today to an open hood on her jeep. At first glance it looks like the power steering pump froze and threw the serpentine belt.

I suppose now I have to make room again in the garage and spend the weekend fixing it.

Some more workbenches and stuff from Doc's workshop. This first pic shows a very tall storage rack, about 7 ft tall and the thing to thbe left is a section of an oxygen tank with steel plates welded on the top and bottom. Doc bolted the top piece on and used it to grind/file the spines on his knives. All the little holes held various Dremel attachments.

The bottom pic is the main workbench ,loaded upside down, with the top leaning against it.
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A couple more pics.
Tomorrow i pick up the 3rd and final workbench. This one.
The first pic is a view from the back of the workbench. The second pic is from the front. The top on this bench is some form of stone composite. I feel it might be to brittle. I would not like to do any hammering on this top. We seldom used this bench except for a buffer on the right end and other non-violent stuff!
I will probably replace the top with some 2x8 boards and a sheet of hardboard.


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As anyone can see there is nothing fancy. Just practical, well made equipment that gets the job done.
Doc was an old farm boy. He could scrounge stuff almost as well as my Mother!

Quite an honor you are doing for your mentor. I'm sure he is happy knowing that his tools are being well cared for and used as they were intended. Hopefully, in periods of lucidity a 100 year old man can smile about that.

Adam

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Well, the big workbench was moved today. The top was a bit heavy but we managed to get it onto the truck. I will get some pics tomorrow and post them here.
No work tomorrow, I am absolutely wore out!

Spent the evening teaching my 11 yr old neighbor how to use files to sharpen a hatchet. He loved it.
( it was really interesting since I had never done it before. )

I took it easy today.
Finished cleaning 50 more files.
Also finished cleaning the drill bits. Now I need to learn how to resharpen the drill bits. Thankfully there are some very good videos on that subject on Youtube.
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Speaking of resharpening ..... I called and spoke with www.boggstool.com about resharpening some of the files.
Much to my surprise they resharpen Coarse, bastard, 2nd cut, smooth files in either single cut or double cut!
Flat, round, half round, triangle, square they can handle those. I will be sending them my big square files for sure plus some others that need some TLC.

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I had no idea that you could resharpen a file. Good to know.
I find small drill bits very difficult to res Harper by hand and find them to be the perfect use for a drill doctor. They do a nice job and are very easy to use. Bigger drill bits I can do by hand but I’m not nearly as slick at as Charlie is. I guess his work background gave him lots of practice. Like many things, if you are not good at it you need more practice.