Thread: Restoration of Yankee Braces and Stanley 984 + Custom Case Build

.....Continuing on

As I write this, the braces have been restored. I hadn't intended originally intended to share my restoration efforts but I thought people may find something useful particularly on how I fabricated the springs.

The first step was to dismantle the braces and soak the pieces that I could in vinegar to get rid of the rust. I wished I had taken some pics of the unrestored braces but unfortunately I didn't have the foresight to do so.


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Above are a few pics of the disassembled pieces during the cleaning stage. The 12" was so rusty that the ball bearing chuck that engages the jaws no longer spun. The hand pad wasn't much better. It still rotated but it was very rough. The black long piece of metal under the spindle is the waste piece from a 4" Pax Gentleman's Dovetail Saw that I re-purposed as my version of Rob Cosman's Kerf X10. It's black because I hadn't cleaned the black oxide that has formed after being soaked in vinegar overnight. I use it to fabricate one of my selectorsprings out of. The original selector springs are made of phosphor bronze but I don't have any of that lying around.....


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.......so for the 12" I decide to use the spring from an ordinary plastic laundry peg.


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It's a bit too thick so I use a file to thin it down until it's springiness is similar to the original item.



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This is what I'm trying to replicate.

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Ad this is what I end up with. I decided that the circular bit in the centre is not really needed. I reasoned that the phosphor bronze is not be as strong as the spring steel that I used and therefore it needed more "meat" where the pin had been riveted on.


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For the pin, I used a 3mm brass tube with a 2mm solid brass rod in the centre. I "chucked up" the rod in my drill and reduced the diameter with 180 grit sandpaper until it fitted perfectly inside the tube. I use solder to join the two. In hindsight I could have just crimped the end where the spring attaches to. The pic above is before I've peened the end and cut it to length.


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Here's the finished selector spring.


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For the second spring, I decide to use the scrap bit of saw plate that I mentioned earlier. I drill a 1.5mm hole and use my angle grinder with cut off disk to get it to rough dimensions....


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.....and then a hand file to get it to its final width. I decide to try to replicate the round centre for this one.


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Here's the resulting spring. If you look closely you can still make out the Pax logo engraved onto the piece.


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And here it is installed in the selector button/pin. The pin for the selector spring but for this one I used a 1/8" stainless steel tube which I had to thin down using the drill+sandpaper method.


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I've removed what rust and pitting that I could. In the pic above I've installed the hand pad on the 12" but have yet to do the 14". It's time to put it all back together...


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I start by putting the chuck bearing assembly back together. I mount the cone bearing race onto a 19mm dowel into a dog hole to free up a hand. Then I pack it with grease which helps in holding the individual ball bearings (the bloody things are determined to escape!!).


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With all 40 ball bearings in place I place the top race before slipping the chuck body over the whole assembly.


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And here's my custom made selector spring installed in the 14" model.


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Here are the two restored braces.....


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.....and a family shot.



To be continued.....

So the hand brace bug has certainly infected me to the point that I have another 2 Yankees on the way and I've also cleaned up a Stanley #984....


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Here's what it looked like before. Overall it was in pretty good nick. The ratcheting mechanism worked and there was only minor rusting. The only thing that I thought needed addressing was the bearings in the hand pad.


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First step is disassembly.


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I've learnt from my previous mistakes and disassemble the hand pad bearing assembly inside a zip lock bag so none of the ball bearings escape.

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Other than sanding the wooden parts and removing the surface rust, there was very little to do with this one. The ratchet mechanism was functioning ok so I decide not to disassemble it and instead dunk the whole assembly into some white vinegar taking care not to submerge the wooden handle.


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Here's the newly cleaned and lubricated Stanley #984 also know as a joist brace or side/corner brace.


In between the cleaning and restoration of the various braces, I've started making a custom case inspired by a pic I came across during my research in the "Brace Fanatics" thread. I'm still in the middle of the build but the pics below is what I've done so far.


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I've pretty much completed the frame for both halves of the case. The bottom half is thicker than the top half (approx 55mm vs 35mm). The sides are dovetailed to the top and bottom pieces with the top being half-blind dovetails. The rebates for the plywood top and bottom panels have are also done. As per the pics, I used a combination of power tools and hand tools to cut the rebates and dovetails. That's pretty much where I'm at thus far. I'll post updates as I go along.



Cheers,
Mike.

Nice Mike! Can you offer any advice for how the chuck goes together? especially how does the spring engage the bit holders? Thanks!

Originally Posted by jgalanes

Nice Mike! Can you offer any advice for how the chuck goes together? especially how does the spring engage the bit holders? Thanks!

Thanks jgalanes.


I'll try my best to describe how the chuck goes together but please excuse some of the terms that I use as I don't the official names of some of the components.


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This is what it should look like when you unscrew the chuck.



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The wire spring sits in a groove in the spindle and is threaded through a retaining washer that prevents it from coming out. It is possible to remove the spring but it's quite tricky and you need several picks. Excuse the ou of focus photo but I think you can still make out the retaining washer inside the spindle.

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The ends of the spring are bent to create a hook which hooks onto a hole in each jaw.....



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......like so.



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The inside of the "nose piece" (pictured above) is chamfered to match the chamfer of the jaws so that when the chuck assembly is screwed on to the spindle, the jaws are engaged and they bite down on the drill bit. The ball bearings allow it to spin freely so that the jaws don't spin along with the chuck assembly as it is tightened.



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Above is a photo of the inside surface of an unrestored "nose piece". To restore it I simply hand sand the piece to make sure the mating surface is smooth. And at final assembly, I apply a thin coat of grease on the mating surface as well as on the jaws.


I hope that answers your question.



Cheers,
Mike

Thanks very much Mike. I really appreciate it! My spring is different, it clips onto the top and runs along the outside of the barrel. They jaws do fit onto the spring just like yours, so that was very helpful! Thanks again...John

Nice work! To make the ratchet-pin in my pre-lathe days, I guess I would've mucked about with a bit of steel or brass chucked in a drill & "turned" to size using a safe-edged file. With care & patience you can get a surprisingly accurate result, but your ingenious solution did the trick - some commendable lateral thinking on your part!

Very satisfying to see what were a couple of sad-looking braces all spiffed up & back in good working order!
Cheers,

Originally Posted by jgalanes

Thanks very much Mike. I really appreciate it! My spring is different, it clips onto the top and runs along the outside of the barrel. They jaws do fit onto the spring just like yours, so that was very helpful! Thanks again...John

It sounds like your brace has a similar jaw retention set up as my Stanley #984 (see earlier posts in this thread). I have 5 Yankees and they all have the same spring-jaw set up.

Originally Posted by IanW

Nice work! To make the ratchet-pin in my pre-lathe days, I guess I would've mucked about with a bit of steel or brass chucked in a drill & "turned" to size using a safe-edged file. With care & patience you can get a surprisingly accurate result, but your ingenious solution did the trick - some commendable lateral thinking on your part!

Very satisfying to see what were a couple of sad-looking braces all spiffed up & back in good working order!
Cheers,

Thanks, Ian. You know what they say about necessity being the mother of invention . And there is a lot of satisfaction to breathing new life to a worn-out tool that may have otherwise been destined for the dump. I'm hoping it has earned me some brownie points with the woodworking gods.


Cheers,
Mike