Thread: Restored Stanley Mitre box

Looking good Kev

did your other stuff you bought of e-bay arrive yet.

Ray

Originally Posted by wheelinround

Looking good Kev

did your other stuff you bought of e-bay arrive yet.

Ray

Damn ,,,Ray your quick ,I just posted this and went back to have a bo-peep and you are already there.
Got the Mortise chisels ,going to post pics of those for Scribbly Gum .
Still waiting for some plane totes and knobs and a set of Footprint carving chisels .

Damn ...got my eye on another mitre box .Its like a disease .

Kev

Nice job Woodlee. Still haven't collected mine yet.

prozac

Originally Posted by prozac

Nice job Woodlee. Still haven't collected mine yet.

prozac

Thank you .
I'm working on the saw now , have finished the blade , tote is next .
Then I need to get the new board off the guy who is thicknessing it for me.

Cheers
Kev

I finally collected mine yesterday. Looks complete and in very good condition bar a bit of powdery rust on the frame and also some light rust on one side of the saw blade. The blade is dead straight...not bad for a tool over 100 years old!

I am the 3rd owner from what I can gather. Owned originally by a Coach Builder from Umina, Percy Cornish. He eventually went into upholstery and the business was sold to the chap I bought the saw from. It's nice to know the background of a piece of history such as this.

prozac

Looks good Prozac. Exactly the same model as mine ,wish I new some history of mine ,I did ask the guy who I bought it from ,but he just ignored my question.
That will clean up nicely ,electrolysis will clean the frame in a couple of hours.
At least you got the top support bar and the correct thumb screws with it .
The sliding stock guides that slide up to the rear fence ,did you get those ?They are easy to make if you wanted to replace them .
I think I can see the locking thumb screw through the slot in the second pic for the stock guides.
Looks like the board has been replaced as well .I have an original cutting board if you want a pattern to make a new one.And the stock holders for measurements.
Saw looks good too , mine still has about 80% of the original etch on the blade ,just be careful when you clean the blade ,on the left side the etch is about halfway along.
All in all though a good find .
Here's a link to a website with some info on Stanley mitre boxes ,he has some reproduction parts , but they are easy to make yourself .
http://www.tooltrip.com/tooltrip9/st.../stan-mbox.htm

If you need any pointers let me know.

Kev.

"The sliding stock guides that slide up to the rear fence ,did you get those ?" Not sure which bits they are woodlee. I have no knowledge of these tools, and bought this on a whim b/c it looked great and I thought it would be useful. I've attached the last 2 photos I have fyi, maybe you can see if they are there?

What tipped me over the adge to buy it was the saw being 30" or 32". I have not measured it yet but the seller said it was 31" so will be one of the 2. Either way you generally don't see this size for sale.

Thanks for the offer of a pattern for the cutting board. Yes please! I was told it was not original.

Stock holders?

I have begun scraping the saw with a stanley knife blade. Is this the right procedure? Do I need to avoid the region where the etch may be? As the rust is only very light perhaps the next step should be an electrolysis bath? Better learn up on that too.

I will be very happy if mine ends up looking as nice as yours.

BTW do you know what that plate and spring arrangement does on the front guide?

prozac

Have had a read of the Stanley guides you provided the links for. It would seem that for mine and maybe yours as well that they are the 1909 model that did not come with a length stop.

My mitre box doesn't look like it has the "stock guides". It appears to have all/most of the other bits. I will measure the saw and the length of the mitre box today to see which model it is.

prozac

woodlee I've just come in from measuring the saw. Perhaps I shouldn't have as I was a happy camper whilst i thought it 30" or so. It comes in at 26"!!! Hahahahahaha. The jokes on me then. Never mind I am no less enamoured with it, and now I have another story to tell.

prozac

I think the model is 244 ,but I'm not sure .My saw is 24 1/2 " heel to toe ,with the tote fixed on its 30 1/2 ".
No length stop , like the later models ,but , my board has a round metal insert about 1 1/8" diameter ,to the right hand side of the saw blade .It has a threaded hole in the center , I havent been able to fathom out what this is for , but I think it maybe an anchor point for a length stop .The later models has the length stop mounting on the left hand foot .
Not sure if the saw size is a good indicator of the model or not , I think you could order what ever saw you wanted.
I will make a drawing or a pattern of the board and get it to you .
Yes the Stanley scraper is what I used to clean the rust from the blade ,(the one that takes the Stanley knife blades ), then I used 400 wet and dry carborundum paper and turps to polish ,and moved up to 800 to finish .I used a scrap block of wood as a sanding block .
Just go easy around the etch area ,you maybe surprised and it may still be there.I used some cold gun blue to enhance it and lightly polished over it with 800 to clean off the excess blue.
I also blued the spine of the saw as it looked like it was done originally.
I have attached a pic with some of the smaller parts that are usually missing , and I can take pics of specific areas if you want so you can see the arrangement .

According to the link you supplied http://www.tooltrip.com/tooltrip9/st...box/mbox09.pdf , if your saw is 24" then it is for a model #244. Your mitre-box must then be 18" long and your cutting board 4 1/8" wide. Mine will be either a #246 or #346 depending on the length of the mitre box. The 246 is 18" long, the 346 is 20 1/2" long....... Just measure, it is 20 1/2" so it is a #346 with a 26" saw blade.

Forgot to mention, the saw length is measured on the blade from toe to heel. If the heel is mitred as mine is then measure to where the blade would finish if it were a full blade.

From the chart on the link above it appears that the size of saw was "matched" to the length of the mitre box.

Thanks for the "blue" tip. Had you thought of using electrolysis? Any reasons why you didn't use this method?


prozac

I must have missed all that info somehow or didn't study the chart carefully enough (more like it )
The board on mine measures 201/2" x 4 1/2" so that makes it 346 .
Thanks for the heads up.
The reason I didn't use electrolysis is because I don't have a plastic tank big enough for the blade to fit in .I could have made one from MDF and lined it with a plastic bag I guess ,maybe I'll do it later .The saw has a few stains on it from where it was sitting in the guides.
Not sure if the process will affect the etch though.


Edit: back to your previous post re plate and spring on the front guide .It is to do with releasing the saw to let it down to the cutting position ,yours is a slightly different arrangement to mine.If you look at the pic of mine in the previous post you can see the saw is held up near the top of the posts.This may be a feature that the original owner decided he could do with out.If these are missing I reckon it would be near impossible to find them as they are reasonably small and easily lost if removed from the tool.
Mine has a plate under the top cap of the support bar with a lever that has a hook which catches a plate in the top of the guide and holds it up , there is also a similar arrangement on the rear tower.The plates in the guides are held in a slot at the top of each guide by having half circular cut outs which fit around the two post that the guide runs up and down on.
When you lift the saw up to the top the hook engages the plate in each guide holding the saw up .
To release the saw you push it forward and the trip stop that fixes onto the spine of the saw in front of the tote hits the front lever and lets it go .The saw drops at the tote end and the other end raises up and trips the lever at the top of the rear post allowing the saw to come down.The spring under the guide on the front tower cushions the fall ,but there is no spring on the rear post and it comes down with a bit of a thump.I've looked at the parts lists and it shows only a spring on the front post.
Hope I've explained this so you can work out how it operates.

Under the guide on the front and rear there are two brass height stops ,one has a thumb screw ,this one sets the depth of the saw to allow trenching .
The other is adjusted by way of a screw driver and sets the total depth of the saw ,so you don't cut through the board.Both the ones that are tightened with the thumb screw on mine have been left loose at some stage and the saw has cut into where the thread is ,I have to be careful and keep them tight so they don't vibrate under the saw teeth and bugger them completely,also not to over tighten them.
According to the brochures on the Tool Trip website this depth should be set so the saw cuts 1/16' into the board when new.There should also be instructions there that explain how to square up the saw and also change the front post from the front hole to the one further back to the operator. Both posts can be rotated in thier mounting holes to reduce clearance between the guide and the saw.
Also if you look carefully at the poles that the saw guides travel up and down on ,you will see they are marked in inches .I think it is the right hand one on each post.
I didn't notice this until I had stripped mine down to clean it.They are very faint and hard to read .

Regarding history of mine ,I do know who the possible original owner is as his name is neatly stamped into the tote a gentleman by the name of A.T.Barrett.
I've been sanding (up to 320 and then steel wool )the tote this morning after scraping off the old finish during the week , I have just given it a coat of 75/25 BLO and turps ,the grain in the wood is looking good .
Once it dries I will wet sand with the BLO/turps mixture up to 800 and then tomorrow start with the shellac to finish it.
I think the saw handle is Apple ,a popular wood for Disston saw totes.

It's good to have some one who is doing a similar project ,and compare the subject and ideas.
I hope to get many years of good service from my mitre box and think it will be good for some box making projects I have in mind.



Kev

I measured along the rear frame. Can't remember if it is same size as the board but the chart suggests it is the length of the iron frame.

About the spring clip thingy. I have just read about it but no where near the amount of info you gave. There does not appear to be anywhere for the spring clip on the rearguide. I have to admit though that I have not studied the mitre box long enough to retain its features. As you point out it appears I am missing the grip screws and the stock guides, perhaps some other bits as well.

Looking at your earlier photos there is a fine angle calibration around the front of the quadrant casting. Was that there under the rust and muck?

prozac

Yes there is markings on the front edge of the quadrant for any angle between 90 and 45 ,in both directions.
Larger marks every 5 deg with one degree marks in between.The numbered markings on the top of the quadrant are for cutting mitres for multi sided shapes 4 for square ,6 for hex 8 for octagonal and so on.The little plate on the arm right in front of the quadrant has the alignment mark on it.
Very handy for box making , no need to work out the angle ,just swing the arm and drop it in the locking hole.
The arm will lock on any mark ,but has holes for the numbered ones on top of the quadrant.

Just had a flash back looking at the pics of your mitre box,it looks familiar , was your mitre box on Ebay ? I seem to remember the rust on the left side of the blade and the quadrant.If its the one I was watching for a couple of weeks It was
re- listed a couple of times .I didn't bid on it ,the seller was adamant he wast going to post it.
Any way good find .

Kev.