Vintage tools in use

[roycestearns]

A General question to current rod and reel makers:

Have any of you become collectors of vintage tools, like turn of the century lathes, drill presses, moulding planers, etc. ?

Have any attempted to make a ca. 1900's rod with a vintage tool set?

This is kind of a "to late John Betts question", miss his genius.

[mrampant]

Turn of the century? What 1999?? .
A sure sign that we are getting old.
Cheers, Mark

[trland]

My brother in-law and I use this 100 year old Elgin 4 x 5 lathe to make ferrules, reel seat hardware, cut ferrule stations, and anything else for making rods. We just bought another similar (Elgin #4) with original collets which we’ll restore and set up for rod making. I wouldn’t call us collectors of old equipment but it’s fun to use these old precision machines.

[roycestearns]

Why was this moved? ... it was a question to current rod and reel makers

Mark - yeah can you believe we can talk about last century like we are a bunch of old farts!

Trland - thanks so much, awesome lathe. Let us see the restoration okay?

[samsonboi]

That forum is for rod and reel makers to share and display their work- create a "portfolio" as it were. This topic belongs here because it's about making rods and the tools makers use.

[3creeks]

This is my second M&M molder/planer and I bought it off the big auction site. I'll be trying to do tapers with this machine to get me closer to final planing on my forms. This one came with the dust hood which I fully intend to use. Milling bamboo creates an inordinate amount of dust as you know, and the slot this hood covers is directly on the top so it all rains down on my head when I'm milling.

[roycestearns]

Jeff, thanks ... did you make your own blades or re-purpose existing?

[3creeks]

Jeff, thanks ... did you make your own blades or re-purpose existing?

No I'm using dual 30 degree cutters easily obtained at Grainger, MSC, etc. Here are a couple more pictures of the machine I got from Chris Lucker. You can see the cutters, which he gave me with the machine.

In one picture you can see that it still had the cutterhead on it for thickness planing. I can envision this little machine sitting on construction sites putting in a hard day's work in the past, planing boards and creating moldings. How it switched between those operations is a mystery to me because getting that planer cutterhead out was a PITA!!

Here's some history about the little machine on Vintage Machinery: http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/ ... px?id=4530

[3creeks]

Also I threw this video back up on my Instagram account. I'd removed most of my non-business related content but that horse left the barn again so I'm back to the eclectic stuff. https://www.instagram.com/p/B-7joPBDwTH/

[Titelines]

Why was this moved? ... it was a question to current rod and reel makers

Mark - yeah can you believe we can talk about last century like we are a bunch of old farts!

Trland - thanks so much, awesome lathe. Let us see the restoration okay?

It was moved because the forum it was in was not the correct forum for the topic. Here's that forum description:

"A place for members who build, repair or work on rods and reels. Please tell us about yourselves, your services and products and feel free to post links to your website or blogs."

It's not a general forum. It's more of a free advertising forum for the rod and reel making members.

Mark

[roycestearns]

Jeff thanks, I really appreciate your information and of course thanks to Chris who was always willing to share if you had an open mind. I've already wasted hours on the vintage machinery site!
Have you worked out the tapering with the next machine yet?
Keep us posted.

[3creeks]

I haven't really tried to work it out right now. The second machine is buried in a warehouse next to my lathe. Both are blocked by numerous boxes for work that is on hold. I have ferrules and a grip to turn so I'm going to need to get over there and move things around.

As I said here or on the other thread- I can't remember- I think the key is going to be installing an aluminum bed in lieu of the MDF version that I currently use, and have two different HDPE attachments that I can switch out to either do roughing or tapering. HDPE because it would be easy on the cutters.

If you've seen the Bellinger Hand Planer's Friend in action, that's how it works essentially. For tapering they use a wooden taper board that you shove through a couple of rails that are aligned so as to put the strip through the cutters accurately. I saw it on the Golden Witch DVD "Roughing and Tapering Under Power." To rough you remove the tapering bed and replace it with a different type. My head raises and lowers, unlike their fixed cutters. It's pretty low tech but effective.

I really don't have room for two of these things so I'm not going to build the second one until I work out all the kinks and make it dual purpose. After I do that I'll maybe be up for letting one go to someone or give one back to Chris if he wants it.

[samsonboi]

I've been thinking of getting something like this, since it seems like a cheap alternative to a beveller. Is it worth it if I'm on a low budget? I would have to pick between this and buying premade ferrules, reel seats, grips, and checks, or a mini lathe and do planing only by hand, 'cause I don't have the money for both and even getting one is uncertain.

[3creeks]

I've been thinking of getting something like this, since it seems like a cheap alternative to a beveller. Is it worth it if I'm on a low budget? I would have to pick between this and buying premade ferrules, reel seats, grips, and checks, or a mini lathe and do planing only by hand, 'cause I don't have the money for both and even getting one is uncertain.

I think you should go to Harbor Freight and get a $40 bench grinder and make a Baginski Beveler. For another approximately $150 you can get the wheels and a set of v-blocks from Mike Monsos and do your rough beveling. The cheaper and more prudent way, in your case, is to do it by hand. Get a piece or two of maple and make a couple of roughing forms on a table saw. That's what I did years ago when I was still messing around with culms but I didn't have all of the tools to make rods. Unless you have the ingenuity to make your tools this is not the cheapest hobby as far as the entry level cost.

[samsonboi]

Ok, so I guess lathe it is... I made roughing forms already, but I used an angle larger than 60 (I think 90, so could make a sans-form quad using a bastardized PMQ method but for 4 strips; wouldn't be the prettiest but would be cool to see if I can do it) but I have a 60/45 two ended router bit so I'll make another roughing form, this time a correct one. I'm gonna embed removable scalpel blades in it so I can pull the strip through and slice it- a poor man's hand mill

[3creeks]

A lathe is much more useful to rodmaking than a power beveler. The power beveler or mill can come at the end after you've accumulated or made everything else.

[samsonboi]

I'm going to start by first making my own grip lathe and then getting a mini lathe for ferrules and other hardware.

[cwfly]

I'm going to start by first making my own grip lathe and then getting a mini lathe for ferrules and other hardware.

What does that have to do with this thread which asked what vintage tools folks are using?
Please do not hijack threads.

[samsonboi]

Oy vey is mir. My original inquiry was about wanting to know whether I should get a vintage lathe or mill. In my price range, vintage is the way to go.

[3creeks]

I think we actually have gotten far afield of the original post, which is vintage tools in use. I apologize for any part I played in the detour.