Another Tea Box

Lately I've been working on some old tools that I've found at garage or estate sales.  I found myself in need of building something - anything!  So I though I'd make another tea box, similar to one I made a couple years ago.

This one is made from red alder, which can be a really beautiful wood.  Some boards that I've seen have white streaks, and I'm not a fan of that, but the wood for this project was very nice.  The back and left side even have some figure to them.

The sides have a 3/16" deep rabbet that will hide grooves at top and bottom

First corner dovetailed and fitted

All four corners dovetailed

After leveling the top and bottom rims, 3/16" x 3/16" grooves are run

The top and bottom are identical.  All four edges get a 3/8" deep x 3/16" wide groove.  I was unable to do the end grain edges with the plough plane, so I used a saw and chisels.  Something was not quite right with the plough.  I suspect the iron and wedge were not properly fitted - the iron was not forced against the steel skate and that resulted in poor performance.  I need to look into this some more later.  After the grooves were cut, the inside face was cut down about 3/16" on all edges.

Fitting the bottom into the grooves in the main box

The short divider is housed in 1/8" deep dadoes.
The long divider is half-lapped with the short one and its length
is fitted to the assembled box interior length.

I didn't show it, but the box sides are curved using an approximate 10 3/4" radius.  This makes the top and bottom edges of each piece about 3/16" to 1/4" thinner than the middle.

Here's a test fit without the lid

I pre-finished the inside surfaces of the box with 4-5 coats of
shellac followed by 0000 steel wool buffing and then wax

The box is glued up without the long divider installed

After the glue dried and the joints cleaned up,
the lid is cut from the bottom

I used old plastic cards as spacers to fill the kerfs when clamping in the vise

Then clean up the saw cuts on bottom and top, and correct any twist

Adding hinges

I mortised in a small piece of wood for a handle

Outside was finished like the inside: 4-5 coats of shellac, then wax

The completed box

I added green felt to the bottom

The box is intended to hold tea bag packets - four compartments for four types of tea.  This one took a while - I went kind of slow on it.  But it felt good to make something again.

A Fray Brace with Different Style Chuck

When I found this brace a few weeks ago, I grabbed it because I didn't have a 6" brace.  And because it's a Fray.

John S. Fray 6" brace

John S. Fray was in business from the late1850's to 1909 or 1920 (accounts differ), when they were bought by Stanley.  But Stanley continued to use Fray-marked components after the purchase, so it's not clear when this brace was made.  There's some evidence below that it's post-1932.  I'm sure there are some people out there that could nail it down, but I'm not one of them.

THE JOHN S. FRAY CO.

BRIDGEPORT, CONN U.S.A.

The only other marking is this "7" on the ratcheting area, but it's a 6" swing!

I'm not certain, but the handles might be rosewood - I saw examples on the web that had rosewood and some with walnut.  Either way, they're in great shape and I did nothing to clean them up.

The part of this brace that I want to point out is the chuck, or bit-holder.

Jaws opened

Jaws closed

I found a website by George Langford that had a list of patents related to Fray braces.  One of them, applied for in 1928 and granted in 1930 or 1932, shows a bit holder very similar, if not exactly like this one.  That's several years after Stanley had bought Fray.  Apparently it took a long time to use up the Fray parts that they had purchased.

The chuck jaws were like none other I'd seen before.  It is a two-jaw chuck and after wrestling with them for a while, I got them removed from the housing.

Pointing to what I think is an oil port.
Loosening the screw to the right allows the jaws to come free.

The jaws removed and cleaned up

Looking down into the chuck where the jaws go.
The bright spot is part of a threaded section on the inside wall of the knurled outer shaft.

In the picture of the jaws above, you can see a threaded section on the jaws, just next to the leaf springs on the right end.  These engage with inside threads deep inside the chuck.  When the knurled section of the chuck is turned, the chuck pulls the jaws inside and they clamp on the shank of an auger bit and grab it tight.  That little screw on the knurled part of the chuck's housing somehow keeps the jaws in place.  I can't quite see what's going on in there, but the screw does it's job.

Here's another picture looking down inside the chuck while the jaws are in place.  Down in the bottom, there is a recess shaped to accommodate the square tapered shank of an auger bit.

Tough to get a good picture of the recess where an auger bit sits

After a bit is set in that recess, the knurled shaft is turned and the jaws grip tightly on the auger bit.  And I mean it REALLY grabs tight!

Here's a bit tightened in the jaws

If it helps to understand the mechanism, here is a picture from the original patent (thanks to DATAMP and Google Patents).

I hope this pic comes out OK.  It downloaded as a
PNG file rather than JPG

Here's a link to the Patent picture, if the above doesn't show up well in the blog.

The tough thing about this brace is that I can't remove the chuck to clean the innards.  I cleaned what I could with dental tools and small brushes (and I pulled out a lot of crap), then oiled it generously.  It worked as found, but it works more smoothly now.

To clean up the brace, I wire-brushed most of the metal parts fairly lightly just to clean off the grunge.  And I left the wood parts alone - they were already in pretty good shape.

And there she is

It's always nice to see different mechanisms like this.  I don't necessarily get all there is to understand about it.  For example, what are the leaf springs on the ends of the jaws for?  And why is that little screw in the knurled section needed?  Well, it's good to learn about these things anyway.

Some More Tool Finds

My name is Matt and I've got a problem.  I just can't seem to help myself.  About 4-5 weeks ago I visited a couple of estate / garage sales and found a few cool things.  I just can't stand the thought of these things going to the dump if nobody takes them.  Or the thought of someone else finding these things and not knowing what they are and mistreating them.  Well, I guess the first step to recovery is admitting I have a problem.  I'd rather think of it as charity for the old tools.

First, at one garage sale I found a nice partial set of auger bits.  These were #4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10 bits.  A shame the set didn't go all the way up to 16, but beggars can't be choosers.  I can't recall, but I probably paid no more than $10 for them all.  They cleaned up easily with wire wheels in a drill.  And they were easily sharpened, too.  Full length cutting spurs.

The Irwin bits in size order

Logo upper: IRWIN

Logo lower: U S OF A

I don't know when these Irwin bits were made, but I suspect the '60's or '70's.  I didn't realize it when I picked these up, but the Greenlee bit in the yellow package was toast.  Someone had filed down the cutting spurs, rendering the bit useless.  What a shame.

The file is pointing to a ruined spur

Then a week or two later, I found this group of tools at another sale.  This group cost a measly $20.  And I got to the sale late!  Who knows what I might have found if I had gone early!

Spring clamps, more auger bits, a 6" brace, saw set and "parts" plane

This group of auger bits had an 8/16" size, so after cleaning it up, I added it to the earlier set to fill in that missing size.  The bits' sizes and logos were as follows (a slash indicates a divider between lines in the logo; a ~~~ symbol means unintelligible markings).

• 1 1/2" (#24)          TEMPER  /  TESTED
• 1" (#16)                U.S.A. HSB & CO.  CHICAGO     (Hibbert, Spencer and Bartlett)
• 1" (#16)                THE IRWIN BIT  /  MADE IN U.S.A.  /  MAINBOR
• 5/8" (#10)             Jennings  /  Pattern
• 1/2" (#8)               ~~~ Bit  /  ~~~ S. Pat. Off.
• 3/8" (#6)               ROCKFORK ILLINOIS GREENLEE  /  MADE IN U ~~~
• 3/8" (#6)               IRWIN  /  U S OF A

I gave this group of bits a bath in rust remover and then wire wheeled them with a drill.  They look really great now.  One of the 1" bits went into another set I've got that was missing that size.

Lookin' good!

The is a 6" sweep brace made by John S. Fray.  I didn't have a 6" brace, so this was a nice pickup.  There were some interesting things about this brace, so I think I'll write about it separately.

6" sweep brace

THE JOHN S. FRAY CO.
(other side says BRIDGEPORT, CONN U.S.A.)

The plane is what's left of a type 9 (1902-1907) Stanley #3.  I wish I could have found the missing parts, but even if I had, the frog had been broken (or cut) above the depth adjusting yoke, and a piece of brass had been riveted to the inside of the left cheek.  I wish I knew what the prior owner was trying to do with this - maybe making some sort of nicker, judging by a corner of it placed at the plane's mouth.

Stanley #3 with frog broken or cut

This brass was "riveted" to the cheek using a peened nail

I got the plane to use for parts.  For a couple of bucks, how could I go wrong.  But I would really have loved a useable type 9 #3.

Last on the list was this saw set.  The only marking on it was J. M. KELLAR and I'm thinking that was an owner rather than a maker - I found nothing about Kellar with a quick internet search.

The saw set

The only marking

Front end with anvil dial settings

It looks like a fully functioning saw set, but I've yet to try it out.  The first pic of the set shows the lower screw that "squeezes" a saw plate to the anvil, similar to some other sets I've seen.  I might have to see if I can take it apart and clean it up.  More on that later if I do.

Cleaning up an E. C. Atkins Crosscut Handsaw

Last time I wrote about hammering out the kink that this saw had.  When I was satisfied with the plate's straightness, I moved on to the handle, the cleaning of the plate, and then sharpening.

The finish on the beech handle scraped easily and after filing and sanding it smooth, I gave it a couple coats of BLO.  I much prefer the feel of an oil finish over a varnish or poly finish.

The handle ready for finish

A few days later after the BLO had dried

I also took a wire wheel in a drill to clean up the saw bolts and medallion.  They really shine up nicely when rubbed on a strop.

For the plate, I started with a razor blade to scrape off the heaviest rust and grime.  Then I used sandpaper, eventually using a stick with sandpaper wrapped around it to help remove the rust and grunge that had built up over time.  Sanding included grits of about 50 up to 220 (or 400?) and it looks pretty respectable now, though there are still some rough marks or light pitting.  There was no etched maker's mark on the saw plate, so I didn't have to avoid any areas with the sanding.

The plate before cleaning

Sanded in sections - a lot of elbow grease expended

Still some light pitting

But the plate looks so much better than before

This pic shows the degree of curvature of the breasted tooth line

I took great care in sharpening the saw.  The breasted tooth line needed a lot of jointing to get down to a shiny bare metal spot on every tooth tip.  I was very careful to file the teeth so as not to end up with alternating deep and shallow gullets (cows and calves).  I used about 15 degrees rake and 25 degrees fleam.  The saw was over-set by a lot, so I stoned the tooth line on both sides several times to knock down the set.

Looks razor sharp to me

I shined up the brass screws and nuts and put it back together.  The saw looks great and I'm sure it will be a nice user saw for decades to come.

Thar' she blows!

Last thing: I didn't have a screwdriver that fit the saw nuts properly, so I made one from a piece of an old saw blade, a plumbing fitting, and a hunk of cherry.  Last year I made a similar screwdriver for bench plane cap-iron screws and this one is almost identical but with a thinner blade.

The saw screws are much happier with their own custom-fit driver

Fits well enough to stay in the slot

Another nice saw in the collection.  I've used the saw a couple of times now, and it cuts like a hot knife through butter.  Sweeet!