I read a classified advertisment in the paper on Friday, and buried in there was a mention of "molding planes". Cool. I call the number and set up an appointment for Saturday morning. She's a SLOL (sweet little old lady), and leads me to a selection of rather neglected antique wooden planes. "Beautiful" I murmer, and start thinking about how I can resurrect them. Some are checked and warped , and a couple are missing their irons and wedges, so those might be a bit cheaper. Then she lead me back to the garage, and shows me a Powrkraft 10 inch RAS. "I can't figure out how to get the carriage to move", she says, so I show her the levers, clamps and indexing bosses' functions. "My roof's leaking", so I take a look at her roof, and conclude that she needs a tear off. "There's some furniture that needs work", so I'm checking out an antique table base, chair leg, and some trim on a rosewood veneered bureau. I'm such a sucker for a SLOL. Getting back to the planes, the SLOL sez, "$125.00 for the lot", and I'm agreeable, but I'm also short of cash. I plunk down $40.00, and tell her I'll be right back with the remainder. 20 minutes later, I'm there, but she's had "time to do the math", and up went the price to $200.00. Hmmmm. Her being a SLOL and all, I say nothing, then I remember the furniture repairs she needs, and offer to perform the repairs in trade for the planes. The items she needs repairing were damaged by some vagrant who squatted at her place while she was out of town, so the insurance company will take care of the bill. She just needs a reciept for the repairs (which I could pad, she says!). Well, I don't know what to charge for these repairs, so I suggest that she get an estimate from a local restorer, and I'll beat the estimate by a decent margin. Fine, she says, and writes me a reciept for the 40 bucks deposit. Needless to say, I didn't get to jump that day. (Told you this was long, but it was MUCH longer for me!) What do y'all think of this situation? Update to follow. Tom
- posted
18 years ago