your oldest power tool

[Mark H]

A Craftsman Drill Press I picked up at a garage sale for $45 cleaned it up and it works great Dates to 1938 - 1940

[John Grossbohlin]

I have a 1905 Crescent 36" bandsaw... Electrical? It has a new Baldor 1 phase 5 hp motor--I sold off the 3 phase 5 hp that had new bearings installed, cleaning and testing. The consumable things like bearings, blades, and tires are readily available and all the cast iron is fine.

Beyond that I have a Porter Cable circular saw, drywall driver, and drill that date from about '85 and a bunch of other PC tools that range from about

18-22 years old. With replacement parts available I fix them as needed... a cord here, a base plate there. The random orbit sander has needed the most work -- base plates/dust collection.

[Just Wondering]

I have a rock. It's gotta be at least 100 million years old. If I hold it above a walnut and let go, gravity powers it to crack the shell. :)

[Markem]

Unisaw 1948 vintage

[krw]

Speaking of Christmas, I have a Christmas cactus that my mother bought the year I was born. Dad's drill is long gone. Never liked it.

[krw]

Probably does, if you eat it.

>

[nailshooter41]

How cool would that be? Hope he takes you up on it!

Love to hear how it turns out if you go forward.

Robert

[Leon]

Wow! We'da killed the Christmas cactus long before now. LOL. I wife gets one about every 4~5 years and it will last about 3 years. IIRC all you have to do is water it. LOL

[Leon]

Well that explains a lot. I'm getting a kick out of the ump'teenth proposal foe California to split off from the southern coastal area.

I wonder if that is where most of the earth quakes, fires, and mud slides happen.

[Markem]

Some Illinoisians feel the same way about splitting of from Cook county (Chicago main city) and the 5 counties around it (Chicago area).

[krw]

Yep, it's 65 years old. My wife and I have been carting it with us every time we've moved over the last 40ish years. It's about 4' across now. They don't like extreme heat or cold so it gets moved in the car with us (fun). It gets fertilized twice or three times a year and then watered every couple of weeks and when it looks like it needs it (more in the Winter).

[krw]

There are a lot of states that way. NY and PA come to mind. Actually, any state dominated by a large city has the same complaint.

[Martin Eastburn]

Good one Leon - My dad also worked for Western Electric and Bell Labs. He started in the 20's in a vacuum tube plant in Chicago. I have his Iron some hand tools and tool pouch. He retired long after 50 years and Bell Labs held retirement up while he completed his 250,000 page manual. Research Design and Director of Western. He retired out of one of his babies - Concrete North Dakota. Big Radar. It is still working. Sisters to this, solid state for the most part are in Hawaii and Alaska ..... They were designed to protect us from the North Korean missiles.

Electrical hum. I discarded my 1949 two wire metal case Drill motor two years ago.

My surface gr> >>> mine is a skil saw from the 70s i think

[dpb]

On 1/19/2018 11:10 AM, Puckdropper wrote: ...

Thanks...I intended to go get the pieces-parts out of the drawer yesterday while was nice out but got side-tracked on "must-do's" and didn't get that far. I'll try to follow up although as I begin to recollect, it seems that now I'm recalling it is actually the worm gearing cut on the end of the rotor shaft or the matching gear to it that drives the larger that is the set of matching teeth that give out.

The tiny diameter (3/8"???) worm drives the primary drive gear; it's a two-gears-in-one arrangement where the inside matches the worm and the outer drives the rest of the gear chain so it's not just a single flat gear.

As said, I need to go get pieces and make pitchures...I don't believe I ever found a parts drawing online to point at.

[DerbyDad03]

Your mention of the soldering iron reminded me that I still have Grandpa's HYDElectric HE 200 Paint Remover/Putty Softener. It runs on 115V AC/DC.

I don't know how old it is. The only reference I can find is for a newer looking models circa 1966. I think this one is much older.

My neighbor stripped his cedar shake house down to bare cedar with a combination of hand scraping, power sanding and my (actually Grandpa's) HYDElectric Paint Remover. Stunk up the neighborhood for weeks!

[Puckdropper]

dpb wrote in news:p428gf$447$ [e-mail]:

No rush, and now that I think of it they might have used helical gears. I can cut a spur gear without much trouble, but helical is another story. I'm not going to be able to cut a helical gear with my current set up.

I wonder if I could cut a form into a piece of O1, then use that like a milling cutter with a rotary table to make the helical gear?

Obviously I can't promise anything, especially if they're helical gears.

Puckdropper

[Leon]

By any chance do you have a picture to share? I's love to see that plant.

[Leon]

Actually I may have a pair of Western Electric side cutter and long nose pliers. AKA diagonal and needle nose.

  He retired long after 50 years and Bell Labs held

Jeez that is a lot of writing.

Research

[DerbyDad03]

How long of a cord do they have? ;-)

[Leon]

I know you are kidding... But the Western Electric soldering iron probably has a cord that is 20' long IIRC. I recall it being very long.