Grandad's tool box

[Lee J]

I regularly visit my grand parents but every now and then when I get there I get invited into the cellar. The cellar holds lots of memories for me as a kid as I could play in there for hours on end. To a young lad it was like an Aladdin's cave . Every tool for every job was in that cellar.

Anyway, I had a visit on Tuesday this week and I got the call to the cellar. He gave my this plane...

On the front adjuster knob it has the words "Stanely Rule & Level Co"
It all still functions. Should I clean the years and years grease/oil off?

Then he passed me this...

with a load of these...

oh and as we were on our way back upstairs he remembered this...

Not bad at all.

 

[Bigus]

He gave my this plane...

http://www.supertool.com/StanleyBG/stan12.htm#num113

Looks like a later model.

 

[AES]

@Lee J:

Thanks for your post. Great stuff (I like tools, both old and new).

The reason for my reply is that amongst other things I got from my Dad when he died (over 30 years ago now) was a hand wheel drill brace which looks EXACTLY like the one in your last picture (I remember very clearly that he always called it "The Gut Buster"). My "GB" has a half inch chuck, how big is yours? Is it marked in any way?

I still have it now (along with a much smaller Stanley wheel brace with a quarter inch chuck) and I do still use both of them from time to time.

My "GB" is not marked at all, though for some reason I've always assumed it was also a Stanley, like the smaller one.

My "GB" has 2 speeds (gear ratios) much like a modern electric drill, but here the ratios are achieved by a gear ring cast into the outside edge of the wheel, plus a second, much smaller gear ring cast into the wheel at about quarter diameter. The wheel has a single pivot axle but the main "stem" has two bearing holes and two gears, one above the other. The wheel axle is retained into either of the holes by a simple spring loaded plunger which locates into a simple groove machined into the axle. You change gear simply by depressing the plunger and moving the hand wheel complete with axle from one hole into the other so that it automatically meshes with the second gear (so giving the high & low ratios). A lovely simple mechanism that is still as smooth and accurate as the day it was made.

It also has a removable side handle for extra support and grunt which screws into the main "stem" almost in line with the wheel axle.

I have no idea how old it is but as my Dad was born in 1898 and started in engineering after serving in the trenches in WWI, I guess it could be pretty old. I shan't be parting with it in a hurry and I fully expect that it will outlive my ability to use it (and I'm 68 now)!

Krgds
AES

 

[Lee J]

the Gut Buster... I like that name for it!

I'm not sure if it has 2 speeds or not, I'll have a closer look tomorrow.

As for old tools, over the years I've been handed down a lot of tools. loads of those wooden square block planes of various shapes and sizes, boxes of files, chisels, screwdrivers, hammers, you name it! The thing is Grandad knows these tools are safe with me for another generation at least. The chisels I use as my main set even today because you just can't get the quality of steel in the blade anymore. Today's Jap rubbish steel is just rubbish compared to the old Sheffield Steel.

So while I have some new tools in my workshop I mainly have my old tools to hand and in use most days and rightly so.