A Box of Delights
Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Tools and Tool Maintenance/Restoration / A Box of Delights
Tagged: Disston Panel Saw Restoration
- This topic has 12 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 6 months ago by Matt McGrane.
-
AuthorPosts
-
I’m very lucky; I was recently presented with a wooden box about the size of a suitcase by a friend. When I opened it up, I was astonished to fine it was really an old joiners toolbox that was crammed full of tools. It seems the previous owner had been my friends Grandfather who had been a Carpenter all his life. The toolbox had been his apprenticeship piece. My friend wanted the tools to go to someone who would be able to use them so not only am I building a legacy of my own but I’m now continuing someone else’s too.
So far, I’ve restored a lovely No5 Record Plane and one of the two panel saws.
The saw is a lovely Disston; it needed a bit of love but it’s not a thing of beauty that cuts wonderfully.I cleaned the blade with wet and dry going from 400 up to 1200 grit (all used wet).
I then gave the blade a wipe down with some wax polish after sharpening and setting the teeth.
The handle was taken back to the wood and then dyed with Rosemary wood dye before being given a few of coats of sanding sealer and a bit of wax rubbed in using 0000 grade steel wool. The fittings were polished with wax buffed up with a soft brass wire brush.
I’m thrilled with the saw. I hope you enjoy the before and after photos.I’ll post more photos as I slowly restore each of the tools in this collection.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.6 October 2015 at 2:07 am #131071You have done a great job on the saw, and a honor to your frend and his grandfather.
Good luck with them
FrankjThanks for the kind comments guys.
I’ve started working on the next tool: this time it’s a nice little back saw. You can see from the photos the amount of work needed. The teeth seem to be all over the place so I’ll have to recut them from scratch. This will be good practice for when I do the the other panel saw later on.Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.7 October 2015 at 2:23 am #131085Comment on the first saw: SMOKIN’ !!!!! That came out so good. You should be proud of that and I’m sure your friend will be, too.
Comment on the second saw: You’re not kidding about the teeth on that one. The first and third pictures show it very well. Good luck and have fun cutting them new. That’s a task that needs patience.
Can’t wait to see more…
7 October 2015 at 4:35 am #131086That little gem is going to take some work But it will be a real gem when done, good luck with it
FrankjHmmm.
I cleaned up the blade and back and filed off the old teeth.
I spent some time on Saturday re-watching Paul’s video and then down the workshop I went…
I managed to totally screw up my first attempt.After some more revision, I filed the blade smooth again and had another go…
Version two was better but still not good. I stopped after the first 3/4″ so I wouldn’t butcher the blade.There’s obviously something I’m missing somewhere. My guide simply disintegrates as I try to cut the initial slots. I can live with that as I’m not expecting this to be a re-usable guide. The other problem is that my hacksaw just seems to judder against the saw blade which results in it skipping across the surface. At best I end up with irregularly spaced teeth. I’ve checked my hacksaw blade and had remembered to remove the set and give myself that feathered in portion at the start of the blade.
I’ve decided to put this restoration project on hold until I can work out what I’m doing wrong here. If anyone’s got any advice, please do share.
ThanksAttachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.12 October 2015 at 3:21 pm #131239Get a tapping knife about 12 dollars, practice on it. it actually will make a use able saw. But it’s a better item to practice on,
14 October 2015 at 1:44 am #131290@nikond80 – If you have not yet seen Andy Lovelock’s youtube video on “Sharpening Western Saws”, you should. It’s really incredible. Very thorough – more than 2 hours.
That saw you have looks like a very small saw and typically they have small teeth (high tpi). So you might be better off not using the hack saw and just filing.
When I recut the teeth on a crosscut panel saw, I made a paper template that I taped to the saw plate. The Sketchup-generated template had lines (perpendicular to the plate’s edge when taped in place) every 1/12 of an inch so I could file 12 tpi. I taped the template to the plate, about 1/16″ below the edge that would be filed, and I extended the template lines by hand onto the plate up to and over the edge. (I think I did this because taping or gluing the template resulted in a big mess when I started filing.) I don’t recall if I did this next item with a marker or by taping the template at just the right location, but I carefully made a line on the plate parallel to the edge. This line would be my depth line to file to. I had either done some calculations or got a depth measurement from another 12 tpi saw.
This takes a LOT of patience. But take your time and things will work out. Nobody on earth will be able to file a saw perfectly on their first attempt. I had to work some teeth again after the first filing and not all my teeth are identical. But they’re not bad. On the second filing I altered the pressure of the file to file the back of the tooth in front of the file or the front of the tooth in back of the file (or just straight down), depending on how the teeth looked. It really helps me to wear a lighted magnifier when filing a saw. I can’t see squat up close these days.
I liken this exercise to one thing I’ve learned from Paul about woodworking – careful layout goes a long way to getting good results. So mark the lines very carefully. I also used a small wooden alignment jig (that is impaled on the far end of the file) to help me file straight and with consistent rake.
Let me know if this was helpful or if you want any more info.
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.