Delta Rockwell Model # 37-290 4" Jointer

A good handful of years ago, I came across an old jointer on Craigslist.  I was in the market for an electric motor.  I found the electric motor - it just happened to come with this cool little vintage 4" jointer.  I bought it all for $50.  

It's been in a corner of my barn, but I found that I had a need to use it for a home project.  I pulled it out, and tuned it up, and ran my couple of projects through it.  While it was out, I thought I would give it a nice little paint job. 

I disassembled it into its main pieces.  It only took about 20 minutes.

There's not alot to this little jointer.  

But old greasy dust is in every nook and cranny.

The fence on the rear is able to be tilted +/- 45 degrees.  It was all frozen up, so I will work on freeing it to make it usable.

Cleaning and painting is pretty straight-forward.  I degrease all the parts with an engine cleaner and a wire brush.  I don't worry about getting all the old paint off if it is in uniform condition.  Then I mask off all the areas not to be painted.

A quick shot of primer

A double shot of paint.  In this case, I chose Dark Machine Gray.

Then peel off my masking tape.  Viola.

Do this for all parts, and then reassemble.  That's the topic of next post.

The Atlas Model 64 Drill Press

I visited my Aunt and Uncle in Peoria recently.  They are moving out of their condo soon, and are downsizing tremendously.  Thus, I was blessed to obtain a new tool - the Atlas model 64 benchtop drill press.  From a little research, it appears it is a mid/late 1940s vintage.  It is solid, and very heavy, and is in very good condition.

 Researching more, I found it had the optional "low speed" pulley setup - that is the middle set of pulleys that further reduce the speed down.  That's probably more suitable for metal work, I would presume.  

The motor is huge.  The name plate is beautiful.

It is in excellent mechanical condition thru and thru.

I checked the run-out with a dial indicator, and it is still very tight.  At the most, I found just 0.004 to 0.005 inches of slop.  Not bad for a machine that is 75 ish years old.

My plans, you ask?  Well, I think I'll give it a little tune-up, and find a neighbor to help me lift it up onto a tabletop, and simply use it for now.  I can see down the road tearing it apart and replacing bearings, and giving it a fresh paint job, but I don't think I'll do that for awhile.  I've got a few other projects in the barrel to finish up before this occurs.

Thanks Aunt Ginny and Uncle Jerry!

Chain O Lakes Adventures

We were invited by friends to spend a weekend camping at Chain O Lakes.  We took our new canoe trailer and loaded up for the weekend.

We entered the channels connecting the lakes not knowing what to expect.  What we found was a nice and peaceful passageway with lots of twists and turns.  A fun challenge for a 18.5 foot long canoe.

We took a break in the middle of a bigger lake and enjoyed the views.

Some lakes had alot of algae and skum.  It was kind of pretty in its own way, but it had alot of drag.  Someone said it was like paddling through carpet.

Here are our friends in their rented canoe making their way through.

To balance out the canoe weight, I had my #3 kiddo sit way in the tippy tip of the front.  He was the "figurehead" as on a pirate ship.

In the evening, we met up with our friends (8 campsites worth), and we all shared in a taco bar for suppertime.  The highlight was a Dutch Oven dessert.  I learned the mysterious ways of stacking Dutch Ovens with each other, and baking the entire stack at once.  

The results were:

1.  Cherry cobbler

2.  Apple cobbler

3.  Blackberry cobbler

Peeking through the netting of the window of the tent, kids slept well overnight.  They slept in pretty well til mid-morning.

It was a great park, and I hope we can go back in a few years.