Replies

1. 
   tcalisto | Jan 03, 2005 09:29pm | #1

   I recently picked up a Powermatic 87 bandsaw. This is a 20" model used primarily in machine shops. It has an impressive transmission so that you can change the blade speed from about 37 FPM to 4500 FPM. I was initially going to pay 300 bucks for it (I have seen others going for over $2,500) but the owner dropped it off the truck at my shop and broke the trunnion so he gave it to me. I paid $ 60 to have the trunnion welded and now it works like a dream.

    

   Tom

2. 
   douglas2cats | Jan 03, 2005 09:43pm | #2

   Haven't been so lucky with the tools, but for a few years I used to get all kinds of free hardwood from a previous next-door neighbor that I used to call the Wood Fairy. He was a contractor for an outfit that built high-end homes (7 figure) and apparently it was just easier for him to drop the stuff off at my house than to fool around and return it to where they'd bought it. Thankfully, whoever did the material estimating for his company had a tendency to overestimate quite a bit. During the time he lived next door, I'd come home from work to find cherry, walnut, red oak, mahogany, Brazilian cherry, or maple leaning up against my garage. All really good mostly knot free stuff, and significant amounts too. I really miss him!

1. 
   dalfollo | Jan 04, 2005 01:44am | #3

   i had a retired neighbor down the street that i did not know was into woodworking...apparently he only used old hand tools in his basement  he was a patternmaker as was his father ( his grandfather was a cabinet maker)....

   apparently he was a stickler for a clean shop and tools maintained to the uptmost standards...he had so many different sets of chisels, and several chisels he bought copies because he used them a lot and heard the company was going out of business....he had a full set of bedrock planes with some doubles and several saws, augers, bits, braces, calipers etc.....his father's and grandfather's molding planes filled the walls of shelves....he had al kinds of Stanley rabbeting planes and other makers too...

   well, anyway....i am working in my shop with the garage door open and his newly widowed wife walks up to the garage door and says Hi!...we start talking and she explains to me that her husband was a hand tool woodworker and would often see me working in my garage shop and wonder what i was building....apparently he was a shy man and didn't want to bother me, even though she had told him several times to just walk up and chat with me.....

   So she goes on to tell me about all the tools he has and how they have no children and she doesn't think it is right to sell them, but rather want to give them away to a woodworker who can appreciate them, take care of them,and promises to pass them on to another woodworker when the time comes....I look around my shop at some of the old planes  and  chisels  i  have acquired ,   my homemade router table and new Unisaw....i understand the full weight of how my shop will change, how i will have a new responsibility of stewardship towards the new tools.....i really make a conscious decision that I am worthy to receive these tools and do them justice through my woodworking endeavors....I look the old lady in the eye and tell that i would be honored to have his tools, and promise to treat them with respect as she would expect.....she gives me one of those grandotherly smiles......suddenly i bolt up in bed, with sweat on my brow....realizing that i have had the dream again.....i look at my wife....she wouldn't understand....i roll over and go back to bed.....

1. 
   NARDO | Jan 04, 2005 03:32am | #4

   I have this dream about going away on vacation and a really great time,when I return home and go to the shop all my Bedrocks,Lie-Nielsens etc are replaced by a bunch of mickey mouse dime store copies that could"nt cut paper let alone wood.I realize this is just a dream,but after trying to go back to sleep I have to turn on the shop lights and look just to be sure,so I know what your talking about.

2. 
   NARDO | Jan 04, 2005 03:37am | #5

   My wood fairy is the brother of a good friend,this guy has cherry,quarter sawn white oak,red oak,sasafrass,walnut,you name it and I have never paid any where near what it goes for at a supplier so I try never to bring up the subject of prices,its kind of he s happy and I'm more than happy,the perfect arraingment.

3. 
   Billgiblin | Jan 04, 2005 09:02am | #6

   I have a store near run by habitat for humanity. They take donated building materials and sell them at a fraction of their value, giving the procedes to build habitat homes. Most of the stuff is junk that someone didn't want to throw away - rusty worn out saw blades and old veneer doors.
   But sometimes I go to the wood bin at this store and am pleasantly surprised. They sell all the wood for $1 a square foot. I have gotten maple, dark walnut, oak (all much thicker than 3/4 inch) for $1 a foot. I got 5, 10-inch wide, 6 foot long pieces of walnut for $20 one day. It was great. Another day it was old oak stair treads, four feet long for $5 a piece. It's really hit or miss and mostly miss, but when it's a hit, it's a good one.