that tool cabinet

[billy rubin]

okay. this tool cabinet is driving me nuts, because i don't know what all these things are. when i was a child, i had a reprint of an old 1902 sears and roebuck catalog, which had lots of images of 19th century woodbutcher's kits. so some of the tools are pretty esoteric, but i recognize them. others are just mysterious.

what are these things at the end of the red lines?



specialized instruments are really interesting to me, and hand tools are the epitome of specialized stuff. i have hundreds of pounds of hand tools. some that i made for a single purpose are so specialized that i don't even remember what they do, but i can't get rid of them because th enext time i need them i will instantly recognize their purpose.

[billy rubin]

by the way, if you have an interesting tool that you use for something, i would be interested in seeing it. especially stuff that you have made yourself.

[Tank]

top right are mortice and tenon gauges but why there would be 4 I don't understand.

https://toolsforworkingwood.com/store/more/gaugeguide.html

[billy rubin]

do you use more than one when making something? maybe there is an advantage to having several at different settings?

how do use you them? i know jack about wood working.

the more i look into that set of tools the more i see that i dont understand. its so complete that it looks like a display piece, or maybe a salesman's sample set. id love to see whats in the drawers

[Tank]

do you use more than one when making something? maybe there is an advantage to having several at different settings?

how do use you them? i know jack about wood working.

the more i look into that set of tools the more i see that i dont understand. its so complete that it looks like a display piece, or maybe a salesman's sample set. id love to see whats in the drawers

Have a look in the link. I recognise them but rarely use them.

[Dark Lightning]

I have a rosewood marking tool pretty much like the one you see if you scroll down to the "tip" picture. I seldom use it. If Studley made furniture, he would potentially need more M&T gauges, depending on the various thicknesses of wood he was using, but that seems a stretch. He also worked on pianos, but a perusal of piano tuning tools doesn't provide much information. In the right bay, the two cylindrical devices near the top and at either side look like they might be Yankee drivers. If the picture was clearer maybe I could make out what those things are.

Amends: Studley built pianos.

Also, Billy: If you are feeling munificent, you can buy a poster here:

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/books-and-dvds/73767-studley-tool-chest-poster?item=LC130

[billy rubin]

shit, i didn't know studley was a person. i thought it was a tool supplier

so he made this thing

what are these roundy things?

[billy rubin]

th epictures on the net aren't the same. look at this. theres a tool missing just above th ecombinatio5on square, to the left of the 4-inch rule and below the screwdriver



this tool chest is making me furiously curious. he has vast numbers of dividers for transferring measurements, but apparently no rule longer than the 12-inch square for generating an original length.

how can you lay out a piano with only a foot-long rule?

i dont see a single file, or a wood rasp. i can understand not having taps and dies, but no files?

how can you fit the metal pieces to a piano without files?

[Dark Lightning]

No idea what those roundy things are. I'm willing to bet that the files and rasps are going to be neatly sorted in those drawers, but how many files and rasps does one need to make a piano? I'm thinking pretty much none, personally. I'm also willing to bet that he had a folding wooden ruler in one of those drawers. https://www.amazon.com/Lufkin-X46SLN-Wood-Brass-Black/dp/B00HDSPIUE/ref=asc_df_B00HDSPIUE/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=366409914449&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13116002951045546179&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031634&hvtargid=pla-876272215117&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=76503872336&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=366409914449&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13116002951045546179&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031634&hvtargid=pla-876272215117

[Icarus]

DLs photo shows what is generally know by old craftsmen as A "Yankee" screwdriver.  Push down on the handle and the screwdriver bit turns.  Not as convenient as our current electric screwdrivers and not nearly as fast or easy.  But it worked.

The tool box is a beauty but it is a bit ostentatious.  For one thing the presumably dated tool box has iron planes.  Old time craftsmen made planes of wood.  That there are Machinists tools along with the woodworker tools is suggestive of some kind of exhibitionism. Not to be too critical........that craftsman was probably proud of all his tools and chose to show them as best he/she (not likely she in that time) could.

I confess that I have damned near every one of those tools including both wood and metal working and measuring tools.  That is because I have had a really long period of time to collect all of those things.  Some of them are, at this time not much used, treasures nonetheless...............for example I have a full set of letter drills that have never ever been used. They are the Cleveland Tap and Die brand which was state of the art of the long ago day. They are still in the original envelope packages.  I inherited them from my father who inherited them from an even older machinist. 

I recently sold, on Craigs List, some tools that I need like I need a paper ass. There was the boring head with carbide cutters for the milling machine, a beautiful set of ultra precise gauge blocks, a dial center finder for the mill and a precision sine bar.

I have sold some of the lesser tools at yard sales. I did not particularly need the money but I needed/wanted the space that they occupied.  Aaah nostalgia ain't gonna matter when I am in my grave.....or in my case a box of powdery granules. Now that i think of it, what will the survivors do with my  ashes?  Hey I have got it.  Mix my ashes with the several containers of ashes that were once my several beloved dogs.

[hermes2015]

I had a feeling the picture would evoke interest when I posted it, but not such deep analysis.

[billy rubin]

its a window that looks into a different world

[hermes2015]

I think most people here know I like to make connections. When I saw this tool cabinet, it immediately brought to mind the artist Joseph Cornell's assemblages. I think that was the main reason I was attracted to it.

https://milenaolesinska77.medium.com/joseph-cornell-pioneer-of-assemblage-art-87d7fa3c06c4

[hermes2015]

More Cornell.

https://www.pinterest.jp/pin/316940892521358708/

[Bad Penny II]

It looks kinda steam punk.

I don't like mortice and tenon gauges.

I remember high school woodwork, I didn't use them well so had to redo, my job got smaller and smaller.