Jim Christie
Titanium
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2007
- Location
- L'Orignal, Ontario Canada
I have been inspired by some recent threads on this forum to try and push a long with a project that has been in the back of my mind for a while so I thought I would share the experience here on this forum with those of you who like these sorts of things.
I am working on cleaning up an old tool chest and and some old shop made machinist tools that belonged to my grandfather and then my father.
[My grandfather served his apprenticeship at Robertson and Orchar’s Wallace Foundry in Dundee Scotland from 1906 until 1911 and also worked there after World War 1 .
In 1924 he came to Canada and shortly there after came to work at the Canadian International Paper Co. pulp mill in Hawkesbury until his death in 1952 .
I posted a thread about the Wallace Foundry here http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-history/robertson-orchar-112792/index2.html a while ago. Some of the links no longer work to Andy Robertson’s site so I have added some of the pictures that he had put up for me to a sub album on my Photobucket album Robertson and Orchar pictures by JEChristie - Photobucket .
I will try and post some more information that I found about the company when time permits but I am going to try and concentrate on the tools in this thread for now.
I’m not sure if my grandfather built this box himself or not.
As far as I know this was his main tool box and I think had a smaller one to take out on repair jobs .
His father was a wood turner so he may have had a hand in making it also.
It is of rather simple construction and looks to me to be made of pine of some kind and nailed rather than dovetailed or screwed together .
From the pictures of the Wallace Foundry shop and what I know of the pulp mill shop I’m not surprised that the box has suffered some over the years.
not to mention that it was stored in a damp basement for another 15 years and spent close to another 40 years in an unheated shed attic .
I will attach a couple of pictures and have posted more in an other Photobucket sub album starting here, Old Tool Chest and Machinist Tools :: DSCF1291-Copy.jpg picture by JEChristie - Photobucket
For the best part of the last 40 years the box has been empty since may father had taken the tools and put them in his larger 1940 s wooden chest that he had made for him when he was starting out in the trade .
While some of the tools have been used occasionally by my father and now myself most of them got quite rusted from sitting unattended so long in the basement and then in the attic.
I am thinking that I won’t try and bring the chest and the tools back to like new condition but rather just clean them up a bit so that they don’t look like they were just made but rather try and keep some of the character they have acquired over the years and considering that those that are signed and dated were made when my grandfather was in the early years of his apprenticeship.
I think I would be hard pressed to turn out something as good as that with relatively recent equipment I have let alone working with the machinery in the shop where they were made as you can see in the pictures in the earlier links.
I have posted pictures of the tools as I found them starting here
Old Tool Chest and Machinist Tools :: DSCF1252 picture by JEChristie - Photobucket
Here are a couple of shots taken after I cleaned some of the tools up after first some CLR rust remover and emery cloth for the worst rust and then I tried using some Rust Check a petroleum based product used to spray on automobiles for rust protection in areas where there is a lot of road salt in the winter and some steel wool and just rubbed away at them and worked the caliper joints back and forth until they started moving better.
I may work at them some more with the steel wool but at least for now they are cleand up a bit and the rust Check should stop them from rusting further .
These pictures show what some of them look like now.
If any one would like more detailed pictures of something or has any questions I will try and reply as son as I can but may not always be available in the upcomming weeks.
Regards,
Jim
P/S it looks like I have to rotate my pictures beofre posting them onPhotobucket if I want the thumbnail to look right here but at at least when you click on it the larger picture is OK.
I am working on cleaning up an old tool chest and and some old shop made machinist tools that belonged to my grandfather and then my father.
[My grandfather served his apprenticeship at Robertson and Orchar’s Wallace Foundry in Dundee Scotland from 1906 until 1911 and also worked there after World War 1 .
In 1924 he came to Canada and shortly there after came to work at the Canadian International Paper Co. pulp mill in Hawkesbury until his death in 1952 .
I posted a thread about the Wallace Foundry here http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/antique-machinery-history/robertson-orchar-112792/index2.html a while ago. Some of the links no longer work to Andy Robertson’s site so I have added some of the pictures that he had put up for me to a sub album on my Photobucket album Robertson and Orchar pictures by JEChristie - Photobucket .
I will try and post some more information that I found about the company when time permits but I am going to try and concentrate on the tools in this thread for now.
I’m not sure if my grandfather built this box himself or not.
As far as I know this was his main tool box and I think had a smaller one to take out on repair jobs .
His father was a wood turner so he may have had a hand in making it also.
It is of rather simple construction and looks to me to be made of pine of some kind and nailed rather than dovetailed or screwed together .
From the pictures of the Wallace Foundry shop and what I know of the pulp mill shop I’m not surprised that the box has suffered some over the years.
not to mention that it was stored in a damp basement for another 15 years and spent close to another 40 years in an unheated shed attic .
I will attach a couple of pictures and have posted more in an other Photobucket sub album starting here, Old Tool Chest and Machinist Tools :: DSCF1291-Copy.jpg picture by JEChristie - Photobucket
For the best part of the last 40 years the box has been empty since may father had taken the tools and put them in his larger 1940 s wooden chest that he had made for him when he was starting out in the trade .
While some of the tools have been used occasionally by my father and now myself most of them got quite rusted from sitting unattended so long in the basement and then in the attic.
I am thinking that I won’t try and bring the chest and the tools back to like new condition but rather just clean them up a bit so that they don’t look like they were just made but rather try and keep some of the character they have acquired over the years and considering that those that are signed and dated were made when my grandfather was in the early years of his apprenticeship.
I think I would be hard pressed to turn out something as good as that with relatively recent equipment I have let alone working with the machinery in the shop where they were made as you can see in the pictures in the earlier links.
I have posted pictures of the tools as I found them starting here
Old Tool Chest and Machinist Tools :: DSCF1252 picture by JEChristie - Photobucket
Here are a couple of shots taken after I cleaned some of the tools up after first some CLR rust remover and emery cloth for the worst rust and then I tried using some Rust Check a petroleum based product used to spray on automobiles for rust protection in areas where there is a lot of road salt in the winter and some steel wool and just rubbed away at them and worked the caliper joints back and forth until they started moving better.
I may work at them some more with the steel wool but at least for now they are cleand up a bit and the rust Check should stop them from rusting further .
These pictures show what some of them look like now.
If any one would like more detailed pictures of something or has any questions I will try and reply as son as I can but may not always be available in the upcomming weeks.
Regards,
Jim
P/S it looks like I have to rotate my pictures beofre posting them onPhotobucket if I want the thumbnail to look right here but at at least when you click on it the larger picture is OK.