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Monarch Tool Cabinet restoration

daryl bane

Titanium
Joined
Mar 12, 2002
Location
East Texas
This is for forum member Crazypete who I bought it from. I had been looking for one for many years and he mentioned in a post that this one was surplus to his needs and I pounced. It was in great shape, complete, save for a few dents and many coats of oil based enamel of various colors including the infamous "baby blue". Of course I neglected to take a before pic. Did the full strip, then complete auto body procedure, with a finish coat of PPG Deltron which was leftover from the Monarch restoration, old, but still shot great. I welded up a angle iron rolling base, replaced the hardware, the original top was covered with 1/4 mason board , which looked to be original, but I replaced it with 1/8"mason board and then glued 1/8" Mass loaded vinyl over that. I had a roll left over , and found it makes great shelf liner. expensive, but tough.IMG_2027.JPGIMG_2024.jpgIMG_2029.JPG
 
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Yeah, inside and out, and that dang drawer. It took a lot more paint than I was expecting. I wasn't keeping track, but I know a full quart for the primer, and probably little less than that for the topcoat. I shot a coat of primer , did all my bodywork, then a coat of primer surfacer, little more spot work then a final coat of epoxy primer to seal, then the topcoat. A lot of work for a damn cabinet. :)
 
Just searching around, found a post from 2003 that mentioned a catalog from 1948, and the pics are missing from thread now. The thread is here:
Monarch Tool Cabinets

Looking up catalogs, couldn't find a 1948 catalog. Did find a catalog for tool cabinets from 1945, but the style is different. The catalog is here:
http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/2103/19745.pdf

144.jpg

I thought I saw this style before though in one of 61 Series pubs. Found it in a 1957 61 Series catalog, page 42. Looks like there was a large emblem on the side, wish I could see it better. The catalog is here:
http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/2103/19568.pdf

145.jpg
 
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This is for forum member Crazypete who I bought it from. I had been looking for one for many years and he mentioned in a post that this one was surplus to his needs and I pounced. It was in great shape, complete, save for a few dents and many coats of oil based enamel of various colors including the infamous "baby blue". Of course I neglected to take a before pic. Did the full strip, then complete auto body procedure, with a finish coat of PPG Deltron which was leftover from the Monarch restoration, old, but still shot great. I welded up a angle iron rolling base, replaced the hardware, the original top was covered with 1/4 mason board , which looked to be original, but I replaced it with 1/8"mason board and then glued 1/8" Mass loaded vinyl over that. I had a roll left over , and found it makes great shelf liner. expensive, but tough.View attachment 297375View attachment 297376View attachment 297377

Nice job as usual, Daryl. The only thing you didn't mention was dealing with the spot-welded shelf drawer slides and shelf supports. Having owned four of these, that is the weak spot.
 
I couldn't edit the original thread, but here are the photos from the tool cabinet brochure dated 12/46.

attachment.php


attachment.php


BTW, I could not get larger images. Here is what I did:

1. uploaded the files into an album "full sized photos" on my member page. I tried four different sizes of images, but the forum software converted all of them to identical files of size 10.2KB.

2. added the BB code for the image to this post

Any suggestions on how to get around this would be appreciated. I no longer have external photo storage and I gave up trying to use Google Photos.
 
I couldn't edit the original thread, but here are the photos from the tool cabinet brochure dated 12/46.

attachment.php


attachment.php


BTW, I could not get larger images. Here is what I did:

1. uploaded the files into an album "full sized photos" on my member page. I tried four different sizes of images, but the forum software converted all of them to identical files of size 10.2KB.

2. added the BB code for the image to this post

Any suggestions on how to get around this would be appreciated. I no longer have external photo storage and I gave up trying to use Google Photos.

On pics, some post from phone which many find easier, but I think it somehow cuts size of pics down, so the pics don't look great.

I post from pc. I want to say the website doesn't exactly like full size pics, though I have not checked in a while. But I think 1 to 2 mb might be too big, you'll need to check to see.

I load pics to pc. I open the pics for a full view, and using a messenger app I cut the pics myself, so the byte size is smaller, but visually large. And then I save those cut down pics.

To add pics from pc to the thread: you click "reply to thread". On new window, click "go advanced". Scroll down, click "manage attachments". A small window pops up, click "add files". Either click "browse" in drop down to seach your pc for pic, or click + symbol to add up to 5 pics. After pics selected, click "upload". Then click "insert line" at bottom of small window.

To stagger pics along a post. Write something, hit enter twice to give pic nice spacing. Then use above instruction to add a pic. Write some more. . .add another pic. Up to 5 pics.
 
texasgunsmith, thanks for the reply. The one thing you said that makes me wonder is that you post from a pc. I post from a Mac. I've been posting pictures for a long time on PM, but for a couple of years I cannot get an image larger than those shown. As I said, I changed the image size from the original full resolution to 1000x1500, then 800 x 1000 then 600 x 800, and all of them ended up the same and small.
 
texasgunsmith, thanks for the reply. The one thing you said that makes me wonder is that you post from a pc. I post from a Mac. I've been posting pictures for a long time on PM, but for a couple of years I cannot get an image larger than those shown. As I said, I changed the image size from the original full resolution to 1000x1500, then 800 x 1000 then 600 x 800, and all of them ended up the same and small.

I'm not sure about mac. But i open a normal pic to full view, so its large on screen. This messenger app I use, has this scissors icon(or adjustable screen capture). Using it, I click and hold, and drag a large square or rectangle over area I want to capture. Double clicking cuts it out. I cut that full size pic so its still large, when I'm done average size is 1200 x 800 200kb. Though small size the pic looks good and comes up large on my pc, and postings to PM.

If you go to website imgur.com post the full size pics, or if you have another site, and link them here. I can cut them out and post for you on this thread.

If you actually posted pics in reply 9, I can't see them at all. just a blank space, phone or pc.
 
I'm not sure about mac. But i open a normal pic to full view, so its large on screen. This messenger app I use, has this scissors icon(or adjustable screen capture). Using it, I click and hold, and drag a large square or rectangle over area I want to capture. Double clicking cuts it out. I cut that full size pic so its still large, when I'm done average size is 1200 x 800 200kb. Though small size the pic looks good and comes up large on my pc, and postings to PM.

If you go to website imgur.com post the full size pics, or if you have another site, and link them here. I can cut them out and post for you on this thread.

If you actually posted pics in reply 9, I can't see them at all. just a blank space, phone or pc.

I figured it out, took some sleuth work.

All my images are saved as JPEG's with image quality set to high. So for example, the first image above was 597x800 pixels, but the file size was 580KB on the Mac. I opened the image using Preview, then used file:export to re-save it as a JPEG with image quality set to least. That changed the file size to 30KB. The forum software does not compress it, so this is what it uploads as:

IMG_0685-3A.jpg

So, seeing what the issue was, I will see if I can do better. This is a 955x1280 picture with quality set to least:

IMG_0685-A.jpg
 

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Nice job as usual, Daryl. The only thing you didn't mention was dealing with the spot-welded shelf drawer slides and shelf supports. Having owned four of these, that is the weak spot.

The shelf supports and drawer supports seemed to be solid, there is a distance piece between the top shelf and the drawer, which forms the top for the door and it basically fell off during the restoration. I drilled out the spot weld and just put a button head socket bolt and nut there. I figure at now 50+ years old, if the spot welds have held up till now, they will certainly hold up under my watch.
 
I figured it out, took some sleuth work.

All my images are saved as JPEG's with image quality set to high. So for example, the first image above was 597x800 pixels, but the file size was 580KB on the Mac. I opened the image using Preview, then used file:export to re-save it as a JPEG with image quality set to least. That changed the file size to 30KB. The forum software does not compress it, ...
Dave,

There was a time when we had to make sure that JPGs were under 100k or they wouldn't post. Now the forum seems to do a pretty good job of resizing that compressing the images so that they fit. Most of the JPGs that I post are 1200x1600 and 800kb or large in size. They post directly, without me having to do anything and look good.

If you e-mail the photos for the other thread to me I can edit the thread and put the photos in. I'm pretty sure you have my e-mail.

Cal
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Dave,

There was a time when we had to make sure that JPGs were under 100k or they wouldn't post. Now the forum seems to do a pretty good job of resizing that compressing the images so that they fit. Most of the JPGs that I post are 1200x1600 and 800kb or large in size. They post directly, without me having to do anything and look good.

If you e-mail the photos for the other thread to me I can edit the thread and put the photos in. I'm pretty sure you have my e-mail.

Cal
---

I would not be at all surprised if it is a MAC-only issue. At any rate, image size and jpeg size are only partially related. For years I have been using jpegs that are 1000 x 1200, but then forum software started compressing them. So I went smaller and smaller, and it kept compressing them. I had not realized that image size is not the key, it is jpeg size. And there is a separate parameter to reduce the image quality and thereby reduce the jpeg size.

Dave
 
That's a lovely job of restoration. You should be proud and I hope the next caretaker of your cabinet is appreciative. Some of our tools have already outlived their previous owners and with decent care should outlive us as well. Hence my reference to present-day owners as their caretakers (for the next generation of 'owners').

Anyway, good job, you've earned an attaboy for your diligence. And thank you Pete as well for the 'before' photos. Honestly, I would have been inclined to press it into service just as it was, but I can be lazy sometimes.
 
I feel fortunate to have one of those cabinets. If I ever get to restoring/overhauling my lathe I'll do the same to the cabinet. Currently the match! Old and used but functional and in decent condition but not pretty.
 








 
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