My mitre box project & problem

[Matt Ranum]

I picked up this mitre box last fall for $15 if memory serves and hadn't had much time to play with it until recently. I started using it for cutting small pen blanks and it needed some work as it was not smooth at all. Pretty much dismantled it all, took the rollers out of the uprights and lubed them with dry graphite, made a new bottom board out of Oak and basically washed it up and re painted it with some hammered finish paint. Cleaned up the saw with some 600 grit & WD40 avoiding the teeth cause they were really pretty good yet. Washed down with some brake cleaner and then waxed the blade.

Put her all back together and wow does thing work awesome! Made 2 45* cuts on a couple boards, put them on a framing square and what do ya know, a perfect 90* corner. Didn't even need to set any trim adjustments.

But.........and there is always a but.......on the posts there are depth adjustments. On the rear post there appears to have only been about 1 or 2 good threads left in the hole and apparently I took care of those while reassembling. The screws are #10 and 1 post had a 10-24 and the other had 10-32. Never noticed till it was too late. Nice.:rolleyes: Question is now, how do I fix it?

I'll see if I can get some new pictures here if it will help see the problem.

[Matt Ranum]

Here are some more pics of the problem area and the Dupont overhaul(paint job).:p

[Jonathan McCullough]

If you have a drill press you could probably drill new, slightly larger holes and use a tap to put new threads into the new holes.

I see that's a "Stanley" saw made by Disston, but is that mitre box a Stanley? Looks like it. They have lots of parts for their mitre boxes at Stanleytoolparts.com and you may be able to get what you need there instead of drilling & tapping.

[glenn bradley]

I agree there seems to be plenty of "meat" to allow you to expand that hole to a #12.

[J. Greg Jones]

Matt, I have the same problem with mine (inherited from my grandfather) but my problem is worse. Mine is made by Stanley but branded Montgomery Ward, and when the screw gave out the depth adjuster was lost. As Jonathan mentioned, Stanley does carry parts for these, but there are several model numbers to choose from. Would you mind sharing the model number of your saw so I know which parts to order? I plan on drilling and re-tapping the mount also, but I still need to pick up a depth adjuster.

[Jim Koepke]

Matt,

Before doing anything, you might want to read my post:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=1339970#post1339970

It covers how I have successfully repaired threads for plane totes. There are a few products other people have used besides JB Weld. One thing that is important is to not be stingy with the filler. It is better to have to carefully clean a small hole with a drill than to not have enough material to form threads.

If that is a Stanley made product, it would be different to discover that they actually used a common thread. They are usually proprietary.

Good luck.

jim

[Matt Ranum]

Greg- Here are some pics of the data plate I thought I posted these earlier but thats just "par for the course" with me lately. Hope it helps.

Jim, I was hoping someone would chime in on fixing the threads without drill and tapping a larger hole. I could do that but would prefer to try and repair the threads otherwise I would have to enlarge the slot in the adjuster to match the screw and I would just a soon leave that for the last resort.

I know about Stanley's proprietary threads, but I think this has been an issue with previous owner(s) as neither screw for each adjuster looks original and I came up with a 10-24 &10-32 when I checked against my thread gauge.

The estate I got this from was a guy who ran an auto scrap business for as long as I can remember and he had tons of old tools there but they were pretty proud of most of them so I didn't buy much. Just this for $15 and an almost new 220 block plane for $5, figured I could handle that. All the nicest hand tools were gone by the time I had gotten there. It was advertised for 3 weeks in the paper and being right on a main highway, they erected a 4x8 sign the read "TOOL SALE" and the sale was for only one day. I almost didn't stop because there were so many tool hunters there. Goes to show ya just never know what you can find and I am sure happy with this unit so far.

[Jim Koepke]

Greg- Here are some pics of the data plate I thought I posted these earlier but thats just "par for the course" with me lately. Hope it helps.

Jim, I was hoping someone would chime in on fixing the threads without drill and tapping a larger hole. I could do that but would prefer to try and repair the threads otherwise I would have to enlarge the slot in the adjuster to match the screw and I would just a soon leave that for the last resort.

I know about Stanley's proprietary threads, but I think this has been an issue with previous owner(s) as neither screw for each adjuster looks original and I came up with a 10-24 &10-32 when I checked against my thread gauge.


Hope it can help. My philosophy is to try and keep it original if possible. I do not like to enlarge holes to take a bigger bolt due to causing other weaknesses. Getting screws with the original threads may make it easier to use a standard thread like 10-32. I did just recently buy a 10-28 tap as an ad on to bring an order up to the minimum $25 from Victor Machinery Exchange.


The estate I got this from was a guy who ran an auto scrap business for as long as I can remember and he had tons of old tools there but they were pretty proud of most of them so I didn't buy much. Just this for $15 and an almost new 220 block plane for $5, figured I could handle that. All the nicest hand tools were gone by the time I had gotten there. It was advertised for 3 weeks in the paper and being right on a main highway, they erected a 4x8 sign the read "TOOL SALE" and the sale was for only one day. I almost didn't stop because there were so many tool hunters there. Goes to show ya just never know what you can find and I am sure happy with this unit so far.

Don't ya just hate it when they tell everybody about these things?

jim

[Casey Gooding]

I have a similar setup made by Millers Falls. I love it!!!! I keep hoping I can find a dedicated place for it. The handle on yours looks much more comfortable than mine, though. I'm going to have to spend some quality time with it to do some reshaping.
Enjoy!!!

[Eric Brown]

You might be able to tap it out larger and then install a threaded insert to get the original size back. Try McMaster.com. They offer many different types.

Eric

[Matt Ranum]

You might be able to tap it out larger and then install a threaded insert to get the original size back. Try McMaster.com. They offer many different types.

Eric


Sorta like a heli-coil, I'll have to look into that.