Marking guage bound up

[Jim Laumann]

Hello

Over the weekend I was given a few woodworking tools by a friend of ours - Wendell and his wife are selling their farm, and planning to move to town. Wendell wasn't a woodworker, but had a few tools, and I "inherited" some of them.

Nothing fancy or expensive, but they will be worker tools I hope.

There is a Stanley #165 marking guage - made from a "blond" wood - maple, birch or similar. It has a coat of "varnish" over the scriber bar and the head. It appears to be stuck tight - won't move - I am guessing from humidity.

Any suggestions on what I can do as a long term solution for keeping the guage in working order?

THanks

Jim

[Jim Koepke]

Jim,

If possible pictures always help.

Was the varnish applied to the gauge after it was put together?

If it is humidity maybe a day or two in a dry environment would help.

jtk

[Jim Laumann]

Pictures - now there's a thought....I wonder why I didn't think of that....

The "string" attached to the peg is what Wendell used to attach the guage
to pegboard in his garage. The right most pic shows the guide block in the
furthest position in which I can move it - and that takes using both hands
to get it to move.

Thanks

Jim


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[Tom M King]

You're probably going to need to strip that varnish. They had some sort of thin coating, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't varnish from the factory. I can't tell exactly by the pictures. Maybe just put it in the attic for a few days to start with to see if that does it before any stripping.

[Jim Koepke]

+1 on what Tom says about the varnish.

Not sure about the attic treatment. North Carolina likely has very warm attics at present to dry something out and shrink it a bit.

Not knowing your location, your environment might actually cause swelling.

Try a small area test with any solvents you have on hand to see if you can soften and remove the finish.

jtk

[Richard Line]

Here are a couple of thoughts on getting it sliding. First, do you see an signs of contact on the beam in the area that the fence slides along. If you do, try lightly scraping along that side of the beam; does that help, then extend the length of scraping. If that only helps a little, then try the light scraping along the other sides of the beam.

Second, remove the thumb screw and check to see if there is a shoe or button in the bottom that may be stuck. If there is something down there, try moving it around by poking it or if possible by sliding something (feeler gauge) under it.

And last, try tapping the end of the beam on your bench, holding on to the fence. Start with light but solid taps and work up from there if they seem to help. Working in both directions would probably be good, and give you a chance to check for marks that it is jamming. If it is jamming, then its time to really try the drying it out or decide the beam needs to be a bit smaller (scrape of sand the beam).

I am assuming that you're more interested in making useful and keeping it as a display piece. Still going slow and easy this way should not destroy it appearance.

[Jim Matthews]

+1 on checking the mechanism, once it's disassembled.

If it's really stuck, put it in a ziploc bag and freeze it overnight.
Shrinkage