Yard Sale Practice Saw

[Phil Mueller]

Completely inspired by Stewie's saw build, I decided to jump into a learning project. Here's the subject I picked up for $8 at a yard sale this weekend.
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A beauty huh? It's a post 1955 Disston Miter Saw...28" long, 6" wide, 12TPI...that's obviously seen better days. The Stanley miter box came with it. Apparently used by the seller's father. Didn't really want the box, but when I told him I was going to try to restore it and put it to some use, he dropped the price from $15...said he was glad it was going to a good home and insisted I take the miter box. Little did he know I have all the potential to create nothing more than a wall hanger for the cabin :eek: But for his father's sake, and my learning curve, I'll give it my best.

Given it's not a rare model, made after Disston sold, and a rather large thing at that, I can't make it any worse...and I won't be destroying a national treasure.

I plan to de-rust, make a new handle, and go to work on the teeth. I figure if I can't get it right by about tooth #200 or so...it just wasn't meant to be.

[Stewie Simpson]

Excellent news Phil. Look forward to following your progress. There is nothing to be gained by holding back on what is achievable.

regards Stewie;

[Jim Koepke]

Hopefully you will be amazed by how easy it is to make an old saw act nice cutting wood.

jtk

[Stewie Simpson]

Hi Phil. As you gain more experience, I would suggest you look at replacing the existing saw plate with that of a thinner 0.025 gauge plate. You will find the thinner gauge is much more user friendly. If you do take up that option, I would suggest you restrict the depth of the saw plate to no more than 4 1/2 inches below the spine. Any deeper than that and you risk the potential that the saw plate will distort along its length as a result of too high a heat transfer within a deeply sawn kerf.

Stewie;

[Jim Matthews]

Don't give up so quickly on the miter box.

It's a piece of precision equipment that can
revitalize your frame work for cabinet, doors
and picture frames.

Fitted with a properly sharp saw like yours
they're a fast, quiet solution to repeated crosscuts.

[Phil Mueller]

Thanks Stewie. I'm going to keep this one as is... to climb up the learning curve. Your suggestions are noted in my notebook under saw build for project #2.
I need a few things to get going...saw vise, files, saw set. I figure if I make the vise, I will have a relatively small investment in tools.
The handle's been removed, and it's into the electrolysis bath to see what we have after the rust is removed.


Jim, appreciate the input. The miter box is missing a few parts...slide out stops for the most part...but certainly usable. I will clean it up and give it a go after the saw is complete. It's a neat piece of vintage tool design, and a hefty one at that.


Sorry, pic is upside down...need to orient my iPhone correctly...

[Mark Stutz]

I've used elecrolysis on a number of rust buckets. Never tried a saw, but vaguely remember several years ago someone posting the it may not be the best idea for saw plate, and they had better luck just using sandpaper. IIRC it was something about making it brittle. It will be interesting to see the results of this project.

[steven c newman]

Maybe go from this
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$5 rust bucket 22" saw, Craftsman Mitre box..to
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Ready for business

I use mainly sandpaper. 1/4 sheet sander. Soak in WD40 for awhile first, to loosen the red stuff, and kill the spiders...

[Steve Voigt]

You may find that the mitre box is the best part of the deal. Hard for me to tell from the pic, but a saw that rusty may turn out to be severely pitted. If that's the case, orphaned mitre saws are fairly easy to find on the auction site.

[Phil Mueller]

Thanks all. You may all be correct. Nice restoration Steven. I'll see what happens in the 'lectrobath and go from there...don't plan on leaving it in too long. It's really more a prototype project to get all the mistakes out of the way (or at least most)!
Phil