Acme Bench Top Hand Saw Filer Restoration (Pics)

I told myself I would stay off craigslist..... "your shop is complete" i said..."you don't need another restoration project" I said...but there I was, 11pm, scrolling through listings. I don't even know how I ended up on the website. One minute I was watching youtube and then I blink my eyes and all of a sudden craigslist is scrolling across my screen. I'm fairly certain there's some paranormal activity happening in my home. That's what I'm telling my wife at least.

So, what did I find? A 1950's Max Machinery "Acme Hand Saw Filer". Did I need it? No. Did I have the space for it? No. Did I have time to restore it? No. But I bought it anyway. I knew I overpaid too but "the vise alone is worth $500+" is what I told myself. So here it is...loaded up and on it's way to a new and better life. I'll be completely tearing it down to the last screw and rebuilding it. Feel free to come along for the ride and see how it turns out....

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I'm just glad I didn't see it on CL. I'm the first to say that restoring old tools often isn't worth it compared to buying new or recently new. I've learned that the hard way more than once. I've even posted that sentiment here (while being in the process of taking my 1968 Unisaw and combining it with a parted out 1986 Unisaw to get the best of both, or at least be rid of the worst of the 1968). And yet it still takes all my will power to keep from picking up projects like that:)

Awesome! I've been looking for one of those vises for decades, but the only ones I've seen come up were always with the whole machine, and always more money than I wanted to put in it.

Too many years ago to admit to I used to have my handsaws sharpened on one of those. Or I think I remember it being like that. The saws came back lightly oiled and wrapped in newspaper. The teeth were perfectly uniform and the points were dead even in height.

Do you plan on using yours or are you just doing a fun restoration project ?

I plan use it even though I already have a Gramercy 14" saw vise that I really like. I'm pretty confident in my sharpening ability already but this will make very fast work of establishing tooth geometry before a final hand sharpening. This machine is absolutely massive though. 200+ pounds and 4 feet wide. I have to decide what I'm going to do about a permanent home for it. Space is tight in here..

I was a little concerned about the rust on the bed of the machine so before I started tearing it down I worked on a small section of steel to see how it would clean up. Results are promising.

Everything else is covered in a heavy layer of dirt, metal filings and grease, so it's going to get a sodium hydroxide soak to degrease and strip paint.

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