r/Vintagetools

My 1971? Sears Craftsman Circular Saw. It was used by my grandfather to finish several basements and built multiple sheds. It was then used by my other grandfather to build another shed. It is heavy, but very robust. It’s got decent speed and good torque, and it is so durable that it chipped a concrete floor when I dropped it once. I don’t know how exactly to pinpoint the model year, although I know it is late 1960s-early 1970s. The serial number is 5426. It spins rather slow at 5800 rpm, but is pretty powerful. interesting how it takes 7 inch blades. I wonder which company made this one? Stanley? It lacks a brake and therefore takes forever to spool down. I still have the original booklet, listing all the parts for repair! Before planned obsolescence.

if you know, let my know

I have this Sears craftsman “Manual Scroller Saw” from the 1980s. It’s plastic, but quite thick at that and pretty robust. It has a scroll knob, which is quite a nice feature. It’s model 315.10723. Was this manufactured by Ryobi? Some past google searches have seem to have brought this up. This was also the first tool I ever learned to take apart and maintain. It’s pretty basic, but works well enough. Any ideas on the year?

Marked with K. K No. 8. I'm thinking a Keen Kutter. Cap lever is a Stanley.

The other day, I decided it was time to dig my grounds crew out of mothballs. The Mark 26 riding mower needed some minor adjustments to the speed control reeves drive, but the Iron Horse push mower fired up on the first pull.

Offered for several years , the Iron Horse was the first true Lawn-Boy, featuring a light, cast deck, and under deck exhaust, and the peculiar staggered wheel that gives it excellent trim mowing properties. When my wife and I were first married and had no money, we needed a lawnmower. That same week, a man rolled this Lawn-Boy into the repair shop where I worked as a power tool repairman, asking us to scrap it.

" What's wrong with it?", I inquired.

" Nothing", he replied. " I'm just sick of looking at this goddamn lawnmower".

Needless to say, I tuned it up, took it home, and have mowed with it once a week for over twenty years. I did a restoration many years ago; at the end of this season, I'll freshen up the paint so it looks it's best for the seventy-fifth mowing season. Truman was president when this mower was made, and it stills works just fine.

The Mark 26 was found in an outbuilding on the property of a highschool friend's grandparents when their estate was being settled. I dug it out from under a collapsed pile of scaffolding, restored it, and waited eleven years to have a yard big enough to use it. Part of Porter-Cable's short-lived outdoor power equipment line, this mower was only made for two years. The Mark 26 is a bizarre design, with tiller steering, a left hand mower deck, fender skirts, and an exhaust that exits from the rear like an automobile. Nevertheless, the Mark 26 is a credible machine, being both quick and extremely nimble.

From my limited knowledge and “deep” investigation, Sargent No. 5 is 414 Type 5 (1919-1942) and Stanley Bailey No. 5 is Type 19 (1948-1961). If you can see any clues that will date them better or more accurately, please let me know.

I would love to hear about condition and price. It was listed for higher price but very friendly and nice seller accepted my offer for $58 both. I know non of them are any special collector items, but I think I got a good deal based on condition and price, am I wrong?

Any restoration tips and tricks that might be helpful for first timer, are very welcome as well.

My father has this drill press in his garage. He says it still works great and makes a lovely sound.
Can’t find any branding on it beside the placard about the US Gov.
He got it as a gift from a family member many years ago.

I just took apart my 1950s craftsman butterfly ratchet for the first time. What should I use to clean the innards? Also, will silicone grease be ok for the parts?

Can anyone tell me the time period this was made and if it’s worth anything.

I bought a garage for my business 4 years ago and it has a large attached warehouse

house. Ive been going through a lot of whats left over. I thought this was neat. labeled Hood Bros Inc from Philadelphia.

An older gentleman in my woodworking guild send this photo to our group and asked what it may be. Google Lens and AI services haven't been able to identify it's make or purpose. Any ideas?

Got a couple nice clubs for my collection over the weekend.

Appears to be designed to hold some sort of item. Secured with wooden set screws. Cut nails attaching wooden handles on bottom

Picked up this plane to help shave my tenons so they fit nice and snug. I'm new to vintage Stanley tools.

This one has Stanley Rule & Level Co stamped on the iron. The guy that sold it said it could be pre-1920s, wondering if anyone can help date it or has some info on the history.

One fun detail is someone left their finger print on the underside of the iron clamp (not sure of the real name).

It's still working nicely, managed to slice my finger while not paying attention on the last stroke on the strop. Letting me know it's still fit for work.

I recently inherited a workshop with heavy older machinery (like this green wood lathe) plus a wall of vintage hand tools. I wanted to start restoring and actually using them, but a lot of the data plates are scratched off, painted over, or just gone, and tracking down manuals or compatible parts was driving me up the wall.

I'm a software dev, so I spent the last few months building a computer vision app called ToolSnap that tries to ID a tool from a photo and point you towards compatible parts.

Under the hood it's the GPT-4o Vision API doing the heavy lifting, which means it's pretty good on stationary shop tools and hand tools where there's enough training data, and it gets noticeably worse the further back you go.

Pre-1950s stuff with no markings is genuinely hard and it will absolutely guess wrong sometimes...I'd rather say that upfront than oversell it.

Full transparency on the business side: the API costs me money per scan, so it's a paid app, but there's a 7-day free trial if you want to throw your worst-case piece at it.

What I'd actually love from this sub: what's the era or brand you've found hardest to identify when the paint and logos are gone? I'm trying to figure out where the model breaks so I know what to work on next, and y'all know this stuff way better than the model does.

Any Info on these ?

I was able to get a little information on these over at the machinists sup until mods deleted my posts. Not really looking for a value or anything. Just looking for information on their history.