George, we had one in the barn, my uncle up the holler had one, just about everyone we knew had a set up in the barn or at least knew someone close that had a set up they could use. People had to be the "jack of all trades". 

Frosty, i am old enough to remember back in the 70's getting the Sears catalog in the mail. Grandma, mom, and my aunts got first crack at it, then when my granddad, dad, uncles got through us kids would lay in front of the fireplace and look at it. Mostly the toys and pointing at what we wanted. We would pick out about $1000 worth of toys and swear we were going to save our money to get them. 3 months later a new catalog, a new list, and a new vow to save our money. 

I find it kind of amazing that Sears kind of missed the whole internet shopping thing. I mean Amazon today is what Sears was 100 years ago. 

Socks, that is a bale handle. The bale is the part you pull on. A hasp is one of those pieces that has a slot with a hinge, a plate with a ring and you use it to lock things up with. 

My mom has stories about standing with her friends on the hill above her village in Alaska, watching for the smoke that would tell them that the steamship was coming up the Yukon with all of their packages from Sears Roebuck. It only came a few times a year, so its first arrival after breakup was A Big Deal.

Yeah, it used to be Sears and Roebuck had a pretty solid monopoly on mail order, they literally consumed the competition. Unfortunately they'd been so successful for so long they couldn't make the change in time to save themselves from an internet where they couldn't close doors and buy out the little fry. 

The last Sears in Alaska closed a few years ago and the building is finally being remodeled into I don't know what. It got to the point Craftsman tools were low quality without the guarantee, Kenmore is nothing but a name, no service department, 3rd. party delivery and installation, etc. and Fred Meyer's priced at best.

Our whole family used to sit around reading the Sears catalog too and we lived in suburban Los Angeles. Another sad loss to society is National Geographic. Last $27. issue I looked through was about 3/4 ads and artsy photos for what were there. My Grandfather "Pappy" bought his bride a lifetime subscription to Nat Geo for a wedding or maybe courting gift in 1909. I loved going through the older ones, plain brown paper, pre-color glossy cover and only a few color pics inside. Every issue was an adventure in strange lands with good stories about those lands. Pics and stories in the USA were infrequent, usually a photo shoot of a new state, Mt. Rushmore, etc.

Dang, now I'm all maudlin. <sigh>

Frosty The Lucky.

I was in school in Boston in the early 90s when they closed down a big distribution center (with a clearance outlet) not far from me.  The Amazon warehouse of its day, I guess.

Made this here tool for doing half penny and snub end scrolls. I think i got the groove to deep. Got the hardy shank too long from not paying attention, i lined my mark up with the wrong side of my butcher. As it not seeming to work any better than i can do just over the edge of the anvil i will see now if it may help with hinge making. 

Made from 1" square of 1030. 

Yep Sears sold everything.  Even livestock. (well bees anyway)   In order to increase sales of radios, they determined that the middle states didn't buy radios as there were no stations that they could pick up.  So, Sears built a station in Chicago.  The most powerful station in the world (as the story goes)  That station? WLS.  They broadcast things of interest to the farmers of the midwest, and also ads for products that Sears sold. WLS was an acronym for Worlds Largest Store. 

Living in North Texas, I would listen to WLS on a regular basis.

While killing time until we go out for my "Estranged Step-father Equivalent Day" dinner with my son and his girlfriend, I started on the frame to hold my new swage block.

My Uncle Brent and Aunt Louise (Weesie) lived in a Sears kit house in a largish tract of Sears tract houses. They picked the house they wanted out of a Sears "house" catalogue presented by the developer. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I grew up in Chicago listening to WLS, "The Prarie Farmer Station."  I can recall getting ready for school in the morning and listening to the farm report ("Barrowa and gelts steady" and wondering what a barrow or gelt was.  That was information that was lost on a city kid.

Not much into raising hogs in Chicago but might be relevant just the same. Used to be a lot of meatpacking plants. I'll still slaughter one, but I think I've raised my last hog; I got tired of fixing fences and catching well, barrows and gilts for one. The little piglets are the worst - root up two acres in an hour, then run 30 mph and then disappear like Predator when they freeze in the tall grass, after which mama would bust through armor plate to get out of the pen to them. Towards the end I took to getting them drunk to catch them.

We used to read our National Geographics at the grandparents' house the library, and at the barbershop. Our family raised us too Baptist to be trusted with pictures of exotic tribal women in various states of native dress at the house.

You can still mail order bees, btw, but I highly recommend ya let the postmaster know they're coming.

Still hard at work on this big table project. I was SO close last Thursday. All I had left was to attach the long horizontal support bars and paint. But upon the final fitting, I ran into all sorts of obstacles. After I calmed down from what felt like insurmountable frustration which led to a good sobfest - I called on one of my buddies from the local club who I know does a lot of fabrication. I wish it had occurred to me to confer with him BEFORE I started working on the base! Anyway, I sent him a video of what I had and what was happening and asked for advice. We talked it out and he came up with a different way to mount the legs which should both be easier to assemble, will give the horizontal supports a place I can weld to (removing the inevitability of misaligned bolt holes) AND make it more stable. Win win win

So on Friday, I set about hacking off the original mounts for the legs and fulfilling the new plan of using 2-1/8" DOM tubing as a socket to receive the legs - and another piece of DOM tubing at the foot end to extend the leg, making up for the length that had to be cut off. As of last night, I had a table standing on all 6 legs! Next up is cutting the horizontal supports to the new size and welding them in place - then just waiting for a day where humidity is below 65% so I can paint!

I'm including a link to this video which shows most of the steps of creating the new legs. I used a few tips found in the archives of this forum:

1. Using the unplugged drill press to tap for the set screw on the corner of square tubing
2. Using a bolt+nut to tighten a flanged nut into place while tack welding
3. Using a wooden dowel in the nut while welding nearby to prevent any spatter from getting into the threads

 

Very logical indeed. I have used an internal piece between the legs and the top. 

Only because i hade a piece that fitted in the legs and not on the outside.

And my leveling feet, i use plates instead of the closed of tube. But the idea of welding them to a short piece and than to the leg is a nice one. After grinding it is much more hidden and nicer looking.

My own (much simpler) table project progressed today as well.

I had pre-fit everything by threading all the tenons and using nuts to hold everything together, to make sure everything fit right and the table would be level when assembled.  After I got it all straightened out (which took a little fiddling) I went through one by one and took nuts off to set the tenons.

 

Here's the finished table base, and a view of where it's going to live when my wife finishes the table top.   The last photo is of the tiles she's going to use for the table top.   She's working on setting the tiles now, but it might be another day before the table is really done.  But my part of the project is complete.
 

Made up some belts for the new (to me) 2x72 grinder. First, the larger belts are cut to length and slit lengthwise:

 Then the belt blanks are set up for gluing:

 And glued and clamp:

They look good Tommy, I like them. Is that a ski lift chair? Very cool porch furniture.

You sure have cutting and gluing grinder belts down to a science John.

Frosty The Lucky.

Made a little axe bottle opener in the shop over the weekend. Just a little prototype to see how she works before I start making some more 

On 6/13/2025 at 7:24 PM, Frosty said:

Yeah, it used to be Sears and Roebuck had a pretty solid monopoly on mail order, they literally consumed the competition.

The competition:

Uh HUH, suitable for small wood projects and ruining blades. Shudder.

That's a pretty cool bottle opener Code, how well does it work?

Frosty The Lucky.

10 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Shudder.

Look at the manufacturer's name.

9 hours ago, Frosty said:

They look good Tommy, I like them. Is that a ski lift chair? Very cool porch furniture.

Yes, that porch swing is indeed a ski lift chair that was salvaged from the Red River ski area in NM when they did a lift upgrade about six or seven years ago.  A friend of a friend welded up the mount and fitted bearings so it swings nicely.  

Did Sears actually manufacture products? If not I don't see a maker's name or mark.

That'd be a primo porch swing IF you time picking up and putting beverages down on the side tables.

Frosty The Lucky.

Take a closer look at that product caption, Frosty 

Tommy, that table turned out beautifully. A fully blacksmithed table is on my personal list - and will likely be about this size when I get around to it. 

I do not think Sears ever made their own products. Their practices are also what made Craftsman tools either loved or scorned. Sears used to get a contract with lets say Dewalt to make cordless tools. When they first start they are identical but over time Sears would start insisting that they start to use cheaper parts in the craftsman line. So that by the time they got a new contract with a different company Craftsman tools were crap.  

I have to say that i hears that from one of my tool suppliers years ago, so it may not be true but with my experience with Craftsman tools i beleive it to be true. I think that is the reason i still have some of my granddad's Craftsman tools while others went to the land fill long before my MAC or Milwaukee do. 

 

There's a very good article about the failure of Sears on the website for the Columbia Business School: Sears: A Case Study in Business Failure.

 

 

On 6/16/2025 at 7:12 PM, TommyVee said:

My own (much simpler) table project progressed today as well.

Itsa ver nyce!

Is there a way to repair belts that you break at the grinder?  I've got a couple perfectly good Combat Abrasive belts that all of a sudden just decided to break on me.