A barn story - a look back, thinking ahead

[dp]

About 30 years ago my dad welded up a reciprocating hacksaw from bits of bicycle parts, angle iron, and washing machines. Last week I found it in a barn under a bunch of other junk. I dug it out and brought it home to play with, and to admire his cleverness.

Dad was a tinkerer in a very old school way. He built my first bicycle from iron pipe and cart wheels, and it had a v-pulley drive. I loved it even though it weighed more than I did at the time.

Over the years he created a lot of useful tools from scrap parts - in that same barn sits an air compressor he cobbed together from the parts of a 1959 Olds 'air ride' suspension system. Oldsmobile coupled a two-cylinder compressor to the power steering pump and placed air cylinders in the chassis. These were a disaster and Dad converted many of them to conventional suspension (and kept the old parts ). More about that barn later...

So back to the hacksaw - I scraped 30 year old crud from it, plugged it in, and it lit right off. I have a 1 1/2" x 2" piece of CRS I cut a piece from manually a few weeks ago and know it takes well over an hour, three blades, and lots of sweat. I clamped this to the table and without even looking at the blade, hit the power switch. Half an hour later I had a nice 1/4" piece of CRS in my hand.

In looking back, I too have made some lasting things from bits and pieces but I can see that life for me was always very different for the old coal miner turned auto mechanic and tinkerer. When possible I bought what I needed where he built it from scratch. My stuff has clean lines and nice paint and Chinese lettering all over it while his stuff has a patina of rust and years of wear marks. Any lettering would be what ever was on the piece before it became a hacksaw or shop fan or compressor. The operating manuals he took to his grave.

There are many more things in that barn in various stages of repair, and they include commercial equipment such as a 7' tall band saw, welders, gas and electric, drill presses, rare hardwoods for pistol grips, a 4-spindle tracer, and more. It was far too dark and wet to take pictures, but this spring we're going to clean out that barn and a couple sheds and see what has salvage value and what is rusted to junk.

Also in the barn is a lot of the scraps Dad had collected for projects he never got around to - I think I'll hang on to that stuff and see if I can keep the family tinkerer's shop alive. It's something to look forward to.

[lane]

One bit of advise .Dont throw to much away like I did. afew years later I wished I had kept more. After cleaning my Dads and Father in law stuff out.

[charlie coghill]

DP I would have liked to have met your father. Sounds like my kind of friend.

[john hobdeclipe]

I'll venture a guess that your Dad's formative years coincided with the Great Depression and/or WW2. Right?

[JCHannum]

I go to a lot of auctions and sales that are in shops and barns like that. It always seems a shame to me that there is no one left in the family who values those things for the thought and effort that went into making them.

More power to you and others that preserve these items and the sense of the people that made them.

[rockrat]

JCHannum has got it.

I bought my shaper and little horizontal mill at a sale. The fellow that had them before me had died and his son had put it all up for auction.

As I looked about and saw all the little projects that this fellow had going on I realized that he probably didnt have many friends in the neighborhood. There were steam engine kits and model aircraft. Most of the houses in the area were filled with younger yuppie couples and small kids. You know, the "I need to buy a new SUV this year honey. Shal we get the Edie Bower edition or the 24K gold trimmed model? Oh the decisions."

I asked one of the neighbors about the fellow. The neighbor didnt know much. He said that the "old man" seemed nice, mowed his lawn weekly (as if this was very important) and was in and out during the week. But, he noted that the old man did alot of goofy metal work and no one could decide why he didnt buy a new mower instead of fixing the old one. I later saw this guy walk away from the yard before the auction started. Must not have seen anything of interest.

Well, after the auction, I was loading up my winnings and heard the auctioneer talking to a fellow about business. The conversation lended itself to imply that the gent listening was the son. A few more sentences were spoke and it was definite that this fellow was the son.

I walked over and introduced myself. I was assuming that this guy would at least know his fathers passions for metal work and machines. I told him that I was going to put the items to use in my basement and enjoy them as much as his father. The son smiled and told me that he didnt know why his dad kept this stiff lying around. Some crazy hobby or something was the final reply.

What a bummer. Sounded like the son was a junior CEO or something. I left a bit sad. I wonder if anyone knew this fellow well. Did he have machining buddies? Were the guys that stood around buying stuff just there for the tools or did they once know the old man.

So, DP, enjoy the fact that you all shared time together and had a common interest. Enjoy the projects that have gone unfinished. And thanks for sharing the story. It reminds me that I need to give dad a call and see how that next muzzleloading part he is working on is turning out.

rock-

[Tin Falcon]

DP:
Thanks for wtitting a wonderfull essay. My dad has been gone for over five years now. Thankfully my parrents belonings have for the most part stayed in the family. My dad did not do any metal working but was verry old shool and a hard worker when he finaly retired from work in his late 70s the factory where he was the janitor had to hire two young guys to do the work. He was verry good with his hands though.He built a three car garage/barn single handedly with no blueprints. We had several acres of woods he was always clearing brush or cutting fire wood almost always by hand. If an axe handle would break he would pull out the draw knife and spoke shave and have a new one made in the time most folks would take to drive to home depot and buy a new axe. Well in reality I should say chain saw.
My son is 16 I have been teaching him to run the lathe and mill I have been building model steam engines since 2001 and exhibiting them since 2003 it has turned into a family hobby. Although the wife and son are not as passionate about the old iron as i am.
Regards
Tin

[Briggsie]

I have just found one of those funny old guys that tinker in his back yard shop probably in his 70's claims one of his best friends was some guy named Dave who wrote a lot of books, I think he wrote several himself on atkins engines. Guys like this are a national treasure. If you find one in your area spend some time with them it's amazing what you can learn.

[dp]

Here's a short vid of Dad's old hacksaw in action after so many years. It's about 5 meg or so in size, mpeg format:

http://TheVirtualBarAndGrill.com/machinery/hacksaw.mpg

It's not a beautiful thing at all but it's typically functional as only Dad could do it. The things he saw lurking in old bicycle parts and scrap iron still amaze me. And your eyes aren't failing you - my camera autofocus was tracking the moving parts. Gotta learn how to turn that off.

I have it sitting on the floor of my garage while I try to find a home for it. I sliced off a piece of 3/4" hex stock to make a centering tool today and it took about 10 minutes using the old original blade. It's a hoot to watch it run. It's a bigger hoot to see it run at all after so many winters in a cold Oregon barn. Here's the cut off piece chucked in the lathe. Very clean cut:

http://TheVirtualBarAndGrill.com/machinery/hexstock.png

Interesting color effect from my screw-in florescent lamp - the hex rod is actually black and the sawed face is the normal color of bare steel.

And thanks to all for the kind thoughts and shared remembrances. Old Dad would be tickled to know his stuff was being presented here. He would have been right at home in this group.

[dp]

I'll venture a guess that your Dad's formative years coincided with the Great Depression and/or WW2. Right?

Yessir - he was born in 1911 and passed in 1996. Like many great depression era family men he never lost his sense of frugality and knew the worth of being handy.