Woodworking Tools in Laws

AlanLichty

Moderator
I make sawdust as a hobby and lots of it. Occasionally something useful emerges from the dust and scrap piles but in the meantime it keeps me entertained when I am not doing things related to photography. One of the primary features of woodworking is having proper tools to make pieces of wood too short. I am a professional at this. Good tools make it easy to make pieces too short but I am always interested in how people have gone about this task in earlier times.

The railroad museum in Laws (CA) has a wide variety of "olde things" besides railroad artifacts and when I was exploring the grounds in March I came across a few saws that caught my eye.

First up - this is a cross cut saw that looks like would be primarily used for chomping fence post materials or making short logs for wood burning stoves. Definitely not for the feint of heart. The metal cradle the small log is sitting on pivots on hinges at the bottom of the frame to allow the operator to push the supported piece of wood into the blade.

LawsSawdust1.jpg


Next up - a table saw. This has the primary features of the modern version with a miter gauge for crosscuts and in the front is a rail for the rip fence that would allow for parallel rip cuts. No clue where the rip fence for this is and I could not find it looking around the small area where the saw was.

LawsSawdust2.jpg


Last up is a much more industrial oriented table saw with some fairly serious safety features given the age of this beast. There are anti-kickback pawls to keep wood from being sent airborne back at the operator; Hold downs to keep the piece of wood flat on the table for rip cuts; A dust collector that could have been connected to an external dust collection system; and a mechanical feed that would help facilitate a single operator ripping long pieces of wood. No internal motor - like the previous table saw above this would require a standalone motor with a drive belt to power the saw. Also noteworthy is that this saw has no provision for a miter gauge - it was purpose built for straight cuts parallel to the rip fence and would not be able to accommodate wide pieces of stock like modern plywood sheets.

LawsSawdust3.jpg


Interesting to see some of the roots of the trade but I think I will keep my SawStop :)
 

AlanLichty

Moderator
Great find Alan. My father in law had a stripped down Model-T that he converted into a saw for cutting fire wood.
Most of the tools I have seen dating anywhere from the late 1800's into the 1920's did not have any kind of built in motor - they were all equipped to be driven by a belt drive powered by whatever means you had of making a drive shaft spin. Pick your propulsion :)
 
Top Bottom