"We got into a bit of a yarn about old gear and the seller told me of a deceased estate auction he and a mate went to (he's a carpenter by trade). He said there was a big shed down the back yard of an old house in a really old (now trendy) suburb. It seemed that the husband had died a long, long time ago and the wife had put a padlock on the shed and just left it there. Walking into the shed was like going back in time. There were a bunch of old machines in there: a bandsaw, shaper, table saws etc. All were flat belt driven with the belts going to the back of the shed and under the wooden floor. Outside, around back of the shed you could see the single giant old 15 horse motor. By moving different levers you could engage drive to the different machines.

Sounds like one of those auctions of dreams, right here, and I wasn't there."

March 16, 2003. Five weeks ago I posted the above text to the Old Woodworking Machines Forum as part of the story of the purchase of my old Sagar jointer. I really, really  wished I had seen that place.

Keith Bohn, the list operator of the forum, has a theory about the "ways of Old Woodworking Machines" - that old woodworking stuff somehow finds its way to the people who want it the most. For example, you're looking for some obscure part for a machine and after running down every obvious source for one without success, it turns out your neighbour has one sitting in his shed . I was never a true believer. Sure I'd found machines I'd been looking for much quicker than I'd expected. Others have indeed found the parts they need from unlikely sources. I figured this could all be explained by there simply being more gear out there and items being traded more that you might expect.

After today I'm on my way to becoming a believer. An ad. in the classifieds read "Woodworking machinery, old joinery....". Naturally I called up. As the conversation progressed I noted it sounded similar to the above story I'd heard so recently. When I get the address, its the same suburb and street. I ask, "Is it a shed behind a house"? "Yes". Amazing, it has to be the same place, even the story of the widow that left it untouched for 30 years is consistent . The descriptions of the line shafting details above are not all correct but it was my reinterpretation of the confusing description I was given. Also, there has certainly been no clearance auction there so he was either remembering incorrectly or perhaps it was an auction for the property.

It was a wonderful 1.5 hour trip back in time. The sellers were very gracious, allowing me to poke around, take pictures and talk about what was there. I could easily spend a whole day there, but with the wife, kids and sellers patiently waiting....

The shop is believed to date back to around 1920 started by Swedish immigrants. Beyond just the old feel of everything, the shop has a number of weird and wonderful setups and contraptions, the likes of which I've only ever seen in my wife's late grandfather's shop. The pictures I took follow. The picture quality is not always the best. The lighting in the shop wasn't ideal and so many of the shots are dark and/or blurry. None the less its still a real treat to see and Canon's panorama features are worth their weight in gold.

Click on the small images for larger versions.

What you see from the front door. I neglected to take a shot from outside the shop but its quite something to come through that door. Its small by today's standards for a commercial shop but apart from the mess, it would have been very workable. As is, its easy to move around. The clutter on the floor up front was originally sitting on a workbench that has been recently removed.

This is looking back behind the shot above. The tins (cans) contain various ancient fluids. I was given a tin of castor oil bearing lubricant.

Taken to the side and towards the rear of the shop. Its on three levels. High level is the entry and also the bandsaw. Next level has most of the machines. Lowest level at the back has the line shafting and the "big scary machine".

Taken from the rear of the shop, looking over the top of the line shafting setup.

A big old bandsaw. I neglected to look for a name or even measure its size. The seller recalls it as being an "A.T.E.", a German make. Guards appear to be a retrofit, but well made. Both the wheels and its height are larger than my big bandsaw. I'd guess 36" wheels and over 8' high. You can't see it but the motor is located partly outside - a hole has been cut into the wall the accommodate it.

Big old buzzer (jointer). I didn't find any markings in my quick examination however the seller recalls this one being an A.T.E. also. May be ball bearing although the bearing blocks look a bit small in diameter for a machine this size. Around 16" wide cut, 7 to 8' tables.

Macson rip saw. 16", 6" depth of cut. Like many machines this old, not especially robust in construction but very pretty. I was very surprised to see ball bearings on it.

Macson 12" buzzer (jointer). Ball bearing. Tables look to be 6'. The construction of this machine is remarkably similar to my Sagar machine, although a little cheaper. On this one the tables are a bit shorter, the dovetailed way jibs aren't as massive (but still solid rather than a strip), the stand casting doesn't reinforce the main casting as well and the castings lack the fine curves of the Sagar. None the less, this is a nice machine.

From what I've been able to tell from my McPherson's catalogues, Macson was an Australian manufacturer of industrial machinery with designs mostly based on quality UK machines. At some point it seems they switched the name of their woodworking gear to L. S. Barker, retaining the Macson name for their metalworking machinery.

Spindle moulder (shaper). Ball bearing if I remember correctly. No markings. 1" spindle. With some effort it could be converted to motor drive and make a solid, useful machine. The mitre slots are dovetails which I've never seen before. There are numerous old cutters that absolutely terrify me. There are a couple of square heads. Square heads are known to periodically throw knives in moulding operations and on this type of machine there is no way to shield yourself from the knifes or avoid being in the danger zone. There is another kind of knife holder I haven't seen before but looks equally scary. It consists of two round discs, each with two slots milled in them to locate and hold the knives. One disc is fitted on the lower portion of the spindle shaft, the other to the upper. The knifes are clamped between the two discs by just the pressure of the spindle nut.

20" thicknesser (planer). White metal (babbit) bearings. Square head. The seller had in his notes that this was a Robinson machine but we were unable to locate any markings today. There were no obvious similarities I could find between this and my Robinson finger jointer.

The big scary machine, a 4 sided moulder I think. It was hard to photograph. This and the thicknesser above were the only machines in the shop with white metal (babbit) bearings. If you look closely at the line shafting picture below you can see this machine has a very long out feed table with further belting running underneath. There is a shaft down the end there which does who knows what. The third picture shows the badge. I have two machines with ".... engineers ..." badges and both have turned out the be the importers of, not the manufacturers of the machines. The fourth picture is of the moulding cutters and other tooling on the adjacent wall.

The drive shafting. How do I describe this? Amazing? Impressive? A visual delight? There are actually two independent drive systems. Even if there wasn't wood everywhere it would have been hard to photograph so I've labelled the picture to assist in the description.

There is the main drive, A-D, that drives only the big scary machine. A large motor is located behind the clutter at 'A'. A belt runs from there to the large pulleys on the countershaft partially visible at 'B'. From the small pulley at 'B' a belt runs to the larger diameter pulleys on the second countershaft at 'C'. The belt can be seen hanging over the large pulleys. Then from the small pulley on that countershaft to the big scary machine at 'D'. The big scary machine must have once originally run directly from a water wheel or something because the RPM reduction is ridiculous.

The  line shafting setup for the smaller machines is labelled 1-6. A belt runs from the motor at '1' under the floor to the line shaft. The shaft is located in a pit dug under the A-B belt from the other system. A pulley on the shaft located at '3' has a belt running up out of the floor to the spindle moulder (shaper) countershaft at '4'. You can see the spindle moulder countershaft in the spindle moulder picture above. At the other end of the shaft at '5' is a pulley, from which a belt runs to the thicknesser countershaft, located under the floor about where I'm standing to take the picture. You can see where the belts then came out of the floor in the thicknesser photos above.

Here's some shots of the motor that drives the big scary machine shafting and also of the countershaft with the big pulleys.

It appears that over time many of the machines in the shop had been given their own motors. A number of old pulleys and bearings were located around the shop which I purchased. The heavy (and I mean heavy) cast iron thing with two pulleys on it is an old flat belt drive pump. The wooden pulley is a commercial item, identical pulleys appear in my McPherson's catalogues. The hand plane on the left is interesting. It appears to be for cutting rabbets in fairly large diameter curves.

A bench containing a variety of hand tools in various conditions.

The yard out the back, looking to the left of the shop. I had no idea this suburb still had lots of this size remaining. The yard has loads of timber in various condition. The 30 or more years in less than perfect conditions has taken its toll. Even the best timber appears to have some end checking and/or warping. Its a bit of a shame as it looks to be mostly select jarrah from back when there were still plenty on good trees and "select" wasn't secret code for "lots of fire and gum stains".

Looking to the right of the shop. As can be seen, the shop looks pretty rough on the outside.

Another section of the yard not visible from the above location.

A zoom in on the above photo. In front there is what appears to be a home made saw bench. Back in the day you could buy just a large saw arbor and make your own saw bench or buzz saw from that. I've come across several such arbors in my travels. Behind is another home made machine. It was described to me as a tongue and grooving machine. My first impression was that it was a tenoner. I think it might be both. At 'A' there is a sliding table with what appears to be babbit bearings. The actual machine is at the back. There are rails for the table to run on at 'B'. There is a blade located at 'C'. Behind the tree at 'D' is another blade at right angles to the first. At 'E' there are a pair of shafts that had moulding heads. It would seem you could either feed the wood in long ways to T&G the edge of boards, or, use the sliding table to T&G or tenon the ends. At 'F' you can just make out a window. The rails of the machine go right into the window frame and it is quite clear the window was opened and stock was fed directly into the shop.

There you have it. Sadly, everything is slated for demolition in two weeks. I'd love to be transplant the shop (or at least the floor and some of the framing) to a new location but I think the demolition (and related salvage rights) is a done deal.