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If someone walked up to me and told me I wasn’t a very smart man, I’d have a hard time arguing with them. There are often times when I do something knowing full-well that the outcome isn’t going to be in my favor. For example, I was recently cruising my local online classifieds when I came across a 24″ (yes, you read that right) J.T. Towsley jointer for sale locally. I immediately knew it was coming home with me. Should I have consulted with my wife? Probably. Was not doing so a dangerous move on my part? Certainly. However, I’ve always told myself that I’d eventually own a few stupidly large pieces of vintage woodworking machinery. I’m at the point where my big- gest fear is that “eventually” will become “never.” Nope, not going to happen on my watch.
I didn’t go into this unprepared, however. I had an ace in the hole — you folks. I explained to everyone who questioned my sanity that restoring this massive vintage piece of woodworking machinery is going to be some great magazine content. So, you all are my scapegoats—thank you.
Back to the jointer. This aircraft carrier was built in 1916(ish) and weights in at about 1,800lbs. She’s a beaut, but you’ll have to wait for a couple of issues before we start the restoration on it. As we start to move the Popular Woodworking shop into a new space, I hope to continue to fill it with vintage, “Made in America”, cast-iron machinery that is huge, heavy, and imposing… but is also beautiful.
I’d love to hear from you what some of your dream pieces of equipment are, and maybe more importantly, what’s stopped you from getting them in the past, and why not get them now? Don’t let “eventually” become “never.” Cheers!
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
