More Goodies From Lancaster

Another trip to Lancaster and another full pickup truck back home! I went with a friend from work to pick up the jointer I won on EBAY and we decided to make a few stops on the way back. And I managed to make some great finds.

First was a great piece of slate. I've been pondering the parlor fireplace I'm building for some time trying to figure just how to finish it. I want this to look like a fireplace that was always in the house, so using any modern tile is just out of the question. I thought about the stone veneer products, but that's not quite the look I'm going for and not sure how well it would work in this house (though the outside is stone...). I finally concluded just the day before that a one piece slate hearth would look really well and hold up to the wood stove and started researching places to find and have cut locally. The sides will be trimmed in oak instead of the brick veneer and the front will hopefully be some kind of salvaged tile. I think instead of finishing the inside to look like a firebox, I will instead make sheet metal cover to hide this incorporating the heat deflector I will need (experience from other house). It sounds crude, but I think I can make it work and look nice. The metal will also help reflect heat back into the room. Here is what I found. It even has one corner cut already! The width is perfect, but it's about 6 inches shorter than I would like for depth. If I wasn't using the stove it would be perfect, but I will probably need a 6 inch wide piece to fill in the back. Still will look much better than 12 inch squares. At $95 I thought it was a good buy and much cheaper than having one made. Now too figure how i'll cut the other corner.

At the same place I found this pressure gauge that I hope to use on the original heater/boiler I restored last year. Hopefully it should still work. The scale is marked for where to fill based on 1&2 stories, 3 story, and 4 story houses.

And here is the Craftsman 6 inch jointer. It's about 1960 vintage (quite new for my collection!) and in excellent shape. It has a nice sharp set of knives on it and after a good cleaning and a paint job will be ready for service. I tried it out with a piece of scrap oak I've been playing with from my pile that will hopefully become woodwork for the house. It work great and made a nice clean square edge.



Once I run my board though this then I can run them though my planer and this is the results I should have.... a nice 1x6 red oak board ready to become baseboard. Use my newly restored radial arm and take it down to a 1x4 and I'm ready to mill some new casement mouldings (as soon as I get the knives made). I tested a few stain colors to see just how this oak is going to finish out - I think I'll be happy!