02-28-2016, 10:13 PM
I know what to do when I want cast iron to be slippery: I wax it. But what do you do if you want a certain amount of friction, and to prevent rust?
I got a Dosch miter trimmer today, and have completely disassembled it. Once it's reassembled, it should look like this one on the vintagemachinery website:
I don't want the cast iron to rust, so I'd wax it except that it might become slippery enough for the stock to slip while trimming, which would ruin the accuracy that is the reason for this thing. Perhaps beeswax would be just sticky enough.
Does anyone who uses one of these have any comments? Perhaps I'm worried over nothing, or perhaps there's a simple solution. Maybe I should have left it rusty.
Historical info:
The patent for miter trimmers was issued in 1900 to Peter Dosch of Mt. Vernon, NY. He then started the Pootatuck company that manufactured Lion trimmers. Some time later the company passed down to two cousins who apparently both wanted to be in charge, since both then ran companies producing the same type of trimmer with the same patent number in the casting: one ran Pootatuck, making the Lion trimmer (the company much later changed its name to Lion), and the the other cousin ran the Dosch Manufacturing company. Each has since ceased production.
Dosch trimmers of very similar design were produced, with Dosch Mfg. company address in Bridgeport, CT, or Thornton (Del. Co) PA, or Union, NJ, or Paterson, NJ. If someone knew when they were at various addresses, it would become possible to date these better. They were in Paterson when the manual at the link was printed in the 1960's. My trimmer is from Thornton, PA.
I got a Dosch miter trimmer today, and have completely disassembled it. Once it's reassembled, it should look like this one on the vintagemachinery website:
I don't want the cast iron to rust, so I'd wax it except that it might become slippery enough for the stock to slip while trimming, which would ruin the accuracy that is the reason for this thing. Perhaps beeswax would be just sticky enough.
Does anyone who uses one of these have any comments? Perhaps I'm worried over nothing, or perhaps there's a simple solution. Maybe I should have left it rusty.
Historical info:
The patent for miter trimmers was issued in 1900 to Peter Dosch of Mt. Vernon, NY. He then started the Pootatuck company that manufactured Lion trimmers. Some time later the company passed down to two cousins who apparently both wanted to be in charge, since both then ran companies producing the same type of trimmer with the same patent number in the casting: one ran Pootatuck, making the Lion trimmer (the company much later changed its name to Lion), and the the other cousin ran the Dosch Manufacturing company. Each has since ceased production.
Dosch trimmers of very similar design were produced, with Dosch Mfg. company address in Bridgeport, CT, or Thornton (Del. Co) PA, or Union, NJ, or Paterson, NJ. If someone knew when they were at various addresses, it would become possible to date these better. They were in Paterson when the manual at the link was printed in the 1960's. My trimmer is from Thornton, PA.
