Wizard Screwdriver Rehab

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

I found this box in the boneyard today. It is from the cleanout of my MIL apartment that was in my old residence.




I found a nice Yankee screwdriver with two bits.



Sometime back in the day, FIL ran a Western Auto store. I think Wizard was one of their housebrands. Anyway, the action on this one was sluggish.



Never cleaned one of these, but how hard could it be? I unscrewed the lower knurled piece and used a screwdriver on the end of the handle. The end is really a cap which captures the spring.



The spring terminates with a wooden plug.



The knurled piece secures a brass gear.



I found a tuna fish tin to contain all of the loose pieces.



And then I worked the mech over with WD-40.



A little scotchbrite pad work. Some wax. And now this little guy is ready for work. I am sure FIL would smile at that.



Ready for another 50 years.

[Bibliophile 13]

Had no idea one of the internal parts was wood. I wonder why not metal like the rest of the internal parts?

[hbmcc]

Is that wood plug possibly "lignum vitae"? Often used for a greaseless bearing. 

The only place I saw its use was on the strike plate of some door hardware in an old house we owned when I was a teen. I may have seen it used for casters; my dad said it was and explained the wood and function.

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

Is that wood plug possibly "lignum vitae"? Often used for a greaseless bearing. 

The only place I saw its use was on the strike plate of some door hardware in an old house we owned when I was a teen. I may have seen it used for casters; my dad said it was and explained the wood and function.

It looked like maple or beech.

[Timberwolf]

It looked like maple or beech.

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Wood was used for casters on lots {if not most} of furniture prior to about 1930....The power company I worked for.. {Florida Power Corporation} had one very small hydro-electric plant in Inglis, Florida built around 1910..It used Lignum Vitae block bearings on the main turbine generator shaft..They were about 10" square and made in two pieces..When the plant was retired and taken out of service around 1965, all the spare shaft bearings were piled up and burned..except for the one I managed to save...I still have it...I did make one small carving mallet out of a chunk I cut off it, which I also still have.

[UpstateNYdude]

..................................
Wood was used for casters on lots {if not most} of furniture prior to about 1930....The power company I worked for.. {Florida Power Corporation} had one very small hydro-electric plant in Inglis, Florida built around 1910..It used Lignum Vitae block bearings on the main turbine generator shaft..They were about 10" square and made in two pieces..When the plant was retired and taken out of service around 1965, all the spare shaft bearings were piled up and burned..except for the one I managed to save...I still have it...I did make one small carving mallet out of a chunk I cut off it, which I also still have.

That was a lot of money they burned, was there any chemical cooling agents mixed in with it like PCBs or the like? If not just thinking about that makes me sad.