> On Nov 28, 2017, at 5:22 PM, Claudio DeLorenzi  wrote:

Yes, I missed this one a few weeks ago … but I have had a peaceful morning with
bright sun glistening on the snow outside.  Good day to catch up.

>  I think both the retoother and the saw filers use the same or
> similar ratchet bars and saw holding bars - but I'm not sure if the models
> have changed over the years. 
I have seen some of the very early machines up close and they definitely used
different bars, but I have been given to understand that most Foley and Foley-
Belsaw bars are interchangeable.  They absolutely are in my #2400 and #387
filers, #385 retoother, and #392 auto-setter.

> By the way, if the anvil or die is missing from your Foley retoother,
> Foley (Foley Belsaw I think its called now) will still sell you these parts
> that fit their old re-toothing machines, but they are kind of pricey as I
> recall (I called them a couple years ago- maybe a couple hundred dollars?
Foley had a long history of charging prices based on what the market would bear,
and doing what they could to make sure the market would bear perhaps more than
was justified by the true market opportunity for their customers.  My "cousin-
in-law” (who gave me these machines in exchange for driving 700 miles to come
get them) provided me a long discourse on how it took years to recoup the cost
of the machines and the virtually mandatory training course to operate them
effectively.  The prices he paid for new machines and that course were stunning
to say the least.  A particular point he made was that if someone didn’t have
the training course manual and good notes from that course, it was (apparently
intentionally) very difficult to learn all the secrets of how to set up,
maintain, and operate the machines in a time-efficient manner.  He also
emphasized that commercial customers were strongly encouraged not to let people
who didn’t take the course see the training texts.  Fortunately, he gave me his
copies and notes as he had decided to completely retire after some 25 years in
his second business as a sharpener.

Obtaining a set of toothing bars as Brent mentions could mean he has some ‘gold'
among users, unless he just has duplicate sets of the standard bar set.  C-I-L
said the optional toothing bars were usually only bought by sharpeners with a
significant clientele base, and even he didn’t have them.  I bought them right
away, at a price that gave me significant pause at first, and fortunately so as
they have a few pitches that match my saws.  Foley exited the business a year
afterward, and none were available when I called to inquire about more bars and
spare parts at that time.  I found that Moon Supply in Florida was a good source
for used and new parts, but haven’t had to seek anything from them in over a
decade.

As a general tip to someone getting started with these machines — they don’t
easily handle anything above 14 tpi, so dreams of having Brent take on 22 tpi
dovetail saw to be retoothed, set and filed on his machines are only dreams.
The advancing mechanism doesn’t have the capability of working that finely.  I
experimented with modifying the ratcheting system to achieve it, and found it
was not worth the effort as several major parts would need to be modified to
incorporate precision bearings where only plain ‘bearings' exist at present.
Someone else’s 'mileage may vary’ on that point, and I wish them luck at finding
a better answer.
 
I’ve actually found that I can file just about any saw in my tills by hand
faster than by machine, so I don’t often use them any more.  When I had a few
Galoots over years ago to tune up their saws, we ran the machines for hours.
The volume of work still would justify that today because if I’m inclined to do
a batch of 3-4 saws with the same pitch, I’d take the sheeting off and fire up
the machine without hesitation.  It’s the setup time when changing pitch and/or
tooth angles that takes up most of the time involved.

So — nice gloat indeed, Brent!  Most of the machines for sale that I have seen
or called about are offered by people cleaning out a sharpening business or
estate, who thought the toothing and carrier bars were worthless junk and threw
them in a dumpster.  Big mistake, as what they have are virtually small boat
anchors without those bars.  Carrier bars can be made from stock steel, but the
toothing bars are a different matter altogether.

Charlie Driggs