Lost Art Press

Factory-Fresh Millers Falls Bench Stop

Posted on by Lost Art Press

We call them “tool pushers” in the collecting world. People who find out what sort of stuff you are interested in and feed you a steady stream of it until your wallet is dry.

One of the worst tool pushers is Slav Jelesijevich, a Chicago area tool collector, cabinetmaker and cat-loving wild man. Get to know Slav just a bit and you’ll receive photos of his cats (some of them in attack mode) and you’ll get leads on old tools that are new in the box. That’s his specialty. I bought a 1970s-era Rockwell band saw from him. In the box. A Work-Mate (in the box). Hammers with 1970s-era Super Bowl tags on them. And too many rasps and files to mention (I guess I just did mention them).

At Woodworking in America, Slav sold a lot of stuff. And a lot of it went home with the other toolmakers on the selling floor with him.

While I was yakking with someone (Harrelson Stanley?) Slav walked by and dropped something in my pocket. Then he disappeared. I knew that whatever it was, it was going to cost me.

It turned out to be something I’ve always wanted: A never-used Millers Falls bench stop. It is the height of gizmo-cool. Sure a simple block of wood can be your planing stop – you Philistine. Or you can get this remarkably sophisticated spring-loaded, quadra-sided piece of tool engineering awesomeness.

Here’s how you install it: Drill two holes in your bench – a 1″ hole inside a 2″ hole. Screw the stop in. You’re done.

Here’s how it works: Loosen the screw and the stop goes loosey and bouncy on a spring. Rotate the head until you have the type of stop you want. There’s a flat stop, a V-shaped slot, one with four big teeth and one with 10 little teeth.

Set the stop at the height you want – anything up to 1-1/8″ and then turn the screw to lock it. Done.

I’ve seen these in old catalogs, but I’ve never seen one in person. And now I own one that’s never been used. But that last part is going to change.

— Christopher Schwarz

12 thoughts on “Factory-Fresh Millers Falls Bench Stop”

  1. You realize that EBay’s servers are currently being overloaded with searches for a “Millers Falls bench-stop” as a result of your blog, don’t you?
    … I looked.

  2. You’re an evil, evil man. Is this some kind method of passing it on for what he did to you?

  3. That’s a fairly new phenomenon called "getting Schwarzed". A <insert item here – book, workbench gadget, hand-made tool, etc.> is mentioned on one of the the Schwarz blogs, and the associated websites get hammered, world-wide supply of the mentioned item dries up. They’ve been Schwarzed.

    May the Schwarz be with you.

  4. Dear Chris

    A NIB Workmate? And you didn’t tell us of the type? I better hit the garage sales quick and snap up those Workmates before they become really scarce. I, of course, still have my Original Heavy Duty Black & Decker WorkMate with the Original Baltic Birch Ply Top and Four Plastic Lugs. No, I will not part with it.

    Now if I could only find a Workmate trade catalog…

    Best
    Gary

  5. OK I’m home now and pulled out my precious Millers Falls Catalog No. 35 from 1915. If you have one, you can gaze upon the item in question. It is technically a No. 56 Miller Falls Bench Hook and cost (wholesale, I believe) $6 per dozen.

    Sweet. Sorry to do this.

    Chris

  6. Very interesting. This is one of those little items that could be a junk or jewel. It seems to me that the main detractor is the fact that it’s metal and will eat planes for lunch (especially when using those four big teeth!). I am interested to hear how this little gadget performs. In the mean time, I’m sticking with my wooden plane stop.

    Best,
    Ben

  7. Wow! how timely.
    Just last fall I visiting one of my favorite “tool pushers”, Lynn Dowd of Dowd Tools in Garland, TX. I live outside Little Rock Arkansas so I was stealing a couple of hours away from a trip that had me in Dallas. Lynn’s place is a site to behold. It is actually behind his home in a residential section of town. Don’t let that fool you. This is a serious tool pusher. It is like Six Flags Over Texas for Galoots. An old hand tool junkie can either come to one of Lynn’s semi annual events (The One Nice Guy and One Sorehead old tool sale) or with a little notice ands an appointment Lynn and his lovely wife Tracey will open up the shop for you. I had the rare foresight to notify Lynn that I would be in town. His reply: I’ll be here almost all day”. The selection at Dowd’s is only surpassed by the hospitality. If go, go ready for good hot coffee and out of this world homemade pie (blueberry the day I was there).

    Back to the topic at hand, after some time at Dowd’s tools Lynn pulls out 2 of the very same Millers Falls bench stops also unused. Much like a drug dealer might say “check out this primo stuff I just got in”. Lynn know his addicts, I mean customers very well. Lynn knows I have a thing for Millers Falls tools. My screen name on one Internet woodworking bulletin board is redfrog. Sheesh, how geektastic is that? Well, I managed to summon all the strength I had put the stops back, finished my coffee, purchased the specific items for which I had come and left for the 6-hour drive back to my Arkie home. I was so proud of myself.

    About the time I got to New Boston, TX that pride had faded and obsession had taken its place. I could not keep the thoughts of those darn stops out of my head. It only got worse as I progressed up I-30. By Texarkana I was saying to myself “how many of those am I ever going to come across” and “ man, those stops are soooo cool. When I got to Hope, AR I as really starting to justify the stops to my self. “You know you have been gathering the stuff to finally make that new bench”. “There are not much more than the Veritas bench dogs at Lee Valley”. By the time I got to Benton I was pleading with myself like a little boy pleads with his mother at the toy store. Just outside Little Rock I start thinking Lynn is not going to have those for very long. I think you know where this going. As soon as I could get home I sent Lynn an email thanking him for that great Dowd hospitality and asking how much shipping would be for the stops.

    I was not able to start the new bench until just a couple of weeks ago. I have a long weekend coming up and I hope to celebrate Presidents day by adding the stops to my bench. Holy crap, I am geek. Why do I feel like I just attended a 12-step Program?

  9. For those not so fortunate as to find one of these devices, a flat-head brass machine screw with single screwdriver slot (not phillips) with flats filed on each side of the head parallel to the slot, screwed into a countersunk and tapped hole in the bench, will provide two flat stop surfaces and two with 2 teeth – each side of the screwdriver slot – that can easily be raised and lowered. Also, when screwed in flush with the bench top (or a smidge lower), there is almost no place that will collect sawdust and small chips. Being of softer metal, it is less likely to cause serious damage to whatever tool accidentally comes in contact with it, although I wouldn’t want that to happen with a laminated-blade Japanese plane and maybe take a chip out of the hard steel cutting edge layer. But then with a 1/4-20 screw, there is only 1/40" height change with 1/2 turn to the same edge on the opposite side, so there isn’t any excuse for leaving it too high.

  11. Hi, I need a board stop that fits in a 9/16" hole. I used to have one made by Stanley but it is lost. Where can I get one that fits so i don’t have to re-drill the bench?

    Thanks, Jim

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