I Restored and Enhanced this $1 Antique Wood Level with Brass! [feat. How to Brass Plate Steel]
I bought this level for $1 at an antique store. It had no identifiers of who made it or how old it was so I gave it the royal treatment it deserved. I modeled the new design after antique levels that commonly feature brass insets.
Do you know anything about who made this level or how old it really is? Please leave a comment with any details you might have and I'll pin your comment!
______ Timestamps________
0:00 - 0:30 Overview
0:31 - 2:22 Disassembly
2:23 - 3:28 Washers and Screws cleanup
3:29 - 6:15 Vial disassembly, cleanup, and fixing
6:16 - 6:21 Repainting vial lines
6:22 - 7:44 Vial holder clean up and sanding
7:45 - 8:26 Brass plating vial holders
8:27 - 8:37 Painting vial holders
8:38 - 9:49 Vial reassembly and plastering
9:50 - 10:58 Wood sanding
10:59 - 12:07 Filling in wood cracks
12:08 - 13:54 Sanding and brass coating new washers/bevels
13:55 - 15:01 Cutting recesses for bevels and vials
15:02 - 16:19 Cutting glass windows
16:20 - 17:37 Sanding prep staining, sealing
17:38 - 19:42 Reassembly
19:43 - 20:23 Final Reveal
20:24 - 20:32 Before/After
20:33 - 20:46 Testing
20:47 - 21:01 Thanks for watching! Please leave a comment, like, and subscribe if you enjoyed!
______ Brass plating steel tutorial tips _________
Start with prepping the steel surface to be plated. I recommend sanding to at least 500 grit finish at minimum. Heating the part can be done with any heating method that heats the part surface to at least 1710°F (932°C). The part needs to be at least this hot to melt a thin layer of brass onto it but avoid heating it to cherry red or glowing red or else you will create a scale layer than prohibits the brass from sticking well to the base steel. Use a solid brass wire brush (make sure it’s solid brass and not brass-coated steel wire!) and gently brush the surface continually until the part cools below 1710°F. Repeat heating and brushing as needed to achieve a uniform brass finish.
_______ Tips for restoring your own wood levels ________
Wood levels widely vary in design specifics, but there are a few similarities between them all. Most levels have at least two spirit levels/vials. Start with extracting these by looking for a metal button that can be removed or a hole that is filled in with plaster. Carefully drill down into the hole to break away the plaster and extract the vials. If you chip a vial open or it’s already been drained of the alcohol inside you can refill it with just about any alcohol and seal it with a bit of glue or silicone. You may need to use a tiny syringe to refill the vial. If your level has any brass components, mix a paste of vinegar, salt, and flour and slather it on the brass parts and wrap them in plastic wrap and let them sit overnight. Then, rinse them off and hit them with a brass wire wheel followed by a polishing compound to make them shine.
_______ Catalyst Restorations Social Media ______
Instagram: @catalyst_restorations
I love the hot steel brass brushing technique. Way cool. Also my heart skipped a beat when you lost the vial holder 😱
You and me both 😨. I don't know how I didn't scream on camera, haha.
Love the new washers/bevels! It really adds a new dimension to the aesthetic! Keep up the great work, looking forward to the next one 👌
Thanks for watching!! 🙂👍
As always, a skillful and respectful restoration. Would not have tried fixing the tubes myself, but now, thanks to you, I know how. Thanks!
Thanks Bryson! Until now these old spirit levels seemed like a weird puzzle box to me - I couldn't figure out how to fully disassemble them! Didn't take long to learn that they're pretty much all made the same.
Very Cool resto... Love the Brassing Technique... Gonna try that!!!! Thanks again!!!!!
Thanks! It's super easy to do and actually a lot of fun to play around with!
Nice video mate 👌
Thanks for watching!! 🙂
Excellent restoration 👍👍👍Thank you for sharing. Be safe 🇨🇦
Thank you for watching! Stay safe my northern friend! 🇺🇸
The part where the vial holder got sucked into the wire wheel gave me a massive fright 😱- What a great job you did there. This is perfection 👏👏👩🔧
You and me both!! I thought for sure I instantly burned out the grinder. Thanks for watching and the kind words 🙂
Really great work extracting the vials...my heavy hands surely would have broke them, lol
Lol, it was harrowing every time I held them. I was terrified I'd surely drop one at some point like I seem to drop everything else 🙄
My grandfather had an old wooden leveler tool many years ago that kind of resembles that. My dad has it in his possession now. He may look into restoring it in the near future since he's retired for several years now. He's been tinkering around with old tools restoring and refurbishing. I may show him this video so he can get some ideas what to do with that old leveling tool. Thanks again for quality content my friend.
Thanks for the kind words Mark! I'd recommend showing your dad this video (of course! 😂) and maybe a few others to get the gist of how these restorations go - the process is mostly the same for them all!
Wood and brass. Just the best combo.
Truly a timeless combo! Thanks for watching!
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences, tips and even misses (are very funny but teaches how to solve lil problems everyone encounters during works). Wish you a long prosper life along wih tour channel too! 😊
Thank you so much for the kind words and for watching! Hope you learned a thing or two 😉
Thanks for the first rate vid. Really enjoyed it.
You're welcome Lewis! Thank you for watching! 😊
Did you test it before gluing the glass in? I suppose you did, or got super lucky! 🙂
Thanks for being a subscriber of 7 months now! (KZhead recently rolled out this feature, love it!) Haha, yes, I did a full calibration carefully tweaking the vial positions before the final screw tightening and encapsulating in glass. It didn't make for great content though, so I cut it for time with the hope that viewers understand I did it.
As always thank you for do the update and all you do to inform us.
Thank you for the kind words, Larry!
It's usually plaster of Paris that embeds the vials, so I would think a soak in water would be the absolute safest way to remove them. (Unless the level was previously restored and something else was used.) That technique is known as "brassing". Nice job.
Great call Becky, I'll remember that for the next level! 😊👍
Superb work
Thank you for watching!! 😁👍
That's how you brass plate steel?? That's amazing. Beautiful work. Love this channel. I subscribed and have been happily binging all your videos :D
That's one (easy) way to do it at home at least!! Welcome aboard and thanks for subscribing! Enjoy binging it all! 😁👍
Looks great and a wonderful job restoring it!! Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up for the support of your channel
Thanks for watching! 😁👍
@@CatalystRestorations You're welcome!!!
Good job !
Thank you!!
Excellent restoration
Thank you!!
Nice upgrade 👍 turned out great, Well done
Thanks!!!
Very cool, well done. 👍🏻
Thanks!! 👍
Excellent instructive video, thank you!
You're welcome, thanks for watching Paul!
SPOT ON👍
Thanks James! Personally I think this is an underrated video!
Love wood and brass! Very nice job!
Thanks! It's a timeless look!
Great job. 👍👍👍👍👍
Thanks! And thank you for watching!
I can't resist making a suggestion. If you had sanded the scalloped groove first, then followed up with a sanding block on the flat area (or, even better, a pass through a planer), the sharp outline of the groove would have been preserved.
I always love viewer suggestions, so thank you! It's hard to tell on this level because it was pretty well-worn, but it seemed like the groove was originally gently sloped rounded edges, so I tried to keep that here. But I think I have to agree with you that it would actually look sharper with a well-defined edge!
enjoyed this video very much
Thanks for watching, Peter!
Beautiful restoration! I happen to have an old level like the one you just restored. Still works great. I was wondering.....those plastic (nylon?) spatulas you used. Where can I get those? Seems to me they'd come in very handy! :)
They are extremely useful! The one I used in this video is part of a set of different-sized ones - they're called spatula palette knives!
Loved the video!!! Amazing you were able to restore those viles! However, my grandfather had 4 of those old wooden levels and virtually all of them had that "Cross-Hatch" squared areas that you sanded off for gripping purposes. Loved the Lego Dude! Loved the look of the stained finish!
Yup, you're right on that cross-hatching - that seemed to be the consensus in the comments!
Just keep up the Bloody good work up 👍.
That is so beautiful. I don't think I could use it.
Exactly how I felt, Timothy! This one kind of broke my rule of "restore it to use it". It's perfectly level and works great, but I've got cheaper modern levels that work just as well. I'd rather enjoy looking at it daily on my shelf.
@@CatalystRestorations well sir. Look forward to seeing your restorations. Beautiful piece. You can use her on light restorations.
Was that checkering on the sides maybe a practice round for a future gunsmith? Sad to see it get sanded smooth but understand why it had to happen. Great job!
Maybe! Would you be able to explain how/why those markings would suggest a gunsmith? I'm unfamiliar with it.
@@CatalystRestorations You’d have to google gunsmith checkering for a good explanation. It’s a wooden carved feature of gun stocks. For grip.
@@rgaborjr Interesting, thanks for the tip! It does kind of look like that. Wish I could ask the previous owner!
@@CatalystRestorations On a lot of older wooden tools the pattern was put in for grip. It was the same on both sides in the same spots. I have several old wooden tools each over 100 years old with grip on them like that.
@@fredfreer75 I think you solved the mystery!
Very nice. Though I did wonder why you didn't use channel locks/needle nose pliers to hold onto the vial holders when wire wheeling them. 😊
Thanks for looking out for me 😬. Sometimes I feel like I can get away with my fingers and other times...I am proven very wrong 😅.
Very nice result. I'm not sure why you decided not to redo the cross-hatching that you sanded out.
Internally debated it, but the hatching is not original - someone added it later to improve the grip - so I kept it looking original.
Does the extreme heat extract or melt some of the brass bristles to coat the steel washers?
The heat actually melts the brass bristles (or at least the brass coating on steel bristles on cheaper brushes that aren't pure brass) at around 1700°F and it coats the steel!
the sawcut crosshatching at both ends was there to give a better grip, (with cold hands?). why remove it?
Nobody could provide that explanation for me at the time I was working on this project, but I've since learned that was the case. That being said, it didn't come from the factory like that so removing the crosshatching is closer to original condition.
@@CatalystRestorations Thanks for the question and for the explanation. Greetings from Galicia (Spain).
Комментарий в поддержку канала и ролика, а также труда мастера.
Thank you for watching!! 👍
Ok to help you date this from what i can see is once upon a time simplistic desgin making this thing at the time cheaper for starters, lets assume this is a Stanley wooden level, older or more expensive units had their brand stamped directly into the wood on the top or one of either side or stamped onto some brasswork, either being near the bubble glass itself on on a stand alone piece of brass hammered onto the top of the level, newer Stanley levels from what ive seen they inked onto the wood, if so you sanded it all away, now it cannot be from the 1850s cause it really does not show it age wise at the start of the video, from what knowledge i have my best guess is its around 1890-1899 possibly into the 1900s, hope it helps!.
Thanks for the analysis!!
This will be very useful for restoring my horrible old wooden Stanley level for which I paid nothing, apparently reflecting its true market value just a few years ago. I was taught how to cut glass by a proper expert so I know you're doing it wrong. Interestingly, my results are not significantly better than yours, which suggests that cutting glass is hard. Or possibly I'm an idiot. Who can say. I know I never put down a swath of oil before cutting, which probably made a difference. Henceforth, I'll delegate.
Best of luck with your Stanley level! I never did quite get the technique down for the glass cutting, but this was my first ever attempt at it with about 10 minutes of practice. Supposedly you do want to use cutting oil, but for this quick job I just skipped it. If I do need more precise cutting in the future I'm probably going to go the route you would - delegating it to my friend who makes stained glass! She'd love a good challenge!
А как вы выставили индикаторы горизонт и вертикаль? Вы это за кадром юстировки провели, или вы везунчик?
I'd like to say I'm just lucky, but off camera I used another level when setting the putty to ensure this level was really level!
When scoring glass you apply even pressure and make one cut you do not go back and forth.
Thanks for the tip! That was my first time cutting glass - I learned so much from it!
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
The glass kept breaking because it was on corrugated cardboard which won't support it. A flat board with a couple of sheets of paper on
Definitely learned my lesson! It was my first time ever cutting glass!
@@CatalystRestorations ah, ok, no worries. It worked out anyway which is the main thing and the resto is a super job. Another tool save from the scrap bin 👍
@@andrewclarkehomeimprovement Thanks! That's always the goal!
you grinded off the checkering! why?
I plead ignorance on not knowing what they were for and nobody being able to tell me until recently! Technically they're not original either, but they did look pretty nice.
N1!
Thanks!
I dont like super glue action. But rest - nicely done.
Thanks! This restoration kind of broke most of my "rules" on how I perform restorations. I generally restore them to working condition but not in a way they couldn't be easily re-restored again in the future. This one is probably going to be a display piece for that reason (and also because I just love looking at it so much!).
Mmmmm forbidden nutella 😂
Fewer calories than the real thing but ironically probably not healthier for you.
AFTER THIS LEVEL GETS HIS BEAUTY TREATMENT THEN PUT HIM IN AN OLD LEVEL'S HOME WHERE HE CAN BE HAPPY
WHY ARE WE YELLING
@@CatalystRestorations IT'S NOT YELLING I'M VISUALLY IMPAIRED I LOST THE BOTTOM PART OF MY VISION
@@lindathrall5133 DON'T WORRY I WAS JUST JOKING AROUND - THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WATCHING!!
@@CatalystRestorations I JUST WANTED TO SEE IF YOU NOTICED HOW I LOVE LEVELS I HAVE LOVED LEVELS EVER SINCE I WAS SMALL I'M NOW A PROUD OWNER OF A FEW LEVELS WHICH ARE MY LIFELINES
@@lindathrall5133 THIS WAS THE FIRST LEVEL I EVER RESTORED - I NEED TO FIND ANOTHER ONE BECAUSE IT WAS SO FUN.
Could have been better, the counterbores for the brass washers were not in line, (see @19.50), does not look good, you didn't fill all the splits & holes, (see @20.08). Much better to do all filling and any re-work on holes before sanding. Too much careless work.
thanks for the thorough feedback, Keith