The IT guy here at work emailed me the other day with a What's-It that I identified readily. Seems he had found a Stanley 77 that he wasn't sure of. His pictures taken on his phone were poor, but I recognized a Stanley rod and dowel machine. He bought it at a ridiculously low price and this morning he GAVE it to me!
I intend to clean it up and mount it as a demonstration piece. It has only one cutter, but other than not having the original release for the guide plate, it is in fantastic condition, and works! I only had some soft wood to try it out with, but with some TLC and good wood, it will make dowels as it is designed to do.
These things sell at prices that would surprise you- from $200 to $500 when complete and with all the cutters.

Not a good photo, but it did make a dowel.

Wow wow wow!! You must be livin right!!
Some Christmas
yours Scott

 Nice christmas gift, sure wish the people I work with were lucky like that.

Quote..sure wish the people I work with were lucky like that.

It comes from being true to friends and co-workers, along with being in the right place at the right time.

Quote from: Papaw on December 28, 2011, 05:23:01 AM

Quote..sure wish the people I work with were lucky like that.

It comes from being true to friends and co-workers, along with being in the right place at the right time.

True that. Still a pretty cool find.

Good friends are priceless! I had a wonderful Christmas as well. I'll explain that later. Here is the page from the 1926 catalog. Your infeed disc is a little different than this.

You suck!

OK.  Now that I've got that out of my system...  What a gift!!  I've only seen one of these in person, and that was almost 25 years ago.  I've seen them go for $700+.   Now to find the other cutter heads. 

I did some cleaning on the Stanley 77.
Really just took it apart and cleaned everything up some, no major restoration planned. This will be a user and demonstration piece.
After looking at several photos, I decided the plate was on backwards, so I mounted it the way you see it in these photos.

That is a beautiful machine Papaw!

That's really an outstanding gift to receive as a collector of old tools!!!  I'd love to have that machine!!!

Jim C.

Just browsing on ebay I found one

Whats the value on something like that? Just wondering.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stanley-77-Dowel-Machine-/150677385995?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item231512730b

Depending on condition and included parts, they are offered at $200 to $400.

I think the dowel maker is very cool, but if I was going to buy something to make dowels, it would probably be a small 6" to 9" lathe. Atlas, Logan and South Bend come to mind. You can score one for less than $500 and make lots of things including dowels.
JIS