I've been racking my brain trying to recall when I first saw an ad for Gil-Bilt tools from Gilliom Manufacturing. I'm fairly certain it was in High School when I used to spend hours in the library during study hall reading through smelly old back-issues of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines. I knew I was interested in woodworking, and seeing that I was soon to lose my access to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base's hobby shop as soon as I moved out of my parent's home, I needed to move into tool-ownership and fast. By the time I turned 18 I had a folder full of Xerox articles on tools, jigs and plans and among the collection was several ads from Gilliom for home-made tools. Home-made tools? Seriously?As the years went by I went the Dayton-made Shopsmith route and put the folder of articles away in a box.
And the years went by.
Now, if you know anything about me from my other blogs, I am a DIY'er to the bone and I love to build weird stuff. Like what? How about a world-class belt sander racer, a six cheese fountain, a wooden lathe, a box-joint saw, a pencil-post bed with giant pencils for the posts, animated wooden lobsters, wooden wheels for a 1924 Ford Model T Fire engine and hundreds of jigs and fixtures.
Recently while digging through boxes in my shop I came across the folder of articles and after an evening of walking down memory lane I found myself obsessing about home-made tools once again. A quick Googling and low and behold I learned that Gilliom Manufacturing is alive and well!
FYI: One of these articles was titled "Save Money With Tools You Build From Kits", which is from the December 1983 issue of The Family Handyman magazine.
More in the next post. Click on ad to Biggie-size it.
