{"product_id":"vintage-craftsman-radial-arm-tool-know-how-manual-sears-1961","title":"Vintage Craftsman Radial Arm Tool Know-How Manual, Sears, 1961","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA shop manual bound in bright red flexible vinyl over a plastic comb binding, printed front and back in black. The cover shows a man in rolled shirtsleeves running a board through a radial arm saw, drawn in the confident commercial line of early-sixties American advertising art, under the Craftsman wordmark in its notched banner. The back carries a second drawing of the same man at the machine from the other side.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInside it is a working technical book, not a pamphlet. Densely set pages of instruction run alongside photographs of hands on the machine and line diagrams of jigs and setups, covering crosscutting, ripping, mitre and bevel work, dado and moulding cutting, and the accessory heads that turned the saw into a shaper, a drill and a sander.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe vinyl has stayed supple and glossy with the colour undimmed, the comb binding is complete and turns freely, and the text block is clean and square. There is light scuffing and a few small marks to the covers and some edge toning to the paper.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe title page settles the date with no argument required. It reads CRAFTSMAN RADIAL ARM TOOL \"KNOW-HOW\", REVISED 1961, copyright 1961 by Sears, Roebuck and Co., a Midwest Technical Publication, printed in U.S.A. The rights address is given as Legal Department 766, Sears, Roebuck and Co., Homan and Arthington Aves., Chicago 7, Illinois.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat address is worth a second look, because it confirms the printing independently. Chicago 7 is a postal zone, from the numbering system the Post Office introduced in 1943 and retired in July 1963 when ZIP codes replaced it. A book addressed that way was set before the changeover, which agrees with the 1961 on the page above it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe radial arm saw is the machine this book was written to sell and to explain. Sears pushed it hard at the postwar homeowner as the one tool that could be a whole shop: crosscut saw, rip saw, dado head, shaper, drill press, disc sander and lathe, all hanging off a single motor on an arm. That promise is why these manuals are as thick as they are. A man who bought the machine on a Saturday needed several hundred pages before he could use half of it, and Sears wrote them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Homan and Arthington address is the old Sears complex on Chicago's West Side, the headquarters and mail order plant that ran the largest retail operation in the world for most of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVintage, 1961, printed on the title page\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTitle\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCraftsman Radial Arm Tool \"Know-How\", Revised 1961\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublisher\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSears, Roebuck and Co., Chicago. A Midwest Technical Publication, printed in U.S.A.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBinding\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFlexible red vinyl covers over a plastic comb binding\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eContents\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIllustrated instruction in wood, plastic and metalworking on the radial arm saw and its accessory heads, with photographs and line diagrams throughout\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVery good and complete. Vinyl supple and glossy with colour undimmed, comb binding intact and turning freely, text block clean and square. Light scuffing and a few small marks to the covers, edge toning to the paper.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eQuantity\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne, as shown\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a book that works as an object. That red is a saturated, unembarrassed commercial red of a kind nobody prints any more, the cover art is genuinely good mid-century line drawing, and at this size it holds a shelf or a coffee table on its own rather than needing to be one of a stack.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt reads well face out on a shelf, propped on a workbench, framed open at a diagram, or stacked with other red and black spines. And it is still a usable manual. Anyone who owns an old Craftsman radial arm saw will want it, and anyone who does not will pick it up anyway for the drawings.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48072661237865,"sku":"VE-1651","price":125.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/0CBB5BEA-FB12-457F-B25E-ACB73C0DDF9E.jpg?v=1789632410","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/vintage-craftsman-radial-arm-tool-know-how-manual-sears-1961","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}