Curb Alert

[Twertsy]

Folks, I'll try and make this as short as possible.  I was contacted by a gent last week about catalogs from WWII era.  Long story short I'm picking them up tomorrow (8 legal boxes - free).  They came from the deceased gentleman's property, which has 2 large shops.  One is 3 stories of approximately 2k sq. ft. each, all full of Pre, WWII, and post machinery.  Soon, the property will go to closing and all machinery is to be scrapped and the buildings leveled for a development.  Apparently, the daughters are trying to save their dad's equipment from the scrapper and want to see it saved.  There are old grinders, mills, lathes, printing equipment, and on and on.  The property is near Reading, PA and if anyone would like to walk through and make offers tomorrow around noon, contact me via twertsy@gmail.com.  I'm already meeting some members of other forums there.  They aren't asking a ton for the stuff, just want it saved. 

[bill300d]

Dang I wish I could get off work to go. If you can would enjoy seeing some pics.

Back in the day that area had a lot of industry. I'm not surprised that there is a building full of machinery there. Ive run across some nice stuff there occasionally.

[Bill Houghton]

Let's see...if I jump in the car right now and drive like a madman...nope, all the way across the continent between now and noon tomorrow's not gonna happen.

Good of you to do this - I'm sure the daughters will feel good that people are rescuing dad's stuff so it can continue to make things.  Maybe people can send the daughters photos of the tools in their new homes.

[Plyerman]

Dang, I just know this is something I ought to check out, but......nope, too far for me too. :-/

[turnnut]

 25 years ago, I would have went there.   too late in life now.

[Twertsy]

I got some preview shots yesterday..........can't wait to get there today!!!  They sent me the first pic (cabinet) saying it was on it's way to the dumpster..............now it's not.  Such a shame much of this stuff will become Chinese radiator caps..........

[Twertsy]

Dang I wish I could get off work to go. If you can would enjoy seeing some pics.

Back in the day that area had a lot of industry. I'm not surprised that there is a building full of machinery there. Ive run across some nice stuff there occasionally.

I can hear that nasty cough from here Bill.  I think you need to take the day off.........

[rustcollector]

I'm a little confused why they wouldn't send it all to an auction or something. But at least you all can possibly get some of it picked out first anyway.

[Yadda]

Dang, I just know this is something I ought to check out, but......nope, too far for me too. :-/

+1

[Lewill2]

I met with Twertsy today for an afternoon of picking. The whole situation seem kind of strange. 2 sisters are trying to get ride of as much ass possible before Thursday when there is closing on the property. The sisters told us that the estate lawyers had kept them locked out of the buildings for about 8 years. During that time I think their brother had free rein of the buildings and took a lot of the small stuff and left the place a mess. The buildings had been broken into several times during that time. The sisters are mad because the lawyers arranged the sale of the property that has 20 acres for only $400,000. The property is closer to the Philly area not in the Reading area.

Bottom line the machinery is huge and would take a major effort to remove it even just for scrap. Not a whole lot of good stuff left. There are a lot of cabinets and file type of cabinets in the buildings but the effort to dig most of them out is overwhelming. The original owner must have been an interesting person. Machine shop operator and the women helped their father in the shop as well as their brothers, inventor, musician, violin maker, engineer and more. One project he started was a 1/4 scale train steam engine which there are drawings, mold patterns and cast iron pieces in the shop for it.

It was an interesting day just wasn't as rewarding with pieces in hand as we had hoped. Twertsy has a truck full of old catalogs and machine tool literature. I have a few 2 foot levels, a hand full of different makers carpenters squares and a few other odds and ends.

Just about like a day out of American Pickers, just like Mike and Frank. 

[bill300d]

At least you got a few things even though it was picked over already.  Wish I could have been there but couldn't make it.

[Plyerman]

Thanks for the report guys. It looks like (back in the day) it would have been a fantastic shop. I see a turret lathe, a knee mill, a radial arm drill.....wow

[Twertsy]

It was very cool listening to the ladies tell of their father's skills.  Very very sad that all that machinery will be going to scrap.  All the massive tooling is being tossed into the dumpster as I type this.  I wish I had grabbed the tooling, if for nothing else but to pass along to someone who'd use it.  While we didn't "score" much in the way of tools, it was worth the trip just for the stories and to see all that equipment and wonder what it must have been like during full operation.

As Les said above, I have 8 boxes of catalogs, the vast majority of which is machinery and tooling.  If anyone has any needs for old documentation for this type of equipment let me know and I'll see if I can help.  There are operating manuals to some of the machines in the boxes as well.

[Nolatoolguy]

Nice looking shop for its day. It's one of those times I wish the walls could talk, an tell stories of days gone by.

when I lived in Chicago my buddy did a lot of clean outs an salvage. I was always amazed with the deals he worked out. I helped him in many of his bigger jobs. Often times I was happier with the tools I saved from the dump then the hourly pay from him. Whenever we saw each other he was always like hey want this rusty junk, before I scrap it. I love the guy like a brother but he only saw flea market or scrap value.

Anyway...

Very cool pics thanks for sharing.