obsolete technology

[john k]

I am thinking that here where yesterdays tools and methods are not scoffed at,  and some here have some very slight tendencies to be on the hoarding side, maybe theres some, that when presented with a good deal on something oudated, outmoded, it still goes home with them?   I"m starting to see good 35MM cameras in the thrifts, got my last one with lenses and all for $15.  Thursday I was in a thrift and spied a little Smith/Corona typewriter, a portable in very good shape with case, for $2.  Right behind it was another black case, Panasonic something.  A complete in perfect condition VHS cam-corder, $2.50, darn.  at least they can be hooked up and used for stationary monitoring, look kinda neat up on a tripod too.  This one weighs a bunch less than my RCA VHS cam corder.  So, what obsolete technology draws the rest of the crew here?

[Papaw]

Cameras do it for me, along with old letter openers, kitchen tools, and old flashlights.

[KeepinOldBolts]

Cameras do it for me, along with old letter openers, kitchen tools, and old flashlights.

Oh yeah.....flashlights are a problem, I mean opportunity for me as well.....

[kxxr]

I don't see much of it any more but I always have an eye out for old audio gear. Old, vintage, obsolete, analog; especially anything with tubes ... I'll check it out. It is out there, just not in the quantities I used to see. USA tools will be that way some day soon too, I believe.

We will look back fondly on the days when you could walk into any pawn shop, second hand store, flea market or garage sale and find at least one USA made tool, even if not all that special. The end is near!

[Branson]

Mmm... Old kitchen tools do it for me.   I like old wooden spoons, the ones that have bowls deep enough to hold some liquid for one thing.  I have an old vegetable peeler that has a blade I can sharpen, and it works fine.  I recently found  a big old rotary grater that sure makes things easier -- four separate grating blades.  Old cast iron skillets.  I like old guns, too.   My deer rifle is an 1873 Winchester in 44/40.  "But it's no good past 100 yards" people say.  The last deer I took at maybe 30 yards.  Where I hunt, you seldom see farther than 60. 

Sometimes convenience things aren't really so convenient. 

[stillfishin]

I like old sporting items. Especially fishing related, but I do have a lot of old guns too. I can't pass them up if they are priced reasonably. In fact I actively seek them out. How sick is that?? The problem is they pile up and I'm afraid to use them, as I have newer equipment that I trust and that functions great. So yes, old technology is good but then again so is new technology.

[bunger]

Vintage radios. Old AM transistors, early AM-FM-Shortwave & Scanners.
Most of them are operational, to drive my wife crazy.

[rusty]

Do you turn them all on at the same time, tuned to different stations?


The following will distract you for hours and hours... 
 http://www.transistor.org/
also http://www.jamesbutters.com/

[Carl]

Home shop machinists (like me) thrive on trailing-edge technology. Old methods can be cheap and accurate (although time consuming). The machine tools of the Industrial Revolution were brought to a high state of accuracy using files, stones, and scrapping (that's scrape, not scrap) and a lot of hand labor. This is a lesson lost on a lot of folks.

[EVILDR235]

I have a good friend that likes things that are simple. He took the jet pump off his well that kept failing every few years and installed a windmill. The wind is always blowing near him and is free. He has wood stoves in his houses and out buildings. He has a wood cook stove that also heats his water. Cuts his wood with a 36 inch saw run off the rear wheel of one of his trucks. Many hand powered tools. He has a large gate leading into his wrecking yard. The junk hardware store hinges kept breaking, so he cut a Model T front axle in half a used it for hinges. He put a put a large steel shaft in some concrete and drilled 2 holes in it. He bolted the Model T spindles thru the steel shaft and bolted the 2 halves of the axle to he gate turning them in the very larges hinges. Then he put a wheel on the other end of the gate to support it.

EvilDr235

[BruceS]

Cameras do it for me, along with old letter openers, kitchen tools, and old flashlights.

Oh yeah.....flashlights are a problem, I mean opportunity for me as well.....

Collecting flashlights may become problematic !   Incandescent bulbs are being banned,  good grief!

[john k]

Someone else likes old FLashlights eh?  Have two from the 20s, one still works, original bulb, but newer batteries.  Hate to think of converting them to LED's.  Been collecting tools thats don't need electric power,  can work in my shop without electricity pretty easily.  Drill press, grinders, drills, forge blower,  no problem.   Heat house with wood already, will heat the shop the same.   May have to keep watch out for a windmill.  Already working on wooden wagon wheels. 

[Branson]

Working on wooden wagon wheels?  Whacha doin with them?

[john k]

When I get two done it will be a cart!  but when I get four done, it will be a wagon!!  Have the rotted down remains of a complete wagon,  we have found the hard way that not all the spindles are the same size or taper.   Same with the hubs.  Around here a decent wagon brings good money so the people with money can park it in the yard of their mini estate, plant flowers around it and watch it rot down, I just want to get a complete wagon together to say that I did it.  Also have the remains of a sand wagon. 

[Branson]

Cool project!  I hope you're going to take pictures of the process.  I've done a lot of research on wheelwright work, but I've never tried it myself.  Roy Underhill did a program that would be worth watching.  It shows Williamsburg wheelwrights setting the iron tires, which is probably the hardest part (other than mortising the hubs).