Thanks for the kind words.
But I owe a lot of the little screws to a guy I never got to meet.
A guy who lived right in this tiny town for almost 20 years, and I never even heard of him until he died. He was a close friend of one my best friends too!
His name was Paul, and he was the guy who invented the first fully automatic phonograph needle grinder.
Phonograph needles were big deal in the early days because being plain steel, they only lasted a few records. With nothing but a needle, a diaphragm and a horn reproducing the sound (no amplifiers yet), the needle had to be at its very best.
Paul was the guy who eventually put them up in those little 100 needle tins. At least he was the first.
He was from St Louis. A hopeless inventor, and tinker of many things.
After he died I got his lathe. A small Atlas, which wasn't much of a big deal itself. But along with the lathe came more accessories, by weight, than the lathe by far.
Plus a few choice boxes of hardware, and even a little extra precious wood.
I found out he had been ordering his exotic wood from Craftsman Wood Service the same people I ordered mine from, until they went out of business in the 80's.
We could have known each other the whole time he lived here!!
I was robbed!!
Anyway, I found a couple of small watchmaker stashes of tiny screws myself,
but much of the stash came from Paul.
yours Scott
