What do you do with old stuff when...

Time for a thermostat!

 

Nah!

 

Update! Progress! Concrete and drive belts! Photos to follow:
So I'm no mason. It's just a counter weight.

Drive engaged.
Drive disengaged.

Motor drive.

The only item left to get it operational is new wiring. The old is not grounded, and I'm hoping that I can make it reversible as well. Need a drum switch if I can find one that's inexpensive. Time will tell...

 

Are those Speedway boxes moving too? I thought you were going closer to the wall back there...

 

Yeah, sooner or later. At least those are empty. The ones back by the rear door are full. Something to do with fiberglass. And there's a lot of other odds and ends to get out of the way. And a new tool is showing up on Wednesday. Weighs 175 pounds. And it will have a very steep learning curve. And it's not old. I'm its 1st owner.

Located a drum switch for the lathe. I'll order it tomorrow.

 

Fiberglass will have to wait for warmer weather... but hopefully not too warm, although getting layered up does help to keep the itchy stuff off.
And a new tool! And a not small one at that... Does it include a digital read-out, by chance?

 

Nope! All manual. No motor, no gears, nothing...

 

Well the newest old thing is running, and I have been rearranging the garage so that it has a spot in the garage. I have reshuffled stuff, put new wheels and tires on the rolling workbench, moved other old stuff to new spots, and in general messed up the garage for a week now. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's a runaway locomotive!

Seriously though, I have made some drastic changes to the layout and started on figuring out what to do with the stuff that just needs to be elsewhere. As an example, the miniature Craftsman lathe is now disassembled and in the basement, waiting to be cleaned up, tuned up, and reassembled. It's kind of the redundant now, not worth a lot, but still functional, so I'll keep it around.

And I'm still ruminating over the future disposition of all of the machines and tools. Hopefully ratrodder gets his own shop soon, so that some of the jetsam and flotsam ends up with him!

 

We're trying over here! Driveway work is supposed to start this week...

 

And there's a spare valve grinder and a spare valve seat grinder, and...

 

Maybe you should just open a race shop already...

 

Too old, me and the stuff. But I have a picture or so of the progress in the garage so far.

Here's the corner of the garage where I set up the lathe, 2 drill presses and the Sunnen honing machine. Tucked in there waiting for me to build it a bench is a Nuway valve seat cutter system. I've got the complete system, including cutters and mandrels.
In the background is my rolling workbench/toolbox finally cleared off, and starting to hold all sorts of machine tooling. Only problem is that I now have to figure out what to do with my large Craftsman top box... I gave away my oldest rollaround as it was getting kind of beat to death. Might have to spring for a new one...

This is a Harbor Freight work bench, modified a little bit, but that doesn't show up here. A 3/4 inch plywood base on cast iron casters both supports the bench reducing flexing in the legs, and raises it up to a better working height. This is the first time since I assembled it that I've been able to see the top of it! That won't last long.

See those 2 plywood boxy things? 1 supports an antique horizontal belt sander, the other holds a Milwaukee Portaband saw in a Swag Offroad stand, as I didn't want to dedicate the space, money, something to a large standup metal cutting bandsaw. The boxes are open in the front with a shelf midway up. Lots of steel cutoffs stored under there, adding mass that helps cut down the dancing around of the tools.

And here's my old welding bench, made in the mid 70's from a sheet of 3/8 inch diamond plate and 2 inch square tubing 3/8 wall thickness. The vice is an antique, forged, been beat on by a couple of people before me. And you can never have enough clamps.

So I still have to clean up more stuff. And figure out what to do with the stuff somewhere down the road. But good progress. And I can't wait to mess it back up!

 

Oh, and I still have 10 fingers, 2 eyes and all my toes. And no one else uses the old stuff, so guards for the belts may be a nice safety feature, but I just can't make myself add them. I like the old unsafe machine shop look...

 

I like the changes/improvements! Hopefully we can make a trip west later this year, maybe in June...

 

Added to the concrete mass in the base yesterday and today. Welded eighth x 2 steel to the top of the weight pan, and put the 2nd bag of concrete in. Dry, then wetted it per instructions. Today I used up 2 6 pound boxes of self leveling stuff, which didn't. Fortunately I had a trowel handy and smoothed it out good enough for a floor level counterweight. Once it's all cured, I'll get to priming and painting the base, Ford machinery gray. Should be the last step.

I've been using it a bit. Drilling mostly. Facing once. And polishing a bathroom curtain rod to a bright finish. Yes, I allow non car projects in my garage. I've got a rototiller to make a new set of tine for waiting in the wings...

 

Did a first practice turning on the lathe today. And it cuts beautifully. Nice smooth cut, no chattering, and repeatable. Tomorrow I'll be making a driver to remove and replace the output shaft bushing in the S10 T5 tailhousing.

 

I think this is a really nice idea. I also think that if there are things a museum can't use, you should consider giving them to people who might not be able to afford them but would really love and treasure them. Think about passing things onto the next generation that might have this passion, but not all the resources for themselves.

 

Great suggestion. I'm certainly not going to just scrap these things. Ratrodder and I keep discussing ideas for the future of the stuff. My first step, of course, is to set a timeframe for me to let go of them. Then work towards making that happen. He's going to have some new space soon, and some things that he would like are already to go. He used to be employed by a fire truck museum (he'll correct me on the actual name...), where he actually got great experience in a somewhat parallel track, finding parts, assembling equipment and arranging displays. We'll get it figured out soon!

 

Yep! Fire Museum of Maryland, great place to spend an afternoon with your family (or alone, if you want time to look at everything !). They do a couple of "live" shows each year, one with steam fire engines and one with gas/diesel.

There are thousands of smaller museums dotted around that would likely gladly accept your "stuff" as long as it's relevant to what they display. And if they won't take it, they may know another museum that will. Of course, there's always the threat of cold, hard reality that your stuff only matters to you, and the museum doesn't need three left-handed monkey wrenches (with integrated hammer!), but you never know until you ask.

Take a bunch of photos, write down some relevant info (purchased in '63, raced in New York and New Jersey, oil stain by Smokey Yunick, etc.) and stop by your local mew-zee-um. Plus it gets you out of the house!

 

I pretty much live by the motto, "He who dies with the most old iron wins...", doesn't matter if it's vehicles, machines, etc...I have seen people ask this question over the years, "it will all get sold for pennies at my estate...", but I plan to leave the entire shop to my kids. I want my son to have every damn machine bought, setup and ready to work. My daughter less so, but you never know, she may have some kids one day that are attracted to them.

I hope to leave him a car lift inside the shop also, so he doesn't have to crawl around getting gravel down his crack working under the cars/trucks, or having dirt and oil dripping in their hair...BTDT...

The kids get the whole kit and caboodle. My daughter is 28, my son is 33.