Did I Ever Tell You Folks That I'm a Junk-a-holic?
Folks, I'm a junk-a-holic. I don't know how to put it any other way than that. Here are some pictures of some of my junk. Most of it is electro-mechanical stuff, power-transmission stuff, machine parts, old machines, and hardware. The last two pictures are the two ways you can get to my office. If you ever do drop by please don't ever get lost because you may never find your way back out. We call this the Dungeon. :-[
The picture above shows one way to get to my office.
And this picture shows another way to get to my office. Look real hard right in the center of the picture and you will see a door with a glass window. The door is the door to my office. When you get to that door just turn left. Congratulations you have arrived at the office of helluvawreck, junkaholic, Jack of all Trades (MASTER OF NONE), and Shade-tree Mechanic. I'm glad you stopped by for the tour.
Hey- you silly goose, you are far more organized and tidy than those hoarders they show on TV. What exactly do you do with all that stuff? And where do you get it from? You could open a hardware store.
I was going to ask where's the WOOD ! But I'm sure I saw some dowels in one shot, maybe some rough slabs in another ?
After all man cannot live by electro-mechanicals alone !
rivergirl, I've been in manufacturing for 40 years. I have always done the maintenance and engineering for all the plants I've been in. That means that I'm responsible for fixing something that breaks down or try to make something work that ain't working. To rig up stuff and fix things you need parts - electrical controls, air cylinders, bearings, fasteners, motors, etc., etc., etc. We have gone to machinery auctions ever since we've been in this. I have also bought hundreds of machine and electrical parts on Ebay. I learned a long time ago that this pays off because we also have a machine shop in the plant. Sometimes we modify or build special machines. When you can do that you can often build something with what you have on hand. It's as simple as that.
Back when we use to make furniture we use to go to furniture plant auctions all over. We would buy a lot of the left over raw materials and tons of cabinet and furniture hardware. We made furniture for nursing homes and motels and hotels and we designed our furniture around what we had on hand. At one time for example, we had 4 or 5 thousand sheets of high pressure laminate. So there is a sort of a method in our madness.
And my wife thought I was bad. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Nope it did not work, she said that she
did not care if someone had it worse than I did, I all ready had too much stuff and most of mine is restored
and working except for the Rockwell Delta Compound Slide Rest either a No. 46-965 or 46-961 that a friend?
gave to me yesterday as a basket case. It is missing some parts that I can not build until I get it together
enough to make them on my lathe. Any chance you might have one in that wonderful asssortment? LOL.
Had to go visit your home site, your shop is great and way better organized than mine. Great assorment of
junk, I see pipe fittings, lifting slings, padded rollers, eye swivels, but what is that big green base on that cart
with the big electrical box on top? Good thing you are so far away or you would be kicking me out at quitting
time so you could go home. I found that my wife appreciated my tool collection a lot more after I fixed her
Subaru Outback engine leak, jackhammered out the front sidewalk and porch and installed a big Trek deck
and porch, then tore out the monstrosity of a rock hearth and wall in the living room and installed a builtin
fireplace with 8/4 cherry mantle and shelves. It was even fun. Hope no one finds a cure for acute junkaholism. My oldest son is a psychiatrist therapist with the VA and he just kind of shakes his head as he
slowly walks away, the middle son manages a fairly big industrial tool and supply store and he helps by selling
me more tools and stuff. The youngest is just out of a five year hitch with the Marines and is undecided
about me, but thinks there is hope. May God give you many more years to enjoy your obsession.
As ever, Gus the 71 yr young laborer, trying to become a carpenters apprentice.
Bluepine, that big base is a fine specimen of a piece of junk. That came off of a Bell Miter and Bore machine. That's a big boring machine that had two multi-spindle drilling heads and chop saws on each end so you could cut each end of a wooden frame and bore the ends with dowel holes at the same time. My brother bought that at machinery auction a while back for a couple of hundred dollars and brought it back and told me to strip it and keep what I might could use because he was going to scrap whatever was left. Well, me and Clint (my right hand man) stripped it. The machine probably weighed 7500 lbs. Well, me and Clint kept the base, the two drilling heads, and the two saws, along with the control box. When we got through I gave Clint a coffee can with a few bolts in it and told him to take that up to my brother and hand it to him and tell him that that was all we didn't keep. A feller could build all sorts of double end machines with that base.
I just saw a show on TV showing a guy that decided to only have 100 possessions and I thought I would have a hard time getting down to 1000 items . But I think you would have a hard time getting down to 10,000 possessions. It's lots of stuff but very well organized and if you need it in your business it's not junk it's inventory or stock on hand.
Blue pine, it sounds like you have a fine family. No, I'm satisfied that there is no cure for junckaholism. However, as long as I fix stuff around here they put up with me. They do make me thin it out occasionally. Back when the scrap iron price went up so high my brother talked me into getting rid of about half of what I had.
Funny that you mentioned scrap prices.. I come from a long line of junk men and women and that thought actually crossed my mind. LOL When we were kids my brothers and sisters and I used to have to sit in the cellar- and I mean cellar- by the coal furnace- burning copper wire and stripping copper from old motors. All winter long - that's how we got by. In the summer we worked the farm and fields.
Jim, I've used quite a lot of stuff out of my junk pile over the years. It's not completely necessary for our business but it sure does come in handy at times.
rivergirl, that's probably where you got a lot of your spunk from and hard work always builds character. So I see partly where your fine character comes from.
Abbott, I don't know. We live in North Georgia and much of the time it's 95 to 100 degrees in the summer. The winter can get chilly at times. My office has no central heat and no air conditioner. The main offices are up towards the middle of the plant about 400 ft away. They have central heat and air up there. Sometimes, the dungeon might be more apt. But, what the hell, my machine shop is just to the right of the last picture. So this is where I need to be.
I bet the girls love it down there when you invite them in for lunch. A fan setting behind a big bucket of ice and there you go…air conditioning and chilled wine.
Yeah, well you sure have a good job, a wealth of know how and I bet you and your brother and the rest of your family are incredibly nice people.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
LumberJocks Woodworking Forum
2.5M posts
96K members
Since 2006
A forum community dedicated to professional woodworkers and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about shop safety, wood, carpentry, lumber, finishing, tools, machinery, woodworking related topics, styles, scales, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!