2025 Garage Sale Thread (14th Annual)

[ecotec]

Snap-on 29, 30 and 32mm deep impact sockets $20 at the Sunday flea market.

They were not a steal, but they knocked three imported sockets out of my main metric drawer. I thought that it was worth it.

 

[bmwrd0]

I decided to forgo the massive (5+ miles) swap meet that Smokeshow went to for a logistical reason (for lack of a bicycle pump, the war was lost) and, instead, decided to hit a few interesting looking estate and garage sales.


Only two of the six had anything I was interested in, as I was hitting them on the second day for the most part, but I am rather happy with my finds. The Furnas drum switch and Stanley sweethart level came from one of the sales (which had a full roster of Delta woodworking equipment from the '50s), and from the other, the George Elliot (1890), Irwin #2, set of headphones, and this beauty:



An Atwater-Kent #30-8000, from 1926. Altogether I spent $40, and am very, very happy with everything.

 

[Smokeshow69]

You scored a great collectible vise at a great price.
Still in original paint without much loss, and seemingly no battle scars like saw or hammer marks. The badge alone is worth about half of what you paid for the whole vise.

Thanks! It's going to my friend as I already have a user 51xx vise. The logo on the vise is quite nice and the mostly original paint made the decision process for about .002 seconds. It would be so cool just to sit it on a shelf and look at it but alas, my space is limited and so down the road it goes. It's pretty straight and true and doesn't show a ton of battle scars.

 

[Provincial]

I dug one of those vises out of a pile at my wife's family tree farm. It hadn't been abused, just exposed to humid air it's whole life. I cleaned u the rust and repainted it. I gave it to my sister-in-law to put in the new shop she built on her part of the family property. It is a memory of her father working on farm equipment in a rickety old shop.

 

[mikeinri]

If you got all that for $25, you Super ****! Hell of an opener for the year!

Good eye, I didn't even catch that. That haul ***** in general, but that price would really send it over the top!

Mike

 

[zanyad]

Hit an estate sale today that started Friday of an instrument repairman. I'd stopped by on Friday but prices were eBay or even retail/like-new. Yesterday was 50% off, today was 75% off. While a little picked over by today, I found a Workmate ($17.50), a Dazor (like?) desktop drafting lamp ($20), seven painters' pyramids and an aluminum #904 "portable desk" clipboard. $38 out the door. The lamp needs new bulbs and maybe a ballast, TBD. Left behind Kennedy machinist and journeyman toolboxes, a Kennedy roller I've never seen (lower compartment with a flip-down door, flip-top upper compartment with a filing cabinet-esque sliding plate), miscellaneous hand tools.

My haul:

 

[Squez]

Went to a estate sale 2 weeks ago and when loading up my stuff I forgot the small bag of tools I bought… only 5 bucks and 75 miles away… anyway ended up going back yesterday after they reposted it and sure enough they had my bag… not a lot but I got weird pair of plyers maybe to pull fuses?

 

[Patrickm82]

So I went back to the back yard machine shop to dig some more today. I found a few new things and some close ups of yesterday’s stuff. All in all a good weekend. Here’s today’s stuff!

Clamps, jacks and V blocks all seem homemade but well done just surface rust
Misc taps because I needed the cigar box
Dunlap 5195 with the pipe jaws
A piece of O1 tool steel
Dewitt vise grips 1942 patent
Bonney and Plomb doe wrenches
Circle H 3/4” 1/2” drive
Furnace machine switch
Brass machinist level
Brass no. 4 hammer
Hammer handle



Then some better shots of yesterday ;

Cardinal 3B vise that some jackass ran an end mill across!
Acme 14” square ******* files NOS
1942 Audels machinist and tool maker guide
16” Proto Los Angeles adjustable
File with a Tuck handle
Albrecht 1-13 chuck
Home made tap handle
Craftsman circle Y adjustable
Small tuck driver and another unknown
3 Billings dbe wrenches
Unknown ball peen hammer
SK spinner handle
Starrett pocket scribe
1”-4 acme tap
Beverly B2 shear
Craftsman long C 11/16
H.D. Smith perfect handle pipe wrench




Finally some pics of the shop and left behinds

 

[Patrickm82]

Two more cause I hit the max. I will definitely be going back. Still tons to dig through.

 

[Smokeshow69]

Two more cause I hit the max. I will definitely be going back. Still tons to dig through.

Dude,
I see a ton of good stuff. Like just the oil cans, and the craftsman alien head planer. How come you didn’t buy these? Is it a space issue in your vehicle you drove?

 

[Patrickm82]

the stuff on the bottom left he was keeping. I don’t do a ton of wood working so out on the planner. I’m going back, he’s only 15 mins from me. There is a nice craftsman shaper that I am interested in though.

 

[Outlawmws]

The lamp needs new bulbs and maybe a ballast,

Go LED and skip the ballast and F tubes..

I got weird pair of pliers maybe to pull fuses?

EREM is Swiss and were very big in electronics so likely a specialized par for installing some block connector or such - some similar were for I.C. installation.

There is a nice craftsman shaper that I am interested in though.

Likely the Atlas built bench-top shaper.

And great scores!

 

[Smokeshow69]

the stuff on the bottom left he was keeping. I don’t do a ton of wood working so out on the planner. I’m going back, he’s only 15 mins from me. There is a nice craftsman shaper that I am interested in though.

But is he also an oil cans collector?

 

[Patrickm82]

But is he also an oil cans collector?

I’ll grab some for you on my next trip!

 

[CoogarXR]

Those are Erem 505C IC pliers, you use them kinda like this :

 

[Smokeshow69]

I’ll grab some for you on my next trip!

Oh man, if I was there I’d be picking the cans. Most old oil cans are worth at least $5 at a minimum. Depending on the picture in the can and the condition some can be worth hundreds or more. I don’t collect cans for the value but they sure are fun to hunt. I see some Sears -Allstate cans in those photos which are very similar to some Allstate cans I picked up this weekend. Also pictured is an Allstate fan belt I got.

 

[Beerhippie]

Hit an estate sale today that started Friday of an instrument repairman. I'd stopped by on Friday but prices were eBay or even retail/like-new. Yesterday was 50% off, today was 75% off. While a little picked over by today, I found a Workmate ($17.50), a Dazor (like?) desktop drafting lamp ($20), seven painters' pyramids and an aluminum #904 "portable desk" clipboard. $38 out the door. The lamp needs new bulbs and maybe a ballast, TBD. Left behind Kennedy machinist and journeyman toolboxes, a Kennedy roller I've never seen (lower compartment with a flip-down door, flip-top upper compartment with a filing cabinet-esque sliding plate), miscellaneous hand tools.

My haul:

The lamp is not only a Dazor, it's the same model that's lighting my desk as I type. I bypassed the ballast and installed 5,000K "Daylight" LED tubes and I couldn't be happier.

Clipboard is what I carried for years in the field. We called them Tatums--probably a brand name.

 

[alinc100]

Go LED and skip the ballast and F tubes..

The lamp is not only a Dazor, it's the same model that's lighting my desk as I type. I bypassed the ballast and installed 5,000K "Daylight" LED tubes and I couldn't be happier.

anyone care to share a quick write up or link to correct new LED bulbs for electrical dummies like me. I've got 2 Dazor's I'd love to resurrect.

 

[Beerhippie]

anyone care to share a quick write up or link to correct new LED bulbs for electrical dummies like me. I've got 2 Dazor's I'd love to resurrect.

Lets see your vintage shop work lights

Seems I always am in need of additional light in the shop. Over the years I have picked up quite a few vintage lights I use in various places.. Here are some of my lights, lets see what you have. I have some other machine lights that I will have to get pics of. This is my latest acquisition...

www.garagejournal.com

I did a write-up when I restored my Dazor there. Somewhere there. Mine is a model P 2324.

I by passed the ballasts, but left them there for ballast. It's needed as the lamp sits on a shelf above my bench with the head cantilevered out about two feet.

 

[JMP]

Finally found a few tools on the cheap again. I got skunked last weekend and just haven't found many deals. Spent a total of $50.

I paid $20 for this box of tools. What caught my eye from the listing was the ratcheting screwdriver. I knew it was Williams or Snap On so easily worth the money. Much to my surprise it turned out to be a CAT branded Williams driver. These are now over $50 plus tax from CAT and I was about to spend the money on a new one.







Deal #2 - Paid $20 for these tools. The guy had a garage filled with tools. Totes filled to the brim with wrenches, pliers, ratchets, etc, etc. I will have to make some more trips out that way in the future. A lot of it already picked over but still good tools with easy going prices.

-GM Goodwrench 3/8 ratchet 32602 - Taiwan clone but really nice comfortable ratchet
-1/2 drive Indestro Super extension
-1/4 Bonney breaker bar
-1/2 drive Speed Master branded Penens ratchet
-Wizard branded / Duro made 9/16" 6 point swivel socket
-6" needle nose Vise Grips
-Estwing drilling/mini sledge hammer
-rubber mallet
-hatchet handle




Deal #3 - Paid $10 for these. These had been listed for weeks and were a ways from me. I was sort of in the area and the price was right so I took a gamble. Listing photo was so terrible I could only see wrench shaped objects. The 12" Utica adjustable wrench is froze up but I see if I can free it up (fixed).

 

[zanyad]

I did a write-up when I restored my Dazor there. Somewhere there. Mine is a model P 232A.

Here's what I found:

It turns out I have an old Dazor 2324 Floating Fixture Industrial lamp and it might be worth replacing the fluorescent tubes with new LED tubes. Instead of removing the ballast and rewiring it direct for LED tubes, I found GE Color Select LED tubes that would work without the need to rewire. Plug and play!

Here it is, wiped down with bike polish (it’s what I had), pivots lubed, and tubes replaced with bright modern LED T8s.

Cool, @fishwatcher!

I took another look at the lights I ordered. By "dimmable", they mean the tubes have translucent covers that can be rotated in front of or behind the tubes to "dim" them. Well, that saves me about $30 for a dimmer, and after looking at prices for these old lights, I don't want to be drilling any holes it anyway.

...

Rewiring the lamp to eliminate the ballast and start features requires no wire clipping on mine:



And any worries about the ballast going bad should be allayed, too. Two big choke coils and one big capacitor that looks like a common motor-start cap is all it is. I'll still be disconnecting all that, as ballasts make heat and heat is wasted energy--unless you need heat.

This also explains the weight (16 3/4 lb): Look at that big hunk of CI!

Here you go [LED bulbs]:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SWC8L7K/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[ctuai]

That's what can happen when you use an ax head as a splitting wedge. That's battle damage...

I'd be tempted to try getting the whole head red hot and squeezing it back down in a vise.

Huh, well that explains why the poll was so mushroomed and the eye is cracked. Well this goes into the collection, maybe my wife will drop it into the yard through her draw string pant legs ah lah Shawshank redemption.

 

[RTM]

Screwed up times and travel order on a couple of sales today, so only scored at one last day estate sale. Left behind at this one included a big Hitachi Koki concrete saw with blade, and an Industrial brother sewing machine, decent prices, but no need for either.

The findings from today, out of a house next door to where a friend used to live. Several drip irrigation fittings, a large masonry drill bit, paint pen, fed by a tube, Henckels looking ceramic sharpening steel for knives, German horned smoother, with what appears to be the wrong blade,, 4” Norton disk for my RA Makita, 3-3/8” saw blade for a Makits trim saw, and a spare glasses case. 7/16” Auto set wrench too.

 

[Levaughn]

These are some items I picked up yesterday at an Estate Sale for $30.

- Servistar needle nose pliers
- S-K # 0-810 1/4-5/16 wrench
- Fuller 3-1/2 inch vice
- Utica # 3950-8 pliers
- Crescent adjustable 8 inch wrench
- West Germany pliers
- Defiance chisel # 1252
- Channel lock # 338 pliers
- Rivet tool Model PRG412
- Master lock # 1
- Oxwall wrenches

 

[WisJim]

Not from a garage or estate sale, but 4 boxes of books and magazines given to me by a fellow not far from me that I had never met before. He had mentioned the large collection of "The Model Engineer" magazines and bound reprints of early editions that he no longer wanted to keep. He didn't want the bother and expense of packing and shipping them and was hoping to find someone nearby to take them. Well, I contacted him with the result being a half hour drive to his house, a tour of his excellent shop, and a nice visit with him and his wife (my wife had also gone along with me).
The boxes contain many full years of the magazine from the 1950s and 60s, bound volumes and reprints going back to the first few years and some other odds and ends of the magazine. I guess I have my reading ready for a few years.

 

[bmwrd0]

@WisJim Very jealous of that!

 

[knock knock]

$20 for the box was a pretty good deal

 

[Beerhippie]

$20 for the box was a pretty good deal

Someone call the apostrophe police NOW!

 

[knock knock]

Market place find for $125 not really a Mac guy but been looking for larger metric wrenches

 

[pfaustus]

A Rant. Or why I hate Estate Sales that open on Friday.
Friday at lunch time, I was perusing the craigslist garage sale listing to see if there was anything good for Saturday. So I click on the first picture of one and see:



Wow. A wall of planes. A big old vise. A patternmakers box. Holy ****. Is that a Millers Patent Plow Plane at the top!
Why yes it is. In the wild! Wow.


Then I note it had opened three hours earlier at 9am. Ugh.

When I arrive bright and early Sat. morning, of course there was not a single plane left. In fact, they said two guys had almost come to blows Friday morning. I did get a Craftsman woodworking vise for $10 and a D-8 thumbhole rip saw. And I watched the patternmakers box go for $40. If I had guessed it would go that cheap, I would have figured out a way to fit it in my car despite the $20 [banged up and spray painted black, including the handles] Proto middle box in the back seat.

But, letting the retired guys in on Friday is simply unforgivable. There should be a law or something.

 

[Skellyii]

A Rant. Or why I hate Estate Sales that open on Friday.
Friday at lunch time, I was perusing the craigslist garage sale listing to see if there was anything good for Saturday. So I click on the first picture of one and see:



Wow. A wall of planes. A big old vise. A patternmakers box. Holy ****. Is that a Millers Patent Plow Plane at the top!
Why yes it is. In the wild! Wow.


Then I note it had opened three hours earlier at 9am. Ugh.

When I arrive bright and early Sat. morning, of course there was not a single plane left. In fact, they said two guys had almost come to blows Friday morning. I did get a Craftsman woodworking vise for $10 and a D-8 thumbhole rip saw. And I watched the patternmakers box go for $40. If I had guessed it would go that cheap, I would have figured out a way to fit it in my car despite the $20 [banged up and spray painted black, including the handles] Proto middle box in the back seat.

But, letting the retired guys in on Friday is simply unforgivable. There should be a law or something.

Wow!
You'd really hate it around here, most of the garage and estate sales open on Thursday.

 

[LesserSon]

Not meant as an argument, but a possible source of solace:
The retired guys won’t have possession indefinitely. Avoid hazards and cultivate patience, and those same tools will be up for grabs again.

Then again the world could end abruptly. But would not having them at that moment really be your main concern?

 

[RTM]

But, letting the retired guys in on Friday is simply unforgivable. There should be a law or something

I hit CL Wednesday night before I go to work on Thursday, just in case something comes up. Same thing Thu night. Just in case there is a traffic jam on one of the two roads I can take to work, or a need for a lunch appointment. Only invoke it once or twice a year.

 

[LesserSon]

There’s a local, traditional community yard sale coming up and opening on a FRIDAY this year. I agree the retirees will have an advantage, but I guess I do have the option of taking the day off.

 

[Beerhippie]

Not meant as an argument, but a possible source of solace:
The retired guys won’t have possession indefinitely. Avoid hazards and cultivate patience, and those same tools will be up for grabs again.

Then again the world could end abruptly. But would not having them at that moment really be your main concern?

Of course it matters, because:

He who dies with the most tools wins!

 

[alinc100]

Of course it matters, because:

He who dies with the most tools wins!

No he who buys the tools at 10 cents on the dollar and then resells for $2 on the dollar wins !! or has a garage full of tools.

 

[Provincial]

The old question of what do you give the man who has everything?

More storage space!

 

[pfaustus]

Not meant as an argument, but a possible source of solace:
The retired guys won’t have possession indefinitely. Avoid hazards and cultivate patience, and those same tools will be up for grabs again.

Then again the world could end abruptly. But would not having them at that moment really be your main concern?

I'm sure my tune will change completely in not that many years, unless I do find myself working until I die.

 

[pfaustus]

Besides saying that two old guys were fighting over the planes, they said they had looked up the Millers Patent plane online, and had priced it accordingly. At $100.

 

[jeffmoss26]

Picked up a few smalls at the restore