2020 Garage Sale Thread

[Old Radar]

The second tier mentioned above was a big deal, 80 years ago. Nowadays these 2nd tier saws are better than anything you could buy at the big box stores.

Agreed!

 

[pelletman]

Picked up some oil cans and signs and misc stuff from an older guy moving out of his garage.

 

[pelletman]

Here's the Billings wrench set I mentioned earlier. Anyone have the 7/16 and 1/2 I need?

 

[LesserSon]

These saws are for sale locally $5 each. I am shopping for a neighbor that needs one and maybe one for myself. I'll look for USA brands/markings. But outside of that I am not sure. Definitely an interesting variety there.
Which one would you buy?

First - do you want the saw as a user, or as a collectible? If a user, then condition is top concern. The advice you have so far is good. The sweet spot for users is 1940s - 1950s They are not beautiful, but they work and often turn up in nearly rust-free condition. Saws made after that are junk - ugly and useless.
As a collectible, the older, the better. 1890s-1930s are beautiful and represent the pinnacle of handsaw design and quality.
DON’T buy rust-pitted saws. Despite being hand-made objects, they were made in enormous numbers. If the rust is fine and even, it can be removed.
1&2 look like Disston no7 rip saws. I’d buy 2 if it was straight, and restore the upper horn with a piece of beech.
3 is interesting - I’d want a closer look.
4,5&7 look like Disston D8s, probably crosscut. Common but beautiful. I have my great-grandfather’s and it cuts very well.
6 looks like a Disston D23, or a relative. Another good user.
There are some pruning saws in the pile, too. The hacksaw looks nice.
$5 is a typical asking price around here, and I’d pay it if I liked the saw. If there is coarse rust, cracked handle, missing or replaced sawnuts, I wouldn’t pay $1, unless there was a specific part I could salvage for a different saw. The handles are typically non-transplantable, because the blades were hand-punched, the holes won’t line up - or if by some miracle they do, the angle of the grip relative to the line of teeth won’t be right ergonomically. (Has not stopped generations of owners from cobbling together all sorts of frankensaws, though.)

If you are looking for a user, take a look at identifying crosscut and rip saw tooth geometry. They work best when used for their proper task. Modern saws have a combination tooth geometry, which has led us to forget the importance of grain direction. Old saws will remind you. So you and your friend should really have one of each.

 

[WisJim]

Todays finds:


I had to buy a really beat up bit-brace to get the flex, but worth it at $5. Then again I paid way to much for the Billings box at $20, full of sockets. Two dollars got me two 3" v-pulleys, one craftsman marked, and the wood handle. I have no idea what it is for, but at .50 I figured why not.

I like that flexible bit extension (patent 553,124, Jan. 14, 1896, by C.A. Meister)--I certainly paid more than you did for mine! (I collect them and have a bunch.) I think that the wood handle might be for an auger style post hole digger, if it has pipe threads in the center. My post hole augers have handle castings like that.

 

[RTM]

If you are looking for a user, take a look at identifying crosscut and rip saw tooth geometry. They work best when used for their proper task. Modern saws have a combination tooth geometry, which has led us to forget the importance of grain direction. Old saws will remind you. So you and your friend should really have one of each.

Heretic!


You need different saw pitch for different thicknesses of wood, or quality of cut. No sense using your finish rip saw for cutting framing timbers.

He'll be on his way to 20-30 saws in no time if we keep up a good sales pitch

 

[r_olson_06]

Three estate sales today with interesting things at each. First stop I pulled in a lot of wrenches and sockets. The gray box was chock-full of wrenches—most were CM DBEs and combos =V=,-V-, =VV= & -VV-. About a third were Taiwanese Alltrade and ProMate (the two baskets on the right). The rest were a set of Indestro Select Steel short offset box end wrenches and then ones and twos of Proto, Vlchek, Bonney, Blue Point, Duro Chrome and unbranded. $18.
The socket rails were $3 each—one had ½ inch Thorsens and the other a few 3/8 inch CM=v=, Thorsens and some from Taiwan. The ½ Thorsen 77C ratchet was $5.
Everything else was in a $5 bag and included the 3/8 Duro Chrome ratchet, a few Bonny sockets, some Ace branded sockets and a ¼ inch set from Taiwan.

Second stop provided more wrenches from Herbrand, Indestro, Bonney and Armstrong. Also an English TW spanner and a small W&B 21. W&B is Whitman & Barnes—they were bought out by J.H. Williams in 1920.
The cutters are Snap-on Vacuum Grip #386 from 1946. L26 Thin nose slip-joint pliers from Crescent Tool Co. A nice Greenfield Tap & Die tap handle No.5. and a Lufkin Mezurall 926 6’ steel tape measure. $14 for the lot.

At the third stop $7 bought a couple items from a Ford Model-A tool kit; an original patent Allway Saw handle (1935-6) and three blades—the coarse one is designed to fit the “improved” handle; three North Bros. Yankee Handyman Drill Points; a no-name steel file handle and a two-bladed screwdriver from “StewarT” that I can find no information on.
Can anyone give me a vector?

Impressive haul at an even more impressive price. Well done.

Looking for a Round Beam Plomb 1068 Double Box End Wrench

 

[Private Lugnutz]

This (Lugz 2020_31) is my kind of flea market haul...

The old British saw (pun, given the recent dialogue, very clearly intended...), "money for old rope", cannot be taken more literally than when I convert this $10 75' coil of genyoowine 3-strand 1" hemp into $150 worth of three wartime jeep bumper tow-ropes.

The smaller stuff includes a massive brass drift (in need of de-mushrooming), future potential Donlap trade bait, a few unidentified wood-handled nut drivers, slip-joint pliers with an unusual logo I am not yet sure about, an old 0-25 lb. scale, and an early Indestro pressed-steel offset DBE set. Oh, and there's a nitrogen thermometer in the wooden tube.

 

[Smokeshow69]

This (Lugz 2020_31) is my kind of flea market haul...



The old British saw (pun, given the recent dialogue, very clearly intended...), "money for old rope", cannot be taken more literally than when I convert this $10 75' coil of genyoowine 3-strand 1" hemp into $150 worth of three wartime jeep bumper tow-ropes.

The smaller stuff includes a massive brass drift (in need of de-mushrooming), future potential Donlap trade bait, a few unidentified wood-handled nut drivers, slip-joint pliers with an unusual logo I am not yet sure about, an old 0-25 lb. scale, and an early Indestro pressed-steel offset DBE set. Oh, and there's a nitrogen thermometer in the wooden tube.

Nice rope lugz! Every time I see some I think of you and military vehicles getting pulled out of the mud


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[LesserSon]

slip-joint pliers with an unusual logo I am not yet sure about

Nice haul.
Do you mean the two-way arrow inside the handles, or the oval near the pivot?

I know I’ve seen that scattered-diamonds grip pattern before, and thought it should be Utica, but it’s not, right?

Herbrand?

edit: Yes, Herbrand
Now I remember the CFT logo happens to coincide with the initials of Creighton Fuller Thompson. Whether it is intentional or accidental, I do not know.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Now I remember the CFT logo happens to coincide with the initials of Creighton Fuller Thompson. Whether it is intentional or accidental, I do not know.

See end of Herbrand thread. I never saw your earlier comments there until a few minutes ago, but yeah, you nailed it. And you nailed it before AA, which has now updated their Herbrand pages.

 

[bmwrd0]

Lugz, if memory serves the two nutdrivers on the bottom are a knock off called Spin-Rite, or some such. I will have to expend much brain power to figure out what catalog I saw them in to confirm that, but I have two long shaft ones and it caught me by surprise when I saw it.

 

[Outlawmws]

Probably Spin-Tite BMW, and they are the Original AFAIK. Everyone else would be the knock offs.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

These nut spinners are definitely not Walden Spin-Tite, and they aren't made like Walden Spin-Tite, either. Two of them are hex shanks, for one thing, and the method for attaching the socket is different. I wouldn't want to bet my next paycheck on who was the first to put a fixed socket on the end of a shaft and a ferrule and a wooden screwdriver type handle, because I really don't know, but there were a lot of different and very early makers, including Braunsdorf-Mueller, Vlchek, Bog, Husky, and Walden, to name only the mfgrs that come to the top of my head.

I think we tend to associate them exclusively or originally with Walden because of the name. "SPIN-TITE" was very simple, yet effective, memorable, functional branding.

I was hoping the one with the extra long shank and the extra long socket was Braunsdorf-Mueller, because it looks like BMCo, but it has no marking.

I was planning to go through catalogs. I will report back any significant findings.

EDIT: I will also post close-ups.

 

[bmwrd0]

Lugz is right, there is a vast difference between the two, Spin-Tite and Spin-rite, and when you look at them close you can tell. I looked long and hard for more information on them, and only came across that name by accident in an unlikely place. But, for the life of me I cannot remember where...

 

[bmwrd0]

So, todays finds. First stop was an estate sale around the corner from me, showing a lot of tools and out buildings. Not a bad sale, but not that great either, and this is what I found:

Craftsman and NAPA ratchets, Proto 1/4 flex, Klein linesmen pliers (no date code), and some mixed Snap-on and SK sockets. $9.

Last sale was where I picked up the Kennedy 20" roller a couple weeks ago, but I managed to find the following for $2:

Plomb WF extension, Proto 1/2 ratchet and 1/2 socket, and an unmarked chisel.

The estate sale in the middle looked the best, but was a bit out of the way. Lots of weird junk (which I like) but everything was priced and sorted. Still, I might go back in a couple days, see if anything else pops up, and there is some stuff I could be interested at a lower price, if it is still around. Anyway, here is what I picked up for $20:

Sliding slide wood box and a '67 Snap-on catalog (with price list)

Schwinn S7 wheelset, I don't have a project for these right now, but I couldn't pass them up at that price, and I am sure I will need them later.

Artisan toolbox (SK made) Mid '50s I think, has some issues, but I bet I would clean up nice. I didn't see a price on it, so I asked the guy, and he said "$15?" And I said I would take it for $10... sold. I don't really need another project, but there you go. There were some older B&S motors that looked interesting, and weren't priced half bad, but again, I don't really need any new projects. I will see if they are there on half price day...

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Artisan toolbox (SK made) Mid '50s I think, has some issues, but...

But? BUT? Issues schmissues. Who has ever even seen one before? Ratchet, yes. A few tools, maybe. Toolbox? No. Nice find.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

The centerpiece of my flea market finds from this morning (Lugz 2020_32) is the 1930's Snap-on K-21 MechaniKit with original finish. Everything else is just... er, ...um, ...well, else.

 

[bmwrd0]

Its kinda funny, when I initially saw the Artisan box, I thought it might have been a Snap-on from the era of that box YOU just found.

 

[LostBoy(IRL)]

Three books and two little booklets today. One of the booklets was on coppicing and my wife snagged it straightaway for her collection.
Not a cheap purchase, but I'm happy.
The wheelwright book was one I was looking out for, it's the first edition that was paperback, 1963. The lathe book, well just because, is 1964.
And the one I really like is the Stedall book. Some great stuff in it, here is a link to a listing on it I found, it give a few pages.
https://vintagetoolshop.com/products/vintage-stedalls-small-tools-catalogue-27718

Can't find any reference to a year in this, but covers Colchester lathes, Richmond milling machines, Harrison lathes etc. Hardback, just over 300 pages

 

[LostBoy(IRL)]

Flicking through, see this page that covers 'Yankee' screwdrivers for 18s6d. Now shillings and pence were before my time, so this might be a good value price or not, I'm not sure! ;-)

 

[mike_paxton]

Stopped on Friday at Route 40 Yard Sale and got following

Short Pony Pipe Clamp
Nippers (China)
Broad Axe 11" wide (pic 2 and 3 are of the stamp on Axe, but can't make out either way it is viewed.
Eagle Claw Wrench
Atlas Post Cleaner
Three Clamps


Mike

 

[mike_paxton]

Slipped out on Saturday to Route 40 yard sale.

Got 2 clamps by Stabil and made in Czechoslovakia

The other item is blacksmith tong

Mike

 

[bmwrd0]

Three books and two little booklets today. One of the booklets was on coppicing and my wife snagged it straightaway for her collection.
Not a cheap purchase, but I'm happy.
The wheelwright book was one I was looking out for, it's the first edition that was paperback, 1963. The lathe book, well just because, is 1964.
And the one I really like is the Stedall book. Some great stuff in it, here is a link to a listing on it I found, it give a few pages.
https://vintagetoolshop.com/products/vintage-stedalls-small-tools-catalogue-27718

Can't find any reference to a year in this, but covers Colchester lathes, Richmond milling machines, Harrison lathes etc. Hardback, just over 300 pages

I would have picked those up in a heartbeat! Nice finds.

 

[Catfishdan]

I stopped by two estate sales today. 1st one was almost a bust. I just grabbed a 3 dollar ammo can full of old ge stuff. The second was ok. Got a Cosco stool, a little Dunlap tool box, and a brass nossle marked champion Los Angeles. I’ve been looking for a stool like his for a while without the hefty price tag. This one was 20 bucks.

 

[Outlawmws]

Fun things include:
Coleman 501 in great shape with cook kit, box, etc. If you know the story of the 501, they're the "bomb".

"Bomb" is right! Recalled by Coleman, but highly sought after by collectors as most were swapped for 502's in the recall! NOT a good stove as a user!

 

[Outlawmws]

All you guys are doing great! still slow as molasses here. Between C-19, the Heat wave (thankfully tapered down a bit here) and the smoke from fires (even areas not threatened by fires are impacted by the smoke...)

I have one more late opener to go see after I post this, but I only got anything from stop 1, and no actual TOOs... (Old signs or lies...)


Small tea pot is Made in Italy, the small pot is a Wearever, and I think the lid handle may be wood? Have to check. Definitely vintage for both and a good size when doing things for just myself, which is happening more and more as time goes on.

air activated hand warmers, and he CL's speak for themselves, $3 all, and I also picked up a SS folding clothes drying rack for another $3. (No pic cause it's PITA to get one setup)

 

[duddly]

Got out to a small sale today with good safe practices. Got most of an art deco "Qua[lity] Hardware "sign" (?) A little Coes wrench made by Billings, a Mossberg bicycle wrench (need to verify), A good sized Williams hammer head, and 3 little drawers. the cabinet, and the rest of the Quality sign were nowhere to be found. I spent $45 total and got one more item that I will post separately that will likely lead me down some new rabbit holes.

 

[duddly]

And here is the item that has me scratching my head. A copy (original?) of a patent from 1903 - US Patent 732,870 awarded July July 7, 1903 to H Lemp for a "self propelled vehicle".
The cover of this packet looks OLD!! I have not taken a loupe to it yet, but I believe it to be all hand done. The inside has the diagrams and text portion of the awarded patent. The inside contents are clearly printed, but the cover that I call the "presentation" is hand done, and has a seal of the US Patent Office.

This is my new rabbit hole. All new to me. Was this a certified copy from long ago? An original awarded to the (fairly famous) inventor? This should be good for some research in a new area for me. Any and all info on what i have or how to research it is appreciated.

Here is the full patent PDF without my "presentation" page: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/46/cc/de/c5bc4bf42a1978/US732870.pdf

 

[Outlawmws]

Holy Crud Duddly! That's an incredible find! you definitely ****! that is HISTORY!

 

[Outlawmws]

Almost embarrassed to post what I got in round two today after Dudlly's find!:

mine included some Paper, older, but not THAT old..,

But first finds were the Heyco slip joint water pump pliers, a glass box for one daughter that is into them, and a silver plate dinger for SWMBO,

The paper was a small pile of mostly Marvel comics for the other younger daughter who is VERY into the Marvel genre. The stacks are Avengers and Defenders, the singles are Xmen, Captain America, and the only non-Marvel;
what I would guess to be a 70's or 80s Superman (dig the long hair!)

ten bucks for all.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Hit a couple sales today that had half prices on tools.

Pic 1 has a handful of Nicholson files, two Stanley wood chisels, Diamond slip joint pliers and a 6" adjustable wrench, a Blue-Point telescoping magnet, a Starrett speed indicator with a 1905 patent date, a generic drum brake adjuster, and the cutest little Snap-On vacuum grip pliers I've ever seen. $10.00 for all.

Pic 2 is a closer view of the Snap-On pliers, they were $1.00.

Pic 3 is a large OTC gear puller, $2.50.

Pic 4, I finally found a Craftsman block grinder for a reasonable price. It does have a replacement switch and the eye shields are gone so I'd like to find replacements. $20.00.

Pic 5 is a hydraulic jack; I believe it's a 3 ton, but I haven't found any identification on it. It also leaks and only goes up at the very end of the handle's travel so it needs a rebuild, but for $12.50 I figured it was worth a gamble.

Not pictured is a bag of 20 new red shop rags, for $1.50.

 

[r0ckh0und]

Picked up a complete set of Craftsman deep well sockets and complete sets of metric and standard sockets along with ratchets. The Plano tackle fanny pack is for my trip to Montana next week. Also found 1/2" and 3/4" conduit crimpers. The Klein linesman pliers are marked Bell Systems.

 

[r_olson_06]

And here is the item that has me scratching my head. A copy (original?) of a patent from 1903 - US Patent 732,870 awarded July July 7, 1903 to H Lemp for a "self propelled vehicle".
The cover of this packet looks OLD!! I have not taken a loupe to it yet, but I believe it to be all hand done. The inside has the diagrams and text portion of the awarded patent. The inside contents are clearly printed, but the cover that I call the "presentation" is hand done, and has a seal of the US Patent Office.

This is my new rabbit hole. All new to me. Was this a certified copy from long ago? An original awarded to the (fairly famous) inventor? This should be good for some research in a new area for me. Any and all info on what i have or how to research it is appreciated.

Here is the full patent PDF without my "presentation" page: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/46/cc/de/c5bc4bf42a1978/US732870.pdf

I can not speak for what the USPTO did a hundred years ago but current state the UPSTO will send out one copy to the patent inventor or assignee if there is multiple inventors. The new cover pages do not look too far off from the original design. I attached a copy of what they look like now.

Very cool piece!

Looking for a Round Beam Plomb 1068 Double Box End Wrench

 

[duddly]

Holy Crud Duddly! That's an incredible find! you definitely ****! that is HISTORY!

I can not speak for what the USPTO did a hundred years ago but current state the UPSTO will send out one copy to the patent inventor or assignee if there is multiple inventors. The new cover pages do not look too far off from the original design. I attached a copy of what they look like now.

Thanks guys! I am (cautiously) becoming convinced that it was the original patent awarded to the inventor based on similar patent certificates of the era. I have been on a whirlwind tour of patent resources today - well beyond my usual Google and DATAMP searches for tools. I often compare the money I spend at estates and fleas to what others spend on movies. Hours of amazing entertainment and research from some of these purchases, and I have only scratched the surface on this one.

 

[WNYflyer]

Only thing to show for my travels this week/weekend. Used but not abused - $30


View media item 106043

 

[Davefr]

Slim pick'ns this weekend. The SS cup is a measuring cup. $6 total.

 

[Macduf]

I've got mustang taken care of. a complete 1/4 and 1/2 set .... I think. any idea on age? an old goddell Pratt push drill, a 4" cresent, and an 8" blue point.

 

[Outlawmws]

Mustang sockets are first rate. I have a 13/16 I've used for >30 years as an impact for lug nuts. (thinner wall, so fits well) shows no sign of the abuse...

 

[Shelbylex]

BMWRDO, congratulations on the box!!! This is RARE!!!
Please post in SK thread with more pictures