Another Stop on the Anteek Tool Shop Tour: The Craftsonian Institution

JoCoSawdust · Dec 21, 2020

I've accepted Lugz's challenge to let fellow members snoop around my shop. While mine is more vintage than it is antique, I'll enjoy showing you around. Hopefully, the knowledge that I have this thread hanging around in here will motivate me to get some of my display projects finalized.

Private Lugnutz · Dec 21, 2020

It's now officially a trend. :thumbup:

And that's a lot of dang stacks!

JoCoSawdust · Dec 21, 2020

Well you basically triple-dog-dared us Lugz so........

I'll start with a brief overview of the property we're looking at. I was originally slated to retire from the military in October of 2001. My wife and I always wanted an old farm house. We found this one in pretty ragged shape. It was part of an 84-acre farm where the old folks had died off, the kids sold it to developers who then parceled it out. We bought 3 lots to get the house, all out buildings, and the most important feature: the barn. We purchased this in late 2000, hoping to get to work on it right away once I retired. Some guy in a cave changed my retirement plans so the place sat another couple of years. Once we got started, we had to take the house down to roof, sticks, and foundation. We tried to keep the old farm house look while updating it with creature comforts (like insulation and wiring that wasn't covered with cloth). We started out living in a pop up camper on the property, then moved into the barn loft after putting a cheap-as-we-safely-can efficiency apartment up there. That was home until the house was ready to move into. We gleaned a lot of historical information from old folks that stopped by as we were working. The original house (the hip roofed section in back) was purchased by the original landowner after he returned from the War to End all Wars. It wasn't located here so he cut it into thirds and hauled it to it's current location with mules. "The back house" is now our master bed and bath. After his first wife died, his new wife wanted a bigger house. "The front house" was built in 34 with the assistance of the deceased husband of a spry old woman down the road (who has since passed as well). The two houses were joined in 72, evidenced by the newspaper insulating the walls of the mid-section (the only insulation in the house when we got it). We're quite happy with it now, although civilization encroaches on us more every day. How many sub-divisions do we need???? I'm including the house on this thread as it goes along with my desire to shun shiny new things, instead opting to fix up and use something old.

The barn is what sold me on the property. As much history as we got about the property while working on it, none of the old folk around here could remember a time when this barn wasn't standing. It retains the embossed steel shingles and the attic space remains dry as a bone. It's built entirely of old-growth long leaf pine, presumably cleared from the surrounding land. The rafters are mortised, tennoned, and pegged, leading me to believe it was built around the turn of the century. This gives me three 12'x47' work spaces after enclosing the breezeway. Everyone around here refers to this as the "mule barn". Apparently much of the farm work here was once done with mules. The exterior is my winter project. We've already sheathed the north and east sides and put in new windows. Once we get the two sides you see here done, it'll get hardiplank siding. As much old siding as we can salvage is being saved for use in a 4-season room that's also on my plate. The barn is where the rest of the tour will take place.....

y'sguy · Dec 21, 2020

JoCoSawdust, You have a beautiful place, Well done Sir!.
And of course I love the collection, who wouldn't? I mean if your here-well you know, right?
Anytime you show more is okay by me. Thanks for sharing.

Oldtuleguy · Dec 21, 2020

Thats alot of craftsman!

Private Lugnutz · Dec 21, 2020

JoCoSawdust said:
Well you basically triple-dog-dared us Lugz so...

Guilty as charged!

JoCoSawdust said:
Some guy in a cave changed my retirement plans...

Love the red roof on the house. And "the mule barn" is just every man's dream.

Now, where the hell are those 'Lay-Z-Boy Recliner' and 'Rubbing hands together with glee!' emojis!

d42jeep · Dec 21, 2020

I’m really enjoying the tool tour trend!
-Don

Private Lugnutz · Dec 21, 2020

d42jeep said:
I’m really enjoying the toolroom tour trend!

Fixed it for ya!

Catfishdan · Dec 21, 2020

JoCoSawdust said:
I've accepted Lugz's challenge to let fellow members snoop around my shop. While mine is more vintage than it is antique, I'll enjoy showing you around. Hopefully, the knowledge that I have this thread hanging around in here will motivate me to get some of my display projects finalized.

Can’t wait to see more. I have day dreams of walking into a garage sale that looks just like this. And no other shoppers.

JoCoSawdust · Dec 21, 2020

Private Lugnutz said:
Guilty as charged!

Now, where the hell are those 'Lay-Z-Boy Recliner' and 'Rubbing hands together with glee!' emojis!

Ha! I could do an entire thread on my 30+ year effort to keep a Lay-Z-Boy recliner in service! I ended up up with my Grandpa's LZB after he passed away. My aunt had given it to him for Father's Day in 1972. We'd had it reupholstered twice already when it had a major spring failure in the seat. My wife found a "free" later model chair on MP. I did a bit of research, discovering that they really hadn't changed much over the years on the inside. I snatched it up, gutted both chairs and made the new parts work in the old. After a fresh reupholster, I'm sitting in it now. Grandpa's chair is still the most comfortable place to perch in the house.

Shelbylex · Dec 21, 2020

Looks interesting! Subscribed!

Farmer J. · Dec 22, 2020

Going to enjoy reading this thread. Lovely barn.

thehorse13 · Dec 22, 2020

There sure is a healthy supply of, "you ****" in that barn!

JoCoSawdust · Dec 22, 2020

Thanks gents. We'll continue on by first revisiting that first picture I posted. That's facing east, looking into what used to be the breezeway of the barn. When we got it, the floor was covered with baby-powder-consitency dirt. Fine for mules I suppose but pretty useless for anything else. It was a mess. To the left of that were three stalls, and a closed-in room with a floor. I presume that was for tack or feed. The stalls on that side are still unfloored and used to store rough cut lumber, a mini-bike that hasn't been kicked for about a decade now and various other bits of salvaged lumber and doors. The small room houses paint, various corded and uncorded hand tools and building supplies. I've heard rumor there's a couple of prewar machines buried in there waiting refurbishment. My long term plan with that area is to lose the small room, opening it up as one long area (with floor of course) and create my vision of a pre-war Sears tool department floor. We'll see. The area to the right was 2 stalls and a larger walled-off and floored room. That's where I try to limit my sawdust making. That area also has stairs leading up to the loft.

Moving on into the barn, these first two pics are my shrine to the long-handle tool boxes. I'm still missing one. I suppose when I find it, I'll have to get a wider barn so I have room to wedge it in. There were three different tool sets that were sold with these boxes through the years. The early blue one holds the Deluxe Socket set, one of the later domes has an early 50s boxhead set in it. That last one on the right came with an MDF 3/4d set, I've yet to find that. Below that is the start of my 52 oxy/acetelyne display. I'll finish putting that thing together by the time I close up this thread (hopefully) and stick a pic of that in here.

That brings us to Heritage Row. I store my collection tools in period-correct boxes so I at least have a chance of finding something when I'm looking for it.

One of my favorite pieces from the Heritage era is the 49 grinder perched on the 49 tool cart.

JoCoSawdust · Dec 22, 2020

Moving on down that same wall. The gray/red stack is bound for my son-in-law's shop. I'd like to find a 9d roller for him but for now, the 3d is fairly unique in that it has a 3 tumbler combination lock on it. The red/charcoal stack is the first "grown up" tool box I purchased new in 86. It's been moved from place to place quite a lot, once sat in a wooden storage shed with no floor....it's had a rough life. While it really doesn't "fit" my collecting interests, I just don't have the heart to part with it. At some point I'll probably clean it up and pass it down.

Rotomat perched on a Toolmobile. I find the Rotomato to be a super-cool tool artifact but it's a bit of a bane to my existence. I'm trying to stock in with Proto LA tools only, based on the prices listed on it. I have a hard time finding Proto LA here in the SE. It's more prevalent than Plomb but collecting it is a slow trickle at best. About 50 percent of what's on here came from other GJ members. In response to my lack of feeding it on a regular basis, the Rotomat occasionally reaches out with those hooks to rip a chunk of flesh from my upper arm. It's a love/hate relationship.

I've wanted to move the Toolmobile into the house every since I cleaned it up. Unfortunately all requests to do so have been firmly denied by the Ambassador of Interior Living.

JoCoSawdust · Dec 22, 2020

Skipping the doors that lead into the machine room (we'll get back to those), these three stacks serve to store my day-to-day user tools. I recently moved an early 2000's 56" stack to another home. It was a solid box and I missed the roller bearing slides, but I'm diligently trying to rid my shop of Chairman Mao to the extent possible. I'm now experimenting where I want to stick things in this stack, meaning that I honestly can't find ANYTHING. It's a process. The smooth-side roller in the foreground is about an inch taller than the later rollers. All of them were too tall for me (5"7') with the mid chests. I solved that by removing the casters (these things ain't going nowhere anyhow), and building up the skids I made to keep them off the concrete. All rollers are now the same height (more or less....close enough for me).

That's probably it for the day. I've got my grandbaby coming over so it's time to fire up the Barbie 57 Chevy. More later!

Private Lugnutz · Dec 22, 2020

JoCoSawdust said:
...shrine to the long-handle tool boxes...Heritage Row

JoCoSawdust said:
....the Rotomat occasionally reaches out with those hooks to rip a chunk of flesh from my upper arm. It's a love/hate relationship...[ ].... the Ambassador of Interior Living...[ ]...I've got my grandbaby coming over so it's time to fire up the Barbie 57 Chevy.

This is a fun read!

JoCoSawdust · Dec 22, 2020

Glad you're enjoying it Lugz! I'll sneak in a few more over nap time.

I went with some high shelving once my carry box addiction began to get out of hand. These shelves used to be jamb-packed before moving the long handles to the other wall. I have more space now so...I can pick up some more carry boxes! I chose this angle to show the name plate. In my memory, the name plate was attached to my maternal grandfather's mailbox out on the farm. My mother says it was attached to their milk crate. We'll go with her version as I won't argue.

I don't know how I survived without cordless drills. I placed the bomb box in a location adjacent to both work benches since I just like looking at it so much. A genuine work of art from a bygone era. The red piece of wood hanging behind the really creepy looking Batman thing is a small wooden level with markings from the grain elevator I used to haul wheat to as a kid. I like sticking sentimental items here and there throughout the shop.

JoCoSawdust · Dec 22, 2020

A little more sentimentality here. I'm a child of the Apollo era, hence the astronaut. I had a portrait of the Apollo 11 crew on my wall as a kid. Of all the things my Mom saved, that portrait didn't make it. It was laminated to some kind of hardboard. I've found prints of the portrait, but not mounted in the old style. One of the things I keep my eyes peeled for on eBay. "Martha's Cafe and Vista Room" was a restaurant in the small Kansas town I grew up in. The cafe was where us common folk usually ate while the adjacent Vista Room was where the folks who had oil on their land ate. Once a month or so my great aunt would make us dress up for dinner in the Vista Room. Martha's was also distinguished as a Greyhound bus stop right by the only traffic light in town.

I considered cleaning my bench off for the pics but I figure all of our benches are a mess so I'm just going with the flow. I do mostly motor work here. I enjoy the natural light (very limited when you're in the breezeway of a barn). At night the Dazor helps out. The cabinets were salvaged from a crackhead apartment complex that the city of Raleigh was tearing down. Getting those was an interesting day and motivated me to get a tetnus shot. The grinder in the foreground is a 64, used for wire wheeling and buffing while the far one is a 56 with two different grits of stone on it.

Up high is more shelving for carry boxes. The Winchester light came from my Dad. The combo wrenches hanging from the board are Plomb pebbles. This may be a Craftsman-heavy shop but Plomb pebbles are just too damned pretty to stick in a box.

MR.X · Dec 22, 2020

I figure before anyone OD's on all this awesome Tool Shop **** (JoCo / bmw/ Lugz, etc.) I would, to quote Wayne Campbell, "clear the palate".............OK, carry on.

JoCoSawdust · Dec 22, 2020

Finishing up this east wall. The Mobilegas sign is a repo, the Winchester one is not. That's a 65(?) grinder on a pedastal base. Over on the window trim is another vestige of my hometown, a thermometer from a furniture company. My favorite superhero peers out at me from the pic, ensuring I'm wearing safety glasses whilst grinding.

I don't think any of us pass up the opportunity to snag a little set of drawers with cool writing on them.

Nap time is over. More later.

JoCoSawdust · Dec 22, 2020

Ha! I'm having fun with this looking and showing. I hope more follow suit! I know there's tons of great stuff out there!

I missed this on the south wall as I was moving down. Not a sign persay but interesting anyhow. This also came from my Dad. He had to downside when they moved up from GA a few years ago. Once upon a time, he had a fantastic porceline sign collection. Some were sold, he has some in a smaller space up here, and the rest are stored in my loft. I'll get them up one day when I have more interior wall space finished.

My favorite bit of sentiment in here, my daughter's training wheels. I'm a complete sap for stuff like this.

JoCoSawdust · Dec 22, 2020

This bench probably has the most interesting backstory of anything in here. I found it in one of my outbuildings when we bought the property. The floor of the building had collapsed and this thing looked like the final moments of the Titanic, sticking up from the floor. I was pondering how I was going to move it when one of the many, many old timers that stopped by during the building project walked up and asked me if he could tell me about that bench. Of course, I couldn't say no. The old timers mother ran a small sundry store in nearby Benson during the great depression. This bench was from that store. As a boy, the old timer would sit on the bench while his mother worked. His mother would occasionally hand him a piece of penny candy from a jar kept out of reach. He pointed out two hooks on the "working side" of the bench. He said his mother kept a shotgun there "to keep the rascals in line". What a great history! I initially left the hooks where they were but after working with it for a while it was determined that they were the exact height to castrate me if I wasn't careful. The hooks were repurposed posthaste. The T&G pine top isn't quite stout enough for the vises so I'll replace with it with something beefier in the next week or so. The old pine will be repurposed elsewhere.

The machinist chests are filled with brushes and picks and steel wool and drill chucks and emblems and....whatever I've found I need access to while working here. They come in quite handy.

This followed me home from West Virginia this past weekend. Gifted to me from my father in law. It was used in the coal mines and bears remnants of a logo that I can't make out until it gets a bath. It'll make a cool wall hanger or, in a pinch, I can keep the rascals in line with it.

Private Lugnutz · Dec 22, 2020

I am sure I will have more questions (too much to process in the haze and funk of my major square footage envy...), but hey, Mr. 'Extremely Deplorable' (HAHA!), where is the colorful mask to the left of the Trojan helmet and little skull from? And what is that socket set hanging on one of the crackhead cabinet doors?

JoCoSawdust · Dec 22, 2020

I wish I could say the mask and skull (they're both actually skulls) were excavated from a cave in the depths of sub-saharan Africa but.....they both started life as tequila bottles.

The crackhead mounted socket set is just a run of the mill Indestro female drive set. I found it unique since it was actually complete.

slowtwitch73 · Dec 22, 2020

Too cool.. thanks for the peek.

Winchester logo.. one of best ever.

Good avatar.. lmao just thinking about it..

Private Lugnutz · Dec 22, 2020

Hey, complete always looks good, and Indestro is the King of Run of the Mill! I just couldn't identify it on the oblique angle.

JoCoSawdust · Dec 22, 2020

MR.X said:
I figure before anyone OD's on all this awesome Tool Shop **** (JoCo / bmw/ Lugz, etc.) I would, to quote Wayne Campbell, "clear the palate".............OK, carry on.

I just noticed what you did there Mr. X. Perfect! Nothing like plastic tool boxes to clear the palate!!

MR.X · Dec 22, 2020

JoCoSawdust said:
I just noticed what you did there Mr. X. Perfect! Nothing like plastic tool boxes to clear the palate!!

enjoying your thread.

JoCoSawdust · Dec 22, 2020

slowtwitch73 said:
Too cool.. thanks for the peek.

Winchester logo.. one of best ever.

Good avatar.. lmao just thinking about it..

Thanks! Tis' but a flesh wound....

Old Radar · Jan 6, 2021

Great tour so far, JoCo! Looking forward to more! I can't say I'm familiar with your neck of the woods but I've passed through the region when I lived in VA and used to travel to visit my folks. I would cut through Benson from I-95 onto 27 out to the piney woods near Olivia. Hopefully, when C-19 blows over and we make the trek again to see my parents, I can make a pilgrimage to the Craftsonian.

JoCoSawdust · Jan 6, 2021

Thanks Radar. Benson is just down the road. In fact, if I lived about 300 meters to the west, I'd have a Benson address. Anytime you're in the area give me a heads up and please stop by!

I'm almost ready to move the tour into the next row of mule stalls. More to follow soon.

motorick · Jan 6, 2021

Thanks so much for sharing JoCo!

Started owning Craftsman tools in 1977 (1st year as a carpenter). They were cheap, easy to acquire, and had a money back guarantee : ). This damn group now has me searching for earlier Craftsman and influenced me to also seek out Plomb.

AK4570 · Jan 6, 2021

You’ve got a lovely place there, Sir... very much enjoying the walk thru.

JoCoSawdust · Jan 6, 2021

That's how it starts motorick. What you're looking at is the result of me stumbling across a thread about 1/4" drive socket sets about 4 years ago.

AK: Thanks, I'm having fun with it.

Smokeshow69 · Jun 15, 2021

JoCoSawdust said:
Moving on down that same wall. The gray/red stack is bound for my son-in-law's shop. I'd like to find a 9d roller for him but for now, the 3d is fairly unique in that it has a 3 tumbler combination lock on it. The red/charcoal stack is the first "grown up" tool box I purchased new in 86. It's been moved from place to place quite a lot, once sat in a wooden storage shed with no floor....it's had a rough life. While it really doesn't "fit" my collecting interests, I just don't have the heart to part with it. At some point I'll probably clean it up and pass it down.

Rotomat perched on a Toolmobile. I find the Rotomato to be a super-cool tool artifact but it's a bit of a bane to my existence. I'm trying to stock in with Proto LA tools only, based on the prices listed on it. I have a hard time finding Proto LA here in the SE. It's more prevalent than Plomb but collecting it is a slow trickle at best. About 50 percent of what's on here came from other GJ members. In response to my lack of feeding it on a regular basis, the Rotomat occasionally reaches out with those hooks to rip a chunk of flesh from my upper arm. It's a love/hate relationship.

I've wanted to move the Toolmobile into the house every since I cleaned it up. Unfortunately all requests to do so have been firmly denied by the Ambassador of Interior Living.

You know, that roto mat looks really out of place in that swath of craftsman deliciousness

You had better send it to me to fill it up

Actually I can see some holes right off the bat that I wouldn't be able to fill. Out of all the really good things you have in that barn, this is my favorite. So uncommon to come across. Man you have alot of good stuff :beer:

JoCoSawdust · Jun 15, 2021

Thanks Smokes. I'd actually part with that Rotomat without much arm twisting. I'd be terrified to trust any shipper with it though, no matter how well it was packaged. Old plywood and cardboard..........I've got it sitting on top of that minty Proto Toolmobile now.

Smokeshow69 · Jun 15, 2021

JoCoSawdust said:
Thanks Smokes. I'd actually part with that Rotomat without much arm twisting. I'd be terrified to trust any shipper with it though, no matter how well it was packaged. Old plywood and cardboard..........I've got it sitting on top of that minty Proto Toolmobile now.

Yeah, I hear you on that... If I knew someone that would be out your way I would try to sweet talk you out of it but I don't know anyone right now.

BlakeTheCarGuy · Jun 15, 2021

Wow what a nice place sir. I live in Virginia if I’m ever down that way I want to see in person LOL. You probably don’t want some kid there though haha. I was in North Carolina the other day because I visited Sears down in Greensboro. I’m a sucker for old Craftsman stuff but I don’t have nearly as much as you do. Just make sure you post more pics.

:bounce:

Hoorn · Jun 15, 2021

JoCo...
Jaw dropping. I know I'm late to this party but that was just a whole lot of awesome.
THOSE HERITAGE STACKS

Another Stop on the Anteek Tool Shop Tour: The Craftsonian Institution

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