The Lugzsonian - A Virtual Tour

[Private Lugnutz]

As some of you know, the Curator has a seasonal second job as a baseball umpire. He had a doubleheader today (bases at 9AM, plate at noon) and when he got home, took a shower, and came downstairs and fixed himself something to eat, the Curator's Wife told him he had mail, a small box, with some "queer" (she means weird) words on it. "Legzsonian something," she said. "Maybe 'museum'."

She has no idea what goes on down there, or what goes on in 'here' (on GJ). So the Curator had some 'splaining to do!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

It was a donation from @jabberwoki. A wartime Walden 3150 rat with black oxide finish and some kind of unfortunate black gunk and a pelt of neon yellow fuzz on one side. It might have been cosmolene that hardened and also powdered or it's just a weird sort of rust or possibly a hybrid. Either way, it needs careful cleaning. On top of that, it's stuck, too.

But we gratefully accept the gift and the challenge!

 

[four.cycle]

^ great find. don't lose those little screws!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

...don't lose those little screws!

Removing the cross-recess screws and putting them aside in a jar was the easiest part of the restoration!



The face plate did. not. want. to. come. out. Holding the ratchet by the handle, with the entire ratchet inside a ziploc bag, I was pounding it on the edge of my workbench just under the head, to try to pop it out, but it would only budge at the top a hair, and not enough to get something under it to pry it.

A lightbulb went on over my head and I grabbed a Waldes-Truarc snap ring plier 1340. Stuck the ends in the screw holes, squeezed hard, and pulled, and managed to get it looser. Then I put it back in the bag and pounded again a few times and it popped out.

Turns out the bag was unnecessary. The batman pawl is connected to the switch, which is pinned. The pawl does not come out. So the spring and ball have no way of flying anywhere.

Thankfully, nothing is worn or damaged or broken, it was just gunked up with hard cosmolene and rust.





I soaked the ratchet, the face plate, and the gear in SG for 15 minutes...



...then in Evaporust for 15 minutes (fearful of losing the black oxide finish), wiped it down with WD40, and it was looking much, much better.



Next I lubed it up liberally with Hoppe's gun grease...



...and re-assembled and it is working like new again!



And has a nice new cozy and cuddly retirement home with black oxide kin in this set.



Thanks @jabberwoki !

 

[Private Lugnutz]

The Buggles were right (video did kill the radio star, and maybe books, too), and the Curator is, like Joe Walsh, still largely an analog man, but the Lugzsonian just got improbably mentioned on a YouTube channel called Time Flys in the Shop, whose proprietor somehow stumbled on GJ and the Curator's Neil Young LP title-riffing "Ode to Pickers: Rust Never Sleeps", written and posted at the end of his guest gig as the 2018 Garage Sale thread host, which said proprietor showed and read select excerpts from on his YouTube show! Linked here and beginning around 5:40.

The video starts with an American Scale No. 64 vise and ends with Operation Iraqi Freedom trading cards, so it's an eclectic mix that the Curator is kinda sorta honored to be a part of.

 

[y'sguy]

Wow, looks great! Great job of not overworking it and keeping the finsih.

 

[jabberwoki]

So stoked it's where it needs to be and completing a set is just a bonus.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

..not overworking it...

Thanks. That was the tricky part. The yellow fuzz was gone in minutes, but the black crud was stubborn. I could've just let it soak overnight in the Evap, but I don't think any of the black ox would've survived. So I had to use quite a bit of selective, careful, abrasive rubbing with a few different very fine files and rifflers. I knew I was going to lose some finish anyway, but I'll take the slightly worn but well-kempt look over rust and crud any day and I'll take it over grinded and polished to a mirror shine, too.

So stoked it's where it needs to be and completing a set is just a bonus.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

If Peter Piper used a Pettey's Perfect Pocket Paper Perforator (see Pic 5) or a Pettey's Perfect Poultry Punch (see Pic 6) to pick a peck of pickled peppers, how many more pickled peppers might Peter Piper have picked?

I wish I had found either of those altogether alluring alliterative masterpieces from the Belvidere, Ill., manufacturing company, but I will have to suffice myself with these pliers, if that's what they are. Pettey's Perfect Pocket Pliers would not surprise me, but so far my search is producing nothing promising on the purpose and the patent.

 

[bbbarracuda]

Oh, often I have needed to punch a poultry, but never have the proper poultry punch.

 

[four.cycle]

fascinating. it appears Mr. Pettey was quite a prolific inventor- he was issued patents 1123365 and 847686 - both of which are for machines, but I am not finding anything on either of those pieces.

If you can't punch your poultry, perhaps you could just perforate it.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

There's a chicken choking joke in here somewhere, but I think I figured out the mystery.

This may be a Poultry Punch after all. Alternative design perhaps. This hole (see Pic belew) was plugged, probably with the snapped off pin.



I put a snipped brad in there just for show.



My understanding (and I could be wrong) is that it was used to mark chicks so the farmers could monitor and track patterns in their broods, such as the hatch, the breeding pen, etc. Quick and apparently painless, they went right through the web between their toes. We need a true farm boy, and one who raised chickens, rather than someone (raises hand!) who just chased a few dairy farmers' daughters...

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Some of you may remember the Victory Locking Tweezers I found last week (page 20, post #800) with a Snippet-Only view of a 1928 Motor Record ad. Well, the Curator's request with the Google Books team was successful (he is batting a wicked good .753!) and he is also re-posting some of the photos for better effect and for those who don't like paging back!

 

[gearhead1960]

There's a chicken choking joke in here somewhere, but I think I figured out the mystery.

This may be a Poultry Punch after all. Alternative design perhaps. This hole (see Pic belew) was plugged, probably with the snapped off pin.



I put a snipped brad in there just for show.



My understanding (and I could be wrong) is that it was used to mark chicks so the farmers could monitor and track patterns in their broods, such as the hatch, the breeding pen, etc. Quick and apparently painless, they went right through the web between their toes. We need a true farm boy, and one who raised chickens, rather than someone (raises hand!) who just chased a few dairy farmers' daughters...

“Apparently painless”. Lugz, not to be a smart Alec but did you ask the chicks?

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Lugz, not to be a smart Alec but did you ask the chicks?

Yup. Not a peep out of them on this issue.

Substitute "according to all the leading authorities, etc" for "apparently". From the sites I checked, this old school custom, which is all the rage again among the small eco/free range/organic farmers, is approved by various farm and veterinary associations. The layman's explanation is the webbing doesn't have any nerves in it.

PETA piper probably opposes it, but everybody knows that PETA piper probably opposes practically everything and they can plant one on my pink patootie.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

The Curator was very pleased when the Acquisitions Dept came home with a "MECCANO" stamped steel wrench from the flea this morning. It was in a coffee can with tiny ignition and electrical wrenches of the adult variety.




For the uninitiated, "Meccano" is the European version of "Erector" model construction and engineering for young boys. It was actually founded first, in 1907, in Liverpool, England. They had a factory in Elizabeth, NJ, at least as early as 1929, and perhaps much earlier.



We don't have examples of either kind of set in the Lugzsonian, but we are glad and proud to have its kind represented, and have a neat, age-appropriate place to keep it.

 

[Farmer J.]

The Curator was very pleased when the Acquisitions Dept came home with a "MECCANO" stamped steel wrench from the flea this morning. It was in a coffee can with tiny ignition and electrical wrenches of the adult variety.




For the uninitiated, "Meccano" is the European version of "Erector" model construction and engineering for young boys. It was actually founded first, in 1907, in Liverpool, England. They had a factory in Elizabeth, NJ, at least as early as 1929, and perhaps much earlier.



We don't have examples of either kind of set in the Lugzsonian, but we are glad and proud to have its kind represented, and have a neat, age-appropriate place to keep it.

That's nice. I have loads of Meccano, and several spanners of that type. I will have to check this, but I don't remember seeing ones with a square opening in the middle but open ends shaped for hex nuts. My oldest Meccano has square nuts, then they changed to hex nuts so I have some of each. All the screws are strait screwdriver slot heads except for recessed hex on the newer stuff that my kids have.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Thanks for the hands-on feedback, J.

 

[Farmer J.]

Yr welcome Lugz. Always good to have an excuse to open up my Meccano stash, but I can't actually put my hands on my spanners just now as they're 300 miles away.. but I had a look at various old spares supplier listings and they are all either square or hex and not both like yours. As so often you have stumbled upon a mystery tool, or maybe it's a variation made in USA.. The size should be 5/32 BSW (British Standard Whitworth)

spanner for square nuts https://www.meccanospares.com/34-BQ-O.html
and for hexagon nuts https://www.meccanospares.com/34c-ZX-O.html

and, on the home page is a picture of a model, perfect for Lugz! https://www.meccanospares.com/

Invented in 1898 by Frank Hornby, manufactured in various places since since 1901, currently made in Calais.

 

[Farmer J.]

Well, it's a cool damp evening with mist coming off the sea so I did a bit more research on this, and some of the stuff made in America had a different thread, sometimes.. I don't have the stamina to read the whole of the 13 pages of this study on it, but here's the link:

https://www.usmeccano.com/pdf/newmeccanoscrew.pdf

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I had a look at various old spares supplier listings and they are all either square or hex and not both like yours. As so often you have stumbled upon a mystery tool, or maybe it's a variation made in USA.. The size should be 5/32 BSW (British Standard Whitworth)

spanner for square nuts https://www.meccanospares.com/34-BQ-O.html
and for hexagon nuts https://www.meccanospares.com/34c-ZX-O.html

I see what you mean about the either/or-ness!

All the openings in this wrench - both hex ends and the square in the shank - are 1/4" AF.

...and, on the home page is a picture of a model, perfect for Lugz! https://www.meccanospares.com/

Nice flat fender!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

This example of the Woodward Combination Tool, a standard fin de siecle junk drawer item, is missing a cutter and corkscrew (you can see where it snapped off), but anything with a patent stamp this early ("PAT. AUG." / "24. 75") (August 24, 1875) is bring-home-worthy in our book.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I discovered that these were made at first by New England Novelty Works, later known as Woodward Glass Cutter, Inc., in Hill, NH, and then, after merging with Landon P. Smith, Inc., formerly of Smith & Hemenway fame, by the even more renown Red Devil, of Irvington, and then Union, NJ.

The top is an ad from an 1877 trade journal, and the bottom is from the 1934 Red Devil catalog (c/o @four.cycle!) It's amazing how little it changed over the years.

 

[four.cycle]

oh wow... you dug up even more on that gizmo! that snip came from Don Bull's site linked to at datamp.org -

 

[HeelSpur]

Auction find several years back.

DSCF2475 by wvwheaties, on Flickr

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Nice complete example, HeelSpur. Thanks for posting.

Were your ears burning the other day? I mentioned you several times on the Oddfellows thread, where we had a brief Gellman Polly foray.

 

[HeelSpur]

Nice complete example, HeelSpur. Thanks for posting.

Were your ears burning the other day? I mentioned you several times on the Oddfellows thread, where we had a brief Gellman Polly foray.

didn't see it I'll have to check it out.

 

[humber2]

The Curator was very pleased when the Acquisitions Dept came home with a "MECCANO" stamped steel wrench from the flea this morning. It was in a coffee can with tiny ignition and electrical wrenches of the adult variety.




For the uninitiated, "Meccano" is the European version of "Erector" model construction and engineering for young boys. It was actually founded first, in 1907, in Liverpool, England. They had a factory in Elizabeth, NJ, at least as early as 1929, and perhaps much earlier.



We don't have examples of either kind of set in the Lugzsonian, but we are glad and proud to have its kind represented, and have a neat, age-appropriate place to keep it.

From a New Zealand history of Meccano parts here’s a selection of the basic spanner.

1840b matches from an early date.

 

[humber2]

To see a Greyhound bus about to depart for Asbury Park google

The Old Motor Penn Station NYC

 

[humber2]

Looks most of mine are from the 1950’s

1845 on the end style but looks to be zinc plated.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Thanks, humber2. That's very helpful.

The Curator isn't sure what he finds more zealous. The fact that impeccable empirical research by some collector in New Zealand reached the bound notebook "Guide" stage, or the fact that you have thirty-nine (39) (or so) No. 1845 wrenches!

 

[humber2]

I see that Meccano started a US factory in 1922 at Elizabeth NJ.

Your spanner predates that startup.

A fundamental problem exists when collecting Meccano as the goal is to have at least a #10 set.

Every set from #1 up had at least one spanner but every successive set had parts not in lower # sets.

One can have dozens of say #5 sets but that can never make up a #6 set.

This might explain why I have accumulated a few along the way.

 

[humber2]

There are at least two more styles of Meccano spammers...



I haven’t got any of these at my finger tips.
Edit, I have added an image in the earlier post.

And.....



Of which I have examples from 3 eras but I cannot claim to have 100% a #10 set

 

[Farmer J.]

Thanks, humber2. That's very helpful.

The Curator isn't sure what he finds more zealous. The fact that impeccable empirical research by some collector in New Zealand reached the bound notebook "Guide" stage, or the fact that you have thirty-nine (39) (or so) No. 1845 wrenches!

Lugz, be aware.. you have now glimpsed the 'tip of the iceberg' of the wonderful fun world of Meccano... .

 

[Farmer J.]

I see that Meccano started a US factory in 1922 at Elizabeth NJ.

Your spanner predates that startup.

A fundamental problem exists when collecting Meccano as the goal is to have at least a #10 set.

Every set from #1 up had at least one spanner but every successive set had parts not in lower # sets.

One can have dozens of say #5 sets but that can never make up a #6 set.

This might explain why I have accumulated a few along the way.

This is how the system works..

Here's a story to go with it:
A little over 20 years ago when my kids were getting in to Meccano I had a lucky break.. They were doing those very extensive 100 anniversary sets, and I happened to be in a large toy store and wanting to buy one.. but they had come to the end of the available stock..
The store display had several sets, all of which had been messed around with and each of them had several parts missing. So I asked a pleasant young woman if she had any new and complete sets.. but, no, there was no more in the store room... so she had to run upstairs and ask the manager if he would sell any of the remains of the display sets, and what discount would be available, as I as willing to purchase what was left.... as this negotiation continued she had to run off several times, and whilst she was away I swapped around the parts in the display boxes and made up a complete set with a LOT of extras of the most unusual and sought after parts.
Eventually they both got sick of the process and broke down under my relentless haggling. She came back and told me "He just says: Give they guy whatever he wants and get back to work, he's obviously offering a fair price for a load of stuff we can no longer sell"..
I walked out of there with all of it, as much Meccano as I could carry in several trips to fill my Land Rover. Everybody was pleased, especially my youngest Son, who now lives in New Zealand. His Meccano is now on the way there, watch out Humber2!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I see that Meccano started a US factory in 1922 at Elizabeth NJ.

Your spanner predates that startup.

That's what I was figuring.

A fundamental problem exists when collecting Meccano as the goal is to have at least a #10 set.

Every set from #1 up had at least one spanner but every successive set had parts not in lower # sets.

One can have dozens of say #5 sets but that can never make up a #6 set.

This might explain why I have accumulated a few along the way.

Interesting. I'm always impressed when any topic in our hobby spawns collectors' guides that are more informative than anything you can find from the company itself. I knew Meccano had a following, but it's clearly even bigger and more organized than I suspected!

Lugz, be aware.. you have now glimpsed the 'tip of the iceberg' of the wonderful fun world of Meccano.

Thanks for the warning, J. I don't think I'm in too much danger of it being my next rabbit hole, though, considering that's the first wrench I have ever seen in the wild in fifteen years of active vintage tool hunting. I see Erector sets from time to time, and I just passed up a STANLO (Stanley's vintage boys' construction/engineering system) set at my flea (see Pic), and they're always a bigger investment than I willing to make.

 

[humber2]

While the reference book (Vol1 of 6) is out with the spanners needing some resorting and spare filing trays available it is appropriate to reveal the more common screwdrivers....

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Maybe we need a 'Boys (and Big Boys) Toy Construction and Engineering Sets' thread? I never thought one little wrench would generate so much discussion, and I bet you guys aren't the only enthusiasts.

 

[four.cycle]

^ There's an entire world of "Erector" collectors out there.
But then, it's a deal like can openers or corkscrews - another bottomless rabbit hole!

 

[humber2]

Having sorted and spread out the result next stop will have an Evaporust session.