A Small Parts Carousel

I remember this from my boyhood. It was suspended from the ceiling of my dad's basement workshop. It mostly contained, and still contains, electrical crimp terminals. I think I want this item to reside in my basement workshop.

The welded steel frame affair that supports it, and within which the carousel rotates, has gone missing though. I'll have to fabricate a functional equivalent frame out of wood. The interesting part of that project will be to come up with suitable bearings for the thing to rotate in.

Each end of the carousel has a little 5/16" diameter stub shaft, like so.

That's what I'll have to fabricate two bearings for. I have an idea how to go about it. We'll see how it pans out.

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Three Corbin Cabinet Locks

Corbin currently exists as Corbin Russwin. There's a brief historical note about Corbin Russwin here.

These locks make me want to build something that could use them, but that's unlikely to happen anytime soon -- other priorities prevail. Meanwhile, I'll stash these in the shoebox labelled "LOCKS", where I have some similar items.

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An Electrostrip Elbow In A Tee Box

Electrostrip is a surface-mount electrical outlet raceway system that dates back to the 1950s. My dad did a baseboard installation of it in my older sister's bedroom way back then. It was a two-wire system; there was no ground conductor. The installation probably still exists.

Electrostrip is still with us, but it's now three-wire, as it should be. Siemens owns the name. There's a PDF installation guide here.

The pictured elbow is about as useless to me as useless can get, but I'll put it with my electrical stuff as a keepsake.

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An Eagle Oil Can

Now there's the classic shape of all the world's idea of an 'oil can'.

This one is in beautiful condition -- it holds and dispenses oil without leaking; imagine that.

I'll put this next to a couple of plastic versions that I keep at the back of my drill press. I think I may retire one of the plastic ones, and let this beauty take its place.

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An "Original TECALEMIT" Grease Gun

It seems this tool was meant for use on some British cars of the 1940s and '50s.

It's beautifully constructed. I'll put it in the cabinet where I keep specialized lubricants.

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A Silva Polaris Compass

I already have one of these; I keep it in my truck's glove bin.

I'll put this in the tackle box where I keep miscellaneous camping gear.

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A Roll Of Really Wide Masking Tape

This is the best idea I've seen since masking tape itself -- six inch wide masking tape. I wish I'd had this when I was installing baseboard.

Needless to say, I'll put this with my other rolls of masking tape.

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A Hank Of Chair Webbing Material

This brings back memories of chair repairs -- endless, constant chair repairs.

Webbed aluminum folding chairs have many virtues, but being maintenance free is not one of them. Many years ago, we owned several such chairs, and replacing tattered plastic webbing got to be what seemed like a ceaseless chore.

We no longer have any of those chairs, and I don't miss them -- not one little bit.

I'll put this with cord material; I may find a use for it some day, but it won't be for re-webbing any chairs of ours.

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An AC Voltmeter

It has a line cord attached, so it can be plugged into an outlet. This would have been one of my dad's generator service tools, from his days with Kohler and Onan.

I think I may, just for the heck of it, install this in the furnace room of my home as a monitoring instrument. Any time I I want to check the voltage level we're being supplied, I can look in on it. I have what I need to make a mounting bracket for it. I think I'll  do that. I'll show you when I'm done.

This can go on my 'work in progress' shelf.

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A Chieftain No. 7 Duck Call

Hmmm.

I didn't know my dad was all that avid a duck hunter, though he certainly was a hunter; deer and partridge were more his game.

 I'll stash this with my camping gear, I suppose, though the likelihood of me ever wanting to call a duck is slim to nil.

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A Box Of Staples

They're 1/4" staples; I don't have that size.

I'll put them with all my other staples.

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A Mystery Tool

Whatever it is, it sure is an ugly one.

It looks like it's meant to grip something that completes it -- a scraper of some sort, possibly?

I'll put it in with my scrapers for now. Maybe I'll come across something that obviously goes with it.

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A Tub Full Of Wood Ash

I was going to throw this out until I googled "wood ash uses", and discovered that wood ash is pretty useful stuff.

Since one of its uses is as a metal polish, I'll stash this in the cabinet where I keep that sort of thing.

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And Another Match Holder

It appears that my dad had a thing for match holders. Maybe he'd read Jack London's story.

This match holder is based on a 20 gauge shotgun shell. At the open end, there's some electrical tape wrapped so that an 11/16" chair tip fits snugly. It has a capacity of ten kitchen matches.

This can go in the tackle box where I keep miscellaneous bits of camping gear.

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Another Match Holder

This one is an opaque vial with a 'push/turn' cap.

It has a capacity of twelve kitchen matches, along with a little rectangle of sandpaper for a striking surface.

I think I'll keep this one in my truck's glove bin. It can be the beginning of my acquisition of survivalist gear for when the world as we know it ends (any day now).

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A Rodale 'Flip Seal' Cord Connector

This thing is ancient -- it's neither polarized nor grounded. The Rodale Manufacturing company appears to be no longer with us.

The connector is ruggedly constructed, but it may well be the most useless thing I have in my possession. I'll keep it as a museum piece -- a bit of the electrical industry's remote antiquity. It can go in my 'electrical stuff' bin.

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A Tube Of Powdered Graphite

Powdered graphite is a superb dry lubricant, but it's filthy stuff if you get it on you. I've sprinkled and smeared a little on that paper to try to give an idea.

My dad probably used it as a lock lubricant -- that's one of its commonest uses.

Graphite is also a fine lubricant for tiny plastic parts that rub/slide against one another. Such things are common in laser and impact printers. When I worked in the printer service field, I kept a big, soft pencil near at hand; it made a good tool for rubbing a coating of graphite on the surfaces of parts that were prone to bind.

I'll put the pictured tube of graphite in the cabinet where I keep specialized lubricants.

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An Articulated Lamp

It's missing its steel clamp, but that's ok. Where this is going, the clamp won't be needed.

- - -

And here we are -- a lamp for the metal lathe.

That's let me take away the jury rigged trouble light I had there; I can install the trouble light over at the shop's hydraulic press.

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A Match Holder

That tube is plugged in the middle, so there are two compartments.

At the right is a compartment for a piece of sandpaper, so one always has at hand a guaranteed reliable striking surface. At the left is the match compartment (indicated by the '+' sign), with a capacity of eight kitchen matches. The holder looks watertight to me, and would surely float.

This item reminds me of a story.

I'll stash this in the tackle box where I keep miscellaneous items of camping gear.

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A Oil Bottle With An Applicator Brush Cap

There's no maker's name on it. It's all but empty. My hunch is that it's a gun maintenance tool.

I'll put it in the cabinet where I keep special lubricants.

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Addendum -- THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

I found an all-metal version.

It's beautifully made; the cap is an exquisite bit of machining.

I'll put it in the cabinet with the plastic one.

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Hoppe's No. 9 Bore Cleaner

Unlike Stag, Hoppe is still a going concern.

This can join the Stag item.

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Stag Nitro-Powder Solvent

It's a 2 fl. oz. bottle from Stag Lubricant Company of Rockwood, Ontario. That firm appears to be no longer with us.

It's gun cleaning solvent. Here's what it says on the back of the bottle:

"Use a patch of soft, clean canton flannel. Soak with STAG solvent and push slowly through bore from breach. Swab with another patch, working rod both ways. Rub well with dry patch. Change patches until one comes out clean. When no dark spots are seen in bore, soak patch with Solvent and push slowly through bore as rust prevention."

For want of a better place, I'll put this in the cabinet where I keep special lubricants.

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A Silva Huntsman Compass

The thing is exquisite, and very compact. It's 5/16" thick, about 1 5/8" x 2 1/4". It will fit in the smallest ticket pocket of a pair of jeans.

I think I'll keep it on me at all times. I got lost in the bush once when I was a teenager on a deer hunt; 'can't say that I much enjoyed the experience. After a couple of hours or so, the sun came out and I was able to get my bearings to find my way back to the cabin. Had I had even the most rudimentary compass on me, I'd have gotten out much sooner.

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A Mercury Switch

This may be the switch my dad once installed in a 1960-vintage car of his, as part of a rudimentary theft alarm. The switch was mounted on the underside of the hood. Opening the hood, or moving the vehicle, would tilt/jiggle the switch causing the horn to sound.

I'm not sure why my dad was so theft-conscious; Toronto in 1960 was not exactly a major centre of urban crime. Perhaps he'd been reading Popular Mechanics magazine, or some such American trash.

Anyway, mercury is neat stuff -- a metal that's a liquid at room temperature. The mind boggles.

When I was a boy, I had a pill vial with a bead of mercury in it that had been salvaged from a broken mercury thermometer. I'd take it out from time to time and roll it about in the palm of my hand; I thought it a fascinating thing to observe.

'Explains a lot, possibly.

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I'll stash this in the box where I keep spare, miscellaneous switches.

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A Leviton No. 1002 Push Button Switch

Does this ever look like an old-timer. It has a ceramic body, and it operates with a great, big CLICK.

I can hardly wait to find a use for it. Meanwhile, I'll stash it with my other spare switches.

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A Kohler P/N 243487 Switch

It's a 'Klixon' item, made in the USA by the the Spencer Thermostat Co. of Attleboro, Massachusetts. It appears to be a resettable thermal cut-out switch.

Stamped on the back are "T6A" and "C6373-7", but there's nothing that explicitly states the cut-out temperature.

This can go in my shoebox full of spare switches.

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Update -- FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2015

The item has been sold.

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A Doorbell Pushbutton Switch

This looks to me like it may have been a garage sale find, obtained for a very reasonable price, rather than the outrageous sticker price of $2.39.

$2.39!? For what!? Where is there $2.39 in that few grams of plastic and metal? 2.39¢ to make and package it, maybe, and it retails for $2.39!? WTF!?

This can go in my shoebox full of spare switches.

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A Kraus & Naimer A211 Load Supply Switch Made For Kohler

It's truly an exquisite piece of gear.

This one was obviously intended for a marine installation -- note the 'SHORE' position. When the boat was docked where a local hydro utility was available, the switch would be set to 'SHORE' to connect the boat's load to the utility. When out on the water, the switch would be set to 'KOHLER' to connect the boat's load to its on-board generator's output.

I'll stash this with my other Kohler parts. If I ever acquire a generator for the house, I may be able to use it.

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A Kohler Muffler P/N 230410

I'll stash this with my other Kohler parts.

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An Automatic Thermo Sales & Mfg. Ltd. Model #28 (or 2B) Thermostat

This item is similar to the preceding one, but its range is 100 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. As with CEW, Automatic Thermo Sales & Mfg. Ltd. of Toronto, Canada appears to be no longer with us.

This can go join its CEW colleague.

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A CEW Type T4W-1 Thermostat

CEW (Cansfield Electrical Works Ltd., of Toronto, Canada) appears to be no longer with us. I could find nothing about this device or its maker.

This is a thermostat, but not one for a residential heating system. Its range is 80 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit -- for some industrial application, I imagine.

I'll stash it with some miscellaneous electrical gear I have in storage.

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A Kohler Relay P/N A-265322

This is old. Googling the P/N got me nowhere.

The relay is DPDT. The coil is 24 VDC.

While it's not, strictly speaking, an engine part, since it's a Kohler item, I'll put it on my small engine parts shelf.

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A Kohler Generator Engine Governor Part

At least, I think it's a governor part.

On the box's label, there's the 'description'. "Choke". I don't buy that.

This looks to me like part of an engine's speed-governing system (all generator engines are speed governed).

This can join the Kohler rope-start pulley. I guess that shelf with the Clinton engine on it is going to be my small engine parts department,

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A Flailing Paint/Rust Stripper

It's a wicked, scary looking thing -- I can hardly wait to try it out on something.

It can be dismantled.

There's a 3/4" A/F, left-hand-threaded nut that holds it together. (Shank diameter is 1/4".)

The maker, Intl. Hardware, Inc. of Bridgewater, N.J., appears to be no longer with us, which is a shame.

I'll stash this in the drawer where I keep small wire wheels and the like.

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A Kohler Rope-Start Pulley

There was a part number on the box, but it's been obliterated.

It's a very nice pulley. It's the sort of thing that really only has one very specific use -- one is unlikely to ever find some other purpose to adapt it to, but, one never knows. To paraphrase Winnie the Pooh, "You never can tell with rope-start pulleys."

I'll stash this on a shelf where I have an old Clinton engine.

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A Hank Of Galvanized Steel Wire

This is useful stuff. That hank is approximately 125' of wire.

The pictured wire is 0.045" diameter. I find it helpful to tag all my hanks of steel wire with their decimal fractional inch diameter figure, like so.

I can't be bothered with gauge numbers -- I find them quite unhelpful. Machinery's Handbook, Twenty-First Edition, concurs with me on that. Here's what Machinery's Handbook has to say about  it (from p. 463):

I make an exception for electrical wire. In North America, the gauge for electrical wire is always and only American Wire Gauge (AWG). That gauge I'm familiar and conversant with, so I do use it. (Also, I have an excellent AWG table in the back of an Alpha Wire Company catalogue that clearly and fully documents the gauge.) But for other types of wire, and for sheet metal, there are just too many different gauge systems, and one is never explicitly told which system is being referred to when a gauge number is 'specified'. Hence, I agree completely with the above paragraph from Machinery's Handbook.

Anyway, I need to go hammer a nail into a joist, to improve the workshop's wire-hank-hanging-capacity a little.

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A Couple Of Arrow H & H Toggle Switches

These are hefty switches. They're rated at 16A for 125V operation. I'm glad these turned up because I have an immediate use for one of them, and these things are not cheap to buy new.

Arrow H & H (Arrow-Hart & Hegeman Electric Company) appears to no longer be with us. (I discovered the full name of the firm in this law case account.) I have no interest at all in matters of business and commerce, so I won't bother looking any further into what became of Arrow H & H.

Anyway, one of the two switches is spoken for; the extra switch can go in the drawer where I keep toggle switches.

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