Another Garage Sale Find

I found something else at a garage sale that I'm going to write about. I promise I'll get back to technical projects for a while after this.

I was looking through a bunch of really old TV repair equipment. There was even an old B & K sweep marker generator there.

The guy had lots of old equipment. Looks like he had bought out a storage locker that was abandoned by an old TV repair shop.

This was in the days when tubes (young folk, look it up) were used. Back when we actually had tube testers to tell us if it was bad. We'd slap the side of a tube gently with a screwdriver to see if sparked. Ah, those were NOT the good old days. I didn't buy any of the electronics, they were just too old and that stuff, while magnificent in its day, just wouldn't do the job today. I don't really want to start a museum.

After spending some time prowling and remembering, I stumbled on a wine rack. It wasn't special, but he wanted $12 for it and the metal rings it had in it were more than that at the steel supply, so I bought it.

I took it home and stuck it on the counter top where I wanted it and it didn't look too good.

It was too dark for the room, and too wide for the spot. Crap, I should take a tape measure with me for things like this. Actually, that wouldn't have worked because garage sales are all impulse items or rare finds that you can't turn down. You never find the exact right thing when you're looking for it.

I guess I could sell it at my own garage sale, but I did buy it for the rings that hold the bottles. Maybe I should pursue that.

If you notice, I have unlimited space up top and a cabinet that is three rings wide would fit in the space, so I got inventive. I took the 4 x 6 arrangement

Got out my hand grinder and welder and turned it into a 3 x 8 arrangement of the rings.

I took the rings inside and sure enough, it would fit. So, then I needed a new box to hold it. I just happened to have some hickory plywood left over from my cabinets; the guy that designed them over ordered. Naturally I kept the excess because that stuff is expensive. Now was a chance to actually use some of it instead of moving it around the garage from time to time.

I built a basic box with no back:

then test fitted it into the same spot as before:

Yep, it was going to fit. I used crown molding for the base so it would be a little more stable and to cover up some saw marks. I had this left over also. Now, to finish it off , it was just install the metal rings. 

Add a little finish to make it shine a bit, and move it back into the house.

Now it fits the space and matches the existing cabinets. I have more room for wine bottles than I have interest in buying wine. Perfect.

Yeah, I know, I could have bought the rings off ebay and done exactly the same thing, but I never thought of that. Also, each time I visit a garage sale, I come away with more work to do.

I hope  I don't find a '32 Ford at a garage sale.

So, I Went to a Couple of Garage Sales ...

Driving down the road this fine Saturday in the desert I saw a sign for a garage sale. I don't normally go to these because I haven't had much luck finding anything of interest, but a couple of weeks ago I stumbled on a really cool clock (more below) and thought, "what the heck?"

Sitting on a table being ignored by the other customers looking for the perfect piece of glassware, child's clothing, big crescent wrench or first printing Gutenberg Bible was a 16 port gigabit TP-Link Ethernet switch. Trying to hide my excitement I asked the owner, "How much?"  "How about five bucks?"

Here it is:

Brand new, in the box, ready to go on the shelf where all the little computers are.

I've been thinking about getting one to support all the little computers that seem to be breeding over there. Right now I'm down to the last port on the switch that handles them and the next one would require this or something like it. Five Bucks?! This particular one is $76 on Amazon right now. Score!

I like to have anything I can connected hardwire into the house ethernet because I don't have to worry about how far away the nearest wireless access point is. This addition to the 'little computer shelf' will help out a lot.

No, I didn't ask them where they got it ...

The clock I mentioned above was an impulse purchase I made a couple of weeks ago at an estate sale. Estate sales are sad (at least to me) because someone passed away and a company is liquidating their belongings. I always get a little stuffed up when I wander through them thinking about the pleasure the items gave their owner, and I usually pick something out that probably had some meaning to them so I can help a little bit in keeping a tiny piece of history around. OK, it doesn't fit my image, and I'll never say that out loud.

I saw this mantle clock that had had a hard time of it, the poor thing was stuffed on a shelf and was brush painted white. Sad little fellow kind of whimpered, "Take me home." So I did:

The white paint had brush marks in it and the brass was tarnished. There were a couple of chips here and there, but they had the key and it ticked. I had a new old clock.

Got the thing home and started tracing the history of that model and it's roughly a hundred years old. Since it still ticked, it hasn't seen much actual use as a clock because the bearings would have long since worn out. I wound it up and rolled the minute hand to the half hour and it chimed. So, I moved again to the hour and it announced the hour nicely. So far, so good. I had $20 invested in this thing it better pan out. I went out and got some paint remover I had left over from another project and removed some of the nasty white paint:

The grain on the wood looked OK and it appeared to be a mahogany laminate on the top of the tambour (curved part) with solid mahogany for the trim. So, I took the guts out and dug in.

Like any 'normal' person in the 21st century, I watched a dozen youtube videos on furniture refinishing and followed the ones that weren't blatant advertisements for some furniture product. I got all the paint off and it was looking pretty good:

And a huge collection of little tiny parts. These are the parts from only the door on the back where you can service the thing:

I didn't want to post the parts and pieces of the clock and chimes because that would have meant taking them out of the Ziploc bags I put them in the instant I got them loose. Losing a single little part could have been a disaster and would have certainly dropped the value of the restoration. You don't use new parts on something you're restoring if at all possible to keep it original.

Anyway, I spent several afternoons refinishing the cabinetry, another one putting the parts back in and this is what came from the effort:

I realize that tambour mantle clocks are not of great value and I wouldn't get much profit if I were to sell it on ebay, especially since shipping would cost as much as I paid for it. But that wasn't the point. Now my family holds a little piece of another families history that we can care for.

At least until the estate sale.