Protractor Head Square Cleanup

I just picked up an excellent vintage Brown & Sharpe No. 4 combination square protractor head and blade for $20. It was in good shape, just needed some cleaning and surface rust removal. Made in Rhode Island, it’s a high-quality, forged and hardened precision measurement tool. Not sure of the vintage.

These are great for transferring angles, measuring and marking at non-square (or square) angles along the length of the blade, and using the bubble level not just to check square, but determine the exact angle of out-of-square surfaces. The blade can flip to both edges on both sides, giving four different graduation sets.

Here’s a photo essay of my cleanup process.

Vintage Tools Unboxing

My friend Dug North — automata builder and clock maker extraordinaire — sent me a box of vintage tools in trade for some parts bins I built for him. Let’s have a look at his picks!

Videography by Peter Moyer

Rainy Day One Dollar Estate Sale Haul

  
Clamps and pliers.

Draughting Pencils, Robot Screws, more

Delightful little box of useful items I found at a garage sale. Pretty good value for five US dollars.

The Eagle #314 “Chemi-Sealed” DRAUGHTING pencils are excellent, highly coveted pencils among illustrators. This style was made from 1950-1980. More info here. I gave one to my ridiculously talented friend Mark Frauenfelder, who swears by vintage Blackwing’s. We’ll see how he feels this one compares.

Next up, some nice boxes of screws, including a gross of blued, round head steel 5/8″ #6 wood screws from National Products. Just look at that NAT the Robot logo they had! Love.

I also found a warded lock key, a pencil protector, two heavy duty switches, and this lovely Brunswick pool cue chalk.

Lovely estate sale tools

Picked up some wonderful things at this sale.

This is a Stanley #77 mortise gauge for marking consistent lines measured from the edge of a piece of wood. The moustache-shaped brass wear plate is delightful.

The full haul:

• Lufkin No.1174 folding metal ruler
• Lead mallet(!)
• Various clamps
• Abus combo padlock
• MAC Tools gap feeler gauge
• Sliding bevel gauge
• Leather working awls/punches
• Sewing stitcher awl
• Channel Lock end nippier
• Snap-On six inch pocket ruler
• Aforementioned Stanley marking gauge
• Sampson caliper, tiny
• Starrett No.209-C 0″-1″ micrometer

This mic is in good shape, other than cosmetic. It is still perfectly zeroed, and with good care should remain that way for another hundred years. Starrett tools are terrific, a great  old company located in Athol, Mass.

Huge demo handcuff

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I was called upon recently to teach some handcuff escape workshops. In keeping with my tendency to build large demonstration props, I decided to construct a huge, functioning, see-through handcuff.

Here you can see the ratchet and pawl mechanism at work. This allows the cuff to tighten, but not open.

I designed them in Rhino, cut the layers of acrylic on a laser cutter, and formed the spring from a street sweeper blade using heat and pliers.

The key works by rotating around the keyhole post, lifting the pawl high enough to slip the ratchet.

Don’t have a key, but need to get the cuff off? Shimming works by inserting a thin piece of metal in above the ratchet, closing the ratchet a few clicks tighter, enough to slide the shim under the pawl. At this point, the ratcheted cuff swings free.

Handcuffs typically include a double lock feature which prevents the cuff from tightening once engaged. Shimming doesn’t work on cuffs that have been double locked. I may build a future version of the huge handcuffs that incorporate this feature.

Bob Rossificator

My proposed browser extension, and gift to humanity, the Bob Rossificator.

The Bob Rossificator shall overlay the joyful visage of Bob Ross atop all Martin Shkreli images it encounters on any webpage.

Before Bob Rossification

After Bob Rossifiaction

Please contact me if you would like to collaborate on the creation of this important project.

 

Hammer time

  
I’m cleaning up this lovely Estwing 16 oz. leather handled hammer. Files, sandpaper, and oil.

   
    
    
    
   

  

Drilling apples

  
My greatest culinary innovation of the year: coring apples with a 1-1/4″ Forstner bit on an electric drill.
I have just revolutionized apple coring. In my kitchen at least.

Please note, this is a pretty new bit and I cleaned it with soap and water first. And then served apple crisp to our friends last night.
And nobody has died. So, if that’s reassuring enough for you, go for it!
If not, please don’t.

   
 

  

Burbank yard sale report – 11/8/15 edition

Three dollars spent this weekend at various yard sales.

First up: four welding plier clamps. $1.50. Original owner was a Lockheed aviation machinist.

Two of them are unmarked, the other two are Knu-Vise brand model P-400-1. They still sell this model today, for around $18 a piece.

Two go carts. $0.00, a.k.a. free. What?! Not technically a yard sale item. I was dropping my son off at school and somebody had set these out on the curb with a FREE sign. They work pretty well, but looking into replacing/upgrading the batteries…

 

Which leads to: Snap-on/Blue Point MT130 Charging System Analyzer for testing car batteries and alternators.  $0.50. Could be helpful in working on the go carts.

Finally, a deck of Magic Castle playing cards — the cards inside are still sealed. $1.00. I’ll be gifting this to a friend who’s pretty into cards and magic.