[b]We got some rain today. It's a blessing, and I'd like to see more of it.
Knowing that it was coming (or so we hoped), I hauled one of those "Rainy Day Projects" into the shop at O dark thirty this AM.....with assorted parts and pieces that might be instrumental in getting a good running start at the project.

A lady friend of mine, (who's damned near as old as I) gave me this old derelict from an era long passed. Told me it belonged to her Grandfather, who served in WW1, as a Mechanic, and than came home and went to Machining, and following that muse. She tells me that he purchased this piece of enviably FINE cabinetry in the early 1920s, and that it travelled with him all over the West, through Fat, and Lean times.

[Linked Image]

.......certainly looks to have "been around", and has the distinctive REEK of West Texas and Oklahoma crude, after God only knows how many years in Az.,....still oozing out of it's Oaken pores, and beat up green felt corners.

[Linked Image]

Back before the days of Federal "Hold my bag, and I'll hold yours" nonsense,

......I'm talking about the days when a working man was RESPONSIBLE for his own safety and that of his team members,.....

The Lufkin Co thoughtfully provided a mirror for one to use when and if one was stupid enough to get a chip or particle in his eye. Rather than being rushed off to an opthomologist's office, and taking a month or 6 off, one was EXPECTED to fish the damned thing out of his own eye, and get back on the job.


[Linked Image]

I can only wonder and speculate, how many miles , down how many dusty and muddy trails, to how many boom towns this old box got hauled,.....to wear an almost PERFECT 2" Micrometer sized pattern into that old funky, dusty felt. Check out the stains in the upper corner,....."Prussian Blue" was part of the vernacular once,.....

[Linked Image]

I'm throwing a quick rebuild / patch up job at this artifact, and eliminating the gray plastic tackle box that appears off to the right. Lotsa' clamping, gluing, and wood butchering entailed. Trip to wally world in la Ma�ana,...to get some green (maybe RED) felt. I'm not "Restoring" this thing,....just putting it back to work.

..... I like, "The warmth of wood",.....like the smell of crude even BETTER.[b/]

GTC

Last edited by crossfireoops; 03/01/14.
Member, Clan of the Border Rats
-- “Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.”- Mark Twain