Another Charles Parker vise

 Found in a Bargain Barn in Searsport Maine. Since the post last week, I've been looking for one for the shop. This one? Not for sale!??

Another 56 Chevy

 This beauty was at the Cruise Night in Belfast Maine.

Friday, July 29, 2016

Liquid cooling for Norton 16H

I found this in the Letters section of an 80s Classic Bike Magazine. Looks like someone was experimenting with a liquid-cooled version of the 1930s flathead 500 single plodder. I wonder if anyone ever found any more information?

Motorcycles, past and future...

Seen in Portland Maine, someone's mostly stock 42 year old Honda CB360 parked next to a new Zero Electric bike.

New Haven Lathe, 1921

Please send me the 42" swing model, just the thing for a home shop.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Landing craft

 Photographed at the Spruce Head Marine in Maine, this landing craft seems to have had a civilian career around the islands of Penobscot Bay. No other info on the craft, despite the LST lettering, it doesn't match the description of  LST-1190 

3M Scotch Tape dispenser




This beautiful art deco tape dispenser, made of cast iron and dispensing tape from  3" rolls, weighs about 3.5 lbs, providing a more than stable device for the job, also reduces the chance of people borrowing it.

Monday, July 25, 2016

1929 Flxible bus


A 1929 Flxible Bus does duty as a landing mast for the Goodyear airship Mayflower as well as providing transportation for the ground crew and equipment.

Citroen B12 Taxi


In 1925 the new Citroen B-12 was billed as the first all-steel body car. Body panels and and fenders had been made by a metal stamping process that used large 100 ton presses to press steel steel into compound shapes. In fact this process had been in use for several years in North America. Judging by what appears to be chair caning on the body, indicates that they weren't quite comfortable leaving organic materials.

Canadian Pacific for Sportsmen!

The cover of a 1880's pamphlet directed at the British sportsman. This became one of the railways most popular piece of promotional literature, running to 30 editions.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Custom aluminum frame

 Interesting custom fabricated plate aluminum frame, seen at Mid Ohio.



Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Planes in formation, Martin Mars

Twenty of these huge four engine flying boats were built for US navy use in WW2, they arrived too late for wartime service, and only five were completed, serving as transports for a decade. One remains, in use as a water bomber in British Columbia.

Larry Milberry, Aviation in Canada, McGraw-Hill Ryerson 1979
Hawaii Mars in the late seventies, owned by Forest Industries and used for firefighting.
Welam A Shrader; Fifty years of Flight A chronicle of the aviation industry in America 1903-1953 Eaton Manufacturung 1953
1944

One of my vices is vises, The Charles Parker Co. 1921

Railway Mechanical Engineer, June 1921
Charles Parker was born in 1809 and became one of Connecticut’s leading industrialists.  He started his manufacturing career inventing and producing coffee mills in a small shop in 1832. By 1860, he owned several large factories and employed hundreds of people, in and around Meriden. Vises were only one of his products, Parker products included hardware and house wares, flatware, clocks, lamps, piano stools and benches, coffee mills, industrial machinery, and, after 1862, guns. His descendants carried on his businesses until 1957. 

I mentioned the Parker vise to a tool-centric friend who took me down to see the one he has had for years. About a hundred years old now, still doing fine.



Monday, July 18, 2016

Book Sale




JOHN LORD’S BOOK SALE

70% OFF ALL BOOKS

It is with deep regret to announce the passing of John Lord, after 42 years in business he has amassed quite a quantity of books which will now be offered for sale at 70% off.

SALE WILL BE JULY 18 – 27, 2016

10am – 5pm daily

We will not be accepting email orders – it is in person only at the address below.

Please tell your colleagues & friends of this great sale! 
We have a lot of books and there is something for everyone!

CASH IS PREFERRED
BUSINESS CHEQUE WITH ID, VISA/MASTERCARD/AMEX ACCEPTED

14077 10th Line Stouffville, Ontario (Bloomington & Durham Road 30)






Our Railway to the Pacific

E J Hart, The Selling of Canada, Altitude Publishing, 1986


The former Governor-General of Canada, John Campbell- better known by his title, the Marquis of Lorne, wrote an article about the new transcontinental railway for the British journal "Good Words". 
In 1886 the Canadian Pacific Railway reprinted this article, with illustrations by the Marquis's wife, Princess Louise as their first tourist promotional pamphlet.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Anerican Tool Works lathe, 1921

Not your average home shop tool, from the Vintage Machinery site  comes this info about the company.
 American Tool Works Co. was formed in 1898 as a reorganization of Davis & Egan, a machinery manufacturing company in Cincinnati. Owned by the Schott family of Cincinnati, the firm manufactured engine lathes (including the well known American Pacemaker), shapers, planers, radial drills, tracer lathes, and other machine tools. In 1969 it was absorbed by another unnamed company.
The remnants of this company is now owned by Bourn & Koch; that firm is still able to provide information on most of the old American Tool Works machines.

Russian T26 tank

T26 light infantry tanks on parade in the Soviet Union. Approximately 11,000 of these tanks were built from 1932 till 1941 and some remained in service till the end of WW2. The vehicle was a development of the British Vickers 6 Ton tank, designed as a simple and easily maintained light tank for export to less technologically advanced counties. Over the years the T26 was produced in several configurations and many different iterations.

Royal Hotel renovation. Picton

Wellington Times
 Visiting Picton On. on the weekend, we came upon this "light renovation job" on Main St. According to a recent article, after the building had been recently purchased, inspections were made after discovering that the roof had been leaking and appropriate repairs were being considered.  In the end, not much more than three brick walls remain as a basis for the total rebuild.