DJH
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Now showing on BBC 2. Reminds me of someone... 
Doug
Doug
- Thread starter DJH
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Lime
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I'm feeling a lot better.
I'm not a collectaholic.
I hardly collect anything that isn't useful, will be useful, might have been useful in the past or is a spare, perhaps to a spare to another spare of something that may come in handy if I need it in the future, possibly.
I am just an ordinary person who so happens to have a few things stored in boxes that cannot be on display for lack of space.
The reason the loft is full and the spare bedroom filled to the ceiling (not the one occupied entirely with my Hornby Dublo) is because my house is too small.
Everyone should feel sorry for me.
(I felt sorry for the china collector at the end.
)
I'm not a collectaholic.
I hardly collect anything that isn't useful, will be useful, might have been useful in the past or is a spare, perhaps to a spare to another spare of something that may come in handy if I need it in the future, possibly.
I am just an ordinary person who so happens to have a few things stored in boxes that cannot be on display for lack of space.
The reason the loft is full and the spare bedroom filled to the ceiling (not the one occupied entirely with my Hornby Dublo) is because my house is too small.
Everyone should feel sorry for me.
(I felt sorry for the china collector at the end.
)Penners
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The word "collect" tends to imply a conscious purpose. I'm more of an accumulator. Without any real intention on my part, stuff just gathers in drawers and boxes, on shelves, on top of other stuff... and so on.
The problem, as Lime has observed, is that irresistible feeling of "ooh - that's bound to come in handy one day". So I never throw anything away. I know for absolute certainty that only a small proportion of the accumulated 'useful' bits will ever actually be used... but I don't know which small proportion. So I'm condemned to keep them all... just in case.
Anyone need a 1971 Swan chromed kettle handle (only slightly rusty)?
The problem, as Lime has observed, is that irresistible feeling of "ooh - that's bound to come in handy one day". So I never throw anything away. I know for absolute certainty that only a small proportion of the accumulated 'useful' bits will ever actually be used... but I don't know which small proportion. So I'm condemned to keep them all... just in case.
Anyone need a 1971 Swan chromed kettle handle (only slightly rusty)?
jocelyn plummer
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Lime said:
Penners said:
I agree with both of you, our previous houses had good display areas for some lovely family items, this house is simply too small, so yes, I am having to box things up and I do try to change items over from time to time.
And, yes, as a just post war baby, I still tend to think that something is too good to throw away and it might come in useful one day. My weakness there, is fabrics, ONE DAY I will make some new cushion covers, loose covers, bedspreads--now where is my sewing machine?
Books are a real problem too. I stopped buying books about 6 years ago, what I have are all really good reference books and it is refreshing to thumb through them to get ideas and refresh one's memory. As for the lovely antique books from my Parents' library, well, I am slowly selling them at Tring Auction rooms--always seem to get a few pounds per box load. Trouble is a lot of them have my Father's personal book plates inside or are signed by various members of the family--seems rather odd to sell them--(the books :roll: ).
Keithj
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I do NOT collect stuff. I KEEP things that are rather nice and may be required at some future date. I have some WW2 transmitting valves (807s and 813s for them as knows about this stuff) and a prewar one (250TH ditto) and a goodly selection of replacement valves for radio receivers and transmitters I owned in the 1960s. There's much, much more hardware of that type. It does make it hard to move around in the workshop, but that's life, innit.
I put up shelves in the cart lodge. They very quickly filled up with boxes of "stuff". The floor under them has tins of paint, limewash, etc of every imaginable hue - I'm convinced we don't have that many colours in the house, but SWMBO assures me we do. So they stay. It would be a pity, really, for those shelves to be empty.
I put up shelves in the cart lodge. They very quickly filled up with boxes of "stuff". The floor under them has tins of paint, limewash, etc of every imaginable hue - I'm convinced we don't have that many colours in the house, but SWMBO assures me we do. So they stay. It would be a pity, really, for those shelves to be empty.
Penners
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An empty shelf is an offence against the physical law of horror vacui. It will quickly be resolved by a phenomenon with which I am familiar.Keithj said:
If you don't refill the shelf with stuff, it will refill itself.
DJH
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I just consider myself a custodian of useful things that will pass on to the scrapman or skip depending whether Mrs DJH thinks they are worth anything... :shock:
I'm looking at a thatchers cleaver billhook to take into custody at the moment which will sit nicely alongside my shaving brush handles and castrating tools 8)
Doug
I'm looking at a thatchers cleaver billhook to take into custody at the moment which will sit nicely alongside my shaving brush handles and castrating tools 8)
Doug
Penners
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Doesn't the latter obviate the need for the former? :xDJH said:
DJH
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Maybe...I don't know yet. :lol:
Nearly got a pig feeder but the scrapman got there first.
Nearly got a pig feeder but the scrapman got there first.
Penners
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Yes, Owain, the law knows know geographical bounds. It's a variety of Parkinson's Law really: "stuff expands to exceed the available storage space".
Penners
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However.....
... there are times when the habit of squirreling away any old bit of junk can come in handy. Here on the Suffolk Riviera, Mrs P and I have just been digging out the garden chairs from the back of a storage cupboard. During the winter a rat must have been bored, because he had unscrewed and lost the screw-and-threaded-insert that formed the hinge on one of the chair arms.
Fortunately, ten minutes of rootling around in one of my Boxes Of Useful Bits produced a coach screw, nut and locknut that have served well as replacements for this mechanism. It looks slightly more agricultural than the original, but it does the job very satisfactorily.
Vindication!!
... there are times when the habit of squirreling away any old bit of junk can come in handy. Here on the Suffolk Riviera, Mrs P and I have just been digging out the garden chairs from the back of a storage cupboard. During the winter a rat must have been bored, because he had unscrewed and lost the screw-and-threaded-insert that formed the hinge on one of the chair arms.
Fortunately, ten minutes of rootling around in one of my Boxes Of Useful Bits produced a coach screw, nut and locknut that have served well as replacements for this mechanism. It looks slightly more agricultural than the original, but it does the job very satisfactorily.
Vindication!!
DJH
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Pah! That's not collecting. That's hoarding...
Doug
Doug
Keithj
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I was summoned this afternoon by a delightful lady of the parish, to go through her late husband's shed to see if there was anything in there worth keeping. She had a skip in mind.
Two hours later, I emerged with maybe a quarter of the contents "inventoried" and a very clear message that nothing should be removed. I wish I'd known the chap: he had some of the most amazing historical electronic equipment I've ever seen. Sadly, I have no room for any of it here unless I put up a large new shed. His was just piled up - probably having stored elsewhere at a previous house. There was a logic to what was where, but that broke down part way. It couldn't have been "used" in the shed.
Comes the harder question of what to do with it. Some of that stuff would have cost a year's wages when it was new, so he clearly acquired it later in its life. Most of it is now of "museum" value: although I know how to operate some of it, I doubt I would ever need to do so in anger. I couldn't see a modern techie wanting it.
He was a collectaholic par excellence and this was a lifetime's collection. It included a War Dept (1943 era) Class D wavemeter, AVOmeters from 1940 to 1990 vintage, about ten frequency counters, communications receivers (six), power supplies (dozens), as well as dozens of smaller test devices. I'll recover, eventually.
Two hours later, I emerged with maybe a quarter of the contents "inventoried" and a very clear message that nothing should be removed. I wish I'd known the chap: he had some of the most amazing historical electronic equipment I've ever seen. Sadly, I have no room for any of it here unless I put up a large new shed. His was just piled up - probably having stored elsewhere at a previous house. There was a logic to what was where, but that broke down part way. It couldn't have been "used" in the shed.
Comes the harder question of what to do with it. Some of that stuff would have cost a year's wages when it was new, so he clearly acquired it later in its life. Most of it is now of "museum" value: although I know how to operate some of it, I doubt I would ever need to do so in anger. I couldn't see a modern techie wanting it.
He was a collectaholic par excellence and this was a lifetime's collection. It included a War Dept (1943 era) Class D wavemeter, AVOmeters from 1940 to 1990 vintage, about ten frequency counters, communications receivers (six), power supplies (dozens), as well as dozens of smaller test devices. I'll recover, eventually.
Lime
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Old electrical bits are reaching good prices on eBay, particularly anything connected with valves or 70s speakers.
Keithj said:
I paid £38 including postage for an AVO 8 MK6 on eBay about 3 years ago. I'm not an electronics expert so maybe I'm mad to buy it, but I just got fed up with cheap modern plastic digital ones costing a few pounds. It works absolutely fine and I imagine it will outlast me. I was outbid on several before I got that one, so I'm not the only person who wants one.
If some of it really is of museum quality, you could try offering it to the Deutsche museum in Munich. It is an absolutely fantastic place for anyone who has The Knack
Keithj said:
There is a (possinly outdated) list of electronic technology museums at
http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/eleclinks.html
A much larger international list here
http://www.radiomuseum.org/museum/List_of_museums_science_technical_radio_finder_Museumsliste.html
British Vintage Wireless and Television
http://www.bvwtm.org.uk/
History of Public Address Museum
http://www.historyofpa.co.uk/pages/museum.htm
The UK Vintage Radio Forums has a buy and sell board
http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=27
Even if some of the museums cannot take the artifacts they might appreciate good quality photos of front, rear and internals.