Friday, May 05, 2006

many more meters

So, it may seem as if I have a lot of meters, and perhaps I do. The funny thing is that in comparison to other things I collect, I don't have that many at all. These came from our excursion to the reningers flea market last weekend. Many aisle were walked, and much haggling ensued. At the end of the day I came home with a haul which these nice finds were just a small part of. I bought minnow traps, sand sieves, light fixtures, mould forms, and beat up bocce balls. Rae claims these shouldn't really count towards the weekly big magnet quota since they don't come from the studio. I feel that since they will end up at the studio, I am justified, and am merely capturing them in transit.

In either case it was a grand weekend for collecting. After returning from the countryside we went to get food at the co-op and stopped at a tag sale near by. I asked one of the ladies about a bunch of electronics and odd industrial looking stuff, and she responded by saying "you want that stuff? Please, take it"

Don't have to tell me twice. Turns out to be old mine safety equipment. CO dosimeters, noise dosimeters, odd measuring equipment, basically a jackpot. It is in pieces all over my desk now, and I am having a blast trying to figure out how it all works.

Monday, April 24, 2006

They thought it was their kid, but it was just a fluke.

Because some jokes are just too silly to resist. Even if I am the only one who will think it is funny.

Milli and Micro the Ampere family

Two classy old weston meters I got for a song on ebay (yes you can do that through paypal).
I can't imagine what I will do with them, but if I ever figure it out I know where to find them. Or not.

In the background is my mag-lev project.
If I ever get it cleaned up perhaps I will post about that too.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Week 2 (gear puller?)

At first I thought this was a valve spring compressor, but after closer examination I am not so sure. Perhaps a device for separating gears on a shaft?

In any case my friend Tom gifted it to me when we visited his lovely family in MI a few years ago. He had apparently saved it for me knowing that I would love it... and I do.

Forged steel about 7" by 2.5"

Sunday, April 09, 2006

where to begin

Not really fair to count this shot against the weekly goal I guess, but I wanted to show the source. This is the "studio" I rent, which serves more as a storage space these days. After a brief flurry of artistic activity a few years ago, I went back to building web sites. So the output from the studio has dropped to (almost) zero. That has not stopped me from collecting though. Slowed me down a little, but only because I only get here to deliver things once a month or so, and R sees the stuff (and gives me a hard time) if my car gets too full.

A Big Magnet

Many years ago I was a graduate student studying metalsmithing at Cranbrook. One day, one of my fellow students looked at my work area in dismay, and pronounced "It looks like there is a big magnet under there and all that shit just sticks to it."

I accumulate things.

Sometimes I make stuff out of them, but mostly not.

I think I have accumulated some really interesting stuff, and I intend to take pictures of one thing each week and post it here. I could go for a really long time at one a week, so maybe it will be more frequent, but probably not. We will see.

-jak