Wierd/Atypical stuff you own

Well I was just thinking it would be interesting to see what kind of random, unusual items people have in their house (or otherwise).

It's not too strange but here's a start. It's a remote-control construction toy demo from the toy store where I worked:

A $500 flashlight. :laughing:

A handheld electric eraser (used by draftsmen in the old days) made by Leitz. Beautifully built, ball bearings everywhere, silky, silent, and useless.

I used to have a full Graflex XL press camera outfit (6x9 cm roll film) with all 3 Zeiss lenses, Synchro-Compur shutters, many film backs, the works. Great lens quality, crappy lens mounts.

Don't know if these are weird enough. Dillon RL450 reloading press? Weirauch HW55T air rifle? Toys of an indulgent youth I never used...:shakehead
(as opposed to toys of middle age...)

I have loads of weird stuff. A few taximeters (both electronic and mechanical) and some tachographs (got all this plus lots of other parts when the last company I worked for cleaned out their stockroom) for starters. Lots of electronic parts. Thermoelectric assemblies with huge heat sinks. A few warehouse-type HID lights I found thrown out by the curb one day (they still work). It just goes on and on.

lots of stuff, just ask my wife. a pristeen auto carena. this is a wind up film camera made like a rolex. you twist the handle on the bottom to wind it up. a swiss "wind-up" digital watch. it has two dials that rotate in a window for the time. a japanese(good quality)flashlight that has a vacuum cleaner built in it. homemade sewing pins with the heads hand soldered on them(circa 1890). a bulovia accutron watch, and so on.

I used to own a Palm Beach County voting machine from the famous 2000 Presidential Election. I donated it to a charity auction 2 years ago and the guy that bought it donated it to the local museum, which is only about a half hour away from the Bush ranch.

Hi Nerdgineer,

A handheld electric eraser ???? :huh2: How does that work then?

Nigel.

I used an electric eraser in a HS drafting class. It just spins the eraser and is often used in conjuction with a metal erasing shield to limit the correction to a small area. It uses small white cylindrical erasers, about 1/4 inch in diameter and 3-4 inches long.

1 acme 30kv at .045 amp neon sign transformer.

1 working - 1 not working model 111b delux scintilators very sensitive radiation survey meters.

2 working violet ray generator sets

1 sky writer by idieal toy - made in 1981

1 cil blasting galvanometer

a very nice hydraulic dentist chair.

1 big - old glass dome 34 inches tall by 28 inches - I wonder what it went to originally.

4 really old large gasoline model airplane engines with points coils and tiny champion spark plugs - one of them is called the baby engine - first production model airplane engine - very rare.

12 working stereo amplifiers from 300 wpc rms to 150 watts rms - 8 ohms both channels driven at the same time - I should sell a few of them.

I have the aladin mantle lamp that my 90 year old grandfather used as a kid on a farm in kansas.
his dad bought it from a door to door salesman.
grandpa was 5 when it was bought - he was not allowed to touch it until he turned 7 years old.

the old lamp is higher quality nicer looking and more advanced than my 5 year old genie 2 - brighter too.

I fixed it and tried to give it to my mom - she did not want it - I am not too upset ha ha.

2 pairs of 18 ct gold filled rimless glasses - in aligator cases that belonged to my great great grandfather - they are back in style in a retro way and I am going to have lenses made so that they will work for me.

1 small light weight jet engine with 36 pounds of thrust
- electronic automated micro processor controlled full kerosene autostart - no propane needed.

1 15 - 20 pound thrust pulse jet - very loud.



lots of electronics test gear

1 or 2 flashlights including a modded arc ls2 p and very white perfect arc ls3 - and a few home made hid spotlights.


I could go on forever - I am a pack rat

I need to use ebay and sell a few things

markdi said:

-a very nice hydraulic dentist chair.

-1 15 - 20 pound thrust pulse jet - very loud.

Click to expand...

Indeed, very unusual.

CPFers really do have some uncommon and strange stuff.

markdi said:

1 acme 30kv at .045 amp neon sign transformer.

Click to expand...

I have one of those. Forgot the voltage and current ratings though 22.5 kV rings a bell. I'll have to check in the garage later.

Let's see...not everybody has:

1: Blue DPSS laser module; 2+mW.
2: Yellow DPSS laser module, 6+mW (there aren't many of these around; possibly less than ten).
3: Argon-ion laser, single line (488nm), TEM00, 16mW.
4: Muncie combo high voltage insulater set (two piece set where they mate with one another; a base & a top); aqua glass.
5: Electric Mobility #255 motorised electric wheelchair.
6: "Boogie Lights" scrolling LED message board.
7: "Electronic Message Billboard" scrolling LED message board.
8: Prototype Arc LS flashlight (only two known to exist; mine is the only one in the western hemisphere).

A long time ago, I had a furnace ignition transformer. I think it was rated 10,000 volts AC 20mA on its secondary.
Large, heavy black thing with two porcelain feedthrough insulaters where the 10KV winding exited the transformer.
The secondary was center-tapped, so you could get 5KV from either secondary terminal to the metal case.

I can't think of anything else right off the bat.

I've got a sword that I have no use for--it's not pretty but it's functional and very sharp.

:touche:

A bowling ball named "BECKY."

Becky came into my life when some extended family member was clearing out his old junk. I guess his ex-wife's name was Becky, and she had it engraved on this 9-pound bowling ball. Relative gave Mr. LowWorm "Becky" to get rid of, but Mr. LowWorm (who at this time was fiance LowWorm) decided it would be more fun to see if he could bowl down the bushes in front of my parents' house with Becky while driving shrug. Bushes survived, Becky was only a few scrapes worse for her adventure, and we've kept her around since. She is our garage bowling ball, and keeps watch over our cars while we sleep, since she's really too homely to take out on a real bowling date.

An old Civil Defense geiger counter (the big yellow one). Also a couple of handheld Russian-made radiation detectors.

Unusual-looking vacuum tubes from back in the day - acorn tubes, 931 phototubes, etc. ALso some old ballast tubes which look very interesting when they're lit up.

A turntable (Technics direct DC drive, no belts).

Aside from 175+ flashlights (of course!), the most atypical stuff I have are various pieces of drive-in theater memorabilia such as speakers, in-car heaters, snack bar signs, cups, trays, basically anything that has to do with a drive-in theater.

Our house is littered with costumes and props from movies and stage shows. We've thinned it out some but there are still some items that will startle you the first time you stumble onto them, like the huge, totally buffed out, no-necked monster body guard standing just inside the bedroom door...in the dark.

Below is a link to a prop from the film JFK.



Since most of it was filmed in New Orleans they created a hi-res cutout quartering-view of the Texas School Book Depository so more shots could be filmed locally. If you saw the movie this is what you actually saw in many of the shots in front of the Book Depository. It's huge for an apartment. (14 feet wide) I couldn't get back far enough to shoot it all.

In our old place we hung it on a big sky blue painted wall and we've shot a few personalized wallpaper photos with friends standing in front of it...with old guns...and UFOs...

The same folks who gave it to us also offered us the full sized set pieces for JFK's grave...complete with eternal flame. They had to make it as they couldn't get permission to shoot at the real grave. Had to say no -- no space for horizontal displays.

a stapler: ZENITH 522/E
As well as offering the possibility to staple up to 40 sheets using ZENITH staples ref. 515/10, it can staple folded sheets such as those found in a copy book because of its great stapling depth...

(ie; it can put in a 10mm staple about 6 inches from the page edge.)

..according to the distributer I have the only one they ever shipped to the US,
(from Italy)

A letter:
from the city of NY acknowledging my help in nailing a major air polluter..in '78

A pen:
Parker 'Big Red' Duofold, my grandfather's..

A Pipe:
American Indian pipestone (catlanite) peacepipe.

A Cigar:
..in the humidor since the early 90's, an Upman Coronas Major Havana.
(think I'll smoke it today..)

A Commodore VIC 20 and Commodore 64, all still working great. Mint 1876 Schofield revolver passed on to each generation. Pioneer Boom Box from 1986, dual-cassette, dude!
A few NOS Casio led watches, calculators. Had more but lost plenty in the last cane. I really like keeping old technology devices that are still useful and fun.

Evil M-I-C-K-E-Y