Hacksaw Tips

Here are a few tips that I'm not sure I would have thought of:

• If you're cutting thin metal tubing, run a wooden dowel through it before cutting to prevent any crumpling or bending.


• If you're cutting a thin metal sheet, sandwich it between two scrap pieces of wood and clap it in a vise before cutting.


• If you're in a tight space, try reversing the blade.


• And my favorite, perhaps because it just seems so obvious now, cut wider slots by mounting multiple blades in the saw.

Handy Book for a Handyman

Elle just brought this book home today and I couldn't resist claiming it for myself. One of the perks when the wife is a dealer of items vintage. Honestly though, she knows me too well not to have expected me to call dibs, and is probably exactly why she picked it up in the first place.

There are so many things that make this cover awesome, from the pipe in the man's mouth to the fact that he's even got a band saw in his workshop. But my favorite is that both people (it's the 60s, so let's assume husband and wife) are just so darned happy looking. I imagine the wife looking on with joy as her husband drills a hole, probably making shelves or cupboards for the kitchen (okay, I don't know why he'd be drilling what looks like a large hole, but just roll with it for now). He has a confident smile, knowing that he's providing a, dare I say it (how can I resist), Better Home for his wife. Yes, by drilling a hole. Just let it go.

Anyway ... I just really dig the artwork.

This is the 1966 edition. Hopefully I'll have time to post any cool tips and ideas I come across while going through it. Sometimes it's like rediscovering lost or forgotten lore.

Zombies, Billy Connolly, and Carrie-Anne Moss

OK. Not kidding. Everyone should watch this movie: Fido. Now. Really.

Honestly, it's worth watching twice. Once, because it's really funny. And then again, because the sets are chock-a-block with vintage goodies. The prop masters must have raided every vintage supplier in the town (and several neighboring towns too I imagine).

Today on BoingBoing ...

Saw this great vintage ad posted on BoingBoing today, and, with apologies for my incredibly poor image editing skills, present you with an updated version ...

Roundtop: Weltron Space Ball Radio

Same booth as the vintage exercise bikes ... and there were two of these as well!

Roundtop: ooh ... shiny

This looks like it could serve as the starting base for a steam punk mechanical horse ... and there were two of them!

Roundtop: hard to find Philco Television

I know there's a company that specializes in refurbishing and updating these babies but I can't remember their name. I think maybe they're in Dallas.

Roundtop: awesome electric desktop clock

I was in a hurry so didn't jot down any info on it.

Roundtop: steam punk raygun

or possibly an old optometrist instrument ... but that'd be boring.

Visit Your Dentist

Here are some great vintage dental hygiene posters, all copyright 1966. Unfortunately, I couldn't quite seem to capture the exact shade of green and orange in posters using my digital camera (a 2 year old Casio QV-R40). The font for the poster titles is awesome ...

Vintage Travel Posters

Elle sold these a while back, but I stumbled upon some photos and thought I'd share. They're all original stone lithographs from the 50s...

i have
no
idea
why the
images
don't appear
immediately
below the
text ... so
just keep
scrolling
down

updated: 6/7/2007.
Wow. So not only do I totally suck at making regular entries, but my laziness on a previous post has come back to bite me in the butt. I posted a bunch of really nice travel posters that Elle sold, but instead of uploading the images, I linked directly to her website. Well, after she updated her site a while back, all the image names changed of course, so the images have been of other random items in her "sold items" directory.

So, now, when I finally get back around to posting, the first thing I end up having to do is fix this post.

iPod-killer from 1957 ?

Elle picked up a bunch of old electronics magazines from the '50s a few days ago. A few of them were "Popular Electronics", and I noticed that all them had women featured on the covers. I'm not sure if the editors (publishers?) were trying to reach out to a female audience, or if they thought their male audience would be more likely to purchase the magazine if there was a woman on the cover. Were they saying "Electronics isn't just for boys anymore"? Or maybe "If a girl can do this project, you boys can too"? Or even "If you build this project, the girls will be all up ons"? Am I reading too much into this? Do I ask a lot of questions? Will I ever stop?

Here's my favorite cover so far. Doesn't that totally look like an iPod? OK, well maybe it doesn't look exactly like an iPod.

Dimensions Beyond Time and Space

Just kidding, it's actually only "Dimensions Beyond Tic Tac Toe".

The Game of Trinary
by Skor-Mor, 1976.

Essentially the game boils down to tic tac toe in 3 "dimensions". Two players take turns placing their pieces until all the spots are taken. The player with the most rows wins. Rows can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, and in one plane or three. The playing instructions include descriptions of a number of game variations.

I was a bit disappointed when I opened the box and found that the playing pieces, while gloriously pictured on the cover as some kind of shiny silver and gold material, were in fact merely black and white plastic.

I've seen the same game before, but with wooden playing boards and a center support column (as opposed to the curved plastic side support). Actually, I'm pretty sure I have that one somewhere ...