I'm sure there are some guys on here that like old stuff. Personally I love it. I split my time between cars and old engines and tractors. I've got engines dating from 1928 up to the 50s. Several friends and I also restore antique tractors.
Enough background. A couple of weeks ago I was wandering though a antique mall and came across this old clock. It was cheap and I bought it. When I got it home, it was pretty nasty inside and out. After an hour or so of cleaning and oiling it, it runs like a charm and keeps great time. It even chimes the hour and half hour mechanically. Probably the first thing I have bought in a while that has no batteries required. It was made in the 1920. Since then I have bought two more. It's driving the wife crazy.
Yes I know, I'm strange.
Just thought I would share.
Here's a couple of pictures.
Anyone else have strange collection or hobbies other than car stuff?
I show the cannon collection later.
The least car related thing I collect is books...but mostly car books.
i have a thing for vintage bicycles. currently i only have the one nishiki, but im always in the look out for schwinns and stuff like that. i would like to build something like a clock
I like old mini-bikes, I'm starting to think about finding an old Schwinn Stingray, I have a set of early 50's Lionel HO trains (yes, I said Lionel HO), and some old Aurora slot cars stuff.
I also have an antique pocket watch, compass and pedometer that I've inherited.
About ten years ago, I went on a quest to find a Curta calculator, which is really the only collectible antique that I've ever researched and sought out. I have a Type II that has genuine rally history and I'd like to find a Type I to keep next to it someday.
I love finding Native American artifacts and have gathered over a thousand, though I've never found an actual arrowhead.
grimmelshanks wrote:
i have a thing for vintage bicycles. currently i only have the one nishiki, but im always in the look out for schwinns and stuff like that. i would like to build something like a clock
For your viewing pleasure, a Schwinn. I believe a 1940s era.
Slightly modified with a engine kit. I didn't build it, but couldn't resist it when I saw it.
I kinda have a collection of these:
My best is a Plath made in 1959 in "Western Germany." I also have a Davis Mark 15. Those are both real. Of course, the Plath is truly an amazing instrument and the best of the best in sextants. They were three large in the 80's. Then I have some toys like a keychain sized one that actually works, and some a bit larger, like 5-6" across, which I think all came from India.
Airplanes. Yes, there is a hobby that is more expensive than an old car.
NYG95GA
SuperDork
5/12/10 9:01 p.m.
Calligraphy ~ Japanese Watercolor
mtn
SuperDork
5/12/10 9:05 p.m.
My collections:
Golf balls. Comes from working on a golf course, they're all free.
Model Cars
Leftover baseball cards from when I was a kid.
Shoes. I like a nice pair of shoes, if I see a good deal, I have to get them. And steal dads.
Vinyl records, mostly from dads collection
I'm trying to keep myself from getting into watches, cause I could see myself getting really into that and I need to keep my money towards cars and savings.
JThw8
SuperDork
5/12/10 9:16 p.m.
Ok as if folks didnt think I was weird enough. Pez dispensers. I have somewhere over 300 of them.
If anyone has some old ones sitting around that need a home feel free to send them my way :)
Collecting Native American artifacts is my cheap other hobby. They're pretty old too.
I build and collect running, ~model steam engines~. I have about fifty.
I also collect old airplanes, but so far, I only have ~one~.
Lesley
SuperDork
5/12/10 10:43 p.m.
I've got quite a few local history books, including a 1st edition that's pretty rare.
But my most obsessive hobby is vintage sunglasses - currently at about 40 pairs:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=135019&id=515956307&l=b6ae777509
M2Pilot wrote:
Collecting Native American artifacts is my cheap other hobby. They're pretty old too.
I certainly hope that you aren't digging these up or anything and that you are very careful with who you buy from as digging them up (or pulling from cave etc) will get you in some hot water with the Feds. Just a word of warning.
As for me I collect cameras (can actually be more expensive than cars sometimes). I also still have more than 1000 comics that I collected over my youth including a few older rare and hard to come by comics.
I collected baseball cards, rocks and model cars (including Hot Wheels, Matchbox cars and Micro Machines) when I was little, but I don't really collect anything anymore. Racing and off-roading fits nicely under cars and trucks, so I won't count that. Same with watching hockey games and the like.
I like history. That's actually a pretty cheap hobby, as books aren't all that much compared to what we're used to, and a trip to a museum or a cool site is usually free or very cheap. I really love the outdoors and have been trying to get seriously into ultralight backpacking. The Appalachians are absolutely stunning and I will put them up against any in the world. My brother in law and I have been talking about getting into mountain climbing. Now that's a little more expensive. We'd seriously looked at the Emmons route up Mount Rainier, bypassing the Muir route that receives nearly everyone else up there. The first time, I hurt my knee before putting any money down and ending up in physical therapy. After that, he got married and I waited, seeing as it was his idea in the first place. I've got plenty of projects right now, particularly the Jeep begging for attention and cash, but I'll set aside a savings fund.
japanese anime dvds and ohter realted items. rpg games(way to many boxes to count) war gaming also, fan fiction which does not cost anything but time online to find and save provoded its any good, reading novels, lots of those, some video gameing, photographry(started my own buiness for that since its cool), history and reading and wathicng things about it and going to some cicvilwar battles or other things realeted to history.
just a few things to think about
I like to collect lighters/tobacco memorabilia but don't really go out of my way to find it. When I get a garage/house I want to go hunting for old car related signs and gas pumps.
Wargaming (Warhammer 40K anybody? Anybody? chirp chirp chirp), model cars, HO slot cars (especially the Aurora A/FX and G-Plus stuff), history (especially 20th century America and WWII), books (signed Tex Hill biography and signed Bob Hoover book, I need to get Chuck Yeager to sign his two books), and Axis & Allies (the board game, the miniatures game, and the War At Sea game, which is eating up most of my current slush funds). Also, AMC stuff, and Star Wars crap (especially the original CCG cards).
God I'm hopeless!
P71 wrote:
Wargaming (Warhammer 40K anybody? Anybody? *chirp chirp chirp*),
No figures for me (although I think Warhammer's cool).
I was seriously into the Avalon Hill cardboard wargames for awhile, especially "Panzerblitz", "Panzer Leader", and "The Arab-Israeli Wars". I tried "Tobruk", but no one wanted to play something that complicated with me. It was like a game with miniatures, but since you couldn't take the soldiers "off the table" when the units were attacked, you had to document the decline of each individual unit's power on paper.
I also really enjoyed AH's "Squad Leader". Great game, took wargaming to the "next level" for me...but again, I seemed to be the only person around who wanted to play it. I never bought any of the expansion packs, but I did buy an original box set of the "Advanced Squad Leader" rules when I saw it on the shelf in an old hobby shop. It was still in the original shrink wrap, and I've never opened it.
Between that and my racing souvenirs, my daughter's going to have a field day at my estate sale...
I'm into bicycles and RC cars. I also collect vintage electronics. I like to stay on the trailing edge of technology.
I just got an old Philco console radio to fix. Ahh, the warmth of a tube amp. Glad it does short wave, as there's really nothing to pick up on the AM anymore.
I learned to solder at a somewhat young age. I was 12 when I picked up my first iron and 14 when I mastered it. I'm still teaching myself something new with every electronics project I take on. It's a shame that most "repairs" are recapping at most, maybe sorting out some cold solder joints.
I've done some speaker building in the past. That one is always fun. I love breaking in a new subwoofer. Never let them run for less than about 12 hours solid, usually just test tones.
Does anyone here make money on their other hobbies? I know I've done okay with amp repair in the past. I haven't done any since I've moved because I don't have a work station anymore. That will change in the coming few months, though.
Luke
SuperDork
5/13/10 4:26 a.m.
Vintage bicycles, (road, mountain and BMX), as well as old (mostly mechanical) watches, for me. Aquarium fish, too. I've also got a small collection of Zippo lighters going.
VanillaSky wrote:
Does anyone here make money on their other hobbies?
I make a bit of money flipping old watches on Ebay. But any profit usually just goes straight into another watch.
Toyman, show us the cannon collection.
I like old history books, especially those relating to local history(though not always local to me).
I also collect oddities, though I do flip some of them for profit occasionally. I have a framed & mounted cow-pie, a stuffed/mounted red-tailed hawk I inherrited that's about 100-years old, a pretty good sized collection of 1970's memorabilia, some Minstrell books from the early 1900's, a WWII-era poster about preventing venerial disease, and my latest - an early 1970's condom dispenser I just refurbished. :D
i collect souls.....
actually i collect old beer signs as they havent gotten rediculous in price like old car related signs have. damn babyboomers
I used to tell people "I collect dust".