Old But Working Gadgets

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The BBC recently had an interesting article about people still using old gadgets:

BBC News - If it ain't broke: You share your oldest working gadgets
www.bbc.co.uk

If it ain't broke: You share your oldest working gadgets

People share the oldest gadgets they still use, via social media.
www.bbc.co.uk

Yesterday I cycled to a local Sainsbury's and in the cycle park was an ancient bike I'd seen there on previous visits.
As it happens I was packing my shopping on to the Brompton when the bike's owner, an elderly guy in elderly clothes, came out and we chatted about bikes in general and his bike in particular. Apparently he bought the bike second hand for £7 in 1960 - so it's now over 60 years old and still serving him well. Absolutely brilliant!
Some of you know that I have an interest in paraffinalia and occasionally fire up an old 'Primus' stove or similar for my meal or coffee.

So has anyone else still got and use old gadgets? Please note that humans are not admissable in this instance!

Colin 🙂🙂🙂
 
I like old tools and have a set of chisels that belonged to my Dad, who bought them in the 1950’s. They are still in perfect condition and used regularly.
We also have an old bike, still in use. It’s a 1951 Raleigh Sports Tourist, Yellow Jersey model, with 3 speed Sturmey Archer gears. It still has some chrome on the wheels, but the rust is slowly taking over.
We have only recently sold our old Merry Tiller type D rotavator ( around 1962) still working but we needed something bigger and bought a much newer Honda.
 
how old is old ? i have a very old ,long paring chisel , carbon steel . a wrought iron sprung dividers, couple of early Stanley sliding bevels ,large and small ,all get regular use . love the bevels, much better design than modern ones . but i also embrace modern tools and rarely use a hammer or handsaw, let alone yankee screwdrivers which i once used a lot . i once had a spindle moulder ,hand made from hardwood , that frightened the life out of me when i used it but did the job !
 
I guess the oldest item I actually use rather than just 'have' is a pair of wire-stripper/crimpers I got in 1984 to use in my first engineering job as well as a Fluke Multimeter that is over 35 years old and a bunch of other tools from that job. Still Have a very useful long stem philips screwdriver from 1988 that I used to use to align the drive heads on the old CDC SMC Disk Drives (if you adjusted to sharply, the head motor did an emergency retract that would take your hand off - hence the very long screwdriver to keep body parts well away!)
If anyone doesn't remember those, they used removable disk packs with a head for each surface and all the heads had to be accurately aligned with an oscilliscope.
the biggest ones had 17 or 19 heads - two for each platter and looked like this
1591738679310.png
Capacity? A whopping 300MB (yup, that is MB, not GB)

Not surprising all the tools that old and still good are from RS. I don't think the typical Internet-sourced tool will last a 1/10th as long.
 
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I’ve still got my working Sinclair Spectrum 48k computer, works well with my Ferguson portable tv of the same era.
 
I love old things I have my grandma’s tv table which I remember in her house in the 50s it has the iconic metal hairpin legs and the top swivels on top is a Sona tea set from the 70s, I also have 2 singer sewing machines both dated late 40s one was converted to electric they don’t get used much these days maybe it’s time to part with them.

91D4811A-42CB-4F0D-990C-DECA35108A09.jpeg71C7B980-9856-4C28-BF2E-9C521EC845A3.jpeg
 
My Dad's secateurs, probably from the 1940's - used this morning and never needed sharpening by me:

IMG_20200610_111208.jpg

...and his tyre pressure gauge, which doesn't need mains electricity or batteries! Occasionally still used by me:

IMG_20200610_111110.jpg

Colin 🙂🙂🙂
 
yankee screwdrivers , got mine out the other day had one for 54 years our old gaffer presented each apprentice with one start of your second year, mine is the full barry bucknell no 131 24” with a 7” strike sadly it got stood on not by me and now sticks occasionally, it was retired from my tool kit not long after i got a makita cordless but still gets an occasional outing ,
incidentally our gaffer must have been a big fan he had us build 6 mirror dinghy‘s that barry designed for a local club
 
rugbyken said:
yankee screwdrivers , got mine out the other day had one for 54 years our old gaffer presented each apprentice with one start of your second year, mine is the full barry bucknell no 131 24” with a 7” strike sadly it got stood on not by me and now sticks occasionally, it was retired from my tool kit not long after i got a makita cordless but still gets an occasional outing ,
incidentally our gaffer must have been a big fan he had us build 6 mirror dinghy‘s that barry designed for a local club
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didn't know they were called "yankee screwdrivers" :) I think I used to have an inherited one but it mostly jammed and I probably binned it :(
FWIW, I have a bosch cordless screwdriver that works in a similar way ... push it down to activate rather than flick a switch (you'd probably like that if a Yankee man?)
 
most bizarre bit of kit is my bolt croppers - strange but true . i was rummaging through a skip in Bath and amongst a load of useful stuff ,was a bag wit a brand new pair of cropper blades , they looked shiny so i grabbed them . couple of weeks later , walking through a town near Bristol , i sat on a low wall ,and behind it found a set of croppers with the blades missing . very odd
 
mr brown said:
i used to have small medium and large yankees , but like the disston saws, never used them again after i got electrified.

here's the yankee i bought ,brand new unused from a bootsale for a quid ,my 2 stanley bevels , my ancient divider and the knife attachment i made for cutting foam rubber
View attachment 54782View attachment 54783
Click to expand...

I had a yankee screwdriver but, unlike Barry Bucknell, found that the bit all too often skidded out of the screw head and marked the wood. I'm confident that Barry Bucknell had predrilled and previously run the screws into all his workpieces prior to his BBC programmes being aired.
I suspect that yankee screwdrivers would be much better with a Pozidrive screw, but I don't recall Pozidrive screws being available when I had a yankee screwdriver.
Just don't get me started on the hopeless Phillips screw head!

I like your foam cutter, Nigel.
A lot!

Colin 🙂🙂🙂
 
mr brown said:
most bizarre bit of kit is my bolt croppers - strange but true . i was rummaging through a skip in Bath and amongst a load of useful stuff ,was a bag wit a brand new pair of cropper blades , they looked shiny so i grabbed them . couple of weeks later , walking through a town near Bristol , i sat on a low wall ,and behind it found a set of croppers with the blades missing . very odd
Click to expand...

I'm hoping for a similar event, Nigel
I found an empty wallet in a skip which only needs me to find something folded to make it complete.....

Colin 🙂🙂🙂
 
it can scar you for life . i was having a rummage once when a very well-dressed older gentleman started on the other side . of course i had to say you don't often get blokes like you skip diving . he told me that years ago ,as a student he found a pair of trousers with £300 in the pocket ,and couldn't pass a skip without a quick forage since
 
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