rivett608
Diamond
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2002
- Location
- Kansas City, Mo.
This weekend I was down in Wichita Kansas and had never been hunting for old machinist tools there before so decided to give it a go. Wichita has been a big manufacturer of airplanes for about a 100 years, airplanes are built pretty much by machinists, so I figured it would be good hunting. I went to 3 antique malls, over 95,000 square feet in total with more than 350 vendors. I found almost NO TOOLS, of any kind, not farm stuff, not Stanley planes and nearly no machinist tools. To be honest, I haven't seen that much useless and ugly crap in years, most of it house hold nick knacks and nearly all of it 20th century.
There was also no aircraft stuff, no worker ID badges, no jackets or patches, no belt buckles, nothing. Wichita made Learjets, Cesnas, Beech, Boeing, etc. there was nothing.
Has all this stuff been bought up? Thrown away? What? Why was there nothing?
If you go to an antique near any industrial city you see all sorts of stuff. Around Pittsburgh PA you find stuff from the steel mills, in Massachusetts all kinds of tool related stuff. I have been hunting antique machinist tools for over 40 years, we all know there used to be this stuff everywhere. I remember when in nearly any mall you would see some machinist tools on every isle and a chest on about every 3rd isle. Now I know it is not like that anymore, but to see almost nothing in 95,000 square feet?
The total of what I saw was 1 micrometer, 1 empty average machinist chest, 1 M & W square, 1 pair of old English dividers (I bought those for $12),3 spring calipers, a pair of LSS Vee blocks, 2 Wilton bullet vises, maybe 3 other vises, maybe 2 dozen wrenches and less than 10 Stanley planes and folding rules that were all junk. That was it!
What are you seeing out and about these days?
There was also no aircraft stuff, no worker ID badges, no jackets or patches, no belt buckles, nothing. Wichita made Learjets, Cesnas, Beech, Boeing, etc. there was nothing.
Has all this stuff been bought up? Thrown away? What? Why was there nothing?
If you go to an antique near any industrial city you see all sorts of stuff. Around Pittsburgh PA you find stuff from the steel mills, in Massachusetts all kinds of tool related stuff. I have been hunting antique machinist tools for over 40 years, we all know there used to be this stuff everywhere. I remember when in nearly any mall you would see some machinist tools on every isle and a chest on about every 3rd isle. Now I know it is not like that anymore, but to see almost nothing in 95,000 square feet?
The total of what I saw was 1 micrometer, 1 empty average machinist chest, 1 M & W square, 1 pair of old English dividers (I bought those for $12),3 spring calipers, a pair of LSS Vee blocks, 2 Wilton bullet vises, maybe 3 other vises, maybe 2 dozen wrenches and less than 10 Stanley planes and folding rules that were all junk. That was it!
What are you seeing out and about these days?