Nice Things

[NilsLW]

Those kind of old battered chairs are the best, you can use them for literally anything and they are surprisingly comfortable. Always satisfying to toss your jeans or a nice worn out dress shirt over the top back rail too.

[FurnitureMaker]

@Double 0 Soul

 SuFu is hitting my personal sweet spot at the moment. I have a passion for 17-20th century English furniture and joinery. But, if somehow we could steer this thread into English woodworking machinery, Wadkin, Sagar, Robinson etc… then all stars would be aligned. 

[Double 0 Soul]

I can align those Wadkin stars... my other machines are Phillipson and Bridgeport

[FurnitureMaker]

Let’s  pause the rotation of the cosmos for just another second…

Wasn’t familiar with Phillipson.  I’d be all over their double disk sander. Looks like it would be extremely smooth. 
 

I like, well really like, old American machinery too, and thats what I own. While I don’t have a Bridgeport, I do have a little experience with operating one. . They are common here and often able to be had for little money. Fantastic mills. 
 

In the same shop I rented that had the Bridgeport, there was also a Wadkin PK table saw. Without a doubt one of the nicest ‘Nice Things’ in existence!! It outshined every other table saw I’ve ever used, and by a considerable margin. The PK is the reason I have my English machinery fetish. Unfortunately, very few English machines were imported into the States. Canada had an importer for Wadkin and while still a rare occurrence, you do occasionally see something for sale in Canada. One day…

[Double 0 Soul]

7 hours ago, FurnitureMaker said:

Let’s  pause the rotation of the cosmos for just another second…

Wasn’t familiar with Phillipson.  I’d be all over their double disk sander. Looks like it would be extremely smooth. 

Mines a Wadkin, we all have our cross to bear 

These old machines can be had for peanuts over here, it costs more to hiab them out of the workshop than you would get for them in scrap value. There is a company in Sheff called Riley’s who used to trade in old machinery, they stocked up during the outsourcing of the 90’s, they still have most of it because there’s just no market for it, folks want cnc.

I know what you mean re American machines, I used to be a fan of New Yankee Workshop with Steve and Norm 

[Double 0 Soul]

Scotlands finest Duke Mant I mean Linn Kan's

Late Mk1's, perfect condition in rare af, rosewood veneer

[Duke Mantee]

I remember visiting the factory, for engineering reasons, maybe 20 years ago - all nice and clean trying to emulate lab conditions, and wee robotic fork lift / picker trucks scooting about the place … but I was more interested in the woman at a bench knocking shit out of the case an Akurate amp with a rubber mallet. 

In case I wasn’t clear - she was assembling the thing …

Edited May 29, 2022 by Duke Mantee

[Maynard Friedman]

Sound…

[JDelage]

New family member… Meet Pika:

 

[Hopethisoneisnttaken]

@JDelage what a cutie! Puppies are the worst and the best. Have fun!
 

is she a Great Pyrenees? 

Edited August 27, 2022 by Hopethisoneisnttaken

[JDelage]

@Hopethisoneisnttaken - Pika's a golden retriever.

[Hopethisoneisnttaken]

My bad. Super cute, either way! 

[Broark]

Not sure if this really belongs in this thread or not, but I don't think we have a backpacks / bags / luggage thread.
Picked up this Porter bag from a shop in Japan. This is from their CRAGG line, made from a nice overdyed canvas, mil-spec nylon, etc.
It's a little smaller than I had thought, they make a larger version but I thought that might be too much.
Had been thinking I'd get something from Filson for years, but I liked this style more and from what I've heard Filson's quality has suffered over the years.

[Double 0 Soul]

Couple of monochrome contributions from me..

First up are these lovely scissors, hand made in Sheff

I've needed new scissors for as long as i can remember.. the ones at home are some Poundland shite..  the pair at work are reasonable quality Taylors of Sheff but they're 20yrs old. I use them for cutting odd shapes out of fibreglass matting when i'm laminating, t'other day.. they were rubbing my thumb so much i had to put a plaster on...I thought fuck it! i'm going to treat myself They're so nice.. i should have bought them 10yrs ago!

Next up is this beautiful vintage 90s era CBR crank which Tilmann proxied for me from Kleinanzeigen.. Phwar! crank-p0rn

Edited September 9, 2022 by Double 0 Soul

[Maynard Friedman]

I hope you’re not cranking one out over that!

[Double 0 Soul]

You'll hope in vain!

[Geeman]

Cook Bros cranks were once on my lust list, them and Hope

[Double 0 Soul]

Cooks are super desireable.. this Cook Bros Racing cruiser c1979 sold back in May for $68,700

 

 

[JDelage]

My son and I did a bit of DIY indigo dyeing a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, we screwed up and didn’t get consistent results. Fortunately, we like the results…

 

 

[chicote]

This week I’ve been going through and tuning up some of my machines, and thought I’d share a few.

First is my Willcox and Gibbs single-needle chainstitch machine, from 1906. I’ve shared it before, years ago, when I first got it, but I’m starting some new sewing projects so it’s getting pulled out, dusted off, and cleaned up a bit before getting put into use.

For those of you who’ve sewn on traditional machines, I know you know how frustrating it can be to properly set the tension of the two threads when working through multiple layers or different types of fabric. It’s horrible! I have a 50s singer domestic machine that can sew through leather but I don’t even really bother because the tension settings are *so* imprecise. With this machine, I never have to bother. It has an automatic tensioner! In a machine that’s now 117 years old - can you believe it? You’d think we would have worked out a way to get these onto new machines since then, but this is still the only one I’ve found where I don’t have to bother.

Part of the ingenious design of this machine is the single-needle chainstitch itself. Rather than use a bobbin thread, the needle meets a rotating hook under the machine, which is timed at just the right moment to grab the thread from the eye of the needle just as it returns back to the top of the machine. The thread then loops around, catches on itself, and makes a link of a chainstitch - identical to how you’d sew it by hand.

Supposedly, the inventor of this machine, something something Gibbs, was a teenager in the late 1870s when he came across an ad for a Singer domestic machine in a newspaper. He couldn’t afford one himself, but was struck by inspiration and set out to make his own version to work with. The only problem was, the ad only showed the top of the machine, and Gibbs had no idea there was an entirely separate bobbin mechanism underneath until after he’d come up with this single-needle workaround in its place. It’s an absolute dream to work with, easily the best and most consistent sewing machine I’ve ever used. It takes eleven drops of oil into various holes around the machine when it sounds like it needs it but has otherwise never needed any maintenance whatsoever. Truly a testament to the simplicity and genius of the early mechanical age.

Plus, it has nice little gold leaf paintings on it too! :p

And the whole machine is about 9 inches tall by 10 inches wide, and weighs maybe fifteen pounds. Here’s a photo of the machine in its case next to a record for reference.

Next, I’m re tuning my tattoo machines for a little guest spot I’m gonna do at my old studio next month. These aren’t all my machines but they’re my three favourites.

Clockwise from top left is an early 90s Mickey Bee shader, a custom single needle liner made by Jim Rosal of Yakima, WA, and a 2006-ish more traditional liner by Juan Puente.

 

I’ve had each of them for at least five years and hundreds of tattoos and they’re usually pretty consistent… the shader’s starting to run really hot during longer sessions and might need some new wiring, and my Rosal liner is right about to burn through its front spring, and I guess the puente hits a little too hard for what I like to use it for. But they are all perfect in their own way. Electromagnetic machines like coil tattoo machines really have their own personalities; they can run completely differently at different altitudes, with minute differences in voltage or quarter-turns of the contact screw at the top, or if I hold it too close to someone’s big iron (magnetic) gauges, ive learned, lol. And the differences between how these three machines run mainly depends on the geometric relationship between the size of the frame, the length of the armature bar, the angle and length of the contact screw, the weight, length, and angle of the front and back springs, and so on… all tiny differences that make each machine suited for entirely different purposes.

You can see in the above photos the relative distance between the contact screw (at the top) and the end of the armature bar (the big iron bar in the middle that the needle slides onto). The shader, top left, has a long, light-gauge spring, so it rebounds slowly and lazily off the contact screw, making the machine both run slower and also much more sensitive to the pressure of a person’s skin pushing against it. It makes it easy to do really soft shading, and it’s gentle enough that you can go over the same spot several times without damaging the skin. Compare that to the liner at the bottom, which has a short, stiff spring, meant to pound the needle downwards with basically no resistance. That’s for when you’re putting in a big ol’ outline and don’t care how much your client screams! Just kidding, it’s also pretty soft, but it definitely doesn’t have the same amount of give as the shader - it’s far too stiff to bend much at all. The other liner is right in the middle: it’s a mid-length, very thin spring with a deliberate bend put into it, which makes the skin response really snappy. A single needle has basically no resistance when it enters skin, unlike bigger needles, so if your machine doesn’t have a lot of give to it, it can push ink much further into the skin than intended, and cause ink to “blow out”, or spread beneath the ideal dermal layer just a bit below the surface, and make a thin and detailed design heal mushy and hazy. The little bend in the front spring allows the needle to pull back much further than either of the other two machines, so you can get a lot of variance in the width of your line without either punching too deep through the skin or causing the ink to fall out as it heals.

Hopefully that wasn’t all too boring to read, lol. These machines are so fun!

[mondo]

22 minutes ago, chicote said:

Hopefully that wasn’t all too boring to read, lol. These machines are so fun!

Ha..! You've no idea what a pleasure it is to read a detailed explanation of just what it is about something that makes someone who is into it so seriously into it. Doesn't matter what it is – reminds me of a conversation the other day with a colleague who was annoyed with some of our students who say they're into Drill, but show no interest in Grime or any of the other factors that gave rise to their genre of choice. Neither of us could understand why anyone would like something without wanting to know more about it, and what its history may have been...

(edit: this morning I walked past the remainder table at a favourite bookshop and saw a copy of Inner City Pressure... so my colleague's enthusiasm was enough to make me purchase a history of a subculture I hadn't previously considered. In my feeble mind, there would seem to be some parallels between the mechanism of the single-needle chainstitch machine and the intermittent mechanism of a 16mm film camera, so it wouldn't surprise me if another rabbit-hole awaits there...)

Edited September 10, 2022 by mondo

[Maynard Friedman]

@chicote - great info, even though I have no interest in tattoos. That sewing machine is my favourite though, it’s ace! 
 

@mondo - agreed. Anyone who has any interest in technology, especially coding but does not get excited by machine code should just f*@k off! 

[MJF9]

@Maynard Friedman 01000001 01100111 01110010 01100101 01100101 01100100 00001010 

[Maynard Friedman]

01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01101001 01110100 00001010

[Dr_Heech]

@MJF9  and @Maynard Friedman 

Is this a code-off ??

Edited September 11, 2022 by Dr_Heech

[Duke Mantee]

16 minutes ago, Dr_Heech said:

@MJF9 and @Maynard Friedman 

Is this a code-off ??

01010100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101111 01101110 01101100 01111001 00100000 00110001 00110000 00100000 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100100 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110000 01100101 01101111 01110000 01101100 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 00100000 00101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101111 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101111 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101111 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101111 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 11100010 10000000 10011001 01110100

[MJF9]

01001000 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100001 01100010 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01010011 01110101 01100110 01110101 00100000 01001000 01100001 01100011 01101011 01100001 01110100 01101000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011 01110011 00111111 

[smoothsailor]

Pretty cool @chicote, the tattoo machines. Sewing machine too.

but my eye caught the machines.

could the top left be a mickey sharpz? 
I use a puente machine every day, great stuf.

 

finished a painting today, somewhat of a “nice stuff”

 

[Geeman]

All of my tatts were done by an old school  , biker bloke in Birminghams oldest tattoo studio . On many sittings he'd tell me about the difference between his different guns and how he'd never go to a new rotary gun. 

If I recall,  he'd have half a two pence coin in the mechanism of the gun? Was it for balance or something? 

I've got the shop logo tattood in my armpit!

Here he is after giving my daughter her first ink about 7 years ago 

Edited September 10, 2022 by Geeman

[Dr_Heech]

5 hours ago, Duke Mantee said:

01010100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101111 01101110 01101100 01111001 00100000 00110001 00110000 00100000 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100100 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110000 01100101 01101111 01110000 01101100 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 00100000 00101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101111 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101111 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101111 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101111 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 11100010 10000000 10011001 01110100

Scottish bingo is shite.