Cluttered and messy reloading bench

[uncle jimbo]

Ian, I like the yellow plastic dump truck you have on the shelf.
Do you use it to haul out the garbage and trash when the room needs cleaning.

 

[Ian]

My wife bought me that for my birthday a few years ago. When I was a kid I always wanted the Tonka trucks, bulldozer, and loader but we were dirt poor and never could afford them. She took pity on my and now I have my very own after 40 years of deprivation. Problem is if anyone sees me playing in a dirt pile with it I may find myself in a brick apartment filled with burly people in lab coats, at least unless I wait for my boy to get old enough to play with me....

 

[Intheshop]

I built the boys a killer sandbox "facility" when they were little. They loved that thing. Anyway about two or three years ago it got leveled just to move forward on things. As it hadn't been used in well over 15 years.

Running the grader box over the cleaned off area,several of their smaller Tonka machines got flicked out. I stopped and got off the tractor to pick them up. Took'm to the house and washed them off. It was amazing how good of shape they're in,now the Gbabies are playing with them. They were buried for over 15 years?

 

[462]

I cannot abide the pics of "everything in it's place and a place for everything"; makes my skin crawl.

Gary,
Looking at the other rooms, I need more calibers and stuff to improve on the lack of clutter and projects.
To that end, I've been putting .223 stuff in my Midsouth shopping cart, to spend a Christmas gift card on.

 

[Bret4207]

Wish I had a nickle for every hour I spent as a kid playing in a sand box (or any handy sand pile) with my Tonkas and Matchbox cars. Be even better if I had all those Matchbox cars in mint shape, or better, in unopened boxes. Big $$$ these days I understand.

 

[fiver]

my Mom has or had a killer match box car collection.
she tossed most all of my classic 60's ones and then started buying her own collection in the later 80's mid 90's somewhere in there.
guilt maybe?
I haven't heard her say anything about it in like 10 years.

 

[JWFilips]

OK Here is a today version of my reloading room ( Un staged)

 

[Rally]

Jim,
What brand is that circulation pump? I'm about through buying Taco and Grundof brands.

 

[JWFilips]

Rally,
That is not a pump....It is a water company meter! This is a new digital one that is sealed and covered ( no more moving dials)
It sends the data to a box out side of my house that then transmits water usage data to the water company I'm not sure how it works
Jim

 

[creosote]

Here's my bench. I cleaned it about two weeks ago. mostly pushed everything to the right.
I have lots of wall space but............
started to build one of those NRA bench/wall shelve storage gizmos. drew plans making them larger. Then had to fix the table saw, then had to fix the radial arm saw table, then raise the saw to be level with the cutoff saw so you could cut a eight foot stick on either one or both at same time. ahhh time. that was ten years ago.
This bench is eight feet long.



I got a temporary shelf so I could find stuff, and figure out how, and where to organize. yup, that was a few years ago too. Sucks when your body won't let you do stuff you want to.
The casting bench is in the garage. That place resembles Brets. Only the collar is in the red shed. (horse stuff, ya know)

 

[JonB]

My wife bought me that for my birthday a few years ago. When I was a kid I always wanted the Tonka trucks, bulldozer, and loader but we were dirt poor and never could afford them. She took pity on my and now I have my very own after 40 years of deprivation. Problem is if anyone sees me playing in a dirt pile with it I may find myself in a brick apartment filled with burly people in lab coats, at least unless I wait for my boy to get old enough to play with me....

I takes my chances with the burly lab coat peoples...LOL.

 

[JonB]

OK, back to the OP.
This is the reloading room (in the 2nd floor livingroom).
There is also a casting/lubing room and a couple ammo closets, also in the 2nd floor.

 

[Bret4207]

Jon, I like the trucks. There's a full sized Chevy dump like yours for sale just down the road from me. Looks like a Ford in last shot, and some Euclid green and Allis Chalmers orange in the mix too. Cool!

 

[JonB]

That mostly rusty blue/white Chevy-dump Tonka was the one that started this collection. There is 21 total, many pieces are not shown in the photos.

When I was a young child, we lived in a house with a large yard, 1+ acre. There was a 'sand pile', my brother and I would spend hours in there with Tonka toys, making a town with a river running through it. We moved away from that house when I was 12 (1977), there was a big auction and all the Tonkas and a big box of HotWheels cars were sold. Honestly, I wasn't concerned at that time and at that age, about the loss of those toys, as we were moving to a Lake Home, so all I could envision was fish'n and swim'n and boat'n, for my future, and I got to do all that.

Fast forward to about 2005.
I met a guy from my town (at his garage sale), who became a good friend. He tells me he collects Tonkas and others similar toys, and he tells me to keep an eye out for Tonkas at the garage sales that I go to (I was a regular garage saler back then). So, at the next auction I go to, there was 3 Tonkas, the Blue/White Chevy (there was no rust on it at that time) and two other tough looking toys, one with bullet holes, I buy 'em all.

I run into my friend a few months later and tell him about the Tonkas and he tells me he is only interested in NEW, "in the box" toys. I was kind of pissed off, I told him, "You know, you could have told me this when you asked me to keep an eye for them...That seems like some good information to pass on." That was the point, where I told myself, I guess I'll just gonna keep 'em and maybe add a few to the collection, thinking they'd make a nice addition to my gardens. To this day, they all but one, sit outside all year around...rain or shine or snow, hence the rust on some of the one's I've had the longest. My mantra to this collection is "Rusted and busted."

I've paid $5 to $10 each for many of them, a few choice pieces were $30 to $60. Yes the $60 one (a two piece set) sits in my living room, it is a 1960s Red step-side pickup with a cool trailer made from a step-side pickup box. It wasn't that rusty when I bought it, but being outside only one summer really degraded the paint quality (red is notorious for that) and rust came though the crackled paint...I decided it still looked really cool, but I didn't want it to degrade anymore, so I put it in the livingroom and loaded it with wine corks.

 

[Bret4207]

I was just out in my garage and thought about taking some pics but even my pride knows some limits. What a mess!

 

[creosote]

My neighbor asked "how do I get out of here" last time he visited.

 

[uncle jimbo]

I was just out in my garage and thought about taking some pics but even my pride knows some limits. What a mess!

Oh just do it Bret4207. inquiring minds want to know.

 

[Bret4207]

My neighbor asked "how do I get out of here" last time he visited.

HAR!

 

[Bret4207]

Oh just do Bret4207. inquiring minds want to know.

Okay, just remember- you asked for this! FYI- this is AFTER I straightened it up some and took the trash out!

 

[Bret4207]

Being a gracious and humble sort of fellow, and knowing no one else could possibly match, much less exceed that mess, I hereby request my prize money be donated to The American Leisure Suit Museum.