u/eatgamer

Ok, so I'm downplaying it a little.

I also got a pair of pink lawn flamingos for $10.

This weekend I visited an estate of a professional engineer, cabinetmaker, and highschool shop teacher where I picked up a Technics SL-1500. I knew enough to point out that it was missing the cartridge (at least... I think I know that much) which got me the turntable for free on top of a $160 pile of tools this sub probably doesn't care about.

I'm a little new to this so your grace is appreciated.

I visit these sales primarily as a hobbyist woodworker and while I have a modest collection of vinyl and an inexpensive Audio-Technica AT-LP60 I don't really know what I have here. It's clearly a step above my entry level player and I'm eager to enjoy it but Google's AI focus is making it difficult to get real guidance on what to do next.

It turns on and spins up at both speeds without any weird sounds or noises but it's missing the cartridge so I haven't bothered to hook it up to anything to hear how it plays. I don't see any obvious damage but it was found in the dusty office of a woodworker's workshop. It wasn't connected to anything when I found it but there wasn't any evidence to suggest it was a repair project.

It seemed like it was just being ignored.

So where do I go from here?

Is there a cartridge you recommend and anything special I should know about installing a new one?

What else should I check and consider servicing or is it worth visiting a professional to have it maintained?

I don't mind spending $100-$200 to get it running if necessary but there's probably a threshold where I won't truly appreciate further investment. If it helps, I'm primarily a critical listener but I've been known to turn up the gain and put a curve on the EQ when I host or have friends over.

What would you do first?

Ladies and gentlemen: do not bother with your local estate sales. There is nothing left worth buying. Everything of value is gone.

My bad.

Just under $300 before tax for everything pictured. The JDP-17MF and the JBOS-5 both cleaned up and run perfectly. Total repair bill: one light bulb. The JBOS-5 is a massive quality of life upgrade, by the way. The induction motor is SO much quieter than the harbor freight unit it replaces that I risk forgetting to wear hearing protection.

But, to address the title of the post, I have already made the money back from these purchases. I sold my old Harbor Freight spindle sander and Little Grizzley benchtop drill press for $300 combined and I have a second drill press on the marketplace as we speak (I was already mid-upgrade).

The early Stanley fore planes will be users. No. 6 gets a full restoration and joins the No. 7 alongside the ECE Primus and the chisels which all came from the same sharp enough to shave with.

The Speakers are already wired up in the home office.

Everything else goes in the restore/refurbish queue.

So here's where I could use a little help. My actual stated goal this weekend was books for my little library. In my defense, I did buy one book. It cost $1. So if my girlfriend asks any of you, I need you to back me and say I was LASER FOCUSED and made only a single responsible purchase.

Good luck out there. I will be in the shop the next couple of weekends so you all can have a chance at the good stuff.

Testing colors on a scrap casting.

This is a Stanley Bailey No. 5 Type 20 , manufactured 1962-67, that I purchased as a $4 reminder to get a tetanus booster at a local estate sale. That felt about right for a paint-splattered plane with a broken tote, an iron ground to a sloppy, uneven bevel, and a cup in the sole you could drink out of. No historical value. Not rare. Not pre-war. Not special.

Perfect.

At the risk of upsetting originalists, this wasn't a restoration and I'm not going to call it one, and I'm not sorry.

By the early '60s, Stanley had figured out what every company eventually figures out: that you'll keep buying it even as they make it worse. A little worse, a little worse, every year, banking on you never noticing because they made sure to never tell you. An uneducated consumer is a loyal consumer. A helpless person is a repeat customer.

The bed was painted blue instead of the durable black japanning. The rosewood knob and tote were long gone, replaced with stained hardwood. The substantial lateral adjuster with its clean lines is now a single piece of stamped steel. Sixty years of margin-shaving cowardice, and this plane was a compromise before it ever hit a store shelf.

So it's black now. I took to the buffing wheel parts that the factory never bothered to polish. I turned a new knob and cut a new tote from local reclaimed ash.

I didn't preserve this plane. I rehabilitated it. And I made it mine.

A $4 chunk of iron three steps from the scrap bin doesn't owe the past anything. The world tells us to throw it away and buy a new one, preferably plastic, preferably this quarter, preferably with 2 day prime shipping. They spent six decades making it worse. It took a weekend to make it produce a finer shaving than it did the day it left the factory.

Sharpen your steel. Hoard the cast-offs. Save the broken thing the world tells you to throw away until they’re standing in an empty room wondering where all the customers went. They can't sell to someone who can fix their own things. She is free. He is dangerous. They are ungovernable.

They build them to be forgotten. This one, at least, isn't going anywhere. I hope you like it.

I made some basic modifications to a print I found here. The compartment holds a wireless android auto adapter, USB hub, and one of those power splitters that make the adapter power on and off with the car. I threw in a purple LED because I'm a child. The print does a great job hiding the mess of wires and dongles necessary to get wireless android auto working and was a perfect fit for my 2023 Limited purchased last November (welcome me!).

Printed with black PETG-CF and transparent PETG on a Bambu P1S.