Thomas Schneider
07-05-2017, 11:03 PM
Hi All, just thought I'd share a story my most recent find. I got a call from someone answering an ad of mine for vintage tools.The woman lived 60 miles away and was getting ready to sell a house that has been in her family for four generations. Now 60 miles on Long Island for me is an easy 2 hour drive and is usually a deal breaker, but I asked her to send me some pictures when she got a chance. She told me she no longer lived in the house and it would be awhile. About a week later I got a few very dark pictures from a dimly lit basement.
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After blowing the pic's up and taking a close look, I didn't see much that interested me but the bench had promise. So we set a date for me to come look and after seeing it all live (with flashlights) I made them (she had a brother) an offer and they accepted it. Turns out the basement needed work done and had to be cleaned out in less than two weeks. So after enlisting my 2 sons, renting both a 12' box truck and a 10 yard dumpster, we went and loaded every last piece of hardware and tool on the truck and got it home.
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Now the deal I made with my wife was, in part, to resist my hoarding tendencies and throw out all the "junk", hence the dumpster. It took us 12hrs of back breaking labor to load it all so unloading it would have to wait for the next day.
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Now as hard as it was to not keep everything, it would have been even harder to throw away so much good stuff (I can't stand waste!). So I made a pile on the side of the dumpster and made a quick "curb alert" on Craigslist and in less than 2hrs it was all but cleaned out!
Now for the bench!
From what the family tells me it belonged to an Italian immigrant (their Grandfather) who worked for Steinway in NYC around 1890 - 1910. They say he was a piano builder and from some of the tools I found (that's another post) I believe it.
This is the bench in its new home.
363319
It's 82" long by 31" wide and 32" high. Has both a front and a shoulder vise. There are 11 dog holes with 10 in line with the shoulder vise and one I can't figure out what the purpose is. The top sits on 4 "pins" located, one each, on the 4 legs and weighs about 200 lbs. The base is 38" wide by 22" deep and is held together in part by 4 heavy duty bed post bolts. It weighs about 100 lbs.
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Ok, so I hit the picture limit, that tells me it's time for bed. I will post a few more pic's tomorrow and a few questions I have for you bench aficionado out there! Sorry this post is so long but I warned you!
363312
363313
363314
After blowing the pic's up and taking a close look, I didn't see much that interested me but the bench had promise. So we set a date for me to come look and after seeing it all live (with flashlights) I made them (she had a brother) an offer and they accepted it. Turns out the basement needed work done and had to be cleaned out in less than two weeks. So after enlisting my 2 sons, renting both a 12' box truck and a 10 yard dumpster, we went and loaded every last piece of hardware and tool on the truck and got it home.
363316
Now the deal I made with my wife was, in part, to resist my hoarding tendencies and throw out all the "junk", hence the dumpster. It took us 12hrs of back breaking labor to load it all so unloading it would have to wait for the next day.
363318
Now as hard as it was to not keep everything, it would have been even harder to throw away so much good stuff (I can't stand waste!). So I made a pile on the side of the dumpster and made a quick "curb alert" on Craigslist and in less than 2hrs it was all but cleaned out!
Now for the bench!
From what the family tells me it belonged to an Italian immigrant (their Grandfather) who worked for Steinway in NYC around 1890 - 1910. They say he was a piano builder and from some of the tools I found (that's another post) I believe it.
This is the bench in its new home.
363319
It's 82" long by 31" wide and 32" high. Has both a front and a shoulder vise. There are 11 dog holes with 10 in line with the shoulder vise and one I can't figure out what the purpose is. The top sits on 4 "pins" located, one each, on the 4 legs and weighs about 200 lbs. The base is 38" wide by 22" deep and is held together in part by 4 heavy duty bed post bolts. It weighs about 100 lbs.
363320
363321
Ok, so I hit the picture limit, that tells me it's time for bed. I will post a few more pic's tomorrow and a few questions I have for you bench aficionado out there! Sorry this post is so long but I warned you!