Old Common, Day to Day Technology. Waht do you hang onto?

[Gary Fowler]

We use matches and a clothes line, two of my wrist watches are mechanical.

I have one mechanical watch (Rolex) but I find the digital or battery powered watches keep much better time. My daily wear is a $15 no name brand digital watch that I got a Walmart. It keeps perfect time and if the battery goes bad, just replace the watch and I am not afraid of scratching it up as I would be with my Seiko or Rolex.

 

[goeduck]

just about everything . 5 trucks none newer than 01, only cordless tool is impact and drill. Favorite 's are folding rule, plumb bob on a big magnet, cast iron cookware, and casio boulder {aka the cellasoursis]

^^^^ ah yes! Cast iron cookware. Got lots of it :thumbsup:

 

[Big Barn]

Agreed!! Both good ones

Sorry. I just realized you guys were talking about pick up trucks. I automatically thought bigger. ( Cummins N14, 18 speed Spicers etc)


I’ve never had a GOOD diesel pickup. An old GMC with the 350 gasser based diesel, an early Ford Ranger with a gutless import diesel, and a 6 litre Powerstroke.. ‘nuff said.

 

[Oaktree]

Canning jars and kettles. Oil lamps and a wood stove. Scythe and pitchfork. Hand coffee grinder.

My wife is delighted that when we have a power outage the comfort level of our house doesn't change. We have two Aladdin oil lamps and half a dozen wall hung oil candles, candle sconces and oil lamps. I actually spent some time looking for a real antique coffee grinder, after one bitterly cold morning that I was reduced to bashing beans with a framing hammer to make my morning coffee. My house can convert to 19th century luxury at any time. We have a generator, but don't need it. Power outages aren't very frequent and generally don't last long.

The wood shed is almost full of bone dry madrone and oak. We use the generator for showers, but can take a hot bath any time just by heating a laundry tub of water on the wood stove and diluting it with cold water in the tub. Gravity feed water means the toilets flush without electricity.

That was one of the big selling points when we bought our current (1830s vintage) house. Propane stove & hot water, woodstove for heat and gravity feed well. Water pressure isn't very high (~20 psi), but it's enough to do everything we need, including showers. We do have a couple oil lamps, but LED lanterns or headlamps (for reading) work better.
We put in the woodstove, PO had a couple of propane parlor heaters to supplement the rather creaky old oil furnace. The original brick chimney didn't look too promising, so when we got the woodstove we also put in a new SS chimney.

We do have a generator (3500W pull-cord start), but we've never needed to use it other than periodic exercise runs. Mainly got it for summer outages to keep the refrigerator & freezer running...start it and let it run for an hour or so 2-3x/day if needed.

We also do canning. I'll pass on the scythe though, ditto for crosscut saw and splitting wedges.

 

[rangerfredbob]

Sorry. I just realized you guys were talking about pick up trucks. I automatically thought bigger. ( Cummins N14, 18 speed Spicers etc)


I’ve never had a GOOD diesel pickup. An old GMC with the 350 gasser based diesel, an early Ford Ranger with a gutless import diesel, and a 6 litre Powerstroke.. ‘nuff said.

You did pick some doozies of diesels! The 350 killed most americans opinions of diesel vehicles from what I hear, the Ranger diesels were rated at like 45hp, I think the turbo one they used second was still up around 75hp tops, and then a 6L which makes many mechanics happy and sad at the same time...

Shoulda got a 7.3L of either make (IDI or PSD), my 7.3L Power Stroke is gutless but it gets everywhere...

I know I am stuck in the past on a lot of things, looking around my office I don't see any great examples and don't feel like thinking too hard... I use a lot of old junk instead of buying new and fancy but that's just so I can have more stuff (what's the old saying, he who dies with the most toys, wins right?). I do prefer manual transmission vehicles except for the commuter while in traffic... my newest vehicle is a 2000 model. I've had a lot of rental cars and can live without most of the junk they come with, I like the bluetooth phone thing for the stereo since it keeps me from getting a $1000 ticket though...

 

[Big Barn]

You did pick some doozies of diesels! The 350 killed most americans opinions of diesel vehicles from what I hear, the Ranger diesels were rated at like 45hp, I think the turbo one they used second was still up around 75hp tops, and then a 6L which makes many mechanics happy and sad at the same time...

Shoulda got a 7.3L of either make (IDI or PSD), my 7.3L Power Stroke is gutless but it gets everywhere...

I know I am stuck in the past on a lot of things, looking around my office I don't see any great examples and don't feel like thinking too hard... I use a lot of old junk instead of buying new and fancy but that's just so I can have more stuff (what's the old saying, he who dies with the most toys, wins right?). I do prefer manual transmission vehicles except for the commuter while in traffic... my newest vehicle is a 2000 model. I've had a lot of rental cars and can live without most of the junk they come with, I like the bluetooth phone thing for the stereo since it keeps me from getting a $1000 ticket though...

I know. The Ranger diesel was turbo’ed but still underpowered. I can’t even imagine a 45 HP.

I plead innocence on the 6L Powerstroke as I purchased my F350 new the year that motor was introduced. TMSAISTI

 

[rangerfredbob]

I think those were Mitsubishi engines, 2.2L I think, might have been 60hp but that's still less than the gutless 2.0L gasser that was an option at the time...

Some 6.0L engines were great, lived forever and did what they should do, others were lemons, I think there was around a 60% chance of getting a lemon

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I知 guessing thats a jab since more than half the stuff in your profile is HST. You must not get anything done besides working on junk equipment if HST is so bad.

Hardly... I guess you're just being contrary again. My equipment is new... nothing broken down here...

 

[Wagtail]

Not tech that I've hung on to but actively sought... a hand bellows for my wood heater.

Every so often I'd sleep past the 0200-0330 window to add wood to the fire = embers. I'd have to blow onto the re-built fire until I was blue in the face & light-headed. The obvious answer was to use a bellows but they're really not made anymore.

Picked one up at a local antique shop!

 

[bunyip]

I have one mechanical watch (Rolex) but I find the digital or battery powered watches keep much better time. My daily wear is a $15 no name brand digital watch that I got a Walmart. It keeps perfect time and if the battery goes bad, just replace the watch and I am not afraid of scratching it up as I would be with my Seiko or Rolex.

I collect watches, the two mechanicals are Rolex and Tissot, all the old pocket watches are fusee, also collect clocks and have an Atmos which never needs winding, accurate? not really.