I just noticed you are from Trenton, NJ. Are you by any chance a fan of the Sanford miniature surface grinder?
Dennis
Unlike those slimy pick-up artists, I never knew how to sweet talk anyone, let alone persuade them to come with me.
However, I did develop a fairly good ability to judge if the other party was already looking for some excitement that night and that I had passed whatever low standards they have.
This skill has a very limited lifetime which expires as (1) one gets older and less attractive (2) one gets married and (3) one stops drinking and not longer hangs out in such establishments.
Now I’m getting older, it’s picked up that rather unremarkable abilities to fade into the background, even when interacting the cashiers.
Gage blocks! Absolutely what I was thinking about when thinking of how to bore people to tears. Machinists know what they are and are fascinated by them. We expect other people to share our fascination, but they are likely only to be shocked at the cost for a bunch of little oily bits of metal.
Which reminds me, I need a set some day–though my needs are quite humble and I will likely go for an ultra-cheap Shars set.
Only in my dreams. Not only are those likely rarer than hens’ teeth these days, but in good working order they probably are quite pricy. For a cute benchtop tool, one of those easily cost $10K in the mid 90s when properly kitted out.
Mixdenny: “I just noticed you are from Trenton, NJ. Are you by any chance a fan of the Sanford miniature surface grinder?”
Well, this thread is turning out to be interesting! Actually I am the unofficial historian for Sanford Manufacturing. My history and identification guide is online. I am particularly happy with the section on the inventor, Walter Zighan. That took a lot of research:
I have a couple of them on my bench right now. One is fully restored with my small supply of NOS parts but needs the ways scraped to be more accurate. I just sold the other restored one to a guy in England.
Dennis