OldCarGuy’s Retirement Toy Shop

Old Car Guy- this is inspiring- I just have one thing to add-
Is this a great country or what!

Monarch Radius tools

Any chance you have the literature for the Monarch radius tools?
I have the very same one pictured on the left.
Thanks! BTW nice shop!
Sam

OldCarGuy said:

Just purchased a used K.O. Lee Cutter Grinder that included the centers, power work head, and air bearing end mill sharpening attachment.

At the same time I purchased a Bridgeport Cherrying head. That I temporarily installed on the back off my CNC EZ Trak.

Another addition is a Deckel SO Cutter Grinder along with seven collets from 1/15 to 5/8. I mounted it on a shelf on the wall between the K.O. Lee and my surface grinder.

I finally got around making room to put my second Bridgeport between my smaller lathe and EDM machine. The L&W dividing head with a 6” chuck was also a new purchase.

I also picked up a J S Fluidmotion Radius Angle grinding wheel Dresser Along with a Sine-A-Dex precision rotary / index sine spin fixture.

Added to my collection of sine plates, a 6” X 6” fine pole magnetic sine plate.

A couple more toys,, Monarch convex and concave radius cutting tools.

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You have a machine shop capable of building progressive dies, injection molds, or any other kind of tooling for that matter! That’s awesome! I would just be happy with a toolroom lathe, pedestal grinder a d a surface grinder. Well, you have no excuses for not fixing anything now!

CorePin said:

You have a machine shop capable of building progressive dies, injection molds, or any other kind of tooling for that matter! That’s awesome! I would just be happy with a toolroom lathe, pedestal grinder a d a surface grinder. Well, you have no excuses for not fixing anything now!

Click to expand...

Thanks for your enthusiasm, he does have a nice shop. However he has not posted here since 2011. For what ever reason he didnt post here after that. Have a great day and thanks for bringing up this post. I had almost forgotten about how nice the photos of his shop were.

Charles

Disaster strikes OldCarGuy's retirement complex....



December 14, 2020 bad luck came my way. A massive fire started by my four year old laptop computer. I finished using my garage shop laptop around 8:00 PM. And like most users, I left it plugged in to charge. Then I finished working in the garage attached to my workshop until midnight. Followed by going to bed. I had a dream that I was caught in a fire and woke up at 4:00 AM sharp. At which time there was no sign of a fire. I went to the basement to shut off the furnace. Then went through the attached garage that too had no evidence of fire. But when I walked past the steel door to my shop. I could feel the intense heat radiating from the door. There's no way I was going inside the shop. Then went out that garage man door, once outside I could see a huge plume of black smoke billowing well past the second floor of the shop.

I reported the fire on 911 call. Then made my way to turn off the electric in main distribution panel in another garage that's 75' from the shop. Also turned off the main gas lines. Within minutes four police cars appeared. Followed by five huge tanker fire trucks. Though the local fire station is within five miles of my house, my house in the rural area, and there's no fire hydrants. Within minutes two dozen firemen were suited up in in full heat protection gear including face masks and oxygen bottles on their backs... These fine men worked like a well oiled machine. Little on no words between them. Being well trained for the task at hand. Constantly relaying questions to me. In less than an hour they had things under control..

I am a huge fan of our safety forces. And I'm so thankful that they'd risk their lives for me and my property. Heck both the Police and Fire Chief's were there to overlook their men. So it's five o'clock AM and the forces are cleaning up their gear. The Fire Chief came my way to comfort me. And acknowledging that I wouldn't get any sleep. But he's leaving two men behind until the morning when the Fire Marshall will be there. Just to keep an eye on the shop in case there's a flareup.

Over the following week, both the Fire Marshall and a private Fire Investigator determined the laptop computer started the fire. He made an astonishing and compelling statement. If this would have been any other attached garage shop in the county, my garages and whole house would have burnt to the ground.. He went on to say the choice of fire rated drywall, insulation, windows doors, quality workmanship, etc made all the difference. As there was no damage to the attached garage that shares a 20 foot wall, and the full second floor above the destroyed shop!

I was totally distraught... This cannot be real. As if I'm dreaming still. Have I dreamed it all? Or could I be simply hemorrhaging inside? For several weeks I made up my mind to shut her down. End this defective gene I've possessed. Sell off all my collection of antique cars, machinery and tools. Maybe just collect stamps.

With all my family insistence. Convincing me that I'd never be happy giving up on my passion. I decided to rebuild Grandpa's Toy Shop! To heights well beyond anything I've had in the past.. Or could dream about...

Glad you or your family did not get hurt.. The rest is "just" stuff.

Now that you practiced making toy shop the next will be that much more better.

All the best to you, thank you for sharing.

Indeed it was a huge loss for me, both monetarily and emotional. The fire occurred December 20, 2020. Both the local Fire Marshall and my insurance company wouldn't give me a go ahead with any repairs, let alone entering the premise. Until all the investigating was finished, because of the expected legal ramifications to the computer company. Unknown to me, the particular model computer has a major issue of causing fires.

After three months of stalling me, I started in on the fire restoration on my own. Most told me I wasn't capable at my age to the task at hand. My thoughts were I built my garage complex on my own twenty years ago. Just because I'm approaching eighty years old, that's not going to stop me now! Ordered a huge dumpster,, actually four of them. Removed all the burned remains, and took out all the machines and stored them in my other garages or offsite. Then removed all the machinery wiring that was surface mounted in steel conduit. The wires were all melted as one from the high heat. Lastly I removed all the drywall and fiberglass insulation knowing the smoke smell would linger for years.

I took on the task without any outside contracting! And only the help of a single family member. Working seven days a week 10 to 14 hours a day.. Besides some minor details, I finished the massive project. The results are fantastic! Except for my 1914 Cadillac, all my other cars were safe from the fire. Here is a taste of the restoration as of today... I'll be posting more about my shop rebuild soon.

Below is a shot looking down a row of my equipment. You'll notice on the far wall below my license plate collection is a neon sign, “Grandpa's Toy Shop”. Maybe I should start a new thread naming it as such..

OldCarGuy said:

Indeed it was a huge loss for me, both monetarily and emotional. The fire occurred December 20, 2020. Both the local Fire Marshall and my insurance company wouldn't give me a go ahead with any repairs, let alone entering the premise. Until all the investigating was finished, because of the expected legal ramifications to the computer company. Unknown to me, the particular model computer has a major issue of causing fires.

After three months of stalling me, I started in on the fire restoration on my own. Most told me I wasn't capable at my age to the task at hand. My thoughts were I built my garage complex on my own twenty years ago. Just because I'm approaching eighty years old, that's not going to stop me now! Ordered a huge dumpster,, actually four of them. Removed all the burned remains, and took out all the machines and stored them in my other garages or offsite. Then removed all the machinery wiring that was surface mounted in steel conduit. The wires were all melted as one from the high heat. Lastly I removed all the drywall and fiberglass insulation knowing the smoke smell would linger for years.

I took on the task without any outside contracting! And only the help of a single family member. Working seven days a week 10 to 14 hours a day.. Besides some minor details, I finished the massive project. The results are fantastic! Except for my 1914 Cadillac, all my other cars were safe from the fire. Here is a taste of the restoration as of today... I'll be posting more about my shop rebuild soon.

Below is a shot looking down a row of my equipment. You'll notice on the far wall below my license plate collection is a neon sign, “Grandpa's Toy Shop”. Maybe I should start a new thread naming it as such..

Click to expand...

too bad they don't have a LOVE emoji to give you !

OldCarGuy said:

Indeed it was a huge loss for me, both monetarily and emotional. The fire occurred December 20, 2020. Both the local Fire Marshall and my insurance company wouldn't give me a go ahead with any repairs, let alone entering the premise. Until all the investigating was finished, because of the expected legal ramifications to the computer company. Unknown to me, the particular model computer has a major issue of causing fires.

After three months of stalling me, I started in on the fire restoration on my own. Most told me I wasn't capable at my age to the task at hand. My thoughts were I built my garage complex on my own twenty years ago. Just because I'm approaching eighty years old, that's not going to stop me now! Ordered a huge dumpster,, actually four of them. Removed all the burned remains, and took out all the machines and stored them in my other garages or offsite. Then removed all the machinery wiring that was surface mounted in steel conduit. The wires were all melted as one from the high heat. Lastly I removed all the drywall and fiberglass insulation knowing the smoke smell would linger for years.

I took on the task without any outside contracting! And only the help of a single family member. Working seven days a week 10 to 14 hours a day.. Besides some minor details, I finished the massive project. The results are fantastic! Except for my 1914 Cadillac, all my other cars were safe from the fire. Here is a taste of the restoration as of today... I'll be posting more about my shop rebuild soon.

Below is a shot looking down a row of my equipment. You'll notice on the far wall below my license plate collection is a neon sign, “Grandpa's Toy Shop”. Maybe I should start a new thread naming it as such..

Click to expand...

You have done a fantastic job as usual, I hope your insurance paid out. What kind of computer caused the fire? Did they pay up as well? Back when you used to post all the time I used to follow your posts all the time, I wondered what happened to you.

Sorry for your loss, but hoping to read your outstanding positive journey to a new and better outcome.

It looks like there was a lot that was salvageable?

A fire is one of those time-stamp markers of life, and everything is "before or after the fire".
Then you look ALL OVER for some tool that you know that you have, only to finally decide that it must not have survived the fire, even tho you're darn sure that you just used it recently.

I have not had to deal with that so far.
I don't own a laptop, but my wife has a cpl at home.

I wish you several years of joy from your shop yet!


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Damn. Very glad you or any of your family were not physically harmed by the fire. And yet another fantastic job on the rebuild! Great job. Beautiful shop, beautiful cars. Give that family member that helped you out a big pat on the back too.

pat pounden said:

too bad they don't have a LOVE emoji to give you !

Click to expand...

Sure "they" do! Check your post.