Pawn Shop Tool Shoppin

[Smithers]

Gotta love digging around in pawn shops. I do it sometimes when I have time while I'm traveling in a different town. I'll post some of the stuff I find here just for kicks. Anyone else is invited to post good tool finds as well if they like.

Here is a doozy! I found this awesome Brown & Sharp caliper tool near the bottom of a random hand tools bin the other day! The digital readout wasn't working so I laughed and said I would offer them $5 for this broken ol' caliper. "If it workes with a new battery - it worked and if it doesn't I'll toss it in the trash." I said. The guy behind the counter looked at it and said, "sure that's fine." Little did he know these things are some big bucks! Used on Ebay in kinda rough condition they are worth over $100. :D

And yes the digital readout worked once I threw in a new battery.

http://fourwheelperformance.com/tech/tools_brown_sharpe_calipers.jpg

[ByTheLake]

Never thought about checking out a pawn shop for tools. Nice buy. Did Chumlee sell it to you at that price??

I have a machinist friend that gave me his sets of micrometers and digital calipers when he retired, so I got lucky.

[Smithers]

Hah Chumlee. All he does is make guest appearances at car shows and conventions now. He always was just an act. :) My engineer buddy laughed when he saw this tool that I scored and said that's every bit as good as the Mitutoyo caliper he gave me for Christmas a while back. These things aren't cheap! Now I just need an engineer rule. You know one of the 14" steel rulers that measure in 10ths. Now those are hard to find.

You really scored a nice set of tools from your machinist friends I'm sure. I visit some large companies and in their R&D section they have a collection of old measuring devices that they treat like ancient artifacts. Pretty cool.

[Jetblackchemist]

Done.

[Smithers]

Hah nice one! Heck I'm sure they aren't losing any sleep over the deal! Enjoy it. :)

I will post up another famouse pawn shop deal I scored. A Husqvarna 396XP Chainsaw almost new. Someone took the long bar and chain off of it and cashed it out. When I saw it up visiting in Oregon I noticed it had a 18" bar and chain and it wasn't really fitting correctly. The price tag was big $$ so I pointed out that it was the wrong setup and the price was retail NEW (which it wasn't but they don't have time to research :-). The couple ladies in there mentioned that people were complaining about the price so I got it for what I offered .... $300 cash that I was waving around. :) Power or the size of the tree is no longer a problem when cutting wood.

[Jetblackchemist]

Done.

[Erik S]

Check your local drafting or art supply store- even online for a 24" (I'm sure they make all sizes) Gaebel rule. Arthur H. Gaebel, Inc. E.Syracuse, NY 13057.
Mine has sixteenth's and 100th's on one side and 32nd's and 64th's on the other. Well made. I had to search high and low for one because guitar scales are usually expressed in 10th's. I build guitars as a hobby. Good luck.