On 16 Jan 2007 12:14:42 -0800, "Too_Many_Tools"
wrote:

I do...many of my fellow friends who have shops overflowing with "good
stuff".

In my own case, I see it as a very slippery slope....one great thing
after another can follow you home until the doors to the shop won't
shut.

Sometimes...no many times...you just have to say "No".

Your thoughts?

TMT

I have seen this problem.

it is completely over come by Ockleshaw's workshop principle.
Ockleshaw being the possesor of the most amazing workshop.

"if it looks useful it isnt.turf it out.

if it looks *really* useful keep it for a month.
if you havent touched it in that month turf it out.

If something is actually useful but hasnt been used in a year turf it
out.

that way you will have a workshop full of only the gear that you
actually need"


....of course ockleshaw had a second shed :-)

Stealth Pilot

Its interesting that when true hoarders collect things that are
actually valuable, they usually manage to make them worthless by the
time somebody else gets em.

There was guy down near Centralia Washington that collected cars- at
his peak, he had something like 2000 of em. He was sure every one was
"valuable" and would never sell. And as they sat, they rotted, tires
grew thru the hoods, paint and chrome peeled, engines rusted solid, and
when he finally died, and the family had to dispose of them, virtually
none of them were worth anything, even as parts.

I have seen this same thing happen with tool collectors- the old guys
are so sure that the stuff is worth a fortune, they routinely chase
away people who would actually reuse, restore, or understand their
tools, and want to pay reasonable prices for them- and so, in the end,
it all becomes scrap.

There was a famous junkyard in Richmond Virginia, where the old guy
saved Steam Railroad engines, and other huge machines. He never would
sell, convinced he was sitting on a gold mine. Well, when he died, the
relatives found he was- and it was the real estate. The land itself was
worth a lot, the scrap metal on it was just that- scrap metal. A
foundation was set up to save the oldest engines, and the relatives
gave them away for free- and if it had happened 20 or 30 years earlier,
there would have been a lot more to save- age, weather, and vandals had
taken a severe toll. While alive, he cagily quoted prices of a hundred
thousand dollars for a steam engine, and when he died, they were free
for the hauling. Assuming you could afford to haul something that was
80 feet long and weighed 20 tons.

On 17 Jan 2007 11:50:45 -0800, "Ries" wrote:


Its interesting that when true hoarders collect things that are
actually valuable, they usually manage to make them worthless by the
time somebody else gets em.

you see that all the time.
no preservation effort.
totally stuffed when someone can get access to it eventually.

Stealth Pilot
btw I know of two (once) very valuable aircraft that are sitting in
weeds almost totally stuffed because the owners didnt have the
intelligence to sell them at a realistic price when they found they
couldnt maintain them.