White Elephant Sale
Every year I go to the Oakland (California) Museum White Elephant Sale. It's a
one weekend per year giant thrift store occupying an entire warehouse.
You can find a wide range of stuff there. I generally hit up only a few
sections: toys and games, household, electrical, bric-a-brac, hardware,
and books. My wife generally looks at clothes, linens (which section
includes sewing supplies), bric-a-brac, and household.
This year, right off the bat, I found one of the more better scores of
my many visits. In electrical was a large (bigger than a breadbox)
wooden box marked "$10" and "Best Offer" and "TRANSFORMER REPAARE KIT
/ CIRCA 1930 / 10-30 / Rd / Ray". I'm guessing it was a transformer
repair kit belonging to Ray, but now it appears to be a very nice box
with a bunch of old electrical parts.
The box closed, just outside the warehouse.
The box top open, showing the only (semi) intact part of the repair
kit. The gauge is branded "REL" in a maple leaf and has markings like a
multimeter. Top down to the maple leaf: Ohms infinity, 600 ... 0 (looks
log scale); DC 0 to 250, 0 to 50, 0 to 10; AC 0 to 250, 0 to 50, 0 to
10; and lastly "2.5V AC ONLY" 0 to 2.5. Some of the buttons work like
"radio" buttons, push one down and another pops up. The wiring on the
back of this board appears to be missing, as is whatever was supposed
to be in the center hole. Presumably probes pluged in the holes to
either side of the gauge.
The box front panel removed, and top drawer open. Lots of parts. First
compartment has an eraser, a sander for a Dremel-type tool, a spare
knob, some resisters, 1/4" plug, and other stuff. Second compartment has a thing
that looks like a giant square nut, but is unthreaded; giant resisters;
a green choke; another spare knob; and miscellaneous. Third compartment
has some switches, an envelope of small screws, giant resisters,
another spare knob, a name tag (upside down), a tiny grinding tool in a
brass sleeve, various loose screws and stuff. Fourth compartment
has some small mirrors wrapped in paper and a bunch of 703A CRYSTAL
UNIT things. Probably the crystals are radio related.
The box front panel removed, and middle drawer open. Lots more parts. I
identified a terminal strip, some boxy capacitors (two brown things), a test lamp, a few
small black florescent bulbs, a motor that looks a couple of decades
newer than other things, giant resisters, variable resisters, and
assorted other small things. Oh, and two green painted pencils marked
"Made in Australia".
The box front panel removed, and bottom drawer open. A few more parts.
There are a pair of big alligator clips, some larger capacitors, a
Western Electric gauge marked "MILLIAMPS D.C." scaled 0 to 1.0, several
small transformers, a few complicated rotary switches, some variable
resisters, florescent starter, and some random other stuff.
So, I love the box. A few of the parts (eg switches) I'm sure I could
use. I don't know if the rest of it is worth anything to anybody.
qz thoughts