OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

269007 "Eric Coyle" <ecoyle@t...> 2019‑08‑06 Serendipity strikes when you least expect it!
Yesterday I went into the maker-space I use,  and a fellow member almost
immediately buttonholed  me in the coffee roomfor advice on cutting mortice
and tenons on the TS. We chjatted, and then proceeded into the woodbutchery
area. He knows I',m a galloot and told me about his NIB stanely 45 hr had
just acquired, but as we walked into the woodbutchery area, thee was a
Brunton compass tripod and mount sitting there! Long had I lusted after one
of those. But given up looking for one.

 

So awestruck I asked him if he wanted to sell it. ..And he started talking
about how he was getting into handplanes, and I happened to have a couple of
#3's which I had just rehabbed in the back of the truck, so we agreed on a
trade. Then he says, there's more to it.and pulls out the leather case.

 

I think he was awestruck a tad when I immediately identified it

 

Just like this one

 

https://geog.sfsu.edu/field-equipment/brunton-pocket-level-tripod

 

No money changed hands

 

The bad news is that he said, he had just sandblasted it taking off the
decal. Oh well, you cannot be everywhere at once.

 

Anyway, the bottom line in this serendipity is that we had an even trade and
we both ended up happy as pigs in mud and going down our individual slippery
slopes

 

Gotta love serendipity

 

Eric
269008 Mike Rock <mikerock@m...> 2019‑08‑06 Re: Serendipity strikes when you least expect it!
Eric,
When I was in engineering school in South Dakota, my home, we discovered 
Reed's Cave on Easter Sunday, 1966.  Pretty soon we were mapping and 
used the mining engineering department Brunton (pre magnetic damping) 
and the tripod.  The case went from shiny new leather to cave mud and 
scuffs in a few weekends of hard work. Department head said it was the 
best thing we could do, USE the damned thing.  Lots of miles and lots of 
survey points under that tripod.

God bless.
I still have two K&E pocket transits.  And all the K&E drafting stuff, 
Paragon for the most part.  And an almost fifty year old, 'new' LeRoy 
set.  Polar planimeter, proportional dividers and a Paragon Transit.  
Fun stuff, all for sale now.
269009 John Ruth <johnrruth@h...> 2019‑08‑07 Re: Serendipity strikes when you least expect it!
Uh, Eric, let me get this straight:

You traded “a couple” (? 2 ?) rehabbed and tuned Stanley Bailey #3’s for a
Brunton Pocket Transit with case?

If that’s correct, there must be an area of extremely low barometric pressure in
your immediate proximity.  ( Bowdlerized version of the traditional Porch
congratulatory exclamation. )

 John Ruth
269010 Erik Levin 2019‑08‑07 Re: Serendipity strikes when you least expect it!
Eric gloated:

>  but as we walked into the woodbutchery area, thee was a
>  Brunton compass tripod and mount sitting there!


Very nice find. Never been on my list, though my father had an M2 version (the
army edition) and I was fascinated by it as a kid. I have no idea what happened
to it.


Mike responded:
>  I still have two K&E pocket transits.  And all the K&E drafting stuff, 
>  Paragon for the most part.  And an almost fifty year old, 'new' LeRoy 
>  set.  Polar planimeter, proportional dividers and a Paragon Transit.
Suspiciously similar to the collection in my desk, except I have no transit. I
really have no use any more, but if I find the right unit at the right
price..... Unfortunately, or possibly fortuitously, all such devices tend to be
priced high in my area.



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269011 Paul Fuss <paulfuss1@g...> 2019‑08‑07 Re: Serendipity strikes when you least expect it!
On Tue, Aug 6, 2019 at 7:05 PM Eric Coyle  wrote:

>
> https://geog.sfsu.edu/field-equipment/brunton-pocket-level-tripod
>
> No money changed hands
>

Great story Eric, and a very cool instrument!  Slippery slope indeed...  I
think I want one...

A few years ago I picked up a Starrett 99f transit at the flea, great
condition and with the box, but missing the tripod legs.  Then one spring
up at mjd's auction in Nashua (after a couple years of looking), one of the
sellers in the parking lot had the correct set of telescoping legs for
practically nothing. So a couple months later I used it to teach the
surveying merit badge for my son's scout troop while up at camp (after
teaching myself of course).

Anyway just less than an hour ago I got a call from my wife's cousin
offering to give me a NIB surveyor's measuring rod that he just happened to
have lying around, and didn't need or want (we shared a very long drive
recently so he's quite familiar with my, um, proclivities).  The last piece
to this puzzle is now in place, and with a touch of serendipity to boot.

Now I find myself looking a lot more closely at such things, and that
Brunton is very cool...

Paul Fuss
269026 Gregory Hahn <greghahn@s...> 2019‑08‑08 Re: Serendipity strikes when you least expect it!
Hi Guys:

I've had a German-made pocket transit for about 30 years, not a Brunton, but the
same quality in workmanship and features, can't lay my hands on it at the moment
to give the instrument maker's name, sorry. There used to be a tourist trap
store in town selling everything brass, street numbers, coat hooks, incense
burners, etc. They also sold knock-off brass pocket transits made in China, but
they are out of business now, and the quality wasn't very good.

The biggest kick I got transit-wise was during the film "Message In A Bottle"
when Robin Penn Wright presented Kevin Costner with a shiny brass "Nautical
Compass" in a walnut bow with a brass plate inscribed with some "think of me
when you use this" nonsense. I think the filmmakers just used it for the
"Gizmosity" value. Naturally, a pocket transit would be almost useless on a
moving boat at sea, except for the compass value.

Anyway, nice find, and next time you're on Ceylon (Serendip) use it in good
health.

-Greg

Recent Bios FAQ