Ask Lemmy

Car from 2008.

Compaq portable plus luggable PC

Need to redo the foam and foil keys but otherwise it works great, let out the magic smoke the first time i powered it up so i did a re-cap and now it starts fine.

And it even has a working hard drive!

I also have an IBM Lexmark model M keyboard I use as my daily driver

My wife collects mechanical wristwatches. But since we aren't millionaires, she buys them in bulk lots online. Most times she'll get an interesting or semi-valuable watch or two. Usually broken or damaged in some way, but often within her ability to repair.

So. One day her watch haul included a double hunter pocketwatch whose maker's mark we weren't familiar with - "JW Benson". And inside the case was the text "Watchmaker by warrants to the Queen and the Prince of Wales."

Between those two, we managed to deduce that it had been manufactured sometime around 1880 (+/- a couple years. The company was bombed in WWII and a lot of records burned. IIRC, we had narrowed it to like a five year span, but the exact dates couldn't be determined beyond that)

Anyway. That watch - which still runs - is probably the oldest thing.

nothing really. I stopped being a sentimentalist/collector/hoarder years ago, I've packed up my life into cardboard boxes and moved all over the world more than 35 times in my life and I've just got no energy left to drag around old things with me everywhere I go.

I’ve got a ammo box and a plane made out of bullet casing’s from World War 2 that used to belong to my grandfather.

My house. Built in the 1840s.

An old brass model train from the 60s. We don't have an exact date, but that what I've been told.

Someone converted it to DCC at some point, but otherwise original.

Probably my house? Think it was built in 1928.

Probably some of my japanese wood working tools. It's hard to tell for sure though.

I buy all of my tools from an online discount store and they never have any known origin. It's difficult to date because Japanese tools are extremely traditional and a modern one can be indistinguishable from an ancient one.

That being said some of my tools show signs of extremely strenuous use and are definitely on the older side. Additionally they are made of wrought iron, it comes from raw pig iron and has to be hand forged and shaped. Most Japanese tools now use modern soft iron with exceptions being very high end tools and very experienced blacksmiths (making tools out of wrought iron is much more difficult).

After comparing images of Japanese tools from various time periods I estimate one of my plane blades could be from the 1800s. Mostly wishful thinking but definitely in the realm of possibility. Unfortunately the blacksmith that forged it was not famous enough to have any recorded information, documentation or mentions but it is still an exquisitely crafted blade, even if it's seen a lot of love.

I have a top loader NES and two games I bought for it.

1960s Wurlitzer electronic piano.

Great-grandfathers watch. It doesn't run anymore but I still love to keep it.

My house was built in '53

My parents ashes in my basement. My dad was born in ‘32

Some volcanic rocks from mt St Helens

An Egyptian scarab.

My house. Just the house.

That i can think of, a pre-1937 hand tool. Pre Stanley brand brace hand drill, recent purchase, dirt cheap compared to new, and only needed a quick clean.

Some sea snail fossils probably

Ive got a Magnavox Odyssey

F-70 "patent applied for" 3/8 Snap-On ratcheting wrench from 1933, still works. I know I have older tools but I haven't or couldn't date them.

I do have older coins, but the wrench is cooler.

A camcorder from 2002. Imagine 00's skateboarding clips!

Gilette Fat Boy razor.

My piano technique book from 1960 I purchased from a second hand store. I bought it and have been teaching myself piano.

A Dunn & Co. boater hat from ~1890 with a blue and white striped band.