ShopTalk Sunday: Fathers, Sons, & Junkyards – Lessons That Built America

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TL;DR: This week’s ShopTalk: how a messy bench, a junkyard childhood, and a 3-horsepower gas engine explain the fine line between dopamine and deliverables.  Then we offer a few “brain sharpeners” to keep handy in the workplace.  And we end with a ponder (Prime Big Deals days ahead) if your shop doesn’t need a stool.”

A Messy Shop Insight

The “critical breakthrough” in my lifetime of self-discovery happened one morning this week at precisely 3:27 AM.

I’d gotten up early for coffee and some thinking time. The world is quiet then—no sunrise, no animals moving, Elaine asleep, security cameras waiting for deer to stir.

The focus was simple enough: why doesn’t my shop look more like a genius-level laboratory? All the parts, tools, and equipment are there. But instead of gleaming benches and tidy rows, one workbench is buried, overflow landed on a table saw, and a box with a new office chair squats on the chop saw.

As I sat, coffee warming my hands, the Ure genetics kicked in. Like a cartoon devil and angel on my shoulders. The devil murmured: Even if it was all dusted and shined, would you really have any more than before “organizing”? The angel countered: If you have to move things to find things, then you need to change.

I’ve heard this back-and-forth for 25 years—ever since we sold the sailboat, where space was sacred and organization wasn’t optional. Land life filled up with “inventor needs” until even I admit it’s ridiculous. Try explaining to your son why you really do need two table saws—one for sheet goods, one for dados.

No, there was something deeper going on. And I was determined to find it.

Black and Tan

The answer, once I dug down, was simple: junkyards.

Mom always called them “junkyards,” but to Pappy they were sacred ground. One of the best in 1950s Seattle was Black and Tan Surplus. (Not to be confused with the Black and Tan Supper Club-Cabaret just south of 12th and Jackson St. of similar vintage.)

Legend said it was started just after WWII—or maybe Korea—by two friends, one Black and one Spanish, who built a surplus empire together. They covered an entire industrial block with sprawling racks and tin-roof sheds.

Need a part for anything? Black and Tan had it. Hydraulics piled in one shed, electrical in another. I was fascinated by the odd radios and the three-phase shipyard gear—400-cycle equipment stacked like treasure.

My favorite was the aircraft metal building. Aluminum in any shape you wanted—pipe, rod, or quarter-inch plate—all for 25 cents a pound. If you only needed a short piece, bring your own hacksaw.

Times Changed

By ’62 or ’63, the founders sold out and it became Aircraft Supply and Salvage. Same location, new focus: Boeing’s jet boom fed the yard with aircraft salvage. Across the street, Winter’s Surplus opened. For a young boy, it was paradise.

Popular Science and Popular Mechanics were fueling every kid’s imagination. My pal “the Major” caught the bug too. We’d bike down to Georgetown where Washington Liquidators had shipyard scrap stacked sky-high.

We drooled over refrigerator-sized Navy transmitters and boxes of tubes. Saturday “street-level education” was a bike ride, a burger at Dag’s, and a backpack full of parts for the next big idea.

How Junkyards Changed Me

The resolution of my messy shop? It comes down to this: junkyards turned me into a possibility thinker.

All those hours wandering the aisles with Pappy trained my brain to look at any piece of junk and imagine two or three things it could become. The endless what-if’ing freed my mind from other people’s ruts.

That’s why there are multiple CNC machines, 3D printers, welders, and more saws than I’ll admit to. It’s my internal visionary externalizing the creative process.

A trip to Zeidel’s shipbreakers in Tacoma once had me set on buying a brass porthole for my bedroom door. Pappy vetoed the $25, but we came home with inch-thick Navy porcelain mugs. One became my shaving soap mug. Nothing wasted.

Planners Versus Imagineers

Here’s the larger insight: there are planners and there are imagineers.

Elaine’s an imagineer. She hasn’t sewn in 25 years but still treasures fabric stashes that “call to her.” She can wander a fabric store mesmerized by colors and textures while planners walk in with a list, buy exactly what’s on it, and leave in ten minutes.

Men are the same. My uncle, a deputy fire chief, was pure planner. He hit salvage yards with a shopping list: plate steel this size, pipe that size, and straight back out. That focus built things like Medic One.

Me? I drift. I stand in the presence of possibilities. That’s how the imagination jailbreak works.

And it shows up everywhere. At Lowe’s, planners grab their gallon of paint and go. Imagineers (like Elaine) lose 20 minutes comparing palettes. I surprised myself the other day—walked into Sherwin-Williams and said, “Give me a quart of Fire on the Mountain red.” Out in five minutes.

So maybe I can be both: planner and imagineer.

Unless, of course, a 3-horsepower horizontal shaft gas engine shows up in the shop. Then all bets are off.

You see – and this is the Shop Lesson today – that clutter wasn’t laziness, it was inheritance. It came from an early heavy dose of “possibility thinking”.  And an appreciation that there’s a Truth to human creativity.  Many dreams never happen because there aren’t materials at hand.  Others end up like Elaine’s fabrics – the call to a project is there, but not the urgency.

Learning to walk the line between dopamine and deliverables.  It was worth getting up early to sort it out and learn.

I then went to the messy shop and said “Thanks for the lesson.  Now we change.”

Shop Sharpeners – Trivia that Isn’t

Sixty-five years back, wandering surplus stores was like going to mechanical engineering grad school.  “Hey, Dad…why did they [insert any of a thousand questions].  Invariably, Pappy had the answer which is why most of the Fifth Battalion called him “the Encyclopedia.”

Still, it was a lot to take in as a boy.  So here’s a few “things to know” that will keep you from feeling like a neophyte or looking like a klutz, when you visit a properly equipped shop.

  • A 2×4 is really 1½ by 3½ inches. That’s why “three two-by-fours” in a corner is the standing newbie joke among framers.  They give you three, “Lay em up so they are even all around” and then saunter off.  The trick, if you must is the gap is to the center of structure on the outside so the inside sheetrock will be well supported and the nailing for exterior sheathing is good…
  • A comfortable stair riser is 7 inches.  That’s a 2-by-6 on edge with a 2-by-some as the tread.  Smaller risers (Pappy likes 6-inches – less work to climb. One relative had an attic with narrow treads and a 7 1/2″ rise – it was deadly, even as a kid.)
  • A 45-degree brace is 1.414 times the leg length, so a 3-foot by 3-foot triangle needs a 4.24-foot diagonal. For reinforcing decks?  A little shy is fine – it’s only an 1/8th inch of “gimme” on each edge.
  • The quick square rule is 3-4-5.  Just try cobbling 3, 4, and 5 inches into something that doesn’t have a 90 in it.
  • Household power is (nominally) 120 volts; ours ranges from 0 to 142V, lol.
    • white is neutral,
    • green or bare is ground,
    • black or red is hot.
    • In DC wiring, how’s your color correction? It’s a freaking rainbow.  Black ground and red positive for “regular” 12-volt work.
  • DC wiring among the grownups?  You have solid wire colors including:

  • But then, in addition to the wire body color, you also have “Traces” on the wire.

And it doesn’t stop there.  The main “knowing” is that there is no wire color police.  Sure, wrong voltages can kill.  But you can’t expect industrial compliance to be as serious as, oh, pronouns for example…

  • One amp at 120 volts equals 120 watts.
  • One metric horsepower is 740-watts.  About 6.16 amps but measure voltage is you want to be absurd about it.  Measure that metric horse for me, while Ure at it.
  • #12 copper safely carries 20 amps.  Be able to discuss the “Wire Derating Game.”  The ABYC tables for your family porta yacht?  (Nods to Adm. Egor): ABYC Ampacities: For 12/2 AWG marine-grade wire, the maximum allowable amperage is 45 amps outside an engine space and 38.3 amps inside an engine space, based on specific conditions.  Can’t bundle though (derates).
  • For antennas, half-wave length in feet equals 468 divided by frequency in MHz; a 7.2 MHz quarter wave dipole on each side needs about 33.25 feet per leg.
  • Common coax velocity factor is about 0.66. Ladder line? Close to 1… Foam and LMR try 0.85.  (Can a physics whiz tell me why radio moves slower in coax, please?)
  • A ¼-20 bolt has 20 threads per inch, and its tap drill is a #7.
  • Fraction to decimal cheats:
    • 1/8 = 0.125,
    • 3/16 = 0.1875,
    • 1/4 = 0.25,
    • 3/8 = 0.375,
    • 1/2 = 0.5.
  • One gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds, a cubic foot is 62.4 pounds. Beer drinkers adhering to “pint’s a pound the world around” are short-changing themselves about a half shot per pint.  (Seeing why trivia’s important? Data matters!)

Keep enough of these things in your head and you won’t have room to remember much else. Which is why Mom walked “stiff-legged” for two weeks when Pappy got here a new Electrolux for Mother’s Day, one year.

Aging Shop Ergonomics

The local boy (who is now in the semi-pro’s of Texas Fence Work) did a great job this week.  But it was a hell of an adjustment: Seeing someone besides me on the ladder.

In fact, it took me until Saturday morning to “be OK with it.”  Because about then I realized “Hey!  I’m not sore today!”  Usually, two days after a big bout of ladder climbing and I’m starting to look around for drug dealers…

T’other thing I noticed was that I somehow – just in the past month – have developed a preference for SITTING instead of standing at the shop bench.

No, most tasks, reefing down wrench points and such, you need to be up and ambling all over hell.  But now you take the (long-delayed) bench clean-up?  There’s a god-awful amount of hardware to be sorted and a roll around chair was just what I needed.

Shopping Tip:  If you don’t have a roll around bar stool and a low stool in your shop, get thee hither to the clicker at the ‘Zon.  It was $60 bucks and change on Saturday.

I did figure out what “sitting while working” may be a better plan than standing while working, especially as the weather cools.  So I’ve been dreaming up a perfect shop desk to work from:

Not a perfected idea, yet. But Ure welcome to borrow and tweak. The beer cooler bottom left is too small. Microwave looks too small for decent coffee, too. Watchmaker tools are where the mouse pad should be.  But the real problems?  No BBQ grill, no pot-belly oil stove, no CNC.

Oh…and no room for it.  So…time to go vertical!

I’m working on how to vent the charcoal (lower left) and how to run the oil stove vent through the big screen – but such things are trivialities to the creative ShopMeister.

For now I’m back to things to add onto the Amazon list: ground screws, four-by-fours, sheathing, and this time? Insulation.

Christmas is Coming

Here’s a nice little stocking stuffer you could send along: A Hallicrafters SR-2000 with Power Supply and the optional VFO.  Send via shippers, I don’t want it getting scratched in the chimney…

Write this down: The condition where you lose your boyish curiosity and stop looking forward to the holidays is called “death.”

Look, I may be slow…er...but I’m…uh… slow.

Write when you get rich,

George@ure.net

47 thoughts on “ShopTalk Sunday: Fathers, Sons, & Junkyards – Lessons That Built America”

  1. I work from a wide trestle desk (Ethan Allen) that was designed to be a computer table. I can’t even find a picture of it on the web. It’s wide enough to accommodate multiple computers and is relatively open underneath for the legs. I have an open metal rack adjacent for comm and surge stuff (I think it was supposed to be a a bathroom storage rack).
    On the opposite side I have a stool which accommodates an extra flanking monitor. I spend a lot of hours at this table. I have a secretarial chair, but I have taken to using a kneeling chair. The main monitor is a 30-something inch 4K, with three flanking HD monitors, left, right, and top. The main monitor is wide enough to display two 8.5″ x 11″ pages or a an 11″ x 17″ side by side at 4K resolution. I have gradually weaned myself off of paper drawings. I spend a lot of hours at this table.
    A Klipsch computer stereo with subwoofer sound system rounds out the set-up (best buy in computer sound). I also have a recliner positioned behind the desk chair, so I can transition to a more relaxed multimedia. I still have a TV and hi-fi in the den, but I don’t use them as much as I used to.
    I originally set this up to test arrangements for a smaller living space, and have just left it alone because it is so efficient. Computer area is sandwiched in between kitchen and dining, so a microwave and fridge is handy. Don’t need a microwave too close. Even the best ones leak a bit.

    • But where’s the gas BBQ? Kidding – that sounds a bit like my office which I purpose built to “never get filled up” – funny thing happened on the way to that destination… I will get a Klipsch tig – have been ethinking of one or years…Prime Big Whazzits is as good as ever…

    • JC : snork, to feed the beast here (on why we hoard, err, save) once driving from South Bend to Indianapolis in a total gusher rainstorm the brand new wiper drivers side went “zing” and disappeared astern (65 mph+). Leaned right and steered gently to starboard to exit super-highway (in afore mentioned deluge).

      Side of the road, ugh, what to do? We were enroute airodrome to fly to Caribbean. Thought, uhm, I kept the old wipers. Popped the hatch, located a used wiper just replaced. Any port in a storm, hey? Worked a charm. Made our flights (though I flew looking like a soggy sot.

      Moral? Never. Never throw anything away.
      Or the other thing.
      Choose

      ~ E ~ /)/) ~~

      • As we transitioned from a large suburban home with a 3 car garage and a yard barn, to Leisure World, I offloaded a lot of tools I hadn’t used in years. @ 1/2 years later we moved to be closer to our grandkids in another 55+ community. Within the next 6 months, I had to buy a couple of tools that I was sure I would never need again.
        Last year, as my vvision has degraded to the point that I can’t see well enough to do anything that isn’t brightly illuminated, I went through all my tools and gave the power tools to my son, who is my go to for things I can’t do anymore. I bought a new tool box and filled it with all the tools I think my 14 year-old grandson might use. And then I bought a brass plate with his name on it and that was his Christmas present. It gave me great pleasure to pass it on.

      • Lol lol lol god Egor that brings up memories lol lol lol.. you know my wife always asks me all the time why I keep old wiper blades and stick them in the trunk..and why I insist on new wiper blades every two oil changes lol.. learned the hard way that old wiper blade can really be screwed up during the worst rain or snow storm..sticking your noggin out the window to see the dumb road..and a lot of the new wiper blades are made cheaper and don’t last as long

  3. Hey Shop Dude,

    A lil late to be straightening out the shop, what with Edgar Cayce predictions for 2025 starting to come to fruition. Perhaps the intrepid Stu-bert can elucidate on the sleeping prophets work, but I do know Edgar had a lot to say regards Change and Transitions for this period of Time in Earth – Humanities development.

    When you review all that was predicted for 2025, and add that info to the Future Forecasting Groups’/Dick Algirees latest work on 3sI Atlas – YowazA!
    Latest frm the great seer hisself on 3IAtlas;
    > 3.5+ miles in diameter
    >Guided by Tractor Beam from distant point in space
    >9 add’l craft in vicinity detected.
    * 5 confirmed underwater/Ocean alien bases
    ** Deliberate intro of alien presence to Humanity

    Buckle Up Buttercup Time seems to Be Here Now!

    Answers incoming Chief..2000 Light Years from Home/Rolling Stones
    -https://youtu.be/RLhFT7YXnoI?si=7Sxfex5ml_xdsUeq

    *** different distances given for how many light years away from Home ?

    • before Seattle became the Emerald City, it went by a differnt name. Pike Place market is a great place to catch a fish. an ongoing tradition.

      i was thinking this song applies best for the not to distant road ahead,

      correct me if im wrong, but if memory serves me, The first ones to ever sing this song were Lot and his two daughters.

      although i am fond of

      the Jerry Lee Lewis remake,

      enjoy~

      Que: Great Balls of Fire

      https://youtu.be/0VJ1NuAbEBI?si=3QklOcsCu6pkBriu

  4. CouId I remember when 2x4s were actually? It would have had to been around 1950.

    I was just thinking recently I have 4 or 5 “work benches” and only one is even partially usable because of what’s on it. Anything horizontal magically becomes vertical.

    • RandomMike : this makes me pine to hang with my Dad (RIP). He always used to say find a business where you can make your product smaller, out of crappier materials and charge more.

      Dad had it wired.
      Go the Dads.
      Egor

    • 2x4s are allegedly measured “rough sawn and wet,” which is why they “shrink to 1.5×3.5” finished. In my house, they are 1.625×3.625. In my parents’ house they were rough-sawn, and 2.5×4.5.

      I’m not sure I accept that “allegation” from the USDA, especially since big mills went from carving boards with circular saws to carving them with water jets, about 50 years ago. The “kerf waste” is no longer 1/4″. Instead, it is somewhere between zero and 0.002″, depending on whether the water slices or separates. I know my 13/16″ roof sheathing required creative patchwork to properly repair it, 20 years ago…

    • True. Odd how when you force yourself to get rid of something “important” — it becomes a distant vague meaningless memory.

      • “Odd how when you force yourself to get rid of something “important” — it becomes a distant vague meaningless memory.”

        Not the way it works around here. Soon as it’s out of sight, I’m looking for it because it’s the only thing that will work for this project. So I go buy another one.

      • My ‘throwaway’ test is: Do I have a current use for this?? Not a future ‘what if’ or ‘maybe’. If I haven’t touched it in years, it obviously is not needed. Now… where is that ’round-tuit’ I was saving?

    • Very smart Man apparently.

      What happened, brains skip a generation ?

      Speaking of empty spaces – heres Curly “it aint loaded”-https://youtu.be/CagVFOU_GPg?si=X01om5l9leHG38V4

    • As long as you own’em cash, it’s OK. It’s when the stuff is owned by a leg breaker who wants his cash tribute, not the junk he sold you, that it becomes a serious problem. Here local, we will be approaching that fork in the road for many sooner than later, methinks.

      • Even owning stuff cash, you have to watch out for those who will steal, vandalize, or get Karen on you for disturbing their view. It still owns you, but it does provide some value in being able to grab what you need. I need to get rid of what I won’t use in the next 20 years!

  7. Always used one gallon of water weighing 10 lb.
    ” 1 gallon [UK] = 1.201 gallon [US, liquid]
    One US gallon weighs 8.34 pounds, so an imperial gallon weighs about 16.6 percent more, or almost exactly 10 pounds.”
    I use 4 liters water to represent a US gallon.
    But now use metric more so “Four liters of water weighs approximately 4 kilograms or about 8.8 pounds, as water has a density of 1 kg/L.”

    • I always felt that we needed a five litre metric gallon, a twenty five centimetre metric foot and a two kilometre metric mile. If they are going to confuse people why not go all out?

  8. re: “Lessons that Built America”
    feat: AI Football Sunday

    My guess for the game playing on the mancave tv is the Detroit Lions at the LA Chargers on November 12, 2023. Apparently the Lions won 41 to 38 with a field goal as time ran out.

  9. (“The devil murmured: Even if it was all dusted and shined, would you really have any more than before “organizing”? The angel countered: If you have to move things to find things, then you need to change.”)

    I straightened up my garage once..couldn’t find a dam thing afterwards..I had to fix the shed..not much in it.. A jockey box..( you’ve seen the photo..dads brewery one sip and the stories begin)
    https://www.ebay.com/itm/166523975035?
    A fuel pellet press… I did find my car window chip Repair kit…

  10. Does vulture *taste like chicken*?

    Totally sporty lake day here. Local football fans had a fine day so no morgue vibe on the air. I keep hoping for a complete Goldilocks day for one last dash with tiller time. Today, race day (in season) was fractured but building. I refuse to derig without being paid forward. But, soon toys must be noodled onshore. Sigh.

    Big birds on the move here. I have been spotting an enormous raptor since the last sleep. We have a magnificent Golden Eagle which goes in and out after eating endless fish and fowl. Geese are doing non-approved night landings and departures. None of my business. But the cacophony! Big moon but c’mon, 2:30 am? Nope.

    I was shuttling watering cans to the Mrs. E pollination hubs (flower beds) and looked up. Frickin 50 or more vultures overhead riding the thermal? Wha? First thought : keep moving. Wonder what they taste like. Roadkill? Chicken?

    Asking for a friend.
    Go Sunday.
    Egor

      • Just remember, they are impatient when hungry. If you’re moving and functional, they go for the eyes and kidneys first…

        • Never fails…distress a Vulture, and it WILL disgorge its stomach contents. The contents of said Vultures’ stomach went in as questionable quality meat on verge of turning. Then it is partially digested..then it gets disgorged.

          PeeeeeeUuuuuu! Whole backyard stinks..

          If you have a GSD in Ure yard – they will find the ejecta and ROLL all over it , covering themselves in nastiness..stinK, staNK, STUNK.

          Tons of fun hosing down a uncooperative 120lb GSD covered in Stank.

    • Lol lol lol…well the old saying everything tastes like chicken…Although Vulture meat is generally considered inedible and potentially toxic, not just unappetizing. Unlike chicken, which is mild and versatile, vultures are scavengers that feed on decaying flesh, and their diet can make their meat unsafe for human consumption. Their bodies are adapted to digest bacteria and toxins that would harm most animals, and those same adaptations can make their flesh risky to eat.Even in survival scenarios like naked and afraid television show, The experts advise against eating vultures due to the risk of botulism, salmonella, or other foodborne illnesses that contaminate the meat..Other animals for various reasons are considered inedible to..like lions,bats, some species of frogs,

  11. if you were ever a sailor, when you sit in an office chair, you pull the knob and drop it as close to the deck as you can get it at ure desk and sit low.

    even after all these years i do that without thinking. because if you sit high and this ship takes a sudden roll, you find ureself on your ass.

    when i was running seahawks security, every one laughed when they sat at my desk because my office chair always was asjusted low. i said well, i do it without thinking. i was in the navy. i remember seeing many fresh pollywogs end up on their assess seeing the souther cross for the first time. they never failed to fail. it was the easiest thing to do.

    things are heating up on the snailmagedon front.

    hmmmmm…..
    its almost as if The People of Isreal heard us talking yesterday and decided to ralley against their government.

    • My wife’s great grandparents came across by wagon train in a wagon ..homesteaded we have her rocking chair and their kitchen cabinet..the seat is about 12 inches from the floor thing is tiny.. compact

  12. I suppose it’s good to hope that none of those five undersea alien bases are in our next course to destination. I admit I’ve seen some mighty odd stuff ‘out there’ over my personal tiny vessel voyages during the last fifty years the oddest were always around the equator, often accompanied by large gatherings of whales and dolphins. One equatorial crossing was exactly at the equinox, smooth seas, light wind, and out of nowhere came whales and dolphins in numbers that were astonishing. Everywhere you could see from deck level there was activity and one big old bugger just laid alongside for about twenty minutes looking up at us with this huge eye. There was nothing for thousands of miles in any direction, and we were just a tiny spot (38′ LOA). Then as quickly as they came, they were all gone. The sunset seemed to split the sky in two, probably some aspect of equator/equinox. Then we were in the Southern Hemisphere and had a mellow ten days to our destination in the Tuamotus.
    There are also lots of huge fireballs, glowing orbs both above and below the water, but never any THEM… yet. I’m ready for any of that if need be. If we had anything to fear it would already be too late.
    Stiks

  13. Flashbacks to 1970. Local ham clubbers would proclaim a ‘Honeywell Surplus Run’ until four of us in a car would drive 100 miles to Minneapolis to the Honeywell surplus barn and spend the afternoon cruising the aisles and oogling everything. Car trunk got filled, and some treasures also took up room in the back seat. I remember a hermetically sealed iron block of transformer that would put out 13.8 volts at 75 amps that would start a car. Everyone ‘needed’ one of those.

    • Similar with Bolling AFB MARS in the 50’s. You got points for leading an AF MARS CW net and could spend them at Bolling where they had a small building dedicated to that. Once got a 4 cyl water cooled gas generator my Dad and I towed home by a rental trailer clamped to the ’57 ford’s bumpers.

  14. I’m trying to finish my downsizing plan, but it’s awfully hard to plan to part with S&W or Ruger revolvers, any decent 1911s, and solid lever-action rifles made by anybody legit, not to mention a couple of M1As. I’ve got a three-car garage that hasn’t had a vehicle in it for 20 years, to start on now that it’s cool enough to prevent heat stroke. What do you do with rolled, new, edged carpet runners that your late spouse bought years ago because she figured they’d be just the ticket for prone rifle shooting? I really miss that lady several times each day. GF

  15. Too HOT for this time of year for me to work outside this afternoon, normal is about 72 but is 88 at the moment so will need to wait until evening.

    Turned on the TV instead and the US is playing South Africa in an early World Cup game, in Chili of all places (don’t watch NFL) … but alas only being carried by Telemundo. Game is in Spanish with no English translation in the CC feed, darn.

    Alas I suddenly remembered why many years ago I almost didn’t graduate from college on time, my verbal foreign language skills are nil and I didn’t learn if I had passed the last course of 2nd year Spanish until a week before the scheduled graduation – foreign language proficiency being an unwaivable college requirement for graduation from my rather large University.

    Today being fluent in Spanish would be a help in my city but not sure if I can learn it now if I couldn’t really learn it in my early 20’s with two years, plus one summer of full time summer school only taking Spanish, of trying.

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