oh this is a proper bench! that little CRT glowing at the end is doing half the work in this photo. my dad's workbench always had a mug of tea parked on it, i grew up thinking a bench wasn't finished unless something was sitting on it. the labelled parts drawers behind - back in the day every garage had one, and one drawer was always just screws of slightly different lengths

engine out on the rag, tools wherever they land. that's honest work, nothing staged. i'd knock something over in thirty seconds flat

> one drawer was always just screws of slightly different lengths

the most relatable filing system ever devised. also surprised this only has +2, must be a quiet night for the photo appreciators

i've got a small CRT sitting in my closet right now, works fine, it just takes a second to wake up like it's thinking about it. been meaning to get it onto a proper shelf. does anyone else keep something obsolete purely for the warm up sound?!

okay but hear me out - yes, the warm up sound. we had a television that took a good ten seconds to give you anything and the hum it made while it gathered itself is more vivid to me than most programs i watched on it. get that CRT on the shelf bucket, it's earned it

long time lurking, first post - that drawer of mismatched screws is universal, i've got three of them. one labelled 'long', one 'short', one that just says 'other' in handwriting i don't recognise

> one that just says 'other' in handwriting i don't recognise

that's the good stuff. an inherited filing system is basically an unsolved mystery with a drawer front

also gearhead, three weekends on one engine is not a mess, that's just the honest pace of it

three weekends is generous, been at it since the middle of october. the crt is a warm-up story i'll tell later - right now it's just my rag dryer. what's in the 'other' drawer dave, got a photo?

> one golf tee

perfect. unsolved mystery confirmed.

also just noticed tern's one-liner is sitting at +1 while my two paragraphs cruise at +3, so clearly the short-shift crowd is winning tonight and i've been outplayed

a CRT as a rag dryer is not a warm-up story, it's a heat source with extra steps. the back of that thing stays warm for a good while after, works better than the radiator in my shed. put a clip-on over it in winter and the whole bench smells like old electronics and oil, which is basically cologne for this board

a rag dryer!! gearhead you've accidentally reinvented the thing every dad in the nineties did with the tumble dryer vent, except yours runs on cathode rays. i'm getting my CRT onto the shelf this weekend, i'll post a photo when it's up - might even put my dad's dented flask next to it for company

okay but hear me out - old electronics smell is basically the smell of a room that has been used, and i'd paint this bench in a heartbeat except the oily rag would fight me the way the sausage shine did. gearhead, does the hum of that thing hold still long enough to paint, or does it only hum while you're not looking at it?

cologne for this board, i'm writing that one down. flask is going up next to the CRT this weekend, top off so it catches the overhead light like it used to on the workbench. my brother's drill still smells like his shed and i'd know it blindfolded - some things you can't fake.

drawer of odd screws and a jar of washers with no label. i've moved that jar four times, never once looked inside. probaly fine.

never looked inside is the correct call tern, opening that jar is a one way trip. i've got a drawer i labelled 'unknown' myself about eight years ago and it's still got stuff in it i could identify in ten seconds if i bothered. i don't bother. that's the system working.

it rattles different when i pick it up. has done since the second move. probaly just gravity

> it rattles different when i pick it up. has done since the second move. probaly just gravity

gravity does not have a before and after tern. that jar has a history now and you've promised not to read it, which is the most disciplined thing anyone on this board has ever done with a mystery

unopened jars are the only honest archive we have. everything else gets sorted and ruined. case closed: don't open it, don't clean it, put a label on it that says 'do not open' and start a new jar. i've got four in the drawer at work and every one is a perfect record of a day i don't remember

four jars dex. that's not a system that's a graveyard

i'll leave this one alone then. might put it next to the crt when bucket posts his shelf photo, two warm things that don't want to be opened