Garage sale find
 

How about 200 drill bits for $10, 5 cents each. They belonged to the 75 year old man's father who passed in 1999. Moving and cleaning out his lifetime accumulation including his father's machinist tools. House sold for close to $419k.

These bits are old US manufactured, not the current crap out of China that won't last. The smallest diameter is .0012 inch, that's 4 times the diameter of one of the wife's hairs on her head.

The smallest are in the tubes in the smaller box lid, top right.

regards
mech

Great find!

great find indeed.
makes me wonder: I'm 50. born/raised in a throwaway society. cheap tools. buy, use, abuse, throw away. this man was born/raised in a diff world. tools were cherished, they either took a lifetime to accumulate or you inherited them. items of respect (don't touch daddy's tools!) because they either put food on the table or the items made from them were bartered.
would I take care of them like he did? I would hope yes but I wonder.
nice find.

The seller told me when NASA suggested upgrading their machine shop, the workers told them they were crazy and the equipment many Bridgeport CT built machines would never be built again. Lots of stuff here that was made during the WW2 "Arsenal of Democracy" buildup. With Newport News Shipbuilding, Norfolk Navy Yard and probably hundreds, if not thousands of sub contractors. I knew a gent who owned a machine shop during the 1960s who had a lathe that was 40 feet long. I was there when a customer brought a car their made before 1910 to have a part fabricated. The man who drove the car to the shop was the same man who built the car brand new, around 1908.

regards
mech

You put a micrometer on a hair from your wife's head?

Now there's an 'old mechanic' story. That is a good deal. Did you get anything else?

I'm reminded of the garage in the movie Gran Torino.

Additional items.

About 2-3 lbs of 1.75" aluminum nails $3.
Box of Dayton marked pop rivets 3/16 shank 1 inch length steel shank aluminum head. Maybe 500 plus $3.
A jar of rivets mostly aluminum the kind you hammer flat with one side with a head.
Brand new large Nicholson file.
Torpedo level.
Small level that hangs on a string line
A couple of bits for brace and bit drills, one was an Irwin adjustable diameter bit and one nice brace later manufactured nickel plated.
Two real tire changing tools.
I'm sure I have forgot some of the stuff.

Total spent was $30 over two trips.