Thread: My 1930's Farm Shop

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"......Wouldn't Occupational Safety and Health have a fit to see something like that these days!...."

Yeah they they probably wouldn't be too happy about me letting my grandson in the same room, let alone running some of the equipment either


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Kewl deal Mike! Should certainly keep the shafts cleaned up!!!!

OSHA----Sold the shop and retired a few years back and I'm still having nightmares about OSHA, Fire Inspectors, Insurance Inspectors, etc. etc. etc. I'm sure this too shall pass!!!!!!!

Thanks for posting the Video Mike. I could watch that old engine and it's various shaft tools for hours. Such a cool setup.

That's cool, Mike. I have also seen it done with pieces of bicycle, motorcycle, or other chain.

It's great to see you resurrect your family's history, Mike.

My grandfather also had a shop filled with antique tools and machinery. Most of it was woodworking equipment, but, since he was a habitual collector, there were hundreds of other miscellaneous tools lying around. He also had a massive stock of dried and drying hardwood. Unfortunately, one of my cousin's husband took advantage of my grandmother just after grandpa died and offered to "haul off all that junk in the shed out back so she wouldn't have to worry about it." I'm sure he sold most of it off at auction. He was pretty much banned from family gatherings from then until he died - almost 40 years.

It sure gave me a feeling of nostalgia . . . and loss . . . when I saw your reconstruction. Good on you, and well done.

Very cool Mike!

Well seems every one knows but me How did you get them on with out disassembling the whole thing

Charlie I put a slit in each one with a thin blade on a cut off wheel. They spread enough side to side to slip over the shaft and spring back into shape.


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Great video and a great choice for the music too.

This item is in the house rather than the shop but this seems like the appropriate thread to put it in.

Last year Mom asked me if I would like to go thru the books that my family had collected thru the years and take the bookcase home to Arizona home with me. Of course the answer was yes. The old bookcase had been in the family ever since I can remember and Mom wasn’t sure if my Grandparents or Great Grandparents had been the original owners.

Anyway my sister, brother and I unloaded the bookcase and sorted thru the books….a lot of neat old titles and some turn of the century (1900s that is) high school books. The bookcase itself is legal style unit with glass doors over the 4 shelves. Once the books were out and I had removed the doors I noticed that there was a makers tag glued to the bottom side of the top piece. I figured that by knowing the maker I might be able to date it and figure out which generation was the originally purchaser. When I read the tag I was pretty amazed as it gave the instructions for the owner to assemble it.




I can remember what I thought was some of the first user assembled furniture in the late 60s early 70s……you know the old particle board stuff that came with a bag a screws and would get you by for a year or two. I was pretty surprised to find out that this had actually been designed to be assembled by the owner. The bookcase has always been rock solid (no wobble or twisting in it all even thru all the moving it got in the old house I grew up in and the move the folks current house. I always just assumed that it was built in the same way other furniture from that era was (glue, dowels and screws or nails).

Anyway when I researched to company to try and date the bookcase I found out that the Gunn Furniture Company was the first to apply for a patent on the process of no tools required user assembled furniture in 1924. . From what I gathered the user assembled furniture idea was a bit ahead of its time and never really took off, although Gunn’s patent was referenced by in patent applications from other companies in the 50s and 60s. This unit was their “Mission Style Barrister Bookcase” and is fairly rare. The bookcase came apart just like it was supposed to and after I got it back together at home it’s just as solid as ever…….not bad for something 90 years old.





It still amazes me at times on how inventive our forefather really were



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That's really a GREAT bookcase, Mike! Thanks for posting all of the details, along with the pictures. It looks great in it's new western home.

:coolTake that IKEA!!!:

Very cool. When I made my first major wood working project it was a pencil post bed. I think the plans for it came from fine woodworking back in the 90's. It is still my bed and has been thru at least 6 moves since I completed it. It has a great design
in that it's built very strong, and the hardware uses slip joint steel plate and just 4 nuts and bolts. The head rail floats between mortise and tenon joints. I really didn't appreciate the design until long after I first built it. Stuff like you cabinet is a rare commodity in our society. It was designed and made in an era of making stuff not cheaply, but to endure generations to come. One word sums it up, made with "Pride"

Mike, Being a cabinet maker for 30 years I have seen a bunch of old stuff come around our shop for repair, Today we call those type of cabinetry KD or "knock down" furniture, a good way to date woodwork is by the type of wood or actually the cut, if its a rift cut or quarter sawn wood its generally previous to WWII as thats the type of wood used before the war as commercial kilns where not used, the drying of wood with kilns originated during the war as the massive use of gun stocks resulted in finding how to dry wood quicker than air drying. The quarter saw wood is taken across the growth rings and has little shrinkage compared to plain sawn which is primarily used today (wider boards) though a few quarter sawn boards results out of plain sawing also. I can't really see from your photo the grain enough to tell what style cut on thewood but I see plain sawn in its construction (some was used earlier but not much) also look for diminsioned plywood, veneer work is common but the war also started up plywood factories, so check out the back, if its paneled construction it older than if its plywood.
The really older knock down furniture was made to be taken apart for the long wagon rides heading out west, a few screws where needed but actually its pretty ingenious when you see them as everything knocks down pretty flat. Great piece of American furniture, neat on the disassembly/assembly part.

Cool page about gunn furniture and has a picture of label logos by years made, if there is a logo on there this may help
Gunn Furniture Co. | Furniture City History
This link is cool too with a book / catalog of the book cabinets they made
https://archive.org/details/gunnsectionalboo00gunn