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Show us your Thrift and/or yard sale finds

MikeBravo

One Too Many
Messages
1,301
Location
Melbourne, Australia
The shoes I bought:

IMG_0687.jpg


$7.

Look fine to me. Not bad for $7
 

Shangas

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,116
Location
Melbourne, Australia
It's difficult finding shoes in my size. As a result, I don't have many pairs. My brown leather shoes that I'm wearing right now are falling apart from nearly two yers of heavy (nearly daily) use. So it was time to hunt for a new pair. Then I saw those. They were the right size. I walked them around the shop for a bit, then I bought them.
 
Messages
10,933
Location
My mother's basement
Saw the faux dovetails from 20 feet away and knew it was a Lane Acclaim series table. Turning it over and reading the markings confirmed that. These babes, which came out in like 1959, have become quite collectible in recent years. I'm confident it'll clean up nicely.

GEDC0764.jpg


GEDC0767.jpg
 
Messages
10,933
Location
My mother's basement
That's a honey, 'Bang.

I've been reading up on refinishing tips and techniques. I found a site -- http://www.jetsetmodern.com/lane.htm -- that warns against using power sanders of any type, because that top walnut is just a veneer (the edge bullnoses are solid oak, as are the legs and stretchers) which is easier to sand clear through than a person might think possible. It also says the "right" finish is lacquer, and that aerosol satin types from Deft and Dutch Boy are both good choices. Before coming across that, I was thinking of just using tung oil. Now it looks like I'll have to wait for the weather to warm up a bit, as I don't have a readily accessible heated space in which to tackle such a project, and I'm quite reluctant to apply aerosol lacquer in a living space, no matter how many precautions I take against getting it on anything I'd rather it not get on, including my alveoli.

What's the finish on yours?
 
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PoohBang

Suspended
Messages
781
Location
backside of many
I also got mine at a thrift store.

It's been a few years, but I believe I just hand sanded down the top with the grain. It doesn't take much on this type of table. Then the legs. I used just standard can varnish applied with a brush then painted the bottom of the legs black, like the original.

I also found years later two matching tiered end tables. I've seen there are about 10 pieces to this set. Including a very cool double coffee table and a round one too...

I only paid like 10 dollars for it so if I screwed up I'm only out 10 bucks... that's how I like to think when I refinish something... takes the pressure off.
 
Messages
10,933
Location
My mother's basement
It seems there were a whole lotta pieces in this series, including dining tables and credenzas, as well as those many and varied coffee and end tables. The line was a big, big seller, according to what I read, which goes some way toward explaining why it isn't all that unusual for it to show up in thrift stores.

I spotted another example, a tiered end table, at a Goodwill store a few months back. It was marked at $19.99, as I recall. But it had suffered at the hands of an amateur restorer, and a quite sloppy one at that, who had glopped on waaaay too much varnish. It was still well worth somebody's trouble to strip and refinish, I suppose. Somebody other than me.
 
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Messages
10,933
Location
My mother's basement
... It's been a few years, but I believe I just hand sanded down the top with the grain. It doesn't take much on this type of table. Then the legs. I used just standard can varnish applied with a brush then painted the bottom of the legs black, like the original. ...

I gotta agree that it doesn't take all that much effort. I found a place for this little table (it's soon to take a position a lesser one had occupied), so I figured I better get on the job of making it presentable. Besides the seven-dollar purchase price, I got invested in this thing maybe two or three hours of actual work, spread out over the course of a day; half a sheet of 320 grit wet-and-dry sandpaper; and an eight-dollar spray can of Deft satin-finish lacquer. The weather warmed (and dried) enough to do the work out of doors. After just a few minutes I decided against following the advice not to use power tools, so out came the finishing sander, which certainly made shorter work of it. I refinished only the table top and that lower shelf. Doing the legs and stringers would have been a LOT more work, and I got other things to do. And besides, they ain't in bad shape anyway. I kept applying light coats of spray lacquer, at half-hour (or more) intervals, until the contents of the can were exhausted. There's half a dozen coats on the top, four on the shelf.

GEDC0768.jpg
 
Messages
10,933
Location
My mother's basement
Knowing next to nothing about about tableware, I couldn't say that the 24 dollars I paid for this stuff is much of a bargain. Not that it matters much, though, seeing how I have no intention of selling it. Mid-century-ish flatware is among the things I've kept an eye out for, to fit the overall vibe around this place.

I doubt I'll ever identify its designer and manufacturer. It carries no maker's mark, and I don't care enough about any of that to devote much time to it. It's just stainless (indeed, about all that it carries in way of ID is the words STAINLESS JAPAN), but it appears well made and plenty substantial.



GEDC0801.jpg


The streak knives obviously aren't original to the set.
GEDC0800.jpg


Dig those little starbursts. Tres Jetsons.
GEDC0799.jpg
 

I Adore Film Noir

A-List Customer
Messages
480
Location
U.S.A.
I gotta agree that it doesn't take all that much effort. I found a place for this little table (it's soon to take a position a lesser one had occupied), so I figured I better get on the job of making it presentable. Besides the seven-dollar purchase price, I got invested in this thing maybe two or three hours of actual work, spread out over the course of a day; half a sheet of 320 grit wet-and-dry sandpaper; and an eight-dollar spray can of Deft satin-finish lacquer. The weather warmed (and dried) enough to do the work out of doors. After just a few minutes I decided against following the advice not to use power tools, so out came the finishing sander, which certainly made shorter work of it. I refinished only the table top and that lower shelf. Doing the legs and stringers would have been a LOT more work, and I got other things to do. And besides, they ain't in bad shape anyway. I kept applying light coats of spray lacquer, at half-hour (or more) intervals, until the contents of the can were exhausted. There's half a dozen coats on the top, four on the shelf.

GEDC0768.jpg

You did a fantastic job. I had to look twice, you can't see the dovetails in the original picture!
 

PoohBang

Suspended
Messages
781
Location
backside of many
That end table turned out fantastic. I love that line of furniture.

Here's one my latest conquests... 67-68 Schwinn Exerciser... ready to meet the new year....

DSC09122.JPG
 
Messages
10,933
Location
My mother's basement
Those things make great clothes hangers.

Seriously, though, I have a recumbent exercise bike I use five (well, four anyway) days a week. A neighbor left it out at the curb. Said she hadn't used it in years and was tired of it guilt-tripping her.

Moral of this story? Unless you have a brother-in-law in the business, never buy new exercise equipment.
 
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Messages
10,933
Location
My mother's basement
Cross-posted in the "Goodwill buys" thread in the Suits forum ...

Found this '40s vintage jacket today at Value Village ...

GEDC0824.jpg


Price was right ....

GEDC0823.jpg


I'm tickled, really. It's in very nice condition and it's of a size (a 46 or so, maybe a skosh larger) that's awfully hard to find in vintage attire. According to the label, it's a Hart, Schaffner and Marx that was purchased new at a local store that went the way of all things several years ago.
 
Messages
10,933
Location
My mother's basement
Yeah, the arms are just about spot on for me as they are. It's a treat to find a vintage item in a thrift store that's actually fits. (Indeed, it's perhaps a tad on the large side.) I often buy the ones that don't, to trade with a vintage dealer, but every now and then an item like this appears on the rack.
 

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