What's in your loft - in boxes or otherwise?

[Herald1360]

From memory, there's a light, some deep insulation and may be a water tank. Only got the keys last week and had one peer up there during a viewing a couple of months back.

[Peter.N.]

Until recently a Pye Westminster base station, but otherwise mostly a whole range of stuff inherited from family members - and of course my sons train set from the '70s. There is a box of 1950 Wireless World's though.

Peter

[ColinTheAmpMan1]

We have a loft extension, so ours is occupied by bed, chests of drawers, dressing-table, wardrobe and the usual bedroom stuff.

We do have a cellar, but at times of heavy rain, it is more of a paddling-pool. Because of this I don't store anything of great value there. But I do have a couple of gigantic CRT monitors (neither of which work - does anyone want to come and get them?), a transistor radio-tuner with no tuning-cord and a cheapie music centre with turntable, CD player and cassette-player (which got wet at one time, so I don't know if it works, now).

If anyone finds a mouldering Farnell stabilised power-supply in their loft, maybe they could have a look at my old post in the "Wanted" section?

Colin.

[m0cemdave]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

Lofts/Attics are indeed subject to some really-crazy temperature and humidity-swings - if you're storing 'stuff' in such places you need to take proper precautions and "tropicalise" everything!

Yes, the temperature cycling in some lofts is likely to cause severe deterioration of electronic equipment.

Might be useful for a metalworker who needs to season some castings...

[Oliver35]

My lofts (and house) are tiny, and very full.. I'm not sure I can even remember what's in them. A few tubes- 'scope tubes, a long persistence orange radar tube, one 9" tv tube- plus a 'Pamphonic' PA amplifier and mixer, various chassis, far too many Bakelite light fittings, ancient electric fires, about eight vintage electric kettles, ancient Trix Twin electric trainsets and as many heavy transformers as I dare bring to bear on the structure..

Oliver

[Mad Mal]

We are in the process of clearing out ours and .. We have a buyer for these so don't ask, we came across some Amiga computers and a Commodore CDTV interactive media machine.!!! There are a number of old magazines and stuff I will need to sort out, and Odd pieces of 1950's furniture. Quite how some of these ended up there is a complete mystery. It's amazing just what "junk" people collect and "file away" in their lofts and attics. Thes retro havens would be in paradise with some of the finds.

[Radio Wrangler]

Let's see. I've been clearing out. what's still up there...
Racal RA1217 and RA1792
Icom R9000
Eddystone EA12
Boxes of valves
Boxes of resistors and capacitors
A box of transmitter ATU type variable capacitors one would slice an entire cucumber at a single turn...
Various 'parked' projects
A load of HP scope CRTs
Woodworking tools in carrying boxes (routers, power saws, jigsaw, belt sander etc)
More wire and cable than the mind can comfortably handle
Magazines... lots
Boxes of meters
Boxes of power transformers.
Cabinet parts
40A 13.8v PSU, homebrew
Taylor 45D valve tester

Well, those are the bits I remember

I've just got rid of my HP140s (inc TDR) and HP180s (inc Spectrum Analyser) and 40 years of radcoms.

David

[Philips210]

Hi.

There's far too much stuff in my loft which has gradually increased over the years despite a number of clearouts. Talking of loft clearances, I always remember my late father showing me an advert in the local paper back in the early 1980's. It said "Loft clearance, many items for sale". One of these items was a garden roller! We had many a laugh at that thinking who in their right mind is going to haul up a garden roller in their loft, not to mention the risk of it crashing through the ceiling. Eventually, the penny dropped, it was one which you fill with water or sand and was thus fairly light weight to lift and store.

My loft at present has about 25 valve radios inc portables, around 200 transistor radios, around 15 portable CRT TVs, many pieces of test equipment, about 15 computers including a BBC model B, two large fruit boxes full of valves, a huge amount of magazines namely PW, PE, RC, EE, Elektor, ETI and Television. I have quite a few cassette recorders, reel to reel tape recorders, a few record players and ghetto blasters. There are loads of technical books and several incomplete and finished projects. The rest of my junk is in the garage and the two sheds plus a smallish number of sets in the bungalow namely larger screen TVs. The trouble is knowing when to stop collecting. If I see an old piece of equipment at the boot sales or charity/junk shops then I usually become it's new owner! It's a lot of fun collecting and repairing old equipment, something I've enjoyed doing since my 20's.

Regards
Symon.

[Beobloke]

A Sanyo microcassette deck in its box, Vestax PDX-D3 Mk2 and JBE turntables (the latter not mine but the owner and I live at opposite ends of the country and have failed to meet up!), a spare Garrard 301 plinth, my late uncle's home-made audio timer and house distribution amplifier, and a pair of B&O Beolab 6000 speakers.

Plus empty boxes, the Christmas decorations, several suitcases and six water tanks!

[The Philpott]

Industrial 8' flourescent fittings (the well made ones from the 'sixties) and a supply of 100 and even 125w T12 tubes. All waiting for a workshop big enough to use them.

[mark_in_manc]

Originally Posted by Oliver35

...as many heavy transformers as I dare bring to bear on the structure..

Oliver

My house was built in 1905 - you could rake the mortar out with your , it's like dirt, and it's only gravity that holds the walls together. Adding a lot of mass high up is a very sensible (and gothic) approach to keeping it all together - like the cathedral builders we could put the stuff on the outside and make a feature out of it

[ScottBouch]

A Racal RAF headset tester... Looking for the instruction book if anyone has a copy.

Also looking for a spare knob of the same type to replace the broken one, if anyone has one. see close-up image.

Apart from that, in the loft I have a couple of bin liners full of polystyrene heads for when I display my flying helmet collection at air museum events.

Not much else.

Cheers, Scott.

[bobsterkent]

the only thing in my loft is 45 boxes of assorted vintage ticket roll (including 6 boxes of cinema 'automaticket' packs) which will one day come in handy... Just like it hasn't for the last 30 years!

[MurphyNut]

I now try my best to make a habit of throwing away something every time I go into the loft.
I always keep the boxes of anything new I buy just in case they have to go back, of course they never do and I end up with mountains of them.

[Herald1360]

Originally Posted by MurphyNut

I always keep the boxes of anything new I buy just in case they have to go back, of course they never do and I end up with mountains of them.

That's just a practical engineer's approach to breakdown insurance..... If you threw out the boxes, they would need to be sent back.

(Douglas Adams would probably have it covered somewhere......)

[electronicskip]

My loft is rammed to the roof I have to admit.
At the moment its filled with over 200 8bit/16bit/32bit games machines and old computer systems BBC Commodore era , 1000 games/carts /programs for almost any consumer machine you would like to mention , old vide editing equipment , 30 or 40 scalextric systems and crates of accessories.
Old radio equipment , magazines, old hi fi, old satellite systems , a few trainsets and about 100 teddy bears that my wife collected.
Along with the usual xmas decorations and other stuff I cant remember.

[greenstar]

I am fully in agreement with Clive. I am not at all sure of the modern tendency to see any kind of accumulation as mental illness - the ideal a pristine house with all outhouses and attics cleared out and dusted and constant vigilance against anything not in current use.
Of course there is a balance to be struck, but I reckon a lot of the paucity of old things to be found at car boots is to do with this ethic. Attics have been cleared out and the fashion is not to accumulate.
Anyone on this thread leaving an attic full will be greatly enriching posterity ...
I have more or less lost track of whats' in mine, but includes several older vacuum cleaners, radio cabinets that may come in useful, computer bits ... probably not a lot of value as that tends to be sold off ...

[dglcomp]

Not my loft but my gran has a portable gramophone and 2 boxes of 75's, rolei slide projector and slides, and a working bush VHF65 that only needs some capacitors replaced.

[Station X]

Originally Posted by greenstar

Anyone on this thread leaving an attic full will be greatly enriching posterity ...

Not so in my case. My executers will undoubtedly skip everything regardless of value, monetary or otherwise.

[Herald1360]

Originally Posted by dglcomp

Not my loft but my gran has a portable gramophone and 2 boxes of 75's, rolei slide projector and slides, and a working bush VHF65 that only needs some capacitors replaced.

Those boxes of 75s could be rather rare

Originally Posted by Station X

Not so in my case. My executers will undoubtedly skip everything regardless of value, monetary or otherwise.

They probably would.

However you could choose your executors with their old electronics sympathies in mind.