I finally got up the gumption to put up some shelves.
It sure frees up floor space.
D/P
That corner of your room looks like it could be a very interesting and fun place to visit.
I really like your collection of 500's, are they all early fifties models?
I mounted a 50 inch plasma TV to my wall a year or so back. I couldn't sleep the first night, expecting an almighty (and very expensive) crash to come at any time. However, I think your phones are much more valuable so I hope you screwed those shelves very securely to the wall ;)
That looks great! The colors on the phone really draw the eye, and those are some nice looking 500s. I just bought a pink 500 myself, my first one, and am looking forward to it's arrival.
Looks good Dan! I hope you planned for future expansion. There are more colors to get!
Very nice Dan. :)
That is alwaysa my greatest fear that the shelves will not hold. I try always to mount to studs, and if not will use Molley bolts. If as molley bolt pulls out, a big chunk of wall comes with it.
I plan to put up shelves all around the room a various heigths, and make it so I can alternate arera between different things I collect. Phones, Radios, Trains, and small personal items from my younger years.
Make it so it's not the same all the time.
5 of the phones are 50's the other 3 are from the 60's.
Guess which are which, and I will see if my disguises worked.
I still have 4 other colors I haven't cleaned up yet for display.
Plus i have non W.E. phones and non 500's yet to put up. This hobby grows rapidly.....almost like raising mice or rabbitts. I also have a rapidly growing collection of fromer displays that got replaced.
Dennis;
You mean there's more.... :o
I had 47 phones on three large, long shelves in the basement. I was organizing them, putting the 500's on top, the 302's in their own spot. Walked away, and it sounded like a "bell ringing bomb" went off! My middle son ran back, with a s#it faced grin on his face, and I said "shut up! , get out of here. For the next hour, I took phones out of the pile. The top had fell which started the second and third ones to collapse.
Incredibly, only one damaged phone, AN AE90 wall phone, which I had a duplicate of (chipped housing, which was superglued back on). Lucky, I guess. I went out and bought these 3 inch metal molly bolts. Then I distributed the weight more evenly, with trimlines sharing space next to heavy AE40's and We500's. No collapses since, but i really was sick to my stomach for a while!
that's great D/P
Wow, I was just thinking shelves today, realizing I'm out of room for phones myself! Too bad shelves don't happen when your house is on the market!
Quote5 of the phones are 50's the other 3 are from the 60's.
Guess which are which, and I will see if my disguises worked.
The pink, green and red one are from the 60s. (I think)
I didn't feel good about the way the shelves were put up, so I took them down and went and bought good hardware to make sure the sheves were solid. I then adfded a shelf, and added more phones. Notice the progression on the top shelf.
D/P
Very nice and inspirational D/P, to say the least. The top shelf progression is a sight to behold indeed, but then, the whole collection looks great. Is that a pinball machine on the right hand edge? Love the poster of your dog, too. :)
Nice new shelves (sorry if I worried you about how they were fixed to the wall) and a truly inspiring collection of phones.
I really like the gray 500. I think I'll keep an eye on ebay for one of those.
Not at all, You were right.
D/P
Now if only I had mor ethan three different colors of phone. You keep me a dreamer D/P
Everybody has shelves but me. That's what I told my wife when I showed her your pics. (Trying for a little pity and perhaps a little shelving) ;)
Everything there for that, and another set just like those was about $60.00.
They are sturdy shelves though, easily hold twice what I have on them and then some.
D/P
Quote from: McHeath
Everybody has shelves but me. That's what I told my wife when I showed her your pics. (Trying for a little pity and perhaps a little shelving) ;)
My GF and I really like these all purpose shelves from Ikea. They are only 32 inches wide so they have a small footprint, and at 11 inches deep they hold pretty much anything, including telephones, quite well. And at 80 inches tall (door height) they fit anywhere. The shelves are adjustable. They come in different colors. I like the birch. They should be fastened to the wall at the top for earthquakes.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/13690607
Quote from: Dan
I had 47 phones on three large, long shelves in the basement. I was organizing them, putting the 500's on top, the 302's in their own spot. Walked away, and it sounded like a "bell ringing bomb" went off...
I have a friend who collects books the way some of us collect phones. They are precious to her. She also had three long shelves, but in her case she used the vertical slot tracks with the flimsy brackets. The tracks were screwed securely into the wall studs and all was well. But as time went on and her book collection grew and the shelves filled, she actually started some second rows of books on the shelves. That's right, books shelved two books deep.
Well of course books stacked that way weigh a heck of lot more than phones...and one day while we were sitting outside there was the inevitable crash. The top shelf bracket teeth had sheared of, and the top shelf came down with it's full weight on the second shelf...and well...The entire hundreds of pounds of books and boards and sharp metal brackets crashed down and books and debris were all over the room in about three seconds.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that the whole shelving system was conveniently located high above the head of her bed. Had she been abed I honestly doubt that she would have survived. So what does all this have to do with shelving for telephones? Not much, it's just my favorite shelving horror story.
It sounds like gravity is alive and well in California! Now you have me worried as I sit here surround by four shelves full of model 500's. I wouldn't be very happy if they all came tumbling down.
I don't know if I'd want that many books over my head while I'm sleeping!
Hobiesport;
I started to answer your question about the pinball game, and got distracted. It's actully an original 1980 Atari Centipde Arcade game. One of my all time favorite arcade games. When the local Pizza parlor went out of business, I knew the owner and bought it for $300.00. It worked but was in poor adjustment. Now it plays great.
Here's another shot of the corner with a few more items added.
D/P
Nice set up I'm wanting to do something similar. Now in order for you to complete the look, you need more wall phones :D .
Cool Dan! Centipede was one of my favorite games. Probably the only game I ever played except maybe PacMan in the beginning. Nice set-up.
It has taken me longer to deal with this aspect of collecting than many of you, but I finally picked my stuff off the living room floor & put it in a safe place. My neighbor two doors South of me is real scrounger & routinely holds garage sales to get rid of stuff he gets tired of or can't use. I picked up this really old roll away store showcase a couple years ago for $100.00, and finally got around to cleaning it & loading it up last night. Most everything in it has been posted on before, but there are five new faces that have never been on the forum before now. Can you spot them?
What beautiful colors! I love yours, Dan. Very nice on the shelves! I love the progression of the phones, too. Very nice.
Dan, do you have your radios and trains showcased, too?
Jester, wow! What a find in the store showcase! What beautiful 302's! I love the way you guys are showing off your beautiful collections!
Awesome display, Jester. Your 302's are beautiful. (See Santa, that's what I'm talking about). Are those A1's on the bottom shelf? I don't think we've seen them before. What about the stick phones? Great display! I'll bet it wasn't easy climbing inside to clean that glass, or do they open up?
The rear of this cabinet has two sliding doors, so it wasn't necessary to climb ALL the way in, but it still proved hard on the knees & elbows! The L/R progression on the lower shelf is:
20B stick with pony receiver & 334A sub., 50AL w/ 534A & 635 bulldog trans., A1 w/ 584A, B1 w/ 684, D1 w/ 684, and graygreen Continental with plastic F1 and converted 302 base for subset.
The phones I'm sure I haven't posted to the forum before:
50AL, B1, D1, Continental and the yellow 500.
Also, all three of the black cradle desk stands are sporting the early nongrooved(seamless)E1 with 395B "bullet" transmitters.
stephen, thx for reviving this thread. it was started before i joined the forum, so i had not read it. great displays guys! d/p i have a gossip bench very similar, if not exactly like yours. stephen what i wouldn't give for that display case. (some of the phones, too ;) ) $100 was a real steal.
Jester, I am green with envy. I showed this thread to my father and talked him into letting me get a shelving unit in my room for my phones and he is now a bigger fan of my phone collection.
Quote from: bwanna on November 25, 2009, 08:09:39 PM
stephen, thx for reviving this thread. it was started before i joined the forum, so i had not read it. great displays guys! d/p i have a gossip bench very similar, if not exactly like yours. stephen what i wouldn't give for that display case. (some of the phones, too ;) ) $100 was a real steal.
Bwanna;
That gossip bench has tremendous signifcance to me. Here is a photo when I was 18 months old. Notice the way the photo and my bench are set up.
D/P
o d/p that's just the cutest pic ::) how very nice to have a family heirloom. i have several "family" pieces of furniture. collecting old stuff is fun, but when your old stuff has personal history, it is extra special.
i can't quite make out the statue (?) what is it?
Donna,
I have always had a soft spot for old showcases & barrister bookcases, since I never had a problem filling them! :o ::) I kind of gave up finding one after doing a little shopping & just schlepped into this one. I agree the price was right, even with all the dirt & the missing glass on the left side.
Tom,
I'm glad your dad let you put up a shelf. I was about your age & still at home when my first telephones followed me home. I had the same thing told to me by my dad, but he didn't change his mind! He was OK with my using cheap freestanding bookshelves to display my finds. They were sturdy enough for the job, but not very attractive.
D/P
Years ago, I bought a gossip bench to give as a Mother's Day present. I even shined up a metal 306 that was made the month after Mom's birthday to put on the shelf. I still like yours better, and that's a great memory to go with it.
Jester:
Nice nickel 20 stick on the end with the Hershey Kiss perch and the OST receiver!
-Bill Geurts
Bwanna;
It's one of those 50's carnival horse ashtrays.
D/P
Killer collection, D/P--like everyone else I LOVE the "progression" shelf!
Jester, those colored 302s are so pretty they hurt my heart!
Now that we haved moved into the condo, my wife wants some shelves on the wall above the computer desk. I have 10 foot ceilings, so plenty of vertical room. I already reserved one of the shelves for my phones that will not be in use. You guys have some great displays!
Stephen, I can't tell you how many times I've looked at your photos and can't take my eye off those 302's in color. That is a great collection of 302's! I have only one---Rose Pink---with some repaired damage, but it has excellent color. Guess I'm going to have to save my pennies and start SERIOUSLY looking for the colored 302's. I always "watch" them on eBay but once they're out of my radar range I move on. Yours are very nice!
I enjoy having those 302s and can understand why anyone who admires colored phones would enjoy looking at them or even having their own. It's also nice to have dedicated space for their display, and I like that this case is roomy enough that I can put many styles side by side to compare/contrast.
Speaking of shelves, the following pics. show a stick period wall shelf I bought as a birthday present to myself 10 years ago. I still haven't installed it--this house was supposed to be temporary, but you know how that goes. Notice the grill panel pattern was made with a coping saw--jigsaws weren't a common sight in most Mom & Pop cabinet shops in the 30's. Also notice this shelf never had a subset installed in it--no screw holes or a pass through for the subset cord. Whatever sat on that shelf was mounted in plain site at the baseboard--go figure.
Well, I have my shelves up finally, here is a pic (not all my phones are on them)
(http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/uu307/AtomicEraTom/Phones/mystuff.jpg)
I like your brown 500. It's interesting that you guys have shelves. All of my phones are scattered throughout the house hooked up ;D, but i can see how that would be difficult in an apartment or smaller area.
I have two hooked up. A brown 500 on my dresser, and a black 500 next to my bed. I have very limited space to play with. One room.
Oh that's not as fun. You need to have at least 15 hooked up so that when the ring the windows shatter. ;D My friend who has rotary phones has a neighbor who actually complained because the phones rang too loud. We ignored him. ;D
Ha, that's funny! Once I am all moved out and what-not. I am going to have at least one phone per room hooked up and the rest on display. That's half the fun of having them is having them up and working.
What you need is a PBX so you can make internal calls and transfers callers, and other fun things. The one I have works with rotary and touchtones phones. It's the Panasonic 616 Easa phone.
I would love to do that if I had the cash. It would be nice between the two floors of the house to communicate that easily. And if my folks wanted to wake me for something, the sound of those bad boys ringing will do it!
It depends on where you find the PBX. Mine was only $15 at the phone show, but the sellers on eBay tend to be crazy and want $100 for them. Check eBay once in a while for one and eventually you might see one at a non-insane price. And yes, the PBX rings loud, VERY loud! ;D
It's going on my 'search' list right now LOL.
Also remember Craigslist sometimes has good stuff. Look there once in a while.
I 'craigslist' 3 times a week for phone stuff, usually nothing good in my area. But I won't give up! Thanks for the advice.
Quote from: AtomicEraTom on November 30, 2009, 12:50:38 AM
Well, I have my shelves up finally, here is a pic (not all my phones are on them)
(http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/uu307/AtomicEraTom/Phones/mystuff.jpg)
nice display, tom. i like your clock & radio :)
That looks good. What's that brown 500 in the lower left corner's story? It's an unusual color.
Quote from: McHeath on November 30, 2009, 09:28:31 AM
That looks good. What's that brown 500 in the lower left corner's story? It's an unusual color.
Tom;
Isn't that the phone that you got, taht was painted a bronze color?
D/P
i don't have a display of phones :o persay. i use about 6 around the house. but thought i would show one of my favs, placed amongst a portion of my fiesta ware. i DO need more shelves for the dishes. ::)
egads!!! whose cell phone is that ;)
I like the FiestaWare display, Bwanna. Homer Laughlin is a favorite maker of mine, too. Say, that aqua 500 looks familiar!
Thank you. I just got the clock last week, St. Vinnie's find. Chimes nice, runs a little slow. I bought the radio for 5 bucks, 1951 silvertone. Doesn't work, needs a couple tubes and capacitors.
The brown one on the bottom is the hand-done bronze job that is my current project, trying to get her to ring, but have little time do do so. My most recent phone, the harvest gold on the second shelf is next after that, also doesn't ring, just kind of buzzes like it's trying to.
Quote from: bwanna on November 30, 2009, 09:09:06 AM
Quote from: AtomicEraTom on November 30, 2009, 12:50:38 AM
Well, I have my shelves up finally, here is a pic (not all my phones are on them)
nice display, tom. i like your clock & radio :)
Tom, that Harvest Gold phone is a great color, we had that color for years when I was a kid on our kitchen 554.
Bwanna, what a cool display of fiesta ware. We often see fiesta ware in our local shops, it's pretty popular here.
Quote from: McHeath on November 30, 2009, 11:17:29 PM
Tom, that Harvest Gold phone is a great color, we had that color for years when I was a kid on our kitchen 554.
My dad came into my room today and spotted the harvest gold one right away. he told me the one he put in his room when he was a teenager (1970s) was the same color.
Oh my PBX "kinda" died today. :'( :'( It is making burning smells but works, so I disconnected it, at least until I can correct the issue or replace it. While it works I don't want it to burn the house down melting my precious 500s. My PBX is just the occasional bad egg Tom, most probably don't do this. (i hope ;D)
stephen, thot you might notice the 500. ;) it is almost "fiesta" turquoise in color. kudos for knowing of homer laughlin. :o
heath, with all the california potteries, surprised you find fiesta out there. it is hit or miss here in mich. alot of mine came from indiana & ohio. my dining room is literally wall to wall fiesta & harlequin ::)
Donna, I like your Fiestaware too. I remember selling it when I helped my parents sell at the flea market. Once I found a Fiesta relish tray with all the inserts at a yard sale for $5. I think it was blue with red, yellow and green inserts. We sold it at the flea market for a whole lot more than $5.
In addition to phones, I collect Blue Ridge dinnerware, hand painted in Erwin, TN in the 1940s and 50s. I display it in my dining area in a corner cupboard that belonged to my great-great-great grandfather Sowers, which may be my most prized posession. The dishes on the row next to the top row were Granny Sowers' dish pattern. Those yellow flowers would really wake you up! I remember eating breakfast at her house many times on those dishes. The smell of bacon frying and toast will always remind me of Granny. I attached a picture of the dishes in the cupboard.
To get back to phones, I also have in my dining area a shelf unit with Trimlines, 2702s and a few Design Line type phones. I posted that one too. The light gray Trimline was a BIN I was lucky to get. The rest mostly came from eBay, friends and thrift stores. Next to it are two more large shelf units with more phones.
Needless to say, there isn't much room for the table and chairs in my dining room. I have to move some of the phones out when I have the family over to eat, which isn't very often.
Bwanna;
The two items that catch my eye, are the Straw dispaenser, and the clock.
Of course the Fiestaware is beautiful, but I love those vintage malt shop items. Reminds me of W.T. Grants lunch counter, when I was growing up, which never happened.... :o
D/P
jonathan, your blue ridge is very pretty. also love the china cupboard. how wonderful to have granny's dishes & cupboard :D did ggg-g'pa build it? the plate rack in my pic belonged to my grandma. i would die on the spot if i ever found a relish tray for $5. i have both the harlequin & fiesta trays& paid considerably more than $5 for each of them :o
d/p... unfortunately the straw dispenser is a cheap re-pro. but i do like the vintage malt shop items. i also love old kitchen clocks. the one on my wall is a general electric. the only down side is the cord. which if you notice i artfully concealed with the phony grapevine ::)
ps...please never grow up ;D
Quote from: bwanna on December 01, 2009, 06:50:28 PM
did ggg-g'pa build it?
I think my ggg-grandmother's father had it made and gave it to her as a wedding present. Or so the story goes that he did the same for all his daughters. My mother had to outbid an antique dealer to get it, and he was a relative on the OTHER side of my father's family. No relation to the Sowerses. More like related to all the rats in the barn. ;)
Donna, I like your plate rack too. It looks like it's solid oak. Just the thing for those hefty Fiesta dishes. Like our phones, Fiesta came in "1950s colors" too that are harder to find than the ones they made later. If I remember correctly from reading the book from years ago.
Quote from: Dan/Panther on April 22, 2009, 03:27:32 AM
I finally got up the gumption to put up some shelves.
It sure frees up floor space.
D/P
nice 500s,nice 202,nice 302,very cool clock up on the wall above the 500s.over all very nice setup.
Just like Stanley and Helen Roper in "Three's Company". Putting up Shelves!
http://www.jefflawlor.com/ThreesCompany/SoundClips/PuttingUpShelvesLow.wav
Remember? It had to be the funniest line in the entire series!
Every time I have seen this thread, it has reminded me of this!
Dave
Inspired by this thread, I've ordered myself a set of shelves from Ikea (it's pretty much just round the corner, but there's only so much I can take home on the bus!!), seeing as I need somewhere better to site the phones, but also cos I need somewhere to put other displayable stuff I have that needs to be relocated to somewhere other than inside boxes in a heap in a corner of my room!!! :D
These are the shelves:
http://tinyurl.com/ca2j7ne
I've looked at them in the past while wandering about the store, never really considered them as I was looking at them for storing boxes in Heap Corner, rather than displaying things, so I just passed them by as they weren't strong enough, also getting an additional pair of shelves to add more shelfspace, shame it'll take them a week to get them sent out though... :D
Not the best shelves I'm sure, but, tight budgets dictate what I can buy, and it was that or a Micro ATX computer case & a couple of hard drives, not essential at the moment, unlike the shelves... :D