#analogofficeequipment — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #analogofficeequipment, aggregated by home.social.
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A clever affordance of card index filing cabinet drawers
Someone recently mentioned to me that the small, portable 1,000 index card capacity cardboard box with lid that they use as a zettelkasten felt more like it was for deep storage rather than daily use. Perhaps it's a result of the fact that this is how most people have been using these cheaper cardboard boxes for the last 30+ years? They said they'd prefer to have a drawer or a box with an attached lid. It dawns on me that I've never mentioned one of the great affordances of many of the […]https://boffosocko.com/2026/01/07/a-clever-affordance-of-card-index-filing-cabinet-drawers/
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Filing Index Cards with a C-Line Document Sorter
Not surprisingly, I don't always file away my index cards as quickly as I probably ought to. Every now and then I go through my deck of unfiled cards and try to sort them into my card index/zettelkasten. The end of the year seems like a pretty good time to clear the decks. Because I haven't documented some of this portion of my process before, I thought I'd take a few photos of my C-Line document sorter which I use to do a fast sort of cards before filing into my card index. I bought it a […]https://boffosocko.com/2025/12/27/filing-index-cards-with-a-c-line-document-sorter/
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Breaking News: Brodart No Longer Manufactures or Sells Library Card Catalogs
With no advance notice or apparent fanfare, Brodart, one of the major library supplies and furnishing companies in the United States, has quit manufacturing, distributing, and selling library card catalogs and library charging trays. This seems sad news for analog library enthusiasts coming just two days after Melvil Dewey's 174th birthday on December 10th. I've got word in for specific details about end dates for manufacturing and the last sales on some of these products. Apparently the […] -
Breaking News: Brodart No Longer Manufactures or Sells Library Card Catalogs
With no advance notice or apparent fanfare, Brodart, one of the major library supplies and furnishing companies in the United States, has quit manufacturing, distributing, and selling library card catalogs and library charging trays. This seems sad news for analog library enthusiasts coming just two days after Melvil Dewey's 174th birthday on December 10th. I've got word in for specific details about end dates for manufacturing and the last sales on some of these products. Apparently the […] -
Acquired File Tab 3 Inch Punch (McGill Incorporated)
I had been considering getting a custom punch made several times, but never looked to see if one already existed commercially. Today, while doing a 5 minute peruse of the thrift store, there it was!A punch for making file tabs of 2 1/4" x 3/4"
P/N 68500When you use as many tabbed index card dividers as I do, this can be incredibly useful. It’s just the right size for doing 1/3 cut tabs on 4″ x 6″ index cards.
Acquired at Acts Thrift Store on October 7, 2025 for $2.50.
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Acquired File Tab 3 Inch Punch (McGill Incorporated)
I had been considering getting a custom punch made several times, but never looked to see if one already existed commercially. Today, while doing a 5 minute peruse of the thrift store, there it was!A punch for making file tabs of 2 1/4" x 3/4"
P/N 68500When you use as many tabbed index card dividers as I do, this can be incredibly useful. It’s just the right size for doing 1/3 cut tabs on 4″ x 6″ index cards.
Acquired at Acts Thrift Store on October 7, 2025 for $2.50.
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Acquired File Tab 3 Inch Punch (McGill Incorporated)
I had been considering getting a custom punch made several times, but never looked to see if one already existed commercially. Today, while doing a 5 minute peruse of the thrift store, there it was!A punch for making file tabs of 2 1/4" x 3/4"
P/N 68500When you use as many tabbed index card dividers as I do, this can be incredibly useful. It’s just the right size for doing 1/3 cut tabs on 4″ x 6″ index cards.
Acquired at Acts Thrift Store on October 7, 2025 for $2.50.
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Acquired File Tab 3 Inch Punch (McGill Incorporated)
I had been considering getting a custom punch made several times, but never looked to see if one already existed commercially. Today, while doing a 5 minute peruse of the thrift store, there it was!A punch for making file tabs of 2 1/4" x 3/4"
P/N 68500When you use as many tabbed index card dividers as I do, this can be incredibly useful. It’s just the right size for doing 1/3 cut tabs on 4″ x 6″ index cards.
Acquired at Acts Thrift Store on October 7, 2025 for $2.50.
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Acquired Hummer 3 hole punch (Wilson Jones Co., Chicago, IL)
Anna Havron recently mentioned that she had a Bates Hummer punch from years back, so it only took a second’s thought to pick up this $3.99 purchase at the local Acts Thrift store when I ran across it on June 28thHeavy steel punch in gray enamel with chromed handle
It was in pretty solid shape with some heavy dust, light pitting on some of the steel, and some hints of rust on one of the bars. A quick cleaning today with some degreasers and anti-rust solution along with a brass bristle brush has brought it back to its original life. It really is stunning how solid this piece of office equipment still is all these years later.
Wilson Jones Co., one of the largest office supply manufacturers in the United States, was purchased by Swingline Inc. in 1959 and is now a part of ACCO brands who boldly state that Wilson Jones was the inventor of the 3 ring binder, though evidence indicates its origin predates this. The “Hummer” was one of their original and storied punches.
I’m unsure of the date of manufacture of my punch, though it was made in their Chicago, IL plant.
With the grey enamel and shiny chrome, I’m thinking this 4 pound 13 ounce punch will match nicely with my 1949 Henry Dreyfuss-designed Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter.
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Acquired 3 Hole Punch (Master Products Mfg. Co., Los Angeles, Calif.)
Swung through the thrift store today and found this fantastic beast. $3.82 was absolutely too little for such a lovely vintage piece. Not sure of the age, but definitely manufactured to last. Twenty minutes of cleaning and a light oiling and it’s almost as new as the day it came off the factory floor. Handles up to 20 sheets of paper and slices through them like butter.Black cast iron and metal
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Acquisition: 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriter with Royal Vogue Typeface
On Sunday September 22, 2024, I picked up what appeared to be a boring-looking, run-of-the-mill, ubiquitous, mid-1950s Royal Quiet De Luxe in brown frieze crinkle paint from ShopGoodWill.com. These typewriters pop up everywhere and regularly sell in the $10-25 range. Of the 3163 typewriter models in the Typewriter Database, the Royal QDL is easily the most collected machine in the typosphere by a margin of 1.5:1 to the next closest model (the Smith-Corona Sterling) on the long list. I [...] -
I spent a chuck of the early morning and the past hour finally cleaning up my Shaw-Walker filing cabinet. I can’t wait to move it into the house and start using it. Photos of the finished product soon…
#20GaugeSteel #analogOfficeEquipment #filingCabinets #ShawWalkerFurnitureCompany #vintageFurniture
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I spent a chuck of the early morning and the past hour finally cleaning up my Shaw-Walker filing cabinet. I can’t wait to move it into the house and start using it. Photos of the finished product soon…
#20GaugeSteel #analogOfficeEquipment #filingCabinets #ShawWalkerFurnitureCompany #vintageFurniture
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I spent a chuck of the early morning and the past hour finally cleaning up my Shaw-Walker filing cabinet. I can’t wait to move it into the house and start using it. Photos of the finished product soon…
#20GaugeSteel #analogOfficeEquipment #filingCabinets #ShawWalkerFurnitureCompany #vintageFurniture
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I spent a chuck of the early morning and the past hour finally cleaning up my Shaw-Walker filing cabinet. I can’t wait to move it into the house and start using it. Photos of the finished product soon…
#20GaugeSteel #analogOfficeEquipment #filingCabinets #ShawWalkerFurnitureCompany #vintageFurniture
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I spent a chuck of the early morning and the past hour finally cleaning up my Shaw-Walker filing cabinet. I can’t wait to move it into the house and start using it. Photos of the finished product soon…
#20GaugeSteel #analogOfficeEquipment #filingCabinets #ShawWalkerFurnitureCompany #vintageFurniture
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Irked by the overinflated prices on Ebay for typewriters, I’ve been casting about for other sources of reasonably priced machines to purchase. Today I purchased two I saw at auction:
- Smith-Corona Classic 12 in metallic green for $18.00
- 1969 Smith-Corona Galaxie Deluxe in steel blue for $23.00
Both appear to be in good shape and functional though one is going to need some reasonable cleaning and repair of a few linkages. I can’t wait for them to ship to see what I’ve got. They both look like a lot of fun…
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If you’re going to punch holes in 3 x 5″ index cards for your new library card catalog and want something to match your 20 gauge office furniture, you really ought to have an era-appropriate hole punch. Presenting the industrial strength Mutual Centamatic Punch No. 250 (Made in Worchester, Mass. U.S.A.), which I picked up today at the local thrift store for $0.75.
#analogOffice #analogOfficeEquipment #atomicEraFurniture #holePunches #libraryCardCatalogs
https://boffosocko.com/2023/10/03/mutual-centamatic-punch-no-250-made-in-worchester-mass-u-s-a/