22 replies to this topic

[Martin]

I did not know Ungar made so much more.

https://www.ebay.com...LQAAOSwnuhgGhr7

Caption for this cover pic welcome

"Great idea son, putting polishing pads on those blades to keep my teeth white."

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[Pablo]

Using model air boats to polish teeth, that's almost as clever as shooting skeet using the "Solunar Tables" 

Bravo, Martin 

[SpeedyNH]

Wonder if you can solder with it. 

 

i had a couple air boat models, but a propeller in the water worked a heckuva lot better. kinda like the HO train Hustler thingie with the airplane propeller that took way too long to speed up and slow down. yeah, we raced 'em. for a short while. 

[Martin]

I believe this is the same company that made our soldering irons, If you look through the catalog you will see a wood burning tool and other electrical tools.

 

"Solunar Tables"  I had to look that up at least I know what skeet are, but why would you want to shoot the little critters  

[Pablo]

They are called "clay pigeons" 

[Martin]

I am surprised they can fly. So they just get off the ground, and then you shoot them. Its a cruel world sometimes   

[SpeedyNH]

well, i've shot my share of 'em. slung spinning into the air like a hockey puck, and when you hit 'em good they shatter satisfyingly into a million pieces. my favorite was using a shotgun from the hip; i got pretty good at it. target practice, and all that. 

not that i like actual pigeons. we called those 'flying rats', like seagulls. but you can't really shoot anything in highly populated areas. 

[Rotorranch]

Is that anything like shooting golfs?

 

Rotor

 

https://m.youtube.co...h?v=n-nYd8ufqCc

[SpeedyNH]

that's a good one. think so- they seem to always be in season but i've never seen one explode when you hit 'em. 

my buddy's skeet launcher, i modified by pulling out the vertical shaft bearing and then doubling up on the spring. that made 'em wobble when they flew and go downrange like stink. i made a foot pedal for "Pull!" so that we could both fire. sometimes we went out and found a few we missed (not us!) to use again. 

the real challenge was using deer balls instead of shot. but we stopped doing that because if you hit a tree when firing at a low angle, it would come right back at you. i remember one burying itself in the house right between us. that was it for those things. 

this is fun, remembering all that stuff. my best friend, a high school physics teacher, passed away from cancer a few years later. 

 

on topic, i think i still have my old Ungar wood burning kit somewhere and my plastic cutter, which had like a #11 x-acto blade brazed into the end. my dad gave those to me and i didn't know any other kid that had one. but Man did they get hot. 

[Bill from NH]

When I worked in the City Hall Plaza tower, my office was high enough up to watch the peregrine falcons hunt pigeons. You wouldn't believe how long a pigeon can stay entirely still, but it might have been a juvenile falcon.

[edscars]

Speaking of Ungar, did Eldon buy out Ungar or change their name from Ungar to Eldon or what. There has to be some connection between the two companies since the track seems nearly identical as well as some of the early cars.

[Bill from NH]

Ed, maybe Eldon manufactured products for Ungar?

[don.siegel]

I always had the impression that Eldon just acquired Ungar's slot car line and developed it. Ungar still kept making soldering irons and other products under their own name. 

 

Don 

[Martin]

When you look through the catalog, It makes me wonder why Ungar decided not to get into slot cars. They where in the right place at the right time.

Did they have a sister company that did?

[old & gray]

The story I heard (and take it with a large dose of salt) was the slot racers found Ungar Irons to be the near perfect tool for the “new” scratch built frames. (Raise your hands if you too tried to solder a 1/16 brass plate drop arm with a Weller soldering gun.) Ungar had been selling to the industrial market and suddenly saw a spike in sales. They convinced themselves there was a whole new market and geared up production to meet this intense new demand. Unfortunately they did not investigate the “use factor” for slot racers. Industrial irons would last about three months then need to be refurbished (9 hour days 5 days a week, company vs personal equipment, etc). Slot racers take a lot better care of their equipment and use it a whole lot less. Hence the large increase in sales was not accompanied by a corresponding increase in continuing sales. Ungar over extended in expanding their capacity and fell on hard times financially. 

[NJ Racer]

I own three off these sets now for nostalgia reasons and the 60's graphics. I received one as a kid as a gift which wound up in the trash as I remember the cars never made it completely around the track. The local hobby shop owner couldn't figure out why. I think he refunded the $10.

 

 

 

[don.siegel]

I had the slightly later Eldon set with the "Ferrari type" sports cars and worm gear drive... lasted about 3 days before the first one broke, but it worked ok until then. 

 

$10 was pretty cheap even then! Probably the least expensive of any of these sets. (except for Prentice Speedways, but that's another story)

 

Don 

[Martin]

I had no idea those cars were made by Ungar ( does it have the name on them) I never looked.

I have a couple of those cars and planned to do a small track ( or a merry-go-round) inside a real track as part of a diorama.

[don.siegel]

The early Ungar and Eldon cars are very similar, but each has a decal with the name... in fact, just bought a couple Ungar cars because I didn't have any, despite what I thought! 

 

I think the Eldons are called "Jetstar", but the Ungars don't have another name... 

 

Don 

[Martin]

You are correct Don, just recovered this one from my stash. I have a blue and red one somewhere too. Not sure if they are Ungar or Eldon? I will have to dig a little deeper for those. This one was sitting on the back of a Dodge A100 on display.

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[don.siegel]

Ah, but they do have a name, contrary to what I thought: Fireball! 

 

What kind of pickups do these have Matt? My Eldons had sprung button pickups, but not sure what these earlier versions used... 

 

Don 

[Martin]

Correct Don, this one at least has sprung buttons.

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[SpeedyNH]

i just realized that my garage workbench iron down here in FL is an Ungar Imperial! which i inherited from my Dad. it's an excellent long skinny thing. i run it off a built-into-the-bench-front Variac so that i can turn it down temporarily when just i'm using a screwdriver and pliers on something i'm repairing. 

it's now kinda rusty on the business end (beachside weather and all that). i wonder if they still make elements and tips for them.