Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana Shoebox globes

Hi Everyone;

I had several requests for dimmensions on the shoebox globes. The lenses are 5 3/4" tall and 13 1/2" wide. As you can see from the photos the top corners are rounded on the lenses and the body. Years back shoebox globe lenses ocasionaly turned up at shows mixed in with ad glass since they are very similar. Usually they were priced in the $15-20 range. I wish I would have picked them up back then!

The overall outside dimensions of the globe body are 6 1/4" tall, 14 1/2" wide, and 6 3/4" inches deep. If anyone has a photo of the shoebox globe holder or a pump with a shoebox globe on it please take a few minutes and share them with the rest of the Oldgas community.

Thanks!

Lonnie

DO I DARE ASK IF THERE'S ANY WAY TO GET A PIC POSTED OF WHAT A SHOEBOX LENS LOOKS LIKE OFF THE BODY? JUST CURIOUS...DON'T GET CRAZY...A SIMPLE "NO" WOULD BE FINE! LOL!

wow i love it..boy i wish i had just one!!! how much would one of these lens go for?????txs alan

Hi Doc;

I will take a photo of a shoebox globe lense off of the body tomorrow and post it then. I have not seen any shoebox globe lenses for sale in the past few years. A lot of the value is going to be in the body since they are difficult to find. I would call the value on a pair of lenses, no body, in the $150-250 range. A complete globe in very good condition would probably sell in the upper 100s of dollars today.

Here is my only shoebox globe. I'll try tonight to take a picture of just the base. John

Lonnie:

Don't go to the trouble of breaking down one of your Shoebox Globes - here's a set of lenses.

These are made of single-strength glass.
Note the small notches at 3:00 and 9:00.

Flying A Lenses

Lonnie, I see the lenses have gill marked on them. That is cool! Never knew gill company made them.

... and here is a Shoebox 'Base' specifically made to fit a Tolkheim 300 pump.

This base would bolt down to the pump top using the two holes on the left and right.

There is a 'harp' missing from my base that would have gone up underneith the body with a stud that would protude thru the hole in the center of the milkglass piece. The assembled globe would be retained on the base using this stud and a decorative screw-on knob.

Shoebox base


Base on Tolk 300

Not to hijack a thread but I have decided to come out of the closet. So here is My Long Story about the Shoebox globe.

About 5 years ago you folks on oldgas had quite a discussion about shoebox globes and making reproductions. Well about 25 years ago I made a reproduction shifting knob for my 49 merc out of resin. So I knew I could make one of these globes out of resin and wanted to try my hand. At the time of the discussion on oldgas George Johnson said he had some lenses available for sale so I emailed him about purchasing two. During that call I told him what I was trying to do and he was nice enough to provide me with a sketch/tracing of a body along with some measurements. He was a great help and I consider him my friend even though I have never met the man. The promise was that if they went into production I would give him one. Well I ordered my molding material and resin and I made my mold and poured one and sent it to George to compare to an original. I’m sure he must have laughed pretty hard when he saw mine as it did not have the area behind the lense filled in as originals do. This caused the ends to flex out a little, but the general shape was ok especially since I had never seen, let alone touched, one of these. George then returned my body back to me with some suggestions on improvement. Just after this, a shoebox globe became available a couple of hundred miles from me and I bought it, as I wanted to make a different kind of mold – one using a real body. I had to build up the base of my body a little to allow some extra resin material to account for shrinking. Talking to my resin supply person the larger quantity of molding material would have cost me about $3000 which I didn’t have at that time. Unfortunately also at the same time, I decided to get a divorce which has put my efforts on hold. George was even nice enough to buy back from me the lenses he sold me. Well it has been almost 5 years and I still don’t have the capital to invest (just to much darn small and inexpensive stuff around and on ebay to buy) but in my heart I truly know it can be done (in Resin). I never was going to say anything until I did accomplish what I started out to do, but with yet another thread going I figured what the heck. Tonight I will post a picture of the body I made as I am still very proud of it I made a wooden base for it which helps tie in the ends and it does need to still be sanded and polished better. Speaking of lenses two flying A's were available on ebay in regular and two in extra within the last month for $50 and $75 respectively (including shipping) so they are out there. I picked up the regular set for my repro body. Until tonight, John PS George if you read this... thanks again as I truly, even to this day appreciated how you helped me.

It would be a fairly easy item to reproduce due to the simplicity of the lines and the metal base could easily be molded or done via machining. Making lenses would be no more difficult than producing ad glass.

Here are a few of the different lens's for the Shoebox globe.






Here's my Bennett 155 w/Shoebox globe.

Here's my homemade "capco" shoe box globe. I used Plexiglas and sprayed the inside with frosted paint. The lenses I bought on ebay from oltoydoc.

THANKS FOR POSTING ALL THE DIFFERENT LENS!!! I`M STILL DROOLING OVER THEM,,TXS DON FOR THE PICTURE OF YOU PUMP....ONE OF THESE DAYS I`M GOING TO GET ONE,,, SCOTT---I LOVE YOU GLOBE~!!!! VERY NICE WORK...ALAN

Here are the pictures of my repro shoebox.







As I said I need to still wet sand on this some and buff out (besides drilling the two holes for the lenses). But I am still planning on someday making my mold the correct way and producing these. I'm three years away from retiring and finances are improving every year since my divorce.

John

John. (Fueluser) Good to see you are alive and kicking. I have a bunch of these lenses and keep hoping you will make a production model of the globe body. I for one will be a customer. Good wishes, George