A Great Pipe Rack Find At The Flea Market

[carolinachurchwarden]

I like going to the flea market here in Raleigh from time to time. You just never really know what you're going to find. It's massive. Located at the fairgrounds and stays up almost all year long. I was rolling through the tables and saw a few racks of pipes up on a guys table. I went through them as always and most needed a LOT of work. A really nice German made pipe was there with a meer lined bowl, but the work required to fix it up was a little more than I felt like taking on. He had this other rack for sale and we talked about it for a while. It was really great. He picked it up off another guy that made it and I found it hard to turn away from it. I plan to sand it down, replace the jars, stain it to my liking and replace the hardware. Looking forward to making it my own. He even through in any pipe from his back row that I wanted, so I picked the red Dr. Grabow Color Duke sitting on top in the picture.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Love the surprises at antique shops and flea markets. Great find! :clap:

 

[mso489]

Whoa, this is a big deal in more way than one. I've been haunting that flea market over the years, and this is the first pipe-centric stand I've heard about. That's a nice rack for sure. Glad you intercepted that. I'll check out the pipe guy next time I'm through. The Fairgrounds hosts the N.C. State Fair in October, but the rest of they year they have shows, events, and this flea market, among other things. The TAPS pipe show is there in April. Raleigh has a good independent pipe shop, Pipes by George, but has lost its long-time Tinder Box shop formerly at Crabtree Valley Mall for about forty years, under two different managements I believe. Now its storefront is boxed over in plywood waiting a new tenant. Never could have a smoking area in the mall, which inhibited business a little. Back in the 70's and 80's, it was a going concern, and even at the end (it closed around the end of last year) it had a well stocked cigar humidor, though the pipes and tobacco inventory hinted what was happening.

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

Fantastic! I love that rack! :clap:

 

[ukbob]

That's a great find , never have had much luck when I've been round the flea markets but you never know one day.

 

[danielplainview]

Very cool.

 

[Civil War]

Nice pipe rack, great find!

 

[fluffie666]

That's a couple of nice flea market finds you have there! There's nothing like a well constructed solid pipe rack. That one really has some old time charm to it. An old Color Duke to boot. Very nice!

 

[carolinachurchwarden]

@mso, yeah, I wasn't sure what to expect, but we headed over there yesterday. I went through the side entrance and straight through to the outside area, then turned right towards the front fence. This table was just up on the right. Guy said he gets new stuff during the week but is only set up there Saturday and Sunday.
This pipe rack is great! I love how he glued the pieces of wood to the top of the jar lids. I was so ked when I first pulled it out and pint jars were attached. I've already got the spot picked out for it on the wall. I'm going to add small label holders to the front of them that identifies the type of tobacco in each one.

 

[carolinachurchwarden]

The Color Duke was practically unsmoked, so I got an almost brand new Grabow for free. Plus, I liked it cause it was red and different.

 

[kickinbears]

Great score there CW! It looks like that rack is made to stack on top of a second rack (?)

 

[scloyd]

Nice find! I've never seen a pipe rack that nice at any flea market that I've gone to. Usually they're beat up table tops. Good job CW.

 

[carolinachurchwarden]

Well, I think my fortune began where this guy was a bit of a pipe guy himself. He had a few other things for sale, but he really wanted to show me this rack and then I couldn't resist when I saw how it was built.
@kickinbears, thanks! I've been wanting to make me one for a while, but I think this one fits the bill rather nicely. It doesn't stack, just hangs on the wall. It has about 7 places to place pipes and them hang stem down, but of course the Color Duke I picked out won't fit. I'll find more that will, I'm sure.

 

[kickinbears]

Ahhh .. that bottom rack makes sense knowing that the rack is a wall hanging unit. Very cool!

 

[mikethompson]

I'm looking for a good pipe rack too, good to know there are still some deals to be had!

 

[carolinachurchwarden]

Well, I'm all done except for cleaning up the jars. Tried to find replacements but I gave up on trying to buy a few jars and having to pay 5 times their price for shipping. Oh well, they'll clean up nicely. Now I just need to tap into some PAD and fill this sucker up!
Before:

After:

 

[Chasing Embers]

Is this section to hang pipes as well?

 

[carolinachurchwarden]

Yep! It'll hold 14. 7 across the top, bowl down, 7 across the bottom, bowl up.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Got it. So is the entire cabinet made to be wall mounted?

 

[carolinachurchwarden]

Yep. It has two holes in the back, behind the jar drawers on the right and left. I reckon it was screwed through those and mounted to the wall that way. Was toying with the idea of using the Z-bar hangers on the back like a picture frame, but I'm not sure if that would be as stable as direct screws through the back.