Charlie Chiarchiaro does not see himself as an antique collector, but as a philosopher exploring the interface between the analog and the digital ages.

What began as a collection of musical instruments, guns and small steam engines has mushroomed to fill a large steel warehouse off Depot Street in Waldoboro. The building contains wall-to-wall collectibles ranging from antique cars to steam engines to scientific instruments to books and guitars.

Chiarchiaro’s collection of resonator guitars began when he was a student at Nasson College in Springvale. His first steel guitar, which was being used as an ashtray, was easily bought from his classmates for a case of Schlitz beer.

“The beer wasn’t that cheap at the time,” he said.

His fascination with steam engines goes back to when he was 13. His family was touring the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, Michigan. On exhibit, complete with a shiny brass boiler, wheels, gauges and whistles, sat a French-built portable steam engine. The massive engine was designed to operate threshing machines and saw mills, he said.

In 1985, he saw that the engine was up for sale in Georgia. He sold his collection of guitars and guns to buy it and have it hauled to the barn behind his house on Depot Street in Waldoboro. “I sold everything to get the $12,000 to buy it.”

His knowledge and passion of machines made him a shoe-in for the job as director of Owl’s Head Transportation Museum. He held it for 37 years, until six years ago.  “I didn’t retire, I regrouped.”

While at the museum, he hired Robert “Mel” Ryan. The two had played in the country band “Sheila and the North Country.” They also painted houses for Louis Doe of Newcastle. Ryan went on to be the longtime director of the Boothbay Railway Village.

Chiarchiaro said his fascination with technology goes beyond objects to sell, to the stories behind them. He pointed to a hot air balloon passenger basket suspended from the warehouse ceiling. The band 5th Dimension had used the basket to be photographed for the album that featured its classic “Up,Up, and Away.” A copy of the album came with the basket, he said.

He removed a battered wooden sign that spells out “Steamboat Landing.” It was used at the steamboat dock in Nobleboro when the steamboats carried mail and passengers on Damariscotta Lake. For years when he owned a small steamboat on the lake, he posted the sign on a tree near his lakeside cottage. Every year, he carefully took it down when he and wife Ann went to Florida in the winter. One year, he forgot to remove it. When he returned, it was gone.

Then one day he ran into a man who worked for the hydroelectric plant in Damariscotta Mills. He had the sign. Evidently, it had washed into the sluiceway to the plant and lodged sideways before the turbines could chop it up.

An online service alerts him to auctions around the world. One recent morning, he was signaled that an auction near Northampton, Massachusetts, was about to sell a collection of antique science and technology instruments that were once teaching tools at Smith College.

“The auction was to begin in a half hour.”

He called the auctioneer who found a young person who could describe the items and phone Chiarchiaro so he could bid. Last weekend, Chiarchiaro brought home a trailer loaded with items once used in the college physics and chemistry labs. He also picked up a vintage motorcycle on the way. This week, Ann was busy cataloging and labeling the items. Some will be featured on techantiques.com

He has used eBay to sell items but now more frequently has others act as agents to sell and package items. He recently bought a 26-foot long steel boiler once used at Liberty Canning Company in Liberty. “It will cost me more to get it down here.”

He conceded that within the last century the world has technologically progressed with the goal of making life easier. He uses his ipad to photograph items and his cell phone to stay in contact with buyers. He pointed to his one-cylinder Brush car with open to the air leather seats.

“Today, cars are much better,” he said. However, he wants to keep the knowledge of past technologies alive in the face of the knowledge that his health and ability to play music are hampered by multiple sclerosis.

“I am circling around the drain,” he said.

He continues to publicly play slide guitar with several groups.