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Just put up some shelves and cabinets in the shop space preparing for making things again!

Finished the front panels on my phono pre. Nevermind Stephen “Bishop”’s creepy photobomb ...

The curl only kind of shows up in this pic, but it is the best one I have. This is not, actually, ambrosia - it is from a tree that was tapped for syrup. It leaves the same streaking, but with larger holes (which I cut off). This was wood from the $2/bf scrap heap - same wood I made the kitchen counters from.

Finished

Had to wait on some of the jungle gym stuff to arrive to be able to finish up. I got a big thumbs up from the most important of the clients.

Forgot to post this yesterday - had a good day doing old-school manual labor after spending a good part of Friday helping my neighbor clear a small maple tree that fell over in a wind storm Thursday. They're selling the house in 10 days and didn't want the tree or debris to cause any issues with the sale. So yesterday I set out splitting a bunch of it. It's funny. The older I get the more I enjoy manual labor. I hated splitting wood when I was younger. Then it was time for Lily and I to make a cake for Andrew's socially-distant, outdoor-5-months-late birthday party tha

Finally poured the slab for the side of our house. After building a retaining wall and back filling. It's 90ft by 12ft, problem with being able to do things is doing them. My new favorite saying "little engine that could, but probably shouldn't.."

Put together a saw. Still waiting and all the router parts so I’ll have to take part of it apart again.

A workbench!

Had a Vodavi phone system at work that one of the station ports didn't work. Normally I wouldn't even bother trying a repair on one of these and just replace the unit, but lacking any working ones on the shelf, I decided to have a go at it... and somehow actually managed to fix it. 😲 Random picture of one off the internet for reference: I had to replace one of those little blue transformers, the thermistor beside it, and some smd components on the back of the board, with ones I salvaged off a different broken unit. It took a few passes to track down everything that was damaged,

IT'S BACK! I remember it being big, but I forgot how massive it is. In no way is it going to fit on the TT stand I just built. I've also forgotten the layout of the controls on the speed controller, and which is input and output on the DIY Pass Pearl phono stage. Lots of fiddling to do before I'm near ready to fire up the beast, but it feels good to have her home again. It was 12 years ago that I built her. I need to see if I can get the Zu Audio DL 103 aluminum bodied cartridge repaired. I had broken the cantilever some years back. I also need to source a rubber belt for the motor/platte

Finally got around to installing the replacement IEC inlet / EMI filter on my spectrum analyzer. Hit the power button and it powered up as it should, thank satan. Then I ran a signal into it and the results were a bit... strange. It displayed the frequency way offset from what it should be, and there was some weirdness in what was displayed, and the problem was the same on both inputs. So I went into the self-test menu and most stuff was fine, but every test for the digital filter board errored out. Oh dear. It seemed fine and reseating it didn't accomplish anything, so I spent the next c

It seems to work great! I am not a huge fan of using a long screw driver to attach the top - having pre-drilled pilot holes would be nice. Other than that; it’s bolted to the ground and super stable. I sanded and put a coat of finish on my phono preamp faces just now!

What if you had Irish cream tea and crepes at the same time?! All heck might break loose! I have not been sleeping normally and keep waking up at 3-5am. Today I gave up at 6:30am and went to the local bakery/farm/pumpkin patch for pastry and a few other items. I had a sweet cream cheese croissant about 7:30am while watching the sunrise on a bay of Lake Michigan. I also bought a plain croissant so I made second break later in the morning with cheesy eggs and bacon in what Burger King called a croissanwich. I could easily live up here about 8 months of the year...

I got bored today and decided not to wait for Milo. Just a down and dirty TT stand. The bottom shelf is morticed into the legs, then attached with trim screws that I covered with plugs (plugs still need to be cut flush and sanded). It should hold enough records, as I plan to limit myself this time around. I have a Cherry slab (cutting board) that the TT actually sets on. The Cherry slab will sit on top of this stand with my Hudson HiFi Bigfoot silicone isolation feet between the two surfaces. I plan to Ebonize the stand, then finish with Arm-R-Seal (much to Doug's dismay).

After almost three and a half months, the KGST is finally in operation, and is sounding great. Thanks to all who have responded to my questions and given guidance. I am really surprised at how good the 40 year old headphone sounds with this amp. Special thanks also to Bigir and Dr. Gilmore for such wonder contributions to the community.

Visiting Eleanor in Churchill (it's very north). Seeing some stuff. Not many other tourists during a pandemic.

Oh hi there. New GPU, who dis?

Finally! Took delivery today.

Fantastic performance (especially Cry Me A River)

At our age about 20 minutes after taking the little blue pill.

The important thing is the doors are fine.

The Opus wasn't reading about 1/3 of the CDs that I had tried in it, so I replaced the laser in it tonight. Works great!

Shooting for a 14 hour smoke BBQ for this brisket. Started it last night at 11pm so we shall see. Shooting for a 180 to 190 internal temperature so that will ultimately determine the finish time. On deck are two nice Grenaches for the contest.

Just happened to see this in an old Fine Woodworking book. I'm up for whatever you want to build.

For anyone still interested, the MSI came in yesterday. To Nate's point, I probably did overbuy. But my overall thought was to get something that will last me, as I keep my home PC around 7+ years on average. So I wanted to max-out the stock configuration (processor, RAM, SSD HD) within a reasonable budget, as access to the innards of laptops for future upgrades gets more difficult with each new model. Off-grid battery life is less of a consideration, as this will be pretty stationary in my home office & won't be taken on travels (an old Android tablet and/or my cellphone serve that p

Are we going to just ignore that Steve got his entrance AND EXIT wounds cleaned up, got back to work and finished the job? That's pretty badass

Duck breast with mushrooms and gravy and tomato/beet salad.

That's because you're supposed to put them in your ears!

sprouts and filet on the Weber.

Don't bother.

Got it stained and milled 1/16" deep, round recesses in the top for the Bigfoot Isolation feet to seat into, otherwise they tend to slide around. Will start the clearcoat process tomorrow. I'm expecting not to have to worry about flies landing in my clearcoat, since they seem to greatly prefer Pence's head.

Your best bet may be to hire Wilco to follow her around.

I wish my life could be this chill and relaxing

I'm hoping the next M&O joint is a turntable stand, with record storage underneath. I haven't discussed this with Milo yet.

I find myself increasingly enjoying the fiddling. It takes me back to a lost time. I'm even getting back into vinyl, partly because of the fussy nature. I like the preparation before listening. It makes it more of an event. Background music has its place, but I find myself wanting to let the music take me somewhere, not unlike when I was a teenager and would get lost in music, and the hobby of audio. I would spend a lot of time fiddling with my gear, taping sessions and so on. My friends would bring over albums and we'd spend hours listening and recording them. They learned that if they bought

A pair of mint SR-007 Mk 1's arrived yesterday, so my KGST should be happier now! Bit of a step up from the SR-313's I've been using.

When I build raised panel doors that are going to be painted (by the customer), I like to paint the edges of the panels before securing them in the frame. Otherwise when those panels shrink up a little bit in winter, you'll see some tiny edges of bare wood. This way the panels can expand and contract inside the frames without that happening. But it's all one solid oak panel.

Me too!

Used my new record cleaner. Nothing automatic about it, but it cleaned all of my records great!

I do not think that Creme de anything represents a move up.

This is a T-nut. I drilled a 1/16" recess for the top flange of the T-nut to sit flush into a piece of 1/2"plywood. Then drilled a 3/8" hole for the barrel of the T-nut. Then I glued the second piece of plywood onto the first, trapping the T-nut in-between the two. The only thing showing is the 3/8" hole with the barrel of the T-nut inside. The threaded part of the hanger bolt screws into this. Resulting in a blind joint that is very solid.

Today’s Tacocat update: She stopped hiding after about 24 hours and is very affectionate. She spends each time I come in her room (keeping them separated for now) unable to decide which she wants more, food or cuddling. She already lets me rub her belly!

Per popular request there's now an 'angry' reaction.

You're just gaining valuable experience for old age. I feel that way every time I go into a different room.

You could do like I do with audio gear. Leave it out of site till you forget you even have it. After it's value goes down, then think about selling it. Then don't because its not worth the time and effort.