I was in my woodshop this morning, and a Journey song came on. Send Her My Love. Of course I had to turn it up. But one set of speakers didn't survive the experience. They came from a radio/cdplayer that I had in my massage office for a while, 4 ohm, 8 watt. 4" speaker, but a pretty big box. I use a Sony receiver that I've had since 93 or 94....that's hooked to a phone found on a bus, being used as a wifi tablet, playing Pandora radio.
I don't know how speakers work. Magnetism, electricity, etc, magic. I know that my meters don't show anything when I put them across the wires.
I mention above that the speakers are in a pretty big box, considering the size. I'm aware there are calculators available, to tell you what size box to make. And if you should ventilate it or stuff it or or or so many variables and options.
Long time ago, I bought a pair of speakers, with the intention of putting them in something. The honda? the pickup? I really don't remember....it's been more than 10 years, but the speakers were right where I left them. Still in the box, ready to go. I think they are 40 watt, and there's no marking on them to indicate ohms.
Speaker wire? I'm not buying any fancy speaker wire, dumpster wire is good enough for me. LOL.....I lol because this orange wire is WAY more fancy than regular speaker wire. See that it has a metallic shield around the 2 conductors? And it has a ground wire, and it has the string wrapped around there, running the length of it to add strength and to get in the way.....I didn't research what the printing on the jacket says, I just know that it's about 22 AWG, which is quite good enough for speakers.
I'm using pallet wood, of course. I'm not doing much to get it ready....I ran the boards for the top and bottom thru the table saw 3x, that does a pretty good job of straightening the edges. the sides just 2x. I really don't think I'll sand stain or varnish. I'm going to fasten the boxes between some floor joists and enjoy them.
For the top and bottom, I had to glue 2 boards together, but I didn't measure them to determine how wide to make the box. I did calculate length of box, based on the length of the boards, so I don't know why I didn't think about the width. It turned out ok, the top and bottom are a little bit narrow.
I glued and stapled it all together, installed with 2 screws thru the center hole. It was a bit of a challenge to hold the speaker, the grill, the screwdriver, the flashlight.....but I got it done, and it sounds great.
Rebar, rerod, reinforcing rod, whatever you call it, it's the same stuff....except it's not all the same. I've heard that each foundry makes a batch at the end of the day with whatever they have left over, so long as it meets the minimum standards. And it's pretty good steel, too, holds bridges and buildings together for years.
In the last year or so, I've developed some interest in blacksmithing, to the point where I went to Harbor Freight and bought an "anvil". I give it the quotes, because it's not much of an anvil. The horn is the wrong shape for a lot of work, and it's too soft and it's too light, but it was cheap and it's better than nothing.
Mounted on a pine block, which is mounted on a disk brake rotor. Hammer hanger is the lid from a ballast. Wire brush handle is from a ball valve.
I watch some youtube videos about blacksmithing, and have learned a lot. If you're interested, look at Black Bear Forge, Essential Craftsman, Jimmy Diresta, and there's a bunch of other guys that do a little, too.
I don't have a forge, and my good torch was stolen by the guy that lived next door, along with a bunch of other stuff, so I heat up stuff with a propane torch. It's not ideal, but it works for small items. 3/8 rebar would probably bend w/o heat, if you asked it nicely. Or used a big hammer. But it heated ok, and bends a lot easier hot than cold.
Muddy, rusty, but just the right size. We found it on our walk the other day...it was standing straight up in a little pile of snow, dirt and gravel, just waiting to stab a tire.
I'm making this tool to be used with the wood lathe, it's offset so I can cut a recess in the bottom of a bowl while the tailstock is still in position. I heated it and wire brushed and tapped with the peen to remove the majority of dirt and rust. Pretty simple, really, bend an offset in it to get around the tailstock, flatten the end to mount the cutter, do some grinding, sanding, brushing, and it's done.
Almost. Still have to drill and tap a hole to mount the carbide cutter. Luckily, Dad gave me a tap and die set a long time ago.
It would be GREAT if the tap and die set came with a set of proper drill bits. Anyone recognize that yellow rag? It was one of my favorite shirts for several years, a gift from my motherinlaw; she got it from the thrift store.
Ok, obviously I mounted the cutter before cleaning up the steel. But I wanted to make sure it was going to work before doing the cosmetic work. I see that the handle is just in the pic, too. Dawn made that on my new lathe a month or so ago. I drilled a 3/8 hole thru it, which means I had to drill from each end, which is just about as much fun as it sounds. Neither end was cut square.....but the center marks were still there from the lathe, so that helped.
This is to cut a recess, or the tenon, whichever, on a bowl. I have a Oneway 2436 lathe, btw. I think it could be used with a round cutter to be a hollowing tool, but I'm not sure the 3/8 will be stiff enough for that. I'll prob experiment with it.
Any questions? comments?
When we remodeled our kitchen in 2005, that included the sink and faucet, even though the faucet was fine. Sink was too, of course. BUT. Since we were spending the equity from our house, we had to spend it all. Like free money.
I've learned a lot since then.
But what I knew then was to put in a Moen faucet, because that tagline that they use: Buy it for looks, buy it for life....seems to be true, because 15 years later and it's still working great.
So if it's working great, why did I fix it? Well, I didn't think to use any sort of loctite on a bolt during installation, probably because I assumed that some water would leak down there and the hard water would glue it on tight. It's really quite a horrible design, from the plumber aspect, and my picture is terrible.
But. The mount for the spout was loose, that's the left part, the water goes thru a flexible tube, as seen above. Can't get a wrench in there, can't get pliers in there. FINALLY after 30 years, I finally get to use one of these:
Crow's foot. But the size I needed didn't fit over the tube, so I had to grind the opening a little bigger. 5/8, in case you have one too. That pic is of what I needed, but just the 2 extensions on the ratchet were used. I think maybe only 1 full revolution was all it needed, and most of that was fingers.
Years ago I had to get in that cabinet for something, so I found a way to remove the center divider. The door hinge unscrews from the face frame, 2 screws each door, and then 2 screws on the center part, and the thing is wide open, although not too comfortable.
On my cabinet, that center part was held in via mortise and tenon, top and bottom, plus some staples. I'm not sure how I sawed off the top tenon or removed the bottom staples. Brute force and desperation, probably. To reinstall, I screwed a small piece of thin plywood to the top, on the inside, and then screwed that to the face frame. Turned out great.
Took years to get around to doing it, and about an hour to do. Typical project.....Except for when the flush handle wore out/broke.....that didn't take too long to fix, But it did take 2 trips to Menards.
I referred to "chicken hips" yesterday to 2 people, both college educated, both pretty good cooks. Neither knew what I was referring to.
I'm somewhat used to this, because lots of things are not named correctly, and my campaign to educate the people has not been too successful. "WTF are you talking about"? Thanks for asking. *football* The USA "sport" "football". (we could discuss how the "super bowl" is a "world championship"....America is not quite the world.
I call "football" throwball. Why? because 99% of it is accomplished by throwing.
Back to chicken hips. Review this skeleton and focus on the legs. Even when we buy a whole frozen or fresh bird, we don't get the feet or ankle or shin. You can buy them at wallymart, in the mexican cooler section. Or maybe it is asian, not sure, and really not sure what they make from it or how they eat it.
The "drumstick" is the part of the bird also called the leg, which is a favorite of kids, but is actually not really worth buying or eating. Unless you cook them with the intention of pulling the meat from the bone and making soup.
Still with me? The drumstick is actually the chicken thigh, since it goes from the shin to the hip.
Why they call the hip the thigh, is a mystery that I'm not interested in researching. It might be documented. "this is why we named this that and that this".
Ok, so I went here and asked. I doubt I'll get an answer.
curious what you think about it. Am I wrong? Why? Am I right?
Covid-19, Cororna virus, Chinese Virus.
Lots of funny posts on the facebook about this virus. Like how it should be named MadDog 2020 instead of Corona. Another encouraging those overbuying TP to also buy condoms so that they don't reproduce.
My thought on that one: Bold of you to assume that those people have a partner for sex.....
Hoarding TP and other groceries. I saw some pictures of people with their wagon loaded clear full of TP and others with 3 wagons tied together full of milk. (takes me a month to go thru half a gallon of milk)(and I usually pour half it out) Grocery store out of flour, sugar, oil, rice, gluten free bagels, TP. Restrictions on almost everything. This is an interesting time.
Interesting is a euphemism
People buying guns. "Stocking up" on ammo. Hand sanitizer, clorox wipes.
Social distancing. 6 feet apart, 4 per elevator, 10 people only per meeting and sit with an empty chair between you.
Restaurants closed to dine in: take out, delivery, drive through or curbside only. Guess what? There's still interaction. Money/credit card.......they're touching the food or package. You're still taking stuff into your house that may be infected. Or is it infectious? Whatever.
Guess what? none of that will really make a difference. The virus lives on hard surfaces WAY longer than initially thought. First they thought 3 days, and now they are thinking more like 2 weeks. The virus lives in the air for several hours. Pretty sure that an infected person doesn't have to cough to spread it, just breathing will [probably] put the germs into your airspace.
Picture yourself at the grocery store, you're pushing your wagon around, picking up stuff that you need. Proceed thru the check out line, and load the stuff in the car. OK, great. Answer this: when do you wash your hands? Before getting in the car? Before going in the house? Do you wipe each item with one of those wipes before going in? OR do you haul it in, put it away and then wash? Or maybe you don't wash at all, since it won't much matter?
Or you order some stuff from amazon or ebay or chewy or 100 other places. When do you wash it? Where do you "draw the line"?
I'm genuinely curious what the experts have to say about that....
Pelosi and other Democrats putting billions of dollars of political stuff into a stimulus package. (this coming after trying to impeach Trump for withholding aid to some shithole.....)(Democrats are withholding aid to Americans) $1200 per adult and 500 per kid. Those that are still working will find that to be a nice stipend. I wonder what the taxing rate will be on that.....
I wonder if the Sanders supporters, those that think socialism is wonderful will change their minds now that the government has taken control of everything, closed businesses, told us what to do and how to do it, and there's lines for stuff and shelves are empty?
I'm mostly staying home, just occasional trips to the grocery stores. My favorite liquor store is mostly closing, just delivery and "curbside pickup".
There are posts saying that no one should have to pay rent during the virus. Turn FB red for first responders. But landlords still have to pay the mortgage, insurance and taxes. And since people are staying home, first responders have nothing to do. "After this, nurses should have their student loans forgiven." NO, this is their job.
I'm not sure what the point of this blog post is about. I know it's not well written and it's jumbled and doesn't flow. But....I'm off work.
Dad said he enjoys reading these, "seldom though they are". :) sorry, Dad.
Buy LEDs, they said. They'll last forever, they said.
Well, I didn't buy it, I found it in the dumpster at work. I remember thinking at the time: I know this is in here for a reason, but it's an LED light, so maybe........
It sat around for a couple weeks before I looked at it. I was working on a few other things, and it was daytime, so I didn't need more light. LOL That's BS right there....I'm getting older, I need more light almost all the time. (Eye guy says there's no hint of any problems, that's just the way it is....which sucks and I apologize to any and all old people I made fun of or heckled due to not being able to see stuff)
First step is to read the stickers; determine what it is and what to expect. Looks like it was made in May of 2013, so clearly that's not forever. 120 volts AC in, 26 DC out. Weird.
Second step is to connect 120 to the white and black wires to confirm that it's broken. Nothing happens, not even when I put my meter on the output leads.
Yeah, they are out of order, sorry about that, but know that I have confidence in your ability to figure it out.
You can can see in the 2nd pic that something burned up, it's considered a "switch mode power supply", which means there's a transistor in there that switches the circuit on and off a LOT so that the end result is roughly 26 volts. And of course, there's a full bridge rectifier in there to convert it to DC.
I started this post in 2018, or at least that is the most recent time I had typed in it and saved it as a draft.
How did I fix it? I can't believe that I didn't take pics of that too. But I found a small transformer and a rectifier, mounted it in there, and it works. I really like the light, because the 3 lights can be aimed different directions. I can point one at my stained glass/leather bench, one at the shelves behind the bench (under the clock) and one towards the drill press and scroll saw.
Moral of this story, if you have an LED light like this, and it quits, don't throw it away....you can buy a power supply for it from ebay, or send it to me, and I'll fix it for you.
Speaker wire? I'm not buying any fancy speaker wire, dumpster wire is good enough for me. LOL.....I lol because this orange wire is WAY more fancy than regular speaker wire. See that it has a metallic shield around the 2 conductors? And it has a ground wire, and it has the string wrapped around there, running the length of it to add strength and to get in the way.....I didn't research what the printing on the jacket says, I just know that it's about 22 AWG, which is quite good enough for speakers. 
For the top and bottom, I had to glue 2 boards together, but I didn't measure them to determine how wide to make the box. I did calculate length of box, based on the length of the boards, so I don't know why I didn't think about the width. It turned out ok, the top and bottom are a little bit narrow. 
