My first record player was a cheap red and white plastic affair with which I could play my stack of bright yellow 78s. It was the kind that had a steel needle that was held in place with a thumbscrew on the tonearm, the kind you were supposed to replace the needle after every play. However, we only had the one needle, so I just used it over and ( Read more... )

I was going through old family slides with the old family slide projector and noticed the focus motor was running continuously. I did some quick checks and verified that the bulb worked, but the mechanism wasn't moving. This is a known issue with these older projectors. I pulled the bottom off to have a look at the mechanism.

( Read more... )

One day,
( Read more... )

My fondness for vacuum tubes extends to cathode ray tubes (CRTs), which were ubiquitous for decades in television sets, as well as technical equipment like oscilloscopes. I like the look of them in operation, an electron beam painting glowing lines on a phosphor screen. Accordingly, I'd like to make a CRT-based art project. To do so, I need to ( Read more... )

A little while after I unpacked and hung a bunch of shirts in the closet ( Read more... )

Two and a half years ago, I posted that I was debt-free. I've been debt-free ever since. Until today, when
( Read more... )

The light for the clock in my car burned out ( Read more... )

My dad had a nice set of hollow shaft nutdrivers that he and I both used. When he passed away, I ended up inheriting them, and I have used them ever since. I don't know when he bought them originally, but they've been getting used for decades, and are still in good shape, although one of the handles is a little melted looking from the time it got ( Read more... )

I had a need for a new, different printer. Ink jet printers produce beautiful images, but they're delicate and run and smear when wet. Worse, if I only use the printer occasionally, the nozzles clog and I use a lot of expensive ink getting them working again. If I want to print gold or silver foil, I use my ancient Alps MD-5000,which isn't ( Read more... )

Today started with a 2½ hour dentist appointment. Then I drove to the airport to catch a plane to Charlotte. Then I dashed the entire lengths of the E and C concourses to just make my connecting flight to Miami. Miami has a BIG airport. We came in to gate J10, so the first thing I saw when I walked into the airport was the gate across the way: ( Read more... )