Topic: MoMo's shop/blog finished bath UPDATE starts post 107

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

Pig headed huh?!  My damned old black cat was a barn kitten. 13+ years old now. When the kid was 7 I brought him home. It didn't take long for her to say "Dad we should just call him Poopy Head since I can't say the other word LMAO so that's his name now after she named him Harley Davidson initially. He's actually a pretty good little #$%* head at least after 7 years old when he got with the 'death program'. He gets spooked easily, won't chase the squirrels and lets the damn rabbits eat my new grass shoots and hides from the birds when they gang up on him. Maybe it's because I used to sick the German Shepherd on him when he #$%*ed up. The dog knew it and just waited to be released. That was great! If I said 'get the kittie' now without a dog around he'd run like a mofo. The cat knew I couldn't catch him. Secret weapon.

[Duke McDukiedook]

Nice vintage Hifi setup, MoMo!

Hey Jerry, what model of Altec monitors do you have? I need to knock the dust off the pair of A7 VOTT speakers I have in the basement and unbox the quad of Heathkit W4-AM amps from moving to remember what they sound like. I also need to rework the crossovers and bracing on my Klipsch Chorus IIs while I am at it. If only I had the time between all my other projects to work on...   

[MoMo]

Nice vintage Hifi setup, MoMo!

Hey Jerry, what model of Altec monitors do you have? I need to knock the dust off the pair of A7 VOTT speakers I have in the basement and unbox the quad of Heathkit W4-AM amps from moving to remember what they sound like. I also need to rework the crossovers and bracing on my Klipsch Chorus IIs while I am at it. I only I had the time between all my other projects to work on...   

Thanks, I have 3 other systems.  I'll post some photos as I go along.  ...Larry

[edwardmorris]

Great looking place there Larry! I'm glad I saw this thread, lots of cool vintage stuff! I'm a big fan of antique furniture and because of my somewhat known OCD, a bit of an audio/videophile . We own a 1.5 story ranch from the late 40s and it has a few of the original hardware that has survived. The doors look very much like yours, except the PO painted over the original stain  I can post some pix but don't want to hijack your thread . The door handles are similar and there is at least one lamp that looks like the one next to your parent's pics. There's a couple of antiques still left in the basement that I don't know what to do with. There was a pair of swords down there too!! Gave those away, but kept a nice cedar wood chest that has apparently been in the house since it was built. I also found a chest that looks like the tool box in your pix, but it turned out to be a sewing box with a gazillion buttons and other haberdashery stuff in there. Out in the garage, I have a dresser from 1901 that came from Italy with my friend's great great grandmother when their family first moved to the states. Still working on restoring that properly.

The AV stuff, if only this house were bigger, I'd have saved every piece I've ever owned, going back to the dual cassete players with built in amps. Some of that vinyl and cassette tape along stuff with large speakers similar to the ones in your master bed pix, is still over at my in-laws' place, handed down from my wife's grandparents.

I agree with Sean too, I can't believe how the newer gens go around listening to compressed audio on their phones! I digitize my media using lossless methods to retain original quality but I still don't use my phone. I've got a home network with my own (not on the internet) cloud that hooks up everything. In high school (around 2001), one of my friends parents had purchased a new Sony cassette/CD stereo system (super expensive at the time) and I was just blown away by the quality. Ever since then I've always wanted to own one but was perpetually broke through college. Finally, I got my first real job in 2008 and started saving up for one, and about a year later circuit city went out of business! I finally had my hi-fi system with tower speakers. But soon after, the sad realization hit that in the 8 years that went by before I could own these, technology had moved up ahead leaps and bounds and yet again, audiophile speakers (now in the thousands) ran out of reach . VHS was gone, DVD was on its way out with the new blu-rays taking over. So I settled for a HTIB (home theater in a box) that I got on a great discount during the circuit city liquidation. The system has served me well over the years, and today I find myself again wanting to upgrade everything to 4K. And yet again, I realize that the speakers I wanted back in 08 are now outdated, and the current ones cost two kidneys and a liver  .

I'm a purist and use separate devices for each format, meaning I don't play DVDs in my blu-ray player etc. but now with digitized media and everything playing from a single device I built, I'm downsizing and redoing my entire entertainment center. The only things going on there will be a new amp and a 4K player. I've got a bunch of plywood out in the front porch trying to dry out the stain and get rid of that nasty smell. I'm going to find a set of those audiophile speakers from 08 for a cheaper price and do away with the HTIB as well.

Sorry for that yammering, just excited to share my non 750 projects

[Terry in Australia]

Well I hope Larry doesn't mind me posting a pic of my old tool box that I "inherited" via my son's ex-girlfriend. Long story short, her mother was nursing an old WW2 vet who died, his son handn't spoken to him for many years and asked her to clean the old guy's house out so he could sell it. My son brought home this tool box which I'm guessing is at least 50 years old, and full of good quality tools from "Back in the day". Handy for me as it's got lots of non-metric tools so I can work on the Harley.

Uncle Pete's toolbox by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The stickers are new, they came with an Ebay purchase but I've run out of room on my beer fridge and old dryer out in my garage.

Terry's filthy garage by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

While I was typing this my huge fat cat waddled up for a sit on my lap, if I don't move my laptop fast enough he pushes it on to the floor. I'm thinking about getting him a tattoo for his birthday.

Fat Felix by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[MoMo]

NO PROBLEM with thread hijacks,  I encourage it as this forum is a great opportunity for communication between people who most likely will never meet but have similar interests and frequently somewhat similar backgrounds. Maybe I could retitle "Old Tools For Old Fools".   

Free tool donations are awesome Terry.  I am always supplementing my tool inventory with auction purchases.  I'll buy a box lot for a couple dollars, pull out what I want, give my son what he needs and either give away or resell on ebay the excess. Ebay is a great source to supplement the meager money I make at the world's largest home improvement center(actually I make decent money considering I am nothing more than a retail sales clerk. I've been there 12 years and finally hurdled the 40K per year barrier)


Moe was close to that size.  He could spend hours in my lap if I could put up with it.  He was able to communicate with me to let me know he wanted some snuggle time(bit wimpy of a phrase, isn't it?)  Oh yeah,  love all that hi-tech wiring you've done Terry,  short on outlets in the shop?   Any chance Teddy Prendergast was your black American relative?

[MoMo]

Great looking place there Larry! I'm glad I saw this thread, lots of cool vintage stuff! I'm a big fan of antique furniture and because of my somewhat known OCD, a bit of an audio/videophile . We own a 1.5 story ranch from the late 40s and it has a few of the original hardware that has survived. The doors look very much like yours, except the PO painted over the original stain  I can post some pix but don't want to hijack your thread . The door handles are similar and there is at least one lamp that looks like the one next to your parent's pics. There's a couple of antiques still left in the basement that I don't know what to do with. There was a pair of swords down there too!! Gave those away, but kept a nice cedar wood chest that has apparently been in the house since it was built. I also found a chest that looks like the tool box in your pix, but it turned out to be a sewing box with a gazillion buttons and other haberdashery stuff in there. Out in the garage, I have a dresser from 1901 that came from Italy with my friend's great great grandmother when their family first moved to the states. Still working on restoring that properly.

The AV stuff, if only this house were bigger, I'd have saved every piece I've ever owned, going back to the dual cassete players with built in amps. Some of that vinyl and cassette tape along stuff with large speakers similar to the ones in your master bed pix, is still over at my in-laws' place, handed down from my wife's grandparents.

I agree with Sean too, I can't believe how the newer gens go around listening to compressed audio on their phones! I digitize my media using lossless methods to retain original quality but I still don't use my phone. I've got a home network with my own (not on the internet) cloud that hooks up everything. In high school (around 2001), one of my friends parents had purchased a new Sony cassette/CD stereo system (super expensive at the time) and I was just blown away by the quality. Ever since then I've always wanted to own one but was perpetually broke through college. Finally, I got my first real job in 2008 and started saving up for one, and about a year later circuit city went out of business! I finally had my hi-fi system with tower speakers. But soon after, the sad realization hit that in the 8 years that went by before I could own these, technology had moved up ahead leaps and bounds and yet again, audiophile speakers (now in the thousands) ran out of reach . VHS was gone, DVD was on its way out with the new blu-rays taking over. So I settled for a HTIB (home theater in a box) that I got on a great discount during the circuit city liquidation. The system has served me well over the years, and today I find myself again wanting to upgrade everything to 4K. And yet again, I realize that the speakers I wanted back in 08 are now outdated, and the current ones cost two kidneys and a liver  .

I'm a purist and use separate devices for each format, meaning I don't play DVDs in my blu-ray player etc. but now with digitized media and everything playing from a single device I built, I'm downsizing and redoing my entire entertainment center. The only things going on there will be a new amp and a 4K player. I've got a bunch of plywood out in the front porch trying to dry out the stain and get rid of that nasty smell. I'm going to find a set of those audiophile speakers from 08 for a cheaper price and do away with the HTIB as well.

Sorry for that yammering, just excited to share my non 750 projects

Post up photos,  good place to share.  Rather than update my speakers( or systems for that matter) I backdate, love the sound of the Sansui's, Bose 901 and  McIntosh sets I have, even the little KLH sound great

I don't have anything digitized, other that listening to Pandora on my phone(no radio in the Jeep so I use my phone for music).  What is 4K?

 thanks for sharing(as is said in group therapy sessions)...Larry

[Terry in Australia]

NO PROBLEM with thread hijacks,  I encourage it as this forum is a great opportunity for communication between people who most likely will never meet but have similar interests and frequently somewhat similar backgrounds. Maybe I could retitle "Old Tools For Old Fools".   

Free tool donations are awesome Terry.  I am always supplementing my tool inventory with auction purchases.  I'll buy a box lot for a couple dollars, pull out what I want, give my son what he needs and either give away or resell on ebay the excess. Ebay is a great source to supplement the meager money I make at the world's largest home improvement center(actually I make decent money considering I am nothing more than a retail sales clerk. I've been there 12 years and finally hurdled the 40K per year barrier)


Moe was close to that size.  He could spend hours in my lap if I could put up with it.  He was able to communicate with me to let me know he wanted some snuggle time(bit wimpy of a phrase, isn't it?)  Oh yeah,  love all that hi-tech wiring you've done Terry,  short on outlets in the shop?   Any chance Teddy Prendergast was your black American relative?

Ha ha, when I had the garage put up I had 6 double power outlets installed along with 6 double fluro lights, and the garage has it's own breaker board etc. The workbench that I er, found, has 6 double power points built into it (it was in an electronics workshop) with it's own circuit breaker, but even that wasn't enough, so I've got those cheapie power boards all over the garage as well Larry, and they work well.

I'd never heard of Teddy before, but my surname (Prendergast) is common in Britain and the US, and like most surnames has been baastardised by folks who can't spell for as long as the name has been around (over 1000 years) so when I did a google search of the name many years ago, I saw lots of versions of the name (especially in the US) with notable folks from all walks of life, including the Catholic church, education, the military, law enforcement, the KKK, and now Teddy.

My dad told me that in 1802 when the family came out from Ireland, the ship docked in America on route to Oz and some members of the family stayed there while the rest continued to here. Dad said he's even seen an old pic of a sherriff in the wild west who was an uncle. So yeah, Teddy could definitely be a cousin, for sure. I was trying to find a clip from "The Great Scout and Cat House Thursday" where Oliver Reed's character, a crazy Indian called Joseph Prendergast Knox (Pox Knox) was introduced, but sadly I would have had to watch the whole movie, and I was too impatient, but who knows what other races share the Prendergast bloodline? We've even got a couple of castles in Britain, I might have to go back and claim one so I've got somewhere to store my bikes?        

[MoMo]

Terry,  google Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes with Teddy(not Terry) Prendergast. He had an awesome voice...Larry

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Larry, I checked him out after I read your first post about my cuz with the misspelled surname. (he's a "Pendergrass", not "Prendergast", but looks and sings just like I think I do................)

[MoMo]

Thanks Larry, I checked him out after I read your first post about my cuz with the misspelled surname. (he's a "Pendergrass", not "Prendergast", but looks and sings just like I think I do................)

I always thought it was grast not grass.  Oh well, shows what I  know, but I do know for all the singing success he had a tragic life-paralyzed lower body in a car accident and died at a fairly song age.

[MoMo]

Check these hammers I bought at a recent auction.  Paid more than I wanted  for the box (think it was $5) but I admired the design of the brass mallet so much I had to have it.  Nowadays it would be sold as a brass rod with a handle stuck in it, love how someone turned the mallet end to add a little design flare to it.  It is 9" long and weighs 10.3 oz. 


Cannot imagine what the short rubber mallet would have been used for.  It is 8" long and weighs a hefty 1 lb. 9 oz.

[Terry in Australia]

Nice! I don't have a brass or copper hammer here Larry, but there looks like a rough hand cast aluminum one in Uncle Pete's box in the pic I posted, it looked a lot better before I used it for smacking the crap outta something (can't remember what) and it now looks very pockmarked. That rubber mallet looks like the handle's been broken at one stage so they've just cleaned up the remains of the handle and kept going. Tyre change work? Most of the rubber mallets I saw like that were at the various gas stations with workshops I've worked at over the years. Cheers, Terry.

[MoMo]

End of the rubber mallet seems to be finished as thought it is original.  I can see where it could be used to seat the bead of a tire, especially with the angle.  Thanks for looking Terry

[RAFster122s]

MoMo, if you run across a McIntosh amp or tuner or both cheap...pick them up for me.  Love Tube amps!

Lowes does not carry Prep N Etch anymore...  H.D. carries MEK in a Qt can but it is pretty expensive buying that way ($9+ a quart, 32 ounces), whereas Lowes sells it by the gallon ($23/gallon , 128 ounces)
Was going to use some MEK to melt some Powder Coat powder to paint some parts and then cure it in a toaster oven.  Ovens used for powder coating should not be used for food...

[MoMo]

MoMo, if you run across a McIntosh amp or tuner or both cheap...pick them up for me.  Love Tube amps!

Lowes does not carry Prep N Etch anymore...  H.D. carries MEK in a Qt can but it is pretty expensive buying that way ($9+ a quart, 32 ounces), whereas Lowes sells it by the gallon ($23/gallon , 128 ounces)
Was going to use some MEK to melt some Powder Coat powder to paint some parts and then cure it in a toaster oven.  Ovens used for powder coating should not be used for food...

Will keep an eye out, rarely see tube stuff anymore.  I have an awesome pair of McIntosh speakers, suckers retailed for 600 each back in the day(if I could only remember when that was)

[RAFster122s]

Know any inexpensive ways to eat aluminum oxidation on cases, teh CX motor has a bad case of oxidation, I just thought it was paint that was going and some dirt...nope, &U(*& PO/PPOs stripped the block on most visible surfaces without taking it apart...  Combine a salty sea air environment for several years and it was a recipe for nastiness.  I know Aluminum Brightener will do it, maybe in multiple applications, but it is close to $26-30/gallon many places with the stuff strong enough to do it without a million applications...

David

[MoMo]

Know any inexpensive ways to eat aluminum oxidation on cases, teh CX motor has a bad case of oxidation, I just thought it was paint that was going and some dirt...nope, &U(*& PO/PPOs stripped the block on most visible surfaces without taking it apart...  Combine a salty sea air environment for several years and it was a recipe for nastiness.  I know Aluminum Brightener will do it, maybe in multiple applications, but it is close to $26-30/gallon many places with the stuff strong enough to do it without a million applications...

David

I'd be too lazy to refinish, paint would  suffice for me...Larry

[Terry in Australia]

I want to know too David, phosphoric acid is great for cleaning aluminum, but it leaves it a dull shade of silver, and eats pot metal. I do remember using some "Kitten" brand wheel cleaner many years ago on some alloy rims and they came up like new, but I think they've changed the formula as I had a sh1t of a time cleaning the rims on my BMW R1100GS. Don't use any caustic based oven cleaner on your engine cases, I stained mine black once.........  

[jgger]

I saw some stuff at an ACE Hardware store that I almost picked up (if I wasn't so cheap). It was made by the folks that make Navel jelly (not the belly button kind of navel), it was called aluminum jelly. I wasn't in need of it at the moment but may try it in the future. Anyone have any experience with that stuff?

[MoMo]

found this  on an over 10 year old thread, so it is possible product has been banned by the EPA by now

With over 45 years of experience in the aircraft industry one of the best and easily obtained products I've found is a #33 Alumiprep. This is a brush-on chemical that you dilute with water. It cleans and brightens aluminum while stopping the corrosion process. This should be followed up with a product such as 1001 Alodine which is a brush-on chemical that conditions the aluminum for a clear finish and corrosion resistance. These products can be found at automotive paint suppliers or ordered online from Aircraft Spruce, 877-477-7823, http://www.aircraftspruce.com or Chief Aircraft, 800-447-3408, http://www.chiefaircraft.com, plus others. Make sure you order Alodine 1001 and not 1201 as 1201 will discolor aluminum unless you are going to prime and paint it. Don't use the above on magnesium!

[RAFster122s]

MoMo, thank you for that search results...that I trust is the way to go as A&P mechanics don't have time to screw around with stuff that doesn't work. They often use expensive stuff too. The Alumiprep is now made by Bonderite and goes by the C-IC 33 Aero name, instead of Turco's Alumiprep 33 name. Bonderite also makes the Alodine which is truely nasty stuff to handle as well as has massive ecological impacts if you don't handle properly.  It is a Hexavalent Chrome conversion coat and can poison you as well as water supplies. One of the toughest things chrome platers have to deal with on disposal.  But it is the way to go really...  no clue how it can be sold without a raft of paperwork,  very nonchalent in just stating must be handled by local and federal waste disposal regs.
Stuff is highly poisonous.

The oxidation can be painted over but it wont last and is tough to disguise...aybe I should just clean the best I can...

[MoMo]

Bought these Snap On/ Blue Point sets at an Amish auction a week ago.  3/8 drive Snap On air ratchet SAE set FAR 70B working and complete , and a Blue Point Tubing Tool Set missing 1/4 piece but otherwise in good shape.  Spent $40 total .  I've probably doubled the size of my tool collection in the past several years by buying at auctions, reselling what I don't need and keeping what I want.  Winds up that the tools are "free"...Larry

[RAFster122s]

Nice find...

I've been looking at Blue Point...less expensive than Snap On  Williams is another option...

I could use a good double bubble flaring set if you run across another...not that I've been doing much brake line work in recent years...they are handy to have if you can get them at a good price.  Learning curve to make them work right...  I had lots of practice when I had a Volvo 122S as the time I had the car, the aftermarket support was very thin and mother Volvo was not refreshing or getting new replacements for parts that might not be in high demand...the car being 40 years old may have played a role. I was pleased so much was available.  Heck, they brought back the rear drums towards the end of my ownership.  They were not cheap...but when you were going to be looking for better used drums because the originals were rusting away and could become dangerous...well, the $200 price tag was better than a wreck.

[MoMo]

Not clear as to the difference between Blue Point and Snap On.  Always under the impression Blue Point was a lesser grade. However, every Blue Point tool I have is quite well made.  BTW, I bought those sets to resell, most likely double my expense, or maybe even more.