Killing time in a small "2 car" garage

[BoilermakerFan]

The table you made for your mom turned out great. Let us know how those under cabinet lights work I need to get some for my kitchen.

Bret

Thanks Bret. I'm really happy with it.

I used the demo lights at IKEA and was impressed with them so I'm very optimistic about the results under our cabinets.

I didn't get them installed yesterday. It's raining here today so I can't sand/scuff the table and chairs for paint so I will be installing the lights this evening.

I also picked up a 98" edge cutting guide so I can route out the grooves for my T-tracks on my work bench top, but I can't actually cut the grooves until I have everything sanded down. Now that my mom's table is out of the way, my neighbor is going to help me rotate my bench 180 degrees so I can get started on the sanding.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

OK, our IKEA under cabinet lights exceeded our expectations!


These things kick a$$! I know everything was under $100, might have been $85. I forget, and it doesn't matter because it is the best money we've spent on the kitchen so far...



Mounted the lights under the cabinet:

The directions say to route the wires to the back of the cabinet, then go up and put the power supply on top... our cabinets are flush with the wall, so that wasn't an option and I had to route the wires up inside the cabinets at the front:

I installed the PSU in the top cabinet above the microwave at the very top back:

We put the wireless remote control in the drawer to the right of the range. The remote gives you Off-Low-High-Low-Off control vs. just on/off:

The lights on low with no other lights on in the kitchen at 9pm:

The lights on high with no other lights on in the kitchen at 9pm:

The lights on low with our other lights on in the kitchen at 9pm:

The lights on high with our other lights on in the kitchen at 9pm:

Pretty easy to install even with my more complicated routing for the wires. My wife LOVES the way they turned out. Only thing I have to do now is swap the light bulbs in the microwave above the range. The original incandescents now look dim and yellow. I'll swap them for 5000K LED bulbs to match the under cabinet LED lights.

 

[bj383ss]

Very cool thanks for the update. Will put them on the list. The wife has been wanting to go to IKEA.

Bret

 

[rodpoa]

So, I'll admit my current garage has enough space to do most of the stuff that I want to do and motorcycles, even 10 of them, do not take up that much room. However, this is why my garage is just way too small:

You also like this stuff? Awesome!

One of my future projects will be a diy version of a Riva boat or something like Chris Crafts totally built in wood. Something very small, possibly with 2 seats only and a decent powered engine:

The TV is a 4 year old Toshiba 58" LED unit that my neighbor was throwing out! The screen just went dark on her one day and her husband kept pushing off having it repaired (the house next to ours is their second house, their main house is about an hour away and he's a GC in that area). She got mad and went out and bought a new LG 55" 4K TV. I asked her if I could try to fix it. She said sure, take it, it's yours, free even if you get it working...

Well, one of my hobbies is building audio equipment and restoring vintage audio gear... so for $3.42 in a new transistor, diode, and a capacitor I already had it was working again. The power circuit for the backlight had a bad diode, which toasted a capacitor and the transistor.

The TV is huge. We don't watch a lot of TV but scoring this for the basement is what kicked off the whole basement remodeling project to give our kids a place to hang out with friends to watch Hulu, Amazon Prime, or play XBox... and my neighbor loved that I fixed it for under $5. I'm sure she rubbed that in her husbands face.


So that's where I'm at at the moment. I need to finish sealing the block course on that wall. I need to finish my three work benches so I can start on the shelving...

Mine is also a 58' LED. I like it a lot. Not 4k but I'm not there yet due to lack of content at this time. Eventually.

About the audio stuff. I'm dazzled. You know I like it but as I buy equipment from shelves, I have no idea how to build all of this from scratch. So much to learn!!


By the way, I do not have one but I also like bikes. I have among my future projects a scrambler based on a cb500. Something like this:

And I also like off-roading hence another future project is also a tiny chep jeep, not exactly from jeep, but probably a small suzuki:

What I would really love to own though are the old 90 defenders to something like this:

However, these old british cars can be a pain to drive, they are stiff as hell, don't turn properly and are eager to break. In here we say these 90 model defenders are one ride off the garage, on ride into the shop.

I do like the idea of overlanding with my misses and I already own a VW based 78' convertible two seater. As I'm used to the aircooled mechanic at this point I am seriously thinking about combining a bit of the two and build a totally murdered out 4x4 soft overland version of a VW bus with the cb500 attached.

I hope it can be a mix of these:

One thing at a time though. First I finish the house. Then I finish my 2 seater's new engine, then comes misses car ugprade, then my daily upgrade and then these


Subscribed!

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Thanks rodpoa!

I'm trading the red Merc for the white Merc this spring. Then my son and I will restore the white Merc. My long term goal is to build the 24' Blue Jacket boat, then build a small 2-seater sport runabout.

There are a lot of mahogany runabout plans, including a clones of Rivas, Hackers, Gar Woods, and Chris Crafts. I can think of 4 reputable sites to buy them from off the top of my head.

We're not really using the big TV right now since the basement isn't done yet. And I don't need a 4K TV yet either. Heck, I think Wonder Woman (mmm... Gal Gadot) will be the first Blu-Ray I'll buy. We still usually only buy the DVD or streaming versions of movies since we're just not really in to home theater. My focus has always been 2-channel audio with an emphasis on analog vinyl. But I do like BT from my phone out in the garage. I'll be getting a small BT amp for the garage to run my old Polk S4 speakers. I modded them a bit years ago, but I'll probably rebuild the crossovers before I bring them out into the garage.

My '77 CB550 is going to be rebuilt into a vintage track bike. My Kawasaki KZ440 is going to be rebuilt into a true scrambler, what the industry calls adventure bikes now...

The Suzuki and Chevrolet Trackers make really nice little overland vehicles. I always keep an eye peeled for a great deal on a 4-dr Tracker ZX2. If I find the right one for the right price I'll grab it. Unfortunately most are automatics. My daily driver is a 2017 Subaru Forester 2.5i. My son gets to drive it in 5 years and when it's his vehicle to drive, I plan to do a 2" lift, new wheels, full skid plates, and a hidden winch behind the front bumper skin. Then I'll add the cross bars to the roof rails and put a basket on it.

The "BAJA" bus would be really cool! Pretty easy to stuff a 2100-2400cc engine in them too.

 

[rodpoa]

Thanks rodpoa!

I'm trading the red Merc for the white Merc this spring. Then my son and I will restore the white Merc. My long term goal is to build the 24' Blue Jacket boat, then build a small 2-seater sport runabout.

There are a lot of mahogany runabout plans, including a clones of Rivas, Hackers, Gar Woods, and Chris Crafts. I can think of 4 reputable sites to buy them from off the top of my head.

We're not really using the big TV right now since the basement isn't done yet. And I don't need a 4K TV yet either. Heck, I think Wonder Woman (mmm... Gal Gadot) will be the first Blu-Ray I'll buy. We still usually only buy the DVD or streaming versions of movies since we're just not really in to home theater. My focus has always been 2-channel audio with an emphasis on analog vinyl. But I do like BT from my phone out in the garage. I'll be getting a small BT amp for the garage to run my old Polk S4 speakers. I modded them a bit years ago, but I'll probably rebuild the crossovers before I bring them out into the garage.

My '77 CB550 is going to be rebuilt into a vintage track bike. My Kawasaki KZ440 is going to be rebuilt into a true scrambler, what the industry calls adventure bikes now...

The Suzuki and Chevrolet Trackers make really nice little overland vehicles. I always keep an eye peeled for a great deal on a 4-dr Tracker ZX2. If I find the right one for the right price I'll grab it. Unfortunately most are automatics. My daily driver is a 2017 Subaru Forester 2.5i. My son gets to drive it in 5 years and when it's his vehicle to drive, I plan to do a 2" lift, new wheels, full skid plates, and a hidden winch behind the front bumper skin. Then I'll add the cross bars to the roof rails and put a basket on it.

The "BAJA" bus would be really cool! Pretty easy to stuff a 2100-2400cc engine in them too.

So cool! We have the same tastes

Trackers are kinda cheap here in Brazil. The older one with Vitara base. Mostly of ours are manual. Usually only pickup trucks, luxury sedans or SUVs are automatic in latin america I think.

It is funny because I read so many americans in GJ wanting to go manual while the majority of us down here usually want to go auto. I have two stick cars but my daily one is automatic. Guilty!

Talking about 2400 air cooled, I have just the thing lying around. I'm finishing my 1700cc high rev (for a 70's engine standard) for my based baby, a 78' Puma GTS:

After finishing the heads, the only thing left, I will have a spare block which could be the beginning of a new project and a new headache for the wife

Thanks for sharing man. I believe we share taste in most things mechanical. Very cool!

 

[BoilermakerFan]

So cool! We have the same tastes

Trackers are kinda cheap here in Brazil. The older one with Vitara base. Mostly of ours are manual. Usually only pickup trucks, luxury sedans or SUVs are automatic in latin america I think.

It is funny because I read so many americans in GJ wanting to go manual while the majority of us down here usually want to go auto. I have two stick cars but my daily one is automatic. Guilty!

Talking about 2400 air cooled, I have just the thing lying around. I'm finishing my 1700cc high rev (for a 70's engine standard) for my based baby, a 78' Puma GTS:

After finishing the heads, the only thing left, I will have a spare block which could be the beginning of a new project and a new headache for the wife

Thanks for sharing man. I believe we share taste in most things mechanical. Very cool!

Bendita Macchina in San Paulo builds amazing trackers. Most are in the 125cc-250cc range and they do a LOT of 150cc Yamahas. I think the parallel twins work a little better than thumpers or inline-4s, but that's just my opinion.

And speaking of SP, I've shipped two pairs of headphones I retuned for guys down there. I've shipped headphones to every continent except Antartica. I lost count of how many countries I've shipped to... My biggest customer was in Indonesia. I still did two additional pairs for him even after I quit taking work just because I know the sound signature he likes so it was easy and he paid me very well.

I found another tote of headphones in my basement that I had forgotten about.
I need to restore and retune them so that I can sell them off. And my daughter reminded me that I still owe her a pair of headphones and an amp.

That Puma GTS looks awesome! Never seen one before.

EDIT: Researched Puma. Very cool! I read that they exported to the US as "kit cars", basically finished bodies without the engine and transaxle to get around the US crash testing requirements. Thanks... now I have something else to keep an eye out for! But I don't need any more projects!

 

[BoilermakerFan]

rodpoa

My daughter's headphone amp will go into this old radio receiver I'm repurposing. The radio comes out and that is real glass on the front. You'll be able to see the tubes glowing...

Then I have a few more of the old Hallicrafter boat anchors for my amps.

This one is actually pretty cool, a mono AM/FM receiver. I will swap a few caps and see if it still works well enough to warrant a restoration. If it does, I'll tuck a small amp and DAC in on the right side... if it's not worth restoring, it will be gutted and a mid-wattage P-P tube amp will go inside.

I've already started gutting this one. I'll put tubes behind each radio dial window on the left & right, probably voltage regulator tubes that glow blue or purple. My Scurvy Tick Customs logo will go in the middle and will be backlit.

The actual amp is a one of two in the world hybrid headphone amp for electrostatic headphones (Stax) that was designed specifically for me and a friend by a high-end headphone amp manufacturer that we do prototyping/testing work for. He made only two sets of boards and it will never go into production due to the NOS unobtanium transistors I scored for it's design. I was able to buy enough of them for just two amps with two spares for each of us. The design is also very complicated for a headphone amp and has the unique ability to run either octal (8pin) or noval (9pin) pentode tubes with either 6V heaters or 12 heaters. The setup can also be switched from pentode to single ended triode. So commercially it would be a warranty nightmare since it would be very easy to trash the amp if things were switched out incorrectly... but for the two of us who swap parts all the time in his designs during prototyping, it's pretty easy. With all the options I can run 5 different tubes and change the sound signature of the amp by switching between SET and pentode.

I have to make a new sub chassis for the enclosure, weld a bunch of the holes closed, have it powder coated, then screen print the new labels on the front. It will be my most complicated amp build I'll probably ever do, but in the end, I can't wait to hear my Stax through this amp.

I haven't decided if I'll tuck a USB DAC in the enclosure or not, but I have a second phonostage board that I can put in there as well so one of the front switches will select one of the three inputs.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

This is one of the last commissioned builds I did about 7 or 8 years ago now...

The amp is a DIY design electrostatic headphone amp for Stax headphones. My customer was an attorney out in Arizona. He loved the idea of using an old Hallicrafters radio and wanted the amp completely stealthed.

So, I started with this:

I gutted the inside and had to custom mount the radio dial back in it's window.

When being used, it would look like this (the silver plug on the lower left was replaced by a toggle switch, but I don't have a pic of the final assembled amp):

When off, he just puts the dummy dial knobs into the headphone sockets:

I even managed to reuse the back cover. In this picture, the right channel 3-pin XLR jack is missing, but there are balanced and SE RCA inputs to the amp:

I wish I had a pic of the completely finished amp. I cleaned it really good with a Magic Eraser, polished it, and waxed it with good ol' Turtle Wax past wax. It looked brand new.

He loved the amp and brought it to his office. When not in use it would be on display on one of his book shelves.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

So cool! We have the same tastes

Trackers are kinda cheap here in Brazil. The older one with Vitara base. Mostly of ours are manual. Usually only pickup trucks, luxury sedans or SUVs are automatic in latin america I think.

It is funny because I read so many americans in GJ wanting to go manual while the majority of us down here usually want to go auto. I have two stick cars but my daily one is automatic. Guilty!

Thanks for sharing man. I believe we share taste in most things mechanical. Very cool!

Yes we do!

I love air cooled VWs. We had a '96 Golf, 2000 Jetta GLX VR6, and a 2004 Audi A4 1.8TQ UltraSport, so I'm done with water cooled VWs... but if I found the right Type 2, Ghia, or Thing, I'd be all over it. A Ghia is my top choice, but they've gone way up in price and I don't want a rust bucket.

The Vitara based Trackers are the ones I'm talking about, but with the ZX2 package. I don't dislike automatics, but I just like the idea of being able to beef up the clutch on a manual and I think in the Vitara they are more reliable for an adventure rig.

My Subaru can probably do 90%-95% of what I would want in an adventure rig once it gets the lift, skids, and winch, so I probably won't buy a Vitars/Tracker, but I still look. If like to have a small rig that is relisble but i don't have to worry about rock damage. My Subbie will still be way too nice to push it even in 5 years.

 

[dchance]

Thinks for the interesting information on the amps and headphones that you have built.

Dwight

 

[Denwood]

Alrighty... it's really late but I can't sleep so I'll post my updates.

Sunday it was colder and raining in the morning, but not pouring, just a light rain. I like doing yard work in that kind of rain... I don't get hot and the sun isn't out. So I dug up five Rose of Sharon plants and transplanted them along the driveway that goes to the garage. We're putting a fence right up to the front corner of the garage, so these plants will be like a hedge in front of it as they grow. 8 or 9 years ago we started with two Rose of Sharon plants, one white flowered, one purple flowered. I think we have kept a total of 24 on the property. Hummingbirds LOVE the purple RoS plants, but they feed on all of them.

After I was done with that I took my son to HD and Menards. He decided to use his b-day money to buy a cordless drill/driver of his own. He did his research online and read reviews. The Milwaukee 12V were a little more than he wanted to spend and HD didn't have any more of the $99 Makita 18V 3/8" drill/drivers in stock, so at Menards he bought the Worx 20V model. Lucky kid, it was on sale for $70 plus 11% rebate so after tax and the rebate it cost him $68. He has enough money left over now to buy a nice 63pc Kobalt socket set after school on Wednesday.

He was chomping at the bit to use his new tool Sunday night, but we had to charge the battery.

Sunday Night I applied the first finish coat of oil to my mom's work table:

Monday night my son and I worked on the trim for my workbench. I needed his help to get the long side trim pieces clamped on so we could drill the pilot holes for the connecting screws I'm using to hold it on. My son's Worx drill is in the first pic:

And my workbench top viewed from above:

I had selected the best pieces out of my bulk bundle of unfinished hickory T&G flooring for their color and grain figure, then oiled them to see what it would really look like so I could lay out the pattern on the top. I have to oil the back sides of the trim, then it will be reattached to the bench top for final sanding to get everything flush. After that, I have to route the 4 slots in the top to one side for my 48" long pieces of T-Track. Then I get to reinstall the trim again and start the process of popping the grain, building up with medium walnut Danish oil until I get the overall color I want, and finally 3 final coats of natural Danish oil to lock it all in.

When my bench is done, it gets put to work immediately building bookcase shelves for the finished part of our basement.

After those shelves are done, I get to remove the legs from the bench and bribe 3 friends with pizza and beer to help me carry the beast down to my basement hobby shop, put the legs back on, and put it in position in it's new home.

I figure that it will be close to 18 months after I officially started building my bench by the time it's actually down in my basement. And I haven't even started building the little drawer cabinet that will be mounted underneath it on the LH side of the bench. That cabinet will be built and finished in the garage, then screwed to the bottom of the work bench into the 2x4 internal framework so it won't fall off. I haven't decided how many drawers I'll make the cabinet. Either 3 drawers in staggered height or 5 shorter, shallower ones.

Wow..the hickory version of your workbench trio is almost too nice to work on! Very nice work.

Your posts on "glassics" brought my back to one of my first "training" motors, our 70s vintage flat bottom glass boat with 65hp Evinrude. I got pretty good at servicing and syncing the triple carbs. Went like stink, but sucked fuel like a thirsty elephant.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Thinks for the interesting information on the amps and headphones that you have built.

Dwight

Thanks Dwight. After my amps are built I'll share pics. And I'll probably dig out a couple pairs of my personal headphones that are rather unique, then post pics of them. Somewhere I have I have pics of my most unique and custom headphone that I own... It has a neat story to go with it, I just have to find the pics.

Wow..the hickory version of your workbench trio is almost too nice to work on! Very nice work.

Your posts on "glassics" brought my back to one of my first "training" motors, our 70s vintage flat bottom glass boat with 65hp Evinrude. I got pretty good at servicing and syncing the triple carbs. Went like stink, but sucked fuel like a thirsty elephant.

Thanks Denwood. I used hickory for the strength, density, color and grain variation, but I intend to use my bench (plus I can't stand red oak). That said, the top will be protected by a sacrificial top if there is a serious chance of it being damaged; however, this is going in my basement hobby area so it won't see any serious beatings. There will be sub-tops or sub-benches that get installed in T-track on the right 2/3 of the bench. There will be four tracks that are 4' long out of the 5-1/2' width. It will primarily be used for DIY Audio, fly tying, fishing rod building, RC vehicle building, and my reloading presses.

This weekend I will be reattaching the trim so I can get the top sanded flush and then route the grooves for the t-tracks. After that's done I can finally start the finishing process with the Danish oil.

I haven't started building my third and fourth work tables yet. One will be a simpler version of my mom's manual table that will probably be 18"x36" with a t-track grid on top and Corian pieces in the openings of the grid. The other will be another electric lift table with a 3/8" steel top mounted to a SKF rotary bearing that will be drilled and tapped in a grid pattern so I can make fixtures to hold my motorcycle engines when I rebuild them. That last table will be the most expensive simply because of the machine work that will go into the top steel plate. I have to watch weight on that plate too, so more machining will be done on the bottom side to remove material where I can. I don't expect to even start on that work table until next summer or fall. I really don't need it before then either since my 3 main project bikes run so they don't need major engine rebuilds.


And sitting in a car dealership waiting room during an oil change can be dangerous... or rather productive. I was bored so I jumped on CL to see if there were any deals on tool cabinets, tool chests, industrial cabinets, etc. Came across a cool automated blast cabinet but it was too small for my needs. Then I saw a post of a guy selling his powder coating setup for $1K including a homemade oven. Hmmm... Hello, Google... DIY powder coat oven plans.

Bingo!

DIY powder coat oven

Well, that looks a lot easier than I thought! And oh look, I already have the electrical enclosure, the PID temperature controller, the timer, RTD temp probes... The only "expensive" piece I'm missing is a high-temp convection blower.

And I don't need my oven to be that big, just big enough for motorcycle frames which is probably 3' square by 5' tall. Everything else I would want to coat is smaller than the frames. So quick math says I can build mine for 1/3 to 1/2 the cost they state in the article including the upgrade to mineral wool insulation necessary for ceramic coatings. At that cost, with the number of frames and other parts I need to have powder coated for my motorcycles, my ROI should be 3 motorcycles (I have 7 planned builds already). I have to buy my powder anyway so that cost was on top of the labor and coating charges I was quoted for the work. That's also not factoring the savings for any ceramic coating I could do myself either, which goes for much higher rates on top of the material costs because they have to heat their ovens to a higher temp and leave the parts in longer with controlled cooling cycles. I can program all of this into the controller I have.

I mentioned that I was looking into it to a couple buddies and they offered to pay me a few bucks on top of my electricity cost each time they needed parts cured too so my return will be faster yet.

I also talked to a few other custom motorcycle builders that do their own powder coating in house and they're just using the Eastwood setup with great results. But I'll still do my research on the powder coat gun before I decide to move forward with the project. That said, I realized I have a lot of other things lying around that I would powder coat if I had the oven in my garage to do it myself. Yeah, I'm looking at you Gravely two-wheeled tractor!

 

[Strouty]

You will hate me, but I bought a medium sized double glass door industrial oven for $60. I am going to use that for my powder coat oven. Won't do frames, but rims and parts galore.

I am interested in the radio conversion, I have an old radio that I want to do something similar. Will the tubes actually function or just light up? Not sure if you have seen this site or not:

https://9to5toys.com/2016/06/07/best-desk-clock-vintage-soviet-union-nixie-tubes/

 

[BoilermakerFan]

You will hate me, but I bought a medium sized double glass door industrial oven for $60. I am going to use that for my powder coat oven. Won't do frames, but rims and parts galore.

I am interested in the radio conversion, I have an old radio that I want to do something similar. Will the tubes actually function or just light up? Not sure if you have seen this site or not:

https://9to5toys.com/2016/06/07/best-desk-clock-vintage-soviet-union-nixie-tubes/

LOL! No hate here Strouty. Great deal. I need a bigger oven and other than the steel studs, sheetmetal, rivets, heating elements, and blower; I have everything else I need for mine. I had thought about it in the past, but didn't realize how easy a big oven is to build. I've hit a small snag though. I want to ceramic coat and that needs 500degF minimum. Getting the oven hotter won't be a problem, but I need a blower capable of handling up to 600degF. The one I had found from the PC article is only rated to 450degF. So I need to see how difficult it is to modify it to get it capable of 600degF instead of 450degF. Should be as simple as high temp bearings and extending the shaft to allow the motor to be remotely mounted to the fan. I think a 3" gap between them will be enough to drop the temp down to 450 at the motor.

My amps are either hybrids or all tube. The hybrids use tubes for the second gain stage which is the main voltage gain, then the outputs are usually lower gain solid state transistors. For the one amp that will have the purple glow, it will be just for looks, but the tubes can be used for voltage regulation... I just don't need them on this particular amp. This amp is a hybrid amp so there are signal tubes on the boards, but they don't glow like the V-Reg tubes.

I've seen that clock before... but most of my tubes are true audio tubes. And I do have an amp design t hat does use a V-Reg tube in the power supply, but they glow orange instead of purple. The color they glow is dependent on the voltage they regulate.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

A small update on my bench build...

I reattached the side trim and my neighbor was kind enough to come over this afternoon and help me rotate the bench 180 degrees so I can sand it all flush, then route the T-Track grooves once it's sanded. Putting the bench to work on Sunday... I have all the pieces from the IKEA table and chairs to scuff for paint.

We estimate the bench to weigh around 300 pounds on the low end. It will be moved into the basement as the top and then the legs.

I decided I need to find some brown surface mount conduit or raceway to keep all the wiring neat and clean too. I will tackle that when it's flipped over to take off the legs right before it's carried into the basement. I will also cut the top of the future drawer stack and pre-drill the pilot holes for mounting it so I know the connecting screws will be going into the stud frame and not hit any other screws.

 

[rodpoa]

Sorry, had to go back and read everything.

This is just plain beautiful. Astonishingly beautiful and the best of it is having your boy to help. Awesome!

What about that boat? Is it following you home after all? Imagine it in raw wood sealed and tinted with a bit of oil. That’s a Acqua Riva right there

Talking about VWs, we do share a similar path there as well.

When I was 18, I wanted my father to buy me a Ford Maverick GT. Here they are very looked after. Probably the most important V8 of the 70’s rivaling with Chargers R/T as we never got Plymouths, Camaros or Mustangs officially.

Because of the cult status these Mavericks acquired and the craziness of the antique market that begun in late 90’s, these things are near 50000 USD nowadays.

When my father could not afford one, I then moved to the Ghia but it has to be convertible. However there were only 177 convertible 67’ (my favorite) Karmann Ghias and who held one, knew how to charge for them.

The alternative was then my 78 GTS Puma. It has the same engine, drivetrain everything but came from a bankrupt manufacturer which could bring me trouble with parts. Dad couldn’t help so my first salary and savings went all into this car which was my first one and remains with me until now.

Before going under full restoration, it was my daily drive to the university with all the nuisances you can imagine from an old poorly maintained ridiculously low and small car in the middle of trucks and SUVs fighting for its space in crowded jammed highways at night. I don’t regret a day of those sweaty, gasoline smelling comutes. The car broke sometimes, not many though. I knew nothing of mechanics - not that I’m much of a super expert still - so I used to phone dad. My father always showed up being the typical militar man, had to whine, shout, complain, command me around but it was his own fashion of bonding. Very cool having him around to angrily teach everything I know about aircooled engines.

As soon as I made more money I stopped the Puma for the 12 years restoration - it is not fully finished - and bought my father’s car. A 97 VW Parati with the 1.8 watercooled engine of the US Spec Golf. You don’t have in US but it is a smaller A4 Avant with simpler mechanics but still was an extraordinary.

If I recall correctly the older versions of the Parati, were sold in US as VW Fox Wagon or something like this.

Don’t know why but from there went to an amazing British Ford Ka, sold in EU as SportKa, that brought me the Track Day, racing and engine tinkering world, then to a demonic possessed Honda Civic Si - the best car I’ve ever driven, insanely fast, equipped with racing suspension, capable of destroying anything up or down hill but caused me so many problems including gun involving incident - that my wife forced me to sell.

When I had to let go my baby Si, guess what did I was looking for? Subbies! Drived a couple of Lancers, did not like it and ended up bidding on some second hand WRX. Trunk arguments with wife and something in the area of you need a grown up car and I ended up with yet another VW that I appreciate a lot, a 2.0T 230hp Jetta TSi, our version of your GLi.

In resume, same tastes there as well.

rodpoa

My daughter's headphone amp will go into this old radio receiver I'm repurposing. The radio comes out and that is real glass on the front. You'll be able to see the tubes glowing...

Then I have a few more of the old Hallicrafter boat anchors for my amps.

This one is actually pretty cool, a mono AM/FM receiver. I will swap a few caps and see if it still works well enough to warrant a restoration. If it does, I'll tuck a small amp and DAC in on the right side... if it's not worth restoring, it will be gutted and a mid-wattage P-P tube amp will go inside.

I've already started gutting this one. I'll put tubes behind each radio dial window on the left & right, probably voltage regulator tubes that glow blue or purple. My Scurvy Tick Customs logo will go in the middle and will be backlit.

The actual amp is a one of two in the world hybrid headphone amp for electrostatic headphones (Stax) that was designed specifically for me and a friend by a high-end headphone amp manufacturer that we do prototyping/testing work for. He made only two sets of boards and it will never go into production due to the NOS unobtanium transistors I scored for it's design. I was able to buy enough of them for just two amps with two spares for each of us. The design is also very complicated for a headphone amp and has the unique ability to run either octal (8pin) or noval (9pin) pentode tubes with either 6V heaters or 12 heaters. The setup can also be switched from pentode to single ended triode. So commercially it would be a warranty nightmare since it would be very easy to trash the amp if things were switched out incorrectly... but for the two of us who swap parts all the time in his designs during prototyping, it's pretty easy. With all the options I can run 5 different tubes and change the sound signature of the amp by switching between SET and pentode.

I have to make a new sub chassis for the enclosure, weld a bunch of the holes closed, have it powder coated, then screen print the new labels on the front. It will be my most complicated amp build I'll probably ever do, but in the end, I can't wait to hear my Stax through this amp.

I haven't decided if I'll tuck a USB DAC in the enclosure or not, but I have a second phonostage board that I can put in there as well so one of the front switches will select one of the three inputs.

I wish I could be this brave. Seeing your pics and reading your ideas makes me thinking about adventuring in the DIY world.

The other repurposed amp looks beautiful with the needle knob. That was very creative.

Mind if I ask a question that is bugging me though? Does a DIY amp compare to a high end one from manufactures like Cambridge, McIntosh, others?

Is it complex to build one? Would you need an oscilloscope to adjust? How do you define the desired specs in terms of response frequency?

Thank you!!!


Enviado do meu iPhone usando Tapatalk

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Sorry, had to go back and read everything.

This is just plain beautiful. Astonishingly beautiful and the best of it is having your boy to help. Awesome!

What about that boat? Is it following you home after all? Imagine it in raw wood sealed and tinted with a bit of oil. That’s a Acqua Riva right there

<snip>

As soon as I made more money I stopped the Puma for the 12 years restoration - it is not fully finished - and bought my father’s car. A 97 VW Parati with the 1.8 watercooled engine of the US Spec Golf. You don’t have in US but it is a smaller A4 Avant with simpler mechanics but still was an extraordinary.

<snip>

In resume, same tastes there as well.


I wish I could be this brave. Seeing your pics and reading your ideas makes me thinking about adventuring in the DIY world.

The other repurposed amp looks beautiful with the needle knob. That was very creative.

Mind if I ask a question that is bugging me though? Does a DIY amp compare to a high end one from manufactures like Cambridge, McIntosh, others?

Is it complex to build one? Would you need an oscilloscope to adjust? How do you define the desired specs in terms of response frequency?

Thank you!!!


Enviado do meu iPhone usando Tapatalk

Thank you. It's been a long build on those tables, but my mom's is delivered and she loves it. Mine is very close to being done too, yet very far from finished when I think about all the sub-bases I have to make for it!

The free boat is not following me home. A co-worker is interested in it, but my wife was not. It's a little small for what we want. I am still getting the Merc500 motor though. And my son and I will be restoring it.

Yes, we generally have the same tastes. There are a couple old Fords from the early '70s that I have my eye out for, but so many were crushed I'm not optimistic about finding a great one out there. Same goes for a Renault Alpine 110. A rare car here in the States, but just an absolutely gorgeous rolling work of art to me. The closest I get now is having one in Forza 6!



OK, now to try to tackle the DIY audio questions. I have Champagne & Caviar tastes with a water & peanuts budget. So I build my own. DIY when it comes to audio equipment is one hobby that can save you thousands of dollars compared to buying commercial gear off the shelves. I do my research before I build anything. I find the amp designs that have a sound signature that I will like and make sure that they get great reviews. From there I select my audio components to get the best sound for the budget. I do spend the money where it counts, but I don't go crazy. There are some very expensive parts on the market that don't sound good. From there I also swap out transistors to find the ones that sound the best to my ears in my particular amp. It's the equivalent of changing cams and carbs on an engine. You have find the right balance that gives you the maximum performance for that setup within it's intended use.

The commercial amp market is interesting. I have non-disclosure agreements in place with 2 amp manufactures and 1 headphone manufacturer. They are still constrained by budgets, just as Porsche still has budget constraints. But there is an insane amount of markup to the commercial audio equipment even after you factor in R&D, manufacturing, and warranty costs. So, rough numbers, I can build a clone of a high end amp with better components for 1/10 to 1/5 the cost of the commercial version. On top of those huge cost savings, I will have an amp that tends to sounds better than the original because I can tune it to my likes and to my particular needs.

But when starting out, there are several kits available that have the boards and all the components already selected. The components tend to be solid performing parts. It would take a critical ear to hear the differences in many cases if you just swapped parts.

On a side note, when I swap parts, I adjust the bias and other voltages to the new parts to get them into their ideal range. In many cases, just swapping a transistor in an existing amp could make it sound WORSE if the bias voltage and feedback loop isn't changed to match the new component. So that's where it gets a little tricky. That's where an understanding of the amp's design and the data sheets come into play. That's a rabbit hole I fell down... I roll components in and out, tweaking bias and feedback loops until I get the sound I want. I'm sure this is a little hard to understand now, but if you get into it and continue to learn, you'll totally understand it later. And say hi to Alice for me.


Below is a pic of one of a little prototype amp I was playing with... the white plastic pieces are transistor sockets. Those make it easy for me to change the output transistors to listen to the headphone amp and decide which sound the best. The amp never went into production in this form... we found ways to improve it during prototyping.

EDIT: You don't need an oscilloscope... I just use a good DMM.

 

[rodpoa]

Killing time in a small &quot;2 car&quot; garage

Thank you. It's been a long build on those tables, but my mom's is delivered and she loves it. Mine is very close to being done too, yet very far from finished when I think about all the sub-bases I have to make for it!

The free boat is not following me home. A co-worker is interested in it, but my wife was not. It's a little small for what we want. I am still getting the Merc500 motor though. And my son and I will be restoring it.

Yes, we generally have the same tastes. There are a couple old Fords from the early '70s that I have my eye out for, but so many were crushed I'm not optimistic about finding a great one out there. Same goes for a Renault Alpine 110. A rare car here in the States, but just an absolutely gorgeous rolling work of art to me. The closest I get now is having one in Forza 6!



OK, now to try to tackle the DIY audio questions. I have Champagne & Caviar tastes with a water & peanuts budget. So I build my own. DIY when it comes to audio equipment is one hobby that can save you thousands of dollars compared to buying commercial gear off the shelves. I do my research before I build anything. I find the amp designs that have a sound signature that I will like and make sure that they get great reviews. From there I select my audio components to get the best sound for the budget. I do spend the money where it counts, but I don't go crazy. There are some very expensive parts on the market that don't sound good. From there I also swap out transistors to find the ones that sound the best to my ears in my particular amp. It's the equivalent of changing cams and carbs on an engine. You have find the right balance that gives you the maximum performance for that setup within it's intended use.

The commercial amp market is interesting. I have non-disclosure agreements in place with 2 amp manufactures and 1 headphone manufacturer. They are still constrained by budgets, just as Porsche still has budget constraints. But there is an insane amount of markup to the commercial audio equipment even after you factor in R&D, manufacturing, and warranty costs. So, rough numbers, I can build a clone of a high end amp with better components for 1/10 to 1/5 the cost of the commercial version. On top of those huge cost savings, I will have an amp that tends to sounds better than the original because I can tune it to my likes and to my particular needs.

But when starting out, there are several kits available that have the boards and all the components already selected. The components tend to be solid performing parts. It would take a critical ear to hear the differences in many cases if you just swapped parts.

On a side note, when I swap parts, I adjust the bias and other voltages to the new parts to get them into their ideal range. In many cases, just swapping a transistor in an existing amp could make it sound WORSE if the bias voltage and feedback loop isn't changed to match the new component. So that's where it gets a little tricky. That's where an understanding of the amp's design and the data sheets come into play. That's a rabbit hole I fell down... I roll components in and out, tweaking bias and feedback loops until I get the sound I want. I'm sure this is a little hard to understand now, but if you get into it and continue to learn, you'll totally understand it later. And say hi to Alice for me.


Below is a pic of one of a little prototype amp I was playing with... the white plastic pieces are transistor sockets. Those make it easy for me to change the output transistors to listen to the headphone amp and decide which sound the best. The amp never went into production in this form... we found ways to improve it during prototyping.

EDIT: You don't need an oscilloscope... I just use a good DMM.

Hahaha this is funny! Alpines were THE racing legends of the 70s here.

So much that they started assembling the 110s under a new brand/model called Willys Interlagos.

My Puma was actually a response from autounion and DKW guys to the Interlagos supremacy. Not any Interlagos but exactly this one:

I will obviously need to have one some day. That was the archenemy rival of mine!

Coming back to the amp...

F*** Cambridge. I’m out starting some research down there in Alice’s place. Wish me luck!


Enviado do meu iPhone usando Tapatalk

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Re: Killing time in a small &quot;2 car&quot; garage

Hahaha this is funny! Alpines were THE racing legends of the 70s here.

So much that they started assembling the 110s under a new brand/model called Willys Interlagos.

My Puma was actually a response from autounion and DKW guys to the Interlagos supremacy. Not any Interlagos but exactly this one:

I will obviously need to have one some day. That was the archenemy rival of mine!

Coming back to the amp...

F*** Cambridge. I’m out starting some research down there in Alice’s place. Wish me luck!


Enviado do meu iPhone usando Tapatalk

Alrighty, now I'm really envious!


Cambridge isn't that bad, they're entry level stuff is usually VERY good for the money, but when you move up the food chain, there are usually better options at the same price point. Cambridge used to make a really nice DAC in the $400 range.

That said, my mid-70s Yamaha CR-620 kicks the **** out of almost every integrated amp on the market under $1K. It's "only" 35W/ch but it clips well over 75w/ch and it's 35w/ch is at the full spectrum so that's 35W at 20hz with plenty of reserve with efficient speakers. I can't wait to get my Pioneer SX3900 receiver up and running. That beast is 200W/ch. I will probably use a media center of some kind to feed the signals to the CR620 and SX3900, then use my little gainclone amp for the center channel.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Last night I decided I wasn't happy with the condition of the holes on my trim so I dug out my counter bore bit and used a hand driver to hold it so I could lightly chamfer the edge to remove the tear out. Worked pretty good:

Then today I scuffed the parts for the IKEA table and chairs... This time I wore my nice Duluth Pack woodworking apron to keep as much dust off myself as possible.

This evening we prepped the pumpkins for carving. After gutting and scraping the insides of two large pumpkins, my shoulder and elbow is now really tired.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Well, I didn't find the pics I'm looking for yet, but here is the pair of headphones that I modified to be hybrids...

But first I guess a little back story is in order. I don't remember exactly when I fell down the rabbit hole, but I was pulled into a subset of headphones called orthodynamic drivers. They are thin membrane drivers with traces on them to make a diaphragm. They generally have high impedance so they are not as efficient as most headphones but they can take a lot of power and they maintain very tight control so they are sonically superior to normal headphones when tuned properly. Most were made in the '70s. New ones are made today, but they start around $600/pr and go up from there. I was in a sub-set group of guys that really dug into the orthos. We traded them around, we experimented on them. One guy was a surgeon so he had the tools and steady hands to repair the traces on the diaphragms if they were damaged. We discovered that while the T10 drivers sounded really good, their diaphragms and traces were extremely delicate and easily damaged. Many could not be saved even by the good doctor. I discovered that they could be tuned with special medical tapes, felts, and the ear pads. Different felt densities have different effects on the sound, same with the medical tapes. I restored and tuned Fostex, NAD, and Yamaha orthodynamic headphones for people all over the world. I've owned or heard every single orthodynamic headphone that has been on, or is on, the market except for the latest models from Audeze.


My special pair of orthos are a rare set by Kenwood from the mid-70s.

They are Kenwood KH-83 orthodynamic headphones. The drivers are from Fostex T10 studio headphones. Kenwood made the really cool headband and bigger cups for them.

The first pic is a side by side of the T10 and KH-83:

The drivers in my Kenwoods were good, but I just couldn't get them to sound the way I wanted them too. I had repaired and restored a lot of Fostex T20s by this point and had spare T10 magnets so I decided to take a diamond ball burr to the T10 magnets to recess the center so a T20 diaphragm would fit. Guys thought I was crazy, but I really had nothing to lose, I had plenty of parts. Well, it was a HUGE success. Everything fit together and they sounded amazing. Much better than stock. And on top of that, that gave me two good T10 drivers to use in another pair of Fostex T10s for a customer so I was able to make a couple hundred bucks in the deal too.

I still need to replace the cable and the ear pads, but I put them away about 6 years ago when I took my break from the industry as a whole. I was burned out and my kids were older so I was doing a lot more with them. They were staying up later at night and I was a lot more tired in the evenings from work.

While I still love great headphones, it's really a solo hobby, when they're on you can't really be a part of conversations or hear much else going on around you. I used to have a home office and I would wear open back headphones and keep the music at low levels so I could hear the phone ring. But I would do my work with them on at my desk since nobody else was home during the day. Once I have my new hobby bench in the basement, I'll move an amp back there and plug my phone into the amp when I'm working at the bench at night. That way I have my tunes but I'm not disturbing my family. Out in the garage, I'll still use speakers. I need complete freedom of movement working on the bikes and I don't want to damage any headphones either.

 

[dmark]

I enjoy your thread. Did you read "Audio Amateur" magazine in the 80's? I used to pick up used Dynaco gear to rebuild for fun (never did a high end audio build). Now that kids are older I may plug in the soldering iron.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

I enjoy your thread. Did you read "Audio Amateur" magazine in the 80's? I used to pick up used Dynaco gear to rebuild for fun (never did a high end audio build). Now that kids are older I may plug in the soldering iron.

Thanks dmark. No, I never read it. I didn't get into DIY audio until 2006 or so. I have picked up a few old issues of Glass Audio and audioXpress magazines.



Pumpkins on the steps, apparently one had too many pumpkin seeds and too much hard cider:

And I'm ready for the rug rats:

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Guys that are into RC trucks and Ford fans, take note!

I saw this on InstaGram tonight... how sweet is this! Shut up and take my money!

 

[Denwood]

Ha, we did the puking pumpkin here as well. I hope you weren't lurking in any hedges with that outfit on tonight!

 

[BoilermakerFan]

I've mentioned my basement hobby shop area a few times. Well, I found the pics from 2011 when I set it up. We bought our house in 2000 and we are the third owners. The house was built in 1939. The second owners bought it in 1974. Our basement is partially finished. Either the first or second owners walled off the front area as close to the furnace as they could. This made a little laundry area and the water heater and furnace are there along with the big duct work. Coming down the stairs they put a wall straight back from the bottom edge of the stairs so when you come down the stairs it is a continuous wall until it intersects the front wall separating the finished area from the unfinished utility area. This made a small "L" shape in the unfinished area.

When they put in the wall they covered over the little entrance to the crawl space under the kitchen. The kitchen is on the NE corner of the house so I guess that's why it's over a crawl space instead of full basement. To gain access to the kitchen they knocked through the block wall to gain access to the crawl space and excavated a small area around the hole in the block wall. The opening was covered with a piece of 1/4" ply paneling which you will see in the pics. I tossed the panel a few years ago. I will be framing in the opening with 2x10s and 2x8s, then I'll make insulated doors to seal off the crawl space but still have vents at the top for air flow.

I had left over drywall from the renovation so I hung it on the back side of the wall in the small portion of the L by the kitchen. In 2011 I finally decided to properly finish it with left over trim and baseboard I had. We had heavy duty shelving in this area for storage and almost 3 years ago I replaced it with new heavy duty shelving that goes the full length of the wall on the other side so it is 12' long. My finished wall is a little over 7' long. I have about 5-1/2' from the wall to edge of the storage shelving.

I didn't feel like installing receptacle boxes in the walls and fishing wire, so I used surface mount boxes and PVC conduit. After the conduit was glued into the boxes I painted them flat black.

Here is the finished wall after I painted it. Straight back is the kitchen sub-panel and to the left is the panel that covers the crawl space opening.

I hung a spare fluorescent light fixture above the area where my "work table" would be and added a 3-light track light to give me a little better task lighting. The shop light is plugged into a receptacle. When I added the additional lighting, I rewired the shop light to the new wall switch for the hobby lights.

The receptacle boxes and light switch box were hung on the wall. The loan light bulb above the kitchen panel is on a different lighting circuit that is turned on by the door into the storage area.

Receptacles and switch installed and wired. All the 120V receptacles are wired to the same 20A circuit. I wanted plenty of receptacles for plugging in chargers and other small tools like my soldering station. In the upper left corner by the kitchen sub-panel is a 240V 20A Twist-Loc receptacle. I wired this into my kitchen sub-panel mostly so that I could program VFDs that can take a single phase input and produce the 3-phase output for motors up to 7-1/2HP. It would also let me plug in my garage heater if i ever had the furnace go out for some reason while we still had power. The house would get cold, but at least the basement would be warm. Fortunately, I've never had to do that. But I like knowing I could if I had to if the furnace went out.

The outlets and lights have power! In this pic the lights are CFLs and the fluorescent tubes. They have been replaced by LEDs. Much brighter now and lower electric usage too.

I had a section of wire shelving left over from closet remodeling, so I hung it on the wall:

I hung 3 small sections of white peg board between the four conduit drops on the wall. I use it, but I've never been really thrilled with it. I put a small 2'x4' portable table under the shelf and that is how it has been for the last 6 years.

Fast forward to today and I'm building my large adjustable height work bench for this hobby area. The table can be lowered to just above my knee and raised to just under my arm pits... so the wire shelf on the wall has to go since it will interfere with the work bench. I can't think of anything I would do that would require the bench to be fully raised, but it will hit the lower shelf supports at a height that I would use while standing.

One of the products I sell for work is T-Slots extrusion. This extrusion is an exact form/fit/function equivalent of the other big company that markets the stuff with a fraction as their name. We used to sell the other stuff before switching to T-Slots. The other company buys most of their extrusions from overseas. T-Slots is still extruded in the US. T-Slots makes a lot more than just the extrusion erector set stuff we all have seen and one of their extrusions is a slat wall material used in commercial sales displays.

You only live once, right? Since I don't like the peg board and most slat wall material is cheap particle board, I decided I'm making new replacement wall panels for my hobby shop out of aluminum slat wall. This will allow me to hang AKRO bins and any of the other hooks and hangers on the market for slat wall.

T-Slots is helping me design the panels and cutting the pieces to the lengths I need, then miter cutting the U-channel trim to fit it perfectly. I'm paying for this service, but it's worth it not to have to mess with it and make sure it's right, the first time. At this point in time I'm planning to just leave it the natural aluminum finish, but I might powder coat it later once I have my oven built.

Anyway, that's my basement hobby shop area. It's small, but cozy and fits my needs perfectly for my RC, DIY audio, and other "clean & quiet" hobbies that I don't do out in the garage. I have an old office chair that I put the good glide casters on that I use in there too. Even with the new bench width of 2-1/2' I'll still have plenty of room to roll the chair around and under the bench.

Once the new work bench is done, pics of it will be posted along with pics of the newly remodeled hobby shop as it progresses to finished.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Ha, we did the puking pumpkin here as well. I hope you weren't lurking in any hedges with that outfit on tonight!

I did a puking pumpkin about 7 or 8 years ago. My son was 4 or 5 at the time and had those "finger flashlights" that were different colored LEDs. We put a green LED finger flashlight in it and the pumpkin guts were a lot stringier that time. This year my son drew the face design and carved his own pumpkin. He wanted to do the puking pumpkin again so I said sure! Boba Fett was a lot harder to cut out than I thought it would be because the cut outs get really close and they are thin so it was very fragile. I was going to carve a Captain America in our third pumpkin for my wife, but Boba took so long yesterday that I decided to save it for next year.

Well... actually we do have a Japanese Holly hedge right by the steps to the front door and there is just enough room for me to get behind it because our gas meter is there so it has to remain accessible. I was waiting for the kids that were being punks and really too big to be out, but they never came around this year so I didn't get into the hedge to scare the **** out of them. But I will admit, it was the plan.

 

[rodpoa]

So after I cleared out my garage from the cars, it was time to refill it with motorcycles.



I started with 7...



1972 CB350 twin

1977 CB550 SS

1981 CX500

1981 GL1100

1982 Titled GL1100 Frame

1982 XV750

1985 XV1100

and a mid-80s Interceptor 500 wreck that I salvaged the swingarm off...



I traded the Virago 1100 off for a 1981 CB650C parts donor, a 1982 CB650 parts donor, and a 1981 or 1982 KZ440 Twin plus some engines.



The CB350 and CB550:

The CX500 after a lot of work:

The '81 GL1100:

The KZ440:

My garage filled with old motorcycles (the Virago 750 is still at a buddy's place):

I started to tear down the bikes to make room to work on the GL1100, but first I needed to add storage space above the ceiling. Pics of that to come.

Damm! You may have one motorcycle too many

Do you have time to work on all of them or are there some less favorite of yours that are left for later?

 

[rodpoa]

Killing time in a small &quot;2 car&quot; garage

Well, I didn't find the pics I'm looking for yet, but here is the pair of headphones that I modified to be hybrids...

But first I guess a little back story is in order. I don't remember exactly when I fell down the rabbit hole, but I was pulled into a subset of headphones called orthodynamic drivers. They are thin membrane drivers with traces on them to make a diaphragm. They generally have high impedance so they are not as efficient as most headphones but they can take a lot of power and they maintain very tight control so they are sonically superior to normal headphones when tuned properly. Most were made in the '70s. New ones are made today, but they start around $600/pr and go up from there. I was in a sub-set group of guys that really dug into the orthos. We traded them around, we experimented on them. One guy was a surgeon so he had the tools and steady hands to repair the traces on the diaphragms if they were damaged. We discovered that while the T10 drivers sounded really good, their diaphragms and traces were extremely delicate and easily damaged. Many could not be saved even by the good doctor. I discovered that they could be tuned with special medical tapes, felts, and the ear pads. Different felt densities have different effects on the sound, same with the medical tapes. I restored and tuned Fostex, NAD, and Yamaha orthodynamic headphones for people all over the world. I've owned or heard every single orthodynamic headphone that has been on, or is on, the market except for the latest models from Audeze.


My special pair of orthos are a rare set by Kenwood from the mid-70s.

They are Kenwood KH-83 orthodynamic headphones. The drivers are from Fostex T10 studio headphones. Kenwood made the really cool headband and bigger cups for them.

The first pic is a side by side of the T10 and KH-83:

The drivers in my Kenwoods were good, but I just couldn't get them to sound the way I wanted them too. I had repaired and restored a lot of Fostex T20s by this point and had spare T10 magnets so I decided to take a diamond ball burr to the T10 magnets to recess the center so a T20 diaphragm would fit. Guys thought I was crazy, but I really had nothing to lose, I had plenty of parts. Well, it was a HUGE success. Everything fit together and they sounded amazing. Much better than stock. And on top of that, that gave me two good T10 drivers to use in another pair of Fostex T10s for a customer so I was able to make a couple hundred bucks in the deal too.

I still need to replace the cable and the ear pads, but I put them away about 6 years ago when I took my break from the industry as a whole. I was burned out and my kids were older so I was doing a lot more with them. They were staying up later at night and I was a lot more tired in the evenings from work.

While I still love great headphones, it's really a solo hobby, when they're on you can't really be a part of conversations or hear much else going on around you. I used to have a home office and I would wear open back headphones and keep the music at low levels so I could hear the phone ring. But I would do my work with them on at my desk since nobody else was home during the day. Once I have my new hobby bench in the basement, I'll move an amp back there and plug my phone into the amp when I'm working at the bench at night. That way I have my tunes but I'm not disturbing my family. Out in the garage, I'll still use speakers. I need complete freedom of movement working on the bikes and I don't want to damage any headphones either.

That was it! This very post.

New rabbit role for me. Started disassembling all my old speakers now. May do the same with by bang olufsen ear set later. I will keep you posted because it will be your fault somehow in the best sense of the expression. Thank you for the inspiration.

To the DIY audio world I'm off...

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Damm! You may have one motorcycle too many

Do you have time to work on all of them or are there some less favorite of yours that are left for later?

No such thing man. I am trying to sell off the Yamaha XV750 though.

I am building them in a bit of an order... The CX500 runs and I've ridden it on and off all summer, but it needs the forks rebuilt so that gets done this winter. The KZ650 runs but needs an exhaust so that is being ordered. I'll ride it as it is after a little maintenance is done until the GL1100 is running. The GL1100 is the main project bike at this time. Once it's running as a naked Goldwing, I'll start on the restoration mod for the KZ650. If my wife follows through and gets her motorcycle license next spring then I'll restore the CX500 for her next winter, otherwise I'm selling it.

The next bike in the cue to be rebuilt is the KZ440 which will be built into a true scrambler adventure bike. The CB350 is going to be my son's bike that he'll get his Junior or Senior year in high school. The CB550 is being built as a dedicated track bike. I'll build a restomod CB650 Nighthawk and a custom hardtail boardtracker bike after that.

So yes, most of the bikes will be rebuilt, but 3 are donor bikes for the CB550, CB650, and KZ650. I'm basically keeping their engines and the best parts from them. Any parts I have no use for or have taken off the bikes have been brought to a motorcycle salvage yard to trade for other parts I need.

I figure I have motorcycle projects lined out for the next 5-8 years.

EDIT: Oh, I tore down all but 3 of the bikes and put them in my garage loft storage. I have hauled off a couple frames, but I still have more to haul off.

That was it! This very post.

New rabbit role for me. Started disassembling all my old speakers now. May do the same with by bang olufsen ear set later. I will keep you posted because it will be your fault somehow in the best sense of the expression. Thank you for the inspiration.

To the DIY audio world I'm off...

What's wrong with the B&O headphones? Do they have foam in the cups that has just decayed away in time? That's pretty common on all headphones from the '70s and '80s. I used different felts to replace it. Works really well in AKG dynamic headphones and all of the orthos.

 

[rodpoa]

No such thing man. I am trying to sell off the Yamaha XV750 though.

I am building them in a bit of an order... The CX500 runs and I've ridden it on and off all summer, but it needs the forks rebuilt so that gets done this winter. The KZ650 runs but needs an exhaust so that is being ordered. I'll ride it as it is after a little maintenance is done until the GL1100 is running. The GL1100 is the main project bike at this time. Once it's running as a naked Goldwing, I'll start on the restoration mod for the KZ650. If my wife follows through and gets her motorcycle license next spring then I'll restore the CX500 for her next winter, otherwise I'm selling it.

The next bike in the cue to be rebuilt is the KZ440 which will be built into a true scrambler adventure bike. The CB350 is going to be my son's bike that he'll get his Junior or Senior year in high school. The CB550 is being built as a dedicated track bike. I'll build a restomod CB650 Nighthawk and a custom hardtail boardtracker bike after that.

So yes, most of the bikes will be rebuilt, but 3 are donor bikes for the CB550, CB650, and KZ650. I'm basically keeping their engines and the best parts from them. Any parts I have no use for or have taken off the bikes have been brought to a motorcycle salvage yard to trade for other parts I need.

I figure I have motorcycle projects lined out for the next 5-8 years.



What's wrong with the B&O headphones? Do they have foam in the cups that has just decayed away in time? That's pretty common on all headphones from the '70s and '80s. I used different felts to replace it. Works really well in AKG dynamic headphones and all of the orthos.

You know I like scramblers. Eager to see that. I think I've never seem a naked gl1100.

Nothing wrong with the b&o expect they are not famous for their bass. More like a classic music equipment.

The wires though should make b&o ashamed. Not that it did brake but since day one they look like they want to. They're thin and they look cheap. I just want to replace for thicker ones enlaced with something like shoelaces to increase reliability.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

You know I like scramblers. Eager to see that. I think I've never seem a naked gl1100.

Nothing wrong with the b&o expect they are not famous for their bass. More like a classic music equipment.

The wires though should make b&o ashamed. Not that it did brake but since day one they look like they want to. They're thin and they look cheap. I just want to replace for thicker ones enlaced with something like shoelaces to increase reliability.

Google Naked GL1100. There are a lot of them out there. Some are very basic... but I have a file of over 200 pics of the best custom naked GL1100s I've found on my phone that I use for reference as I planned my build.


The lack of bass in the B&O headphones can be caused by the cable, or it may need some better tuning felt in the cups behind the driver. Start with the cable. If the cable is thin it's probably limiting the power that can get to the driver to recreate the bass.

You can make simple headphone cables with Plenum rated CAT6 wires. Pull the wires out of the outer Teflon jacket... start with 2 wires to each terminal... you can probably go up to 4 each... there is a way to braid 4 wires together called Litz braiding. Plenty of how-to vids or web sites online... Litz braid the wires and split off the wires going to the left and right ear cups. Sleeving probably isn't necessary with the Teflon coated plenum CAT6 wire. Regular CAT6 wire is in PVC, don't use that wire, it's junk for audio wire.

The other option is to buy Mogami 4 conductor speaker wire in 18ga. You'll have to remove the main cover for the last 2' of wire to split the left and right wires for each cup. Nuetrik makes a good 1/4" headphone jack plug for the money. Easy to order it online... Use a good electronics solder for the connections. Kester makes a good solder for the money. If you can find the Kester electronic solder with 2% silver grab it. It's getting really hard to find, may be impossible to find now... I snagged 3 spools of it 7 years ago when it was hard to get back then.

 

[rodpoa]

Google Naked GL1100. There are a lot of them out there. Some are very basic... but I have a file of over 200 pics of the best custom naked GL1100s I've found on my phone that I use for reference as I planned my build.





The lack of bass in the B&O headphones can be caused by the cable, or it may need some better tuning felt in the cups behind the driver. Start with the cable. If the cable is thin it's probably limiting the power that can get to the driver to recreate the bass.



You can make simple headphone cables with Plenum rated CAT6 wires. Pull the wires out of the outer Teflon jacket... start with 2 wires to each terminal... you can probably go up to 4 each... there is a way to braid 4 wires together called Litz braiding. Plenty of how-to vids or web sites online... Litz braid the wires and split off the wires going to the left and right ear cups. Sleeving probably isn't necessary with the Teflon coated plenum CAT6 wire. Regular CAT6 wire is in PVC, don't use that wire, it's junk for audio wire.



The other option is to buy Mogami 4 conductor speaker wire in 18ga. You'll have to remove the main cover for the last 2' of wire to split the left and right wires for each cup. Nuetrik makes a good 1/4" headphone jack plug for the money. Easy to order it online... Use a good electronics solder for the connections. Kester makes a good solder for the money. If you can find the Kester electronic solder with 2% silver grab it. It's getting really hard to find, may be impossible to find now... I snagged 3 spools of it 7 years ago when it was hard to get back then.

Ok. Thanks for the tips. I will be looking at all of them. Seriously. I have a shopping list now.

This one seems like something I may be able to tackle. I will be attempting this recabling very shortly.

I just have to build new speakers before after tonight’s failure


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[BoilermakerFan]

Ok. Thanks for the tips. I will be looking at all of them. Seriously. I have a shopping list now.

This one seems like something I may be able to tackle. I will be attempting this recabling very shortly.

I just have to build new speakers before after tonight’s failure


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What kind of speakers do you want to build? I probably have 20-30 sets of plans and I can point you to a couple web sites with more.

I'm going to be building a set of Baby Elsinores, I already have the matched woofers and the tweeter waveguides. The Babies are basically the top MTM part of these in a smaller cabinet:

The DIY website for the Elsinores is here: Elsinore Loudspeaker


The other pair of speakers will be Decware's Zen Open Baffle:

The DIY plans are available at the bottom of the ZOB page here: Zen Open Baffle

I have custom Planet_10 HiFi EnABLed drivers for mine. The front baffles will be... what else? Hickory premier plywood with solid hickory trim. If I don't like the ZOBs, I'll sell the cabinets or scrap them and then put the drivers in a different full range enclosure.

I'm sure I'll end up building a set of 3-way horns and full range cabinet speakers at some point in the future too, in addition to a 7.1 surround sound setup. I've been kicking around the idea in my head of building my own sound bar for my current big TV downstairs. But most commercial offerings have built in surround sound processors to give you quasi-surround sound so I'm still on the fence.

I have two large toroid transformers that can each power a 700W amp. Each one will require a dedicated 20A circuit for power since they pull 1Kw total at peak wattage. You lose about 30% in the conversion from AC to DC power. I can configure the amps in any fashion. I could build two monoblocks for 1400W total or build a 7.1 system and split the wattage up between all of the channels. With that much power in my current house feeding DIY speakers, I would blow out the basement windows and probably crack my plaster walls. So that's why I'm just sitting on them. That and the heat sinks would be huge so I would have to build a custom enclosure for them. Too many other projects already in the cue that I would rather build as well, so they just sit in my parts tote.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Tonight I spent 2-1/2 hours sanding my hickory work bench top to get the trim flush with the top. My trim boards were not that warped so I guess the variation is mostly in the top hickory T&G boards. I had to break out the belt sander to take off enough material in several areas. It's knocked down now, but the top has some waviness to it. It had a little of this before and I noticed the edges where the T&G board tie together could be felt with your fingers. The edges were raised just slightly so they must have swelled a little more when the original coats of oil were applied. For the next few days I will just be spending hours going across the top with the RO sander to keep smoothing out the top and bringing it back to as close to level and even as I can make it. Fortunately I have a 48" ruler to use as a straight edge to check for high and low spots.

I have a love/hate relationship with my belt sander. I love how fast it can take material off, but I hate how hard it is to end up with a level surface across the entire area, even when keeping it moving smoothly across the whole surface. Visually it looks really good, but put a straight edge across the surface and you can see the waves. I also hate how much dust it generates even with the collection bag installed. There are piles of sawdust on my floor now and the entire garage is once again covered in a layer of dust. That means this weekend I have take a couple hours to eradicate the dust... again. Thankfully, the worst of the saw dust generation is done and I can hook the RO sander up to my shop vac which has a HEPA filter in it. But there will still be more dust, it will just be finer and finer as I get the top prepped for finishing.

 

[rodpoa]

What kind of speakers do you want to build? I probably have 20-30 sets of plans and I can point you to a couple web sites with more.



I'm going to be building a set of Baby Elsinores, I already have the matched woofers and the tweeter waveguides. The Babies are basically the top MTM part of these in a smaller cabinet:

The DIY website for the Elsinores is here: Elsinore Loudspeaker





The other pair of speakers will be Decware's Zen Open Baffle:

The DIY plans are available at the bottom of the ZOB page here: Zen Open Baffle



I have custom Planet_10 HiFi EnABLed drivers for mine. The front baffles will be... what else? Hickory premier plywood with solid hickory trim. If I don't like the ZOBs, I'll sell the cabinets or scrap them and then put the drivers in a different full range enclosure.



I'm sure I'll end up building a set of 3-way horns and full range cabinet speakers at some point in the future too, in addition to a 7.1 surround sound setup. I've been kicking around the idea in my head of building my own sound bar for my current big TV downstairs. But most commercial offerings have built in surround sound processors to give you quasi-surround sound so I'm still on the fence.



I have two large toroid transformers that can each power a 700W amp. Each one will require a dedicated 20A circuit for power since they pull 1Kw total at peak wattage. You lose about 30% in the conversion from AC to DC power. I can configure the amps in any fashion. I could build two monoblocks for 1400W total or build a 7.1 system and split the wattage up between all of the channels. With that much power in my current house feeding DIY speakers, I would blow out the basement windows and probably crack my plaster walls. So that's why I'm just sitting on them. That and the heat sinks would be huge so I would have to build a custom enclosure for them. Too many other projects already in the cue that I would rather build as well, so they just sit in my parts tote.

No, it will be something way simpler than that. I listen mostly alone, low volume. I never needed power but of course I don’t like underpowered amps that only wake up with very high gain. Te trick is showing all frequencies with so little volume.

I’d like to build something in a cabinet as big as mine. It is one of those classical retangular cabinets with something close to 49cm I’m height.

Mine has a 8” driver and a tweeter. I thought about the waveguides but not sure if one will fit. My current thinking is a three way crossover with a 8” woofer, a mid and the tweeter on top. I should use an air duct as I don’t like sealed cabinets that much.

Regarding equipment, I am considering everything selenium which is our local manufacturer of JBL and HK.

Pretty simple for stereo only with analog sources. The amp laying around here is a polyvox. I will switch later for separate pre and power.

Sounds too simple?


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[BoilermakerFan]

No, it will be something way simpler than that. I listen mostly alone, low volume. I never needed power but of course I don’t like underpowered amps that only wake up with very high gain. Te trick is showing all frequencies with so little volume.

I’d like to build something in a cabinet as big as mine. It is one of those classical retangular cabinets with something close to 49cm I’m height.

Mine has a 8” driver and a tweeter. I thought about the waveguides but not sure if one will fit. My current thinking is a three way crossover with a 8” woofer, a mid and the tweeter on top. I should use an air duct as I don’t like sealed cabinets that much.

Regarding equipment, I am considering everything selenium which is our local manufacturer of JBL and HK.

Pretty simple for stereo only with analog sources. The amp laying around here is a polyvox. I will switch later for separate pre and power.

Sounds too simple?


Enviado do meu iPhone usando Tapatalk

8" drivers are fine, but many don't go that low in the frequency range unless they are rear horn loaded or played at louder levels. Low frequency just takes power and surface area to recreate. So you either have to have a Loudness or bass boost at low volume or you have to have a lot of surface area to create the sound.


Here is a set of plans that are pretty close to what you are looking for:

SEAS TRYM 2-way Plans SEAS provides the model numbers for their drivers and the crossover diagram.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

After work I went and swept the garage floor before blowing out the dust.

For reference, I wear a size 11.5 (Eur 45) boot. And that was just the pile of the big particles. The small dust is EVERYWHERE in the garage.

And the top as it is now... back to bare hickory. The front of the bench is now on the left hand side.

 

[rodpoa]

8" drivers are fine, but many don't go that low in the frequency range unless they are rear horn loaded or played at louder levels. Low frequency just takes power and surface area to recreate. So you either have to have a Loudness or bass boost at low volume or you have to have a lot of surface area to create the sound.





Here is a set of plans that are pretty close to what you are looking for:



SEAS TRYM 2-way Plans SEAS provides the model numbers for their drivers and the crossover diagram.

Stunning! Beautiful! I may attempt this one! Thank you again!!


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