Christmas!

Christmas!

Dec 04

 

Yep, it’s that time of year already. Time to start getting ready for Christmas!

 

 We got a good jump on things this year.

 

 We splurged and got a new tree. We had our old one for about 19 years and were due for a new tree. We’re all really happy with it.

 

 

Dane and I took advantage of the unseasonably nice weather and got some of the Christmas lights up.

 

 

Dane and I made the lighted yard ornaments at least 5 years ago. It was a great project to teach him how to weld and they are still working as good as the day we built them.

 

We’re all looking forward to a great holiday season.

 

We’re wishing everyone a happy, safe, and wonderful holiday season this year.

 

—– Brandon

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nov 28

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

We had a great turkey dinner at my mom’s and got to visit with family a little.

 

Been enjoying being able to spend time with my son who’s home on break from college. Been talking about college classes, computers, video games, and new movies coming out.

 

He’s having a great time at college and I’m really happy he’s enjoying it.

 

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving this year!

 

 

Many Hats

Many Hats

Nov 24

 

My little workshop has to be flexible and wear many hats.

 

Today was no exception. Today’s task was to convert it to an electronic repair shop to see if I can resurrect an old 22″ Dell monitor they were throwing out at work.

 

I disassembled the monitor, pulled the power board and found 4 bad capacitors which is typical in Dell hardware.

 

– Power board on the bench being diagnosed –

– Bad Capacitors (domed tops) –

So after about 30 minutes of my time and 4 new capacitors (56 cents total), I have a nice large Dell monitor for my home PC. Nice!

 

– It’s Alive! –

This was a nice little project that yielded a nice much larger computer monitor for my home PC for next to nothing.

 

Awesome!

 

BTW – Yes that’s a VCR under the monitor. I use it to transfer VHS tapes to digital media, and the pint glass you see has Thirsty Dog’s 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale in it which I highly recommend. 🙂

 

Adding a Little Glow

Adding a Little Glow

Sep 26

 

 

Decided to take a little time away from woodworking to dress up the outside of the shop.

I’m a sucker for cool signage and vintage lighting. So I decided to finally wire my vintage porcelain sign light (center) and backlight my Pegasus Mobil sign with some red led strips off of Amazon.

 

Here are some before and after shots. They honestly don’t do it justice. It looks awesome at night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apple Pie!

Apple Pie!

Sep 19

 

 

Ah yes, It’s Fall. The nights are getting cooler and the days are getting shorter. Time for a trip to Monroe’s Orchard for just the right blend of tart and sweet farm fresh apples for my wife’s fantastic homemade apple pie.

 

We’ve been going to Monroe’s Orchard since Dane was in grade school. Yes, their apples are that good.

 

Here are some pictures of our visit:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cleveland Pinball and Arcade Show!

Cleveland Pinball and Arcade Show!

Sep 13

 

Took a half vacation day from work on Friday with my best friend since high school and went to the 2015 Cleveland Pinball and Arcade Show. We had a BLAST!!!!

 

This is a great show and I got to play a TON of tables I love and some I haven’t seen before. Definitely go with a friend. We played all the tables on 2 player which made the experience that much more fun!

 

Here are a couple shots from the main room floor. The pictures don’t do it justice.

 

 

 

 

One of the highlights for me was getting to play Jersey Jack’s Wizard of Oz machine. This is a fantastic machine! It’s a low scoring machine (so don’t get frustrated), but an absolute blast to play!

 

 

 

Here’s a YouTube video featuring this amazing machine: CLICK ME!!!

 

If you are out and about and see this table somewhere, PLAY IT!  ——  It’s amazing!!!

 

—– Brandon

 

 

 

Disney Park Props

Disney Park Props

Aug 22

 

 

 

Here’s my latest authentic Disney Parks prop find:

 

 

These are plaques off trash cans in the Magic Kingdom. One is from Tomorrowland and the other from Main Street USA!

Here’s a shot of the back showing these are authentic park used pieces that still have the bolts intact where they were secured to the cans.

 

 These were an awesome find. They’re in great shape and are going to clean up nicely.

 

They’re a great addition to my growing collection.

 

 

Flooded (again…)

Flooded (again…)

Aug 15

Ugh! This Summer has been plagued with a lot of rain.

My garage and shop flooded last month which I thought was a fluke. Well we got a deluge of rain last Tuesday and the garage and workshop flooded yet again.

Nothing got ruined, but it is a total pain having to move everything and clean it all up.

Here are some shots of the sediment and mud left behind.

So I took a vacation day on Friday. I moved everything out of the workshop, swept, hosed, squeegeed, and mopped the shop and one garage bay. Moved everything back once it dried and did the same for the remaining garage bay Saturday morning.

Here are some pictures of it being cleaned. Lots o’ fun! <sarcasm>

I’m hoping this is the last time I have to do this.

—– Brandon