What did you do this weekend?

gadget73 said:
Went and helped a friend with his mom's AC yesterday. Originally nothing would go. Cap was bulged. New cap got the compressor going but no fan. New fan motor wouldn't go, wires were reversed. Once we got it actually going, it seems to be low on charge since its not actually cooling. I have a jug of R22, need to come up with a set of gauges to actually connect it up now.

2 years ago the hvac company told his mom it wasn't worth fixing and just turned off the breaker. No explanation why, but if the problem was simply a bad cap and a low charge thats fairly pushy tactic to try and get an AC replacement job out of a retired lady on fixed income.
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Yep,,, lots of "coroners" out there condemning all kinds of stuff,,, gotta beware...
I just tore out my 1974 Carrier last week,,, got 40+ good years out of it,,, just replaced 2 contactors over the years,,, started needing a charge 2 years ago,, and R22 is way too expensive to waste to leaks....
Placing an order for the new gear tomorrow,,, be surprised to get 10 years out of it, nowadays!!!!
 
Would have loved to see Gilmour at Pompei again. Check his website. Will be doing a one night only show in theaters of his show in Pompei. Gotta go shopping right now.
 
knockbill said:
Yep,,, lots of "coroners" out there condemning all kinds of stuff,,, gotta beware...
I just tore out my 1974 Carrier last week,,, got 40+ good years out of it,,, just replaced 2 contactors over the years,,, started needing a charge 2 years ago,, and R22 is way too expensive to waste to leaks....
Placing an order for the new gear tomorrow,,, be surprised to get 10 years out of it, nowadays!!!!
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Planned obsolescence. That rabbit hole goes rather deep.

Your highlighted sentence above says volumes about this "infinite growth/infinite resources" paradigm we are blindly following, knowing it to be a lie.
 
dlucy said:
Thanks! I'm curing a case for a Harman Kardon 330A that I just sold and the two SX-626 cases are for a completely-restored Pioneer I'm finishing up today. I'll put it up here in BarterTown and offer the buyer their choice of the black walnut cabinet or the glowing-golden mahogany one. Whichever one they don't pick to go with the restored Pioneer will be put up in BarterTown next. The 626 sounds even better than the 330.
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The new owners will be very lucky with the addition of those custom cases.

Binkman said:
oldsansui441; I think the Watco brand has a small amount of japan drier. Good lemon oil polish on finished jobs works good too.
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I must try that lemon oil polish also.

dlucy said:
The finish tung oil gives has proven to be my favorite
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Will have to try the tung oil.
 
Oldsansui441 said:
Will have to try the tung oil.
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Over the last few months I've learned a few things about tung oil that I'll share for what they're worth:

1. There is a huge difference between "tung oil" finishes (like Formby's) and actual tung oil (which states "100% tung oil" on the label). Tung oil finishes are hard to work with as they dry or become sticky quickly because they have solvents and only partially made of tung oil. Pure 100% tung oil is what all the Internet advice and woodworking books are talking about.

2. Your first coat of 100% tung oil on new wood should be mixed 50-50 with mineral spirits so the tung oil can penetrate deeply into the wood. This will take 24-48 hours to cure.

3. Subsequent coats of tung oil should just be tung oil, no mineral spirits.

4. The first few coats of tung oil will need to be applied with wet-n-dry sandpaper or steel wool so the tearing action of the sandpaper/steelwool will create a slurry of wood bits and tung oil which will fill in the crevices in the wood's surface and create a smooth surface (for subsequent polish or wax).

5. Wood can be bea-utiful with just tung oil, no stain. I'm not saying "never use stain", but rather "test out tung oil and all your finishes on some scrap bits of the same wood and see how amazing the wood looks (especially with tung oil)".

I've bought and tested a bunch of finishes and almost always chosen tung oil after looking at the results. It's not for every single wood and situation, but, for me, it's for most.
 
Ray Gianelli said:
Around 90 degrees here, too hot to work at my bench in the garage. The girlfriend and I spent the weekend in the pool reading library books... and trying to keep them dry so we don't have to pay for them!

Did have a buddy bring his guitar amp by. I always work on these right away, since most of my musician friends gig. Quick fix, turned out to be a bad phase splitter tube.
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That's the reason when my big boss want me to set up in the garage, I said no way jose!!! I don't even want to have the bench on the second floor in the house as it still gets warmer. I insist on downstair room.
 
I modified my Technics SU-V6 to turn some of the "Tape Rec" RCA's into "Pre outs".

Plugged the Technics into my bi-amped setup so I could finally hear the famed phono stage after I recapped it.

Sounds surprisingly good. So much so that I could tell my stylus was all gunked up and needed a clean. How come I couldn't hear that with my Accuphase C200 phono stage?!?!?
 
onwardjames said:
Planned obsolescence. That rabbit hole goes rather deep.

Your highlighted sentence above says volumes about this "infinite growth/infinite resources" paradigm we are blindly following, knowing it to be a lie.
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On the other hand, how long you gonna nickel and dime that old inefficient, freon-eating (leaking) beast before you replace it with a, non leaking, more enviro friendly, more efficient unit?

I'm in the same situation described at my home. For what I've nickel and dimed into the ancient AC system over the years I could have been well on my way to a replacement. And, the old beast is down again. BTW, it never breaks in the winter. LOL.
 
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whoaru99 said:
On the other hand, how long you gonna nickel and dime that old inefficient, freon-eating (leaking) beast before you replace it with a, non leaking, more enviro friendly, more efficient unit?
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IMO depends on the 'brand' and again on annual service and parts available. btw.. I cleaned my reusable air filter (twice a month). by far cheaper than the paper elements in the long run.
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btw... this thread is now 'past-tense' however till the next weekend... :D applicable. I tried to reply to many threads, read a few sm's, cussed at congress a lot, had a few 'foster's ale's' and for the first time I donned my grado prestige sr80i h/phones on my rat shack dx-375 am,sw,fm pll synthesized receiver. (transistor radio size) Holy moly batman! totally taken by surprise how good this puppy tag team is.. I the use the dx for bench listening, emergency, etc. over the 3" speaker and tried ear buds with hohum results... but dagg w/the grado's is like hearing tol amp mind you the stations I receive are mainly digital but very surprised.
 
Binkman said:
IMO depends on the 'brand' and again on annual service and parts available. btw.. I cleaned my reusable air filter (twice a month). by far cheaper than the paper elements in the long run.
------
btw... this thread is now 'past-tense' however till the next weekend... :D applicable. I tried to reply to many threads, read a few sm's, cussed at congress a lot, had a few 'foster's ale's' and for the first time I donned my grado prestige sr80i h/phones on my rat shack dx-375 am,sw,fm pll synthesized receiver. (transistor radio size) Holy moly batman! totally taken by surprise how good this puppy tag team is.. I the use the dx for bench listening, emergency, etc. over the 3" speaker and tried ear buds with hohum results... but dagg w/the grado's is like hearing tol amp mind you the stations I receive are mainly digital but very surprised.
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:rflmao::rflmao::rflmao::thumbsup:
 
90*F in the shade here, with 100*F+ in the shed on the Bench. Spent the morning working on and tweaking a FISHER 101-R Tuner, sweating off some poundage. Taking a break for a 1/2 hour and after I get back from H.D., gonna bleed the brakes on my S-10. New Fluid will hopefully negate the ABS light coming on regularly old fluid is black as coal. Then crank up the Weber for Grilled Chicken, potatoes, and corn. 15 year old carrier A/C is keeping the house at 80*F very nicely. Right now off to Home Depot for some Charcoal. What I can't stand is temps under 65*F.
 
Sleep. Just woke up after 14 hours. Worked 16 hours and was greeted to four hour drive home in traffic yesterday. Everybody in a hurry to get home and then they get into an accident.
I HATE Friday's overtime (Not the OT per say just on Friday's.) Working nights eventually catched up to you where you only sleep four hours in the day. I feel human again! Wooohoo.

In the meantime I'll put my Pioneer back together and listen to them! Have to pack a receiver to ship off to get fixed.
 
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