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Member Birchoak has Passed

I am very bummed to hear this. :( A couple of years ago, I responded to a few of his posts, and regarded him as possibly being a kindred spirit, so I sent him some PMs with information about local swapmeets. After a few false starts, I finally got to meet him at the October 2019 edition of the (in)famous MIT Swapfest, where he ended up purchasing a pachinko machine for his son, as well as a Harman-Kardon receiver. I was hoping I'd be able to see him at more swaps during the next year as well as our local 'FrankenFests', but the pandemic put the kibosh on that. RIP, Brett. :(
-Adam
 
Well hell. I enjoyed his threads and thread participation. Also, the cool Johnny Quest Invisible Monster avatar. Damnit. R.I.P.
 
Wow, I’m shocked to hear this! Brett was a good guy and I always enjoyed his posts, he loved those little Sherwoods. Far too young to go, my condolences to his family. RIP Brett.
 
He totally loved those Sherwoods, I know he owned at least two of them and often said they had 'immense balls' and that they were super easy to work on.
 
AdamAnt316 said:
I am very bummed to hear this. :( A couple of years ago, I responded to a few of his posts, and regarded him as possibly being a kindred spirit, so I sent him some PMs with information about local swapmeets. After a few false starts, I finally got to meet him at the October 2019 edition of the (in)famous MIT Swapfest, where he ended up purchasing a pachinko machine for his son, as well as a Harman-Kardon receiver. I was hoping I'd be able to see him at more swaps during the next year as well as our local 'FrankenFests', but the pandemic put the kibosh on that. RIP, Brett. :(
-Adam
Click to expand...
Here was his verbiage right after regarding the Pachinko machine:

"The Pachinko machine was $40 and a bitch to carry down four flights of stairs with one hand. I will take some pics and try to remember to share them with you later--if I don't bug me as I can be forgetful. It is completely mechanical, relying on the combined weight of 11mm steel balls to operate properly. It's like a vertical pinball machine but much smaller. From what I can tell, it's still working properly, 45 years later (and many sweaty hands). I've been cleaning up the chrome and just built a new base for it. I plan to wire in some LEDs to spice it up for my son. It is damned cool, and even my wife thinks it's the nuts (not her words)."

His words carry so much enthusiasm and paint such a picture.
 
mccarty350 said:
Here was his verbiage right after regarding the Pachinko machine:

"The Pachinko machine was $40 and a bitch to carry down four flights of stairs with one hand. I will take some pics and try to remember to share them with you later--if I don't bug me as I can be forgetful. It is completely mechanical, relying on the combined weight of 11mm steel balls to operate properly. It's like a vertical pinball machine but much smaller. From what I can tell, it's still working properly, 45 years later (and many sweaty hands). I've been cleaning up the chrome and just built a new base for it. I plan to wire in some LEDs to spice it up for my son. It is damned cool, and even my wife thinks it's the nuts (not her words)."

His words carry so much enthusiasm and paint such a picture.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the MIT Swap is held on the upper floors of a 6-story parking garage, an overall situation which has gotten progressively more bizarre by the year. I myself hauled the components of a color organ down the parking garage's auto ramp in the middle of a rainstorm earlier that same year; I had a hand cart to roll them along with, but it only helped somewhat due to the contraption's overall bulk. If Brett had asked, I would've lent him that handcart, or outright given him a hand in hauling it to his car.

Speaking of photos, he sent me several photos of it in a PM after the show. Here are a few of them:
pachinko_front.JPG
pachinko_flipper.JPG
pachinko_bird.JPG
pachinko_lights.JPG
pachinko_rear.JPG
(he built the added base overhang for stability, as well as allowing mounting of a power strip)

And, for good measure, some photos of that Harman-Kardon 330C receiver he also picked up at the show:
DSC_0159.JPG
DSC_0160.JPG
DSC_0162.JPG
(he lamented about the quality of the components, including those tiny output transistors, but loved how it sounded)
 
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AdamAnt316 said:
Fixed, I think. The images were originally AK attachments in his PM, but though they showed up on my screen when inserted as images, I guess they didn't transfer over for some reason. :dunno: Hope they work now, anyway.
-Adam
Click to expand...

All good now, AdamAnt316..

Thank you kind Sir.
 
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