Cal Blacksmith

I never saw him, heck I didn't even know he existed, now I am gonna miss him, OH well, perhaps you will get a BIG TEX v2. Once can only hope.

I had to laugh! The moment they started talking about planned demise of goods, I instantly thought of the I phone and any I product made! The moment there is an "upgrade" to those products, the owners, like lemmings, sleep in line over night to buy the next, I whatever! Then when the film named Apple... it was too much and I had to crack up! I work every day with tools that were designed to last a life time and they have! My anvil is 70 + years old, I have hand tools that are about the same age, my pwer hammer (a forging machine) is at least 100 years old and it works nearly as good now as the day it was made, with a few hundered $ or repairs and a coat of paint, it will be just as good as the day it was first loaded on a truck for delivery to a factory somewhere. My bandsaw weighs arround 3K#, it has a frame made with thick cast iron, it was made in 1941, it was worked for 65 years then it sat outside for over a year before it was sold. I bought it for $450 then paid $550 to have it moved. With a little oil and some scotch bright, the rust was removed and it was brought into working condition again, ready for who knows how many years more of service. Then again, with new tech, things move pretty darn fast sometimes. New speeds, features etc become available which weren't even dreamed of when the prduct was first sold. Things like cell phones are a case in point. I buy not the bleeding edge of tech for my phones but they serve me for 3 or 4 years then they are replaced when it has a major issue as even though I can get it replaced under warranty that I pay for (and I have used it multiple times) the features of the new ones after 3 or 4 years make ease of use much higher, and they are more productive. I guess what I am saying is that there is a place for disposable goods AND durable goods. I tend to repair things when I can though. At the moment, I have 8 programmable blenders on my work bench that were used in a Jamba Juce store. They are repaired for the first year under warranty then they are replaced when there is an issue as the cost of parts render them unrepairable. I buy them for a fair but low price then mix and match parts from the various units to salvage what I can and I expect to get about half running again from what I have. These are $1K each new and I have less than 1/10 that in them when I am finished, counting the ones that get recycled. These opertunities are all around us if we just look for them.

We watched this just a few nights ago. It was the first BD to be played since theHT has been put back together after the flood. Great bass and special effects, good score too. A thouroughly enjoyable evening.

I've considered using pressure washer, turn it down to about 3,500psi but can't figure out how to protect the labels. Rain gear and safety goggle advised. Taz I found that when using the pressure washer, the best way to protect the labels is to cut two metal discs from about 1/8" or so material then some thin rubber is glued to one side of each disc. A hole is drilled into the center of each disc so that you can put a nut and bolt through the metal/rubber/record sandwitch. Tighten snugly and have at it! The discs protect the lable perfectly, keeping them dry and intact []

Firefox works very well, just saying.... I don't have an investment with them or anything[]

If you want them REALLY clean, there is nothing like Ajax and steel wool, about 000 is good. If you can settle for a little less clean, the Spin Clean from Garage a record is a great tool, I love mine. The pads wear out fairly quickly so buy a couple extra ones.

We have replacement value of current price on our contents. We made the decision more than 20 years ago so I can't tell you how much it changed the policy but we just had a pipe break, flooded out nearly all the rooms. They paid 100% current market price for replacement. I was lucky and did not have any electronics damaged but all my floors including over 30 year old carpet was replaced at todays rates. I love Farmers insurance. We have all our insurance through them. Never a problem with payment of a claim and the people are nice to talk to also. YMMV

YEP, our 60" is a year and a half and I still love it.

I have had the same issue with handshaking after I had to tear my system down and start again. I went throug 3 HDMI cables before either I got lucky and it worked or until which ever connection in the cables that carry the handshake, connected and all worked again. I also have had lots of issues with adding in splitters, switch boxes etc. It can be nice and it can be a pain in the back side for sure.

Buy what you want but in my humble opinion, like said above, bits are bits and I have several players but I basically go with the PS3. They don't cost an arm and a leg, they have lots of other uses and to my aging eyes, I can't see any difference between them and higher end dedicated BD players. YMMV!

I favor equipment with pre outs as I use them. I have a fairly run of the mill (well when I bought it anyway) Yamaha AVR. I use the pre outs for my mains and drive the HT mains with a very nice SS stereo power amp and the results are better than the sum of the parts. The outboard amp allows me to take that load off the AVR power supply and amps thus my center gets the bulk of the power while sides and rears divide up the rest. It works for me. Without pre outs, you can't do this. YMMV!

OK, that is more logical!

USNRET, that is an AWESOME photo, how did they get the exhaust to split up and down?

As normal, I am away from the internet over the weekend so thanks so much to all those who have added here. We are thouroghly enjoying our time together, he is taking much longer than "normal" for a home visit so time is not so harried. He and I are taking time together to just "hang out", play some video games and enjoy each others company. All things aircraft, military are welcome in this thread as far as I am concerned!

WILCO!

Thanks everyone, he is just as proud to serve as I am to have him as a Son. Yes, 4 years, time flys huh? He is an AT or Aircraft Tech, his specitality is cockpit electronics for the FA18, both the old ones and the new model ones. I had the honor to frock him as a petty officer a few months ago, it was that promotion that gave him the edge to reenlist. His plans at the moment is to continue in the service and he hopes to be able to take the test for E5 in about a year when he returns from this cruse. There is a lot of concern in, at least his old SQDN that the cuts are way too deep. They don't have the people to do the maint without working 16 hour shifts on nights (he has been on night shift since he started in this unit nearly 3 years ago) as well as full day shift. They hope that things are going to reverse soon so they can get the people they need to support the mission in the fassion it needs to be done. I thank everyone for the comments and I am for sure, going to pass them on to him. He is enjoying his time home and in only a couple days, has racked up a couple hundred miles on my vehicles while visiting friends etc! I am OK with paying for the fuel for this though it would be nice with gas here at $4.6 per gallon at Sams or Costco (more at "regular" stations) for him to fill the tank LOL, He will, I fill it to start then it is up to him from then on so it all works out in the end[]

Yes, darn proud, busting buttons proud! Thanks, I will pass it on.

No job is complete until the paperwork is done!!![]

On the hook again for 4 more years!

OK, that was fun, lets get on with it!

Next, free at last!

The wife and I took a 5 hour drive on Monday up to see our Son in the Navy for his reenlistment ceremony/proceedings. The military has been cutting back VERY hard so you must be head and shoulders above the norm just to be allowed to reenlist. Adam has been in for nearly 4 years and just signed up for another 4. He is home on a 28 day leave while changing units and when he gets back to Lemore NAS, he will be going to his new unit, which, is at sea right now. He will be going to VFA 97 which is stationed on the USS John Stennis , a Theodore Roosevelt subclass aricraft carrier which is stationed in the middle east and he will be gone for about 8 months. It is a pretty big change for him. He has been serving in a training sqdn where he and his team took care of about 120 jets, now at the new sqdn, he will only have about 12! Here are a few pics. To reenlist, you are given a honorable discharge then you swear a new oath just like you did the first time. Often service members take advantage of the few minutes between serving to razz the officers or to do something that is totally not allowed in the military as they have been discharged and they have not swore in yet so they are not in the military and they can get away with it, all in good fun and is fairly normal [] Adam just skipped all the nonsense and was "out" for only about a minute, if that much. We are pretty proud of the man our Son has become. Yes, he has a set of Klipsch in his room too! KG5.5s First up, looking over his left shoulder, seeing what he saw.

That would be my order of preference also. BTW, I often use my PS3 for a lot more than games and it supports HDMI out to the AVR. It is a darn nice DB/DVD player in addition to games. I have all of our pictures on it and it is more of a HTPC than just a game station. Just saying. YMMV\!

Your AVR is pretty basic. As others have said, used will give you the best bang for your buck and if you don't need all the latest and greatest features, you can get a good price on units that only a few years ago were the top-o-the heap. Even with not the highest wpc rating, a better quality AVR with pre-outs will let you combine both music and theater in one room by adding a good quality power amp to the setup at a later date. Use the stereo power amp on your main speakers and when in stereo mode, you will get great sound from your KGs. When in HT mode, you will releave the AVR from powering the mains and thus take that load off of the power supply of the AVR and in the process, improve the quality of the whole setup.

Fort'e speakers are great speakers, I see no reason to dump them just 'cause, someone tells you that only mgea buck speakers will do. I have had my Fort'e 1 speakers for quite a few years and I have no plans to let them go anyplace. Yes I have other Klipsch speakers but the Fort'es have found a permenant holme here. If you REALLY want to spend 7K, pick up some Khorns, new in the box, your choice of finish and live the rest of your live in total bliss. If NEARLY perfect is good enough, keep what you have and spend the 7K on music! YMMV, enjoy!