My Junkyard Wars

[Fred_M]

That's one of my favorite shows, but I've been doing it for years. I love taking junk and making it useful again. It's not always pretty, but it ususally works and don't burn the house down. I'll post a few of my "frankenstiens" and if anyone else has any please post them. DASH

Here's #1, a MP3 player in the stock room. It's an old 200 K6 mainboard with 8 megs RAM, a Sound Blaster 16, a CD reader that reads cdr, a floppy, keyboard, power supply and speakers. It runs on a dos 7 bootdisk and all the software is on the single bootable floppy. It can play random or you can pull up songs with a few keystoke. No monitor, hard drive, mouse. Plays all day, only shut off on weekends. Putting it in a case would be herasay. DASH

 

[Fred_M]

#2 is a digital clock from the dash of an 85 Renault Alliance powered by a 12 VDC wall pack from a dead cordless phone. Keeps perfect time, better than my 1.8 GHz Dell at home. It too is in the stckroom. DASH

 

[Fred_M]

#3 is an under layout light made from a flat bed scanner. Makes wiring and working under the layout easier and no dropping or holding flashlights. DASH

 

[Fred_M]

#4 is 5 inch muffin fans powered with old computer power supplies. Cut drying time of wet glues by 1/2 to 3/4. These are high speed server fans, but regular 4 inch standard fans work too, just takes more and longer. A couple of these babies will keep you cool on a hot summer day. DASH

 

[davidstrains]

neat hobby in addition to your trains.:thumb: :thumb:

 

[jon-monon]

The last one can be turned around to blow the soldering smoke away while soldering.

I've been working on an MP3 palyer on and off. I'd like to get CAJUN running, but just haven't had the time to pull it all together. It's pretty neat, because you can controll it with any computer on the same network using a web browser. So the idea is to put a cheap PC with sound, no monitor needed, and pipe the sound into the house stereo, then comrol it with my laptop

http://cajun.sourceforge.net/

http://www.lug.udel.edu/articles/cajun/cajun_howto.html

I have 5 of my favorite LPs converted to MP3's and an estimated 1995 LPs to go!

 

[Fred_M]

Or used to blow smoke al la bong? DASH

 

[jawatkins]

Well, I guess Red Green has nothing on you! If you're not familiar with the Red Green show out of Canada, I'm sure there are those on the Gauge who can fill you in.

Your ability to make use of spare items reminds me of someone else I know............

 

[Fred_M]

I challange anyone to find one piece of "the handyman's secret weapon" on any of my projects. I'm not a rich and famous Canadian movie star like Steve Smith and I can't afford it. It's on Ozarks public TV at 10 and 10.30 Saturdays unless they are bumming for money. We watch it as a DIY program. That's what it is isn't it? For $100 you can get a sticker to put on your window and a ticket to the...opera... That makes me want to give. . DASH

 

[Lightbender]

I'm not a rich and famous Canadian movie star like Steve Smith

Ha ha, that's funny. In America when a person becomes a famous tv or movie personality they buy themselves a bodyguard, in Canada they buy themselves a name tag.

Love those homebrews, keep 'em coming.

Hey, I'm pulling for you, we're all in this together.

 

[N Gauger]

Originally posted by dash10
#4 is 5 inch muffin fans powered with old computer power supplies. Cut drying time of wet glues by 1/2 to 3/4. These are high speed server fans, but regular 4 inch standard fans work too, just takes more and longer. A couple of these babies will keep you cool on a hot summer day. DASH

Nice Idea!! I keep one of these in my shop for the Summer Too!!

 

[jon-monon]

LB - Love the avitar

I had a 5 or 6 inch pancake fan I kept on my LP convection heater in my garage. I think it's a 30 to 80 KBTU. Basically a 12 inch stove pipe with a cap on top and an LP burner in the bottom. It put sout some HEAT! Anyway, it worked fine for years. Then one fine day, I forgot to plug in the fan when I fired up the heater. I noticed it was not as warm as usual, saw it was unplugged, and then noticed the blades has melted off Also accidently sprayed WD40 into that thing and understood what Eddie Murphy meant by "NOW THAT A FAR!"

 

[Fred_M]

The fans I am using have metal blades and from experience I am careful not to move them while running anymore. I'll post another picture of a junker I redone. It has a 350 chevy engine and drivetrain. It was built from a $500 junk car I purchased that had been in a barn since 1966 with a badly blown engine. DASH