Hi, Power Project

I found this lonely, old drill crying to itself on a Goodwill shelf. I hadn't worked on one before, so I gave the clerk two bucks and took the drill home.

Vintage aluminiumn tools always catch my attention. Plus, it looks like something from Star Trek.

You can't see it from this angle, but the drill's chuck is frozen in place and there is a broken drill bit stuck inside.

An attached, metal model number plate is so much cooler than a company logo on a sticker.

A decayed power cord isn't safe to use.

So, at the next Goodwill I bought a loose power cord that was also two dollars. I hope to be able to cut off the female end and attach the exposed wires to the drill.

The first step was to see if I could get the chuck to open and release the broken drill bit. While researching "Hi-Power" drills, I across the "Progress is Fine, But It's Gone On Too Long" blog. The author has the same drill as I do, but with a different name plate. In the comments section, one commentor stated they had the same problem that I did, and another commentor had the solution.

I sprayed penetrating oil into the chuck a couple of times, and then let it sit. I tapped on the chuck's jaws the next day, and they popped back into place and the broken bit was released. Thanks, Duke! I used my grinder's wire brush to remove its rust, and then polished the chuck with a buffing wheel. 

The temp in the garage was only 20 degrees at the time. It is surprising how much air is moved by a buffing wheel. It doesn't take very long for your bare hands to feel like they are beginning to freeze. I had to stop twice to go inside the house and warm up my hands. When the chuck was mostly polished, I stopped. I was making progress, but I wasn't having fun. 

3/23:

I moved forward on the Hi-Power project a bit. I polished the chrome front and then disassembled the drill.

I made an initial cleaning of the parts and then packed the gears with the grease that I had on hand. I reassembled the drill to see if it would still function, and it does - somewhat. The drill spins much faster than before, but sometimes it needs to be started by hand to operate. A slight turn on the wheel that secures the chuck in place will get the drill moving. That's not going to cut it.

I'm going to break it down again and try cleaning the motor's brushes. I might try some other type of grease, too. We'll see how it goes.

There Goes the Water Bill

This arrived in the mail yesterday. It was an impulse buy/gift for Charlotte.

It's a splash-proof speaker. I thought music might make taking a shower more fun for her.

The shower's grab bar is too wide for the included clip, so I suspended it from a zip-tie. The suction cup on the back keeps the speaker facing forward.

This is the kind of thing I would have loved to have when I was a kid, so I was pretty sure this surprise was going to be a hit with Char. The speaker easily connected to my laptop through bluetooth, and we fired up YouTube for Parry Gripp's Mega Party. Before long, I could hear her through the door singing along with "It's Raining Tacos." 

How well does it play music? Charlotte exclaimed, "It's awesome! It's like standing inside my headphones!" 

That's high praise. I might have to get a speaker for myself...

Unnecessary, but Kind of Cool

A Dollar Tree store opened near our house, and Char loves shopping there. She often points at random items and exclaims, "Can you believe that's only a dollar?!" Just a small portion of her allowance will allow her to walk out with trinkets, candy, or snacks. It takes Char time, though. She's a thorough shopper. 

Slowly following her around can be a bit boring, so I kill time by flipping through the store's small selection of DVDs and Blu-rays.  That's where I had this idea.

One of the current trends on eBay is for sellers to offer games and movies as "disc and art only" or "disc only." Shipping is usually free for these sales because there's no clunky case to mail. I have bought a few discs this way when I want to see a movie that isn't on Netflix or on our other Roku channels (yes, we do live in 2021). 

Anyway, back to Dollar Tree. While Char was scrutinizing the stuffed animals, I spotted this Blu-ray:

No offense to the filmmakers, but I didn't want to watch Tim & Eric's Billon Dollar Movie. I wanted the two-disc case their movie came in. Getting a brand new Blu-ray case for a buck is a good deal.

When we got home, I replaced the artwork from this single disc movie that I bought at Goodwill and added the "disc only" movie I bought from eBay.

Tadaa! It's now a Secret Special Two-Disc Set of Ghost Rider 1 and 2!

Yes, I can buy the two-movie set on Amazon, but where's the fun in that?

This Harry Potter Blu-ray came from Goodwill with a three-disc case and a lenticular cover.

Heroes angle:

Villains angle:

Three-disc case:

I swapped Jensen Ames for Harry Potter, and now my Death Race double feature is really...

... a trilogy! I added the DR3 disc and placed its artwork in backwards so you can see it on the inside.

For the arts and crafts credit, I cut the Harry Potter lenticular artwork off the slip cover, taped a flat, promotional magnet to its back, and now Char can magically hang her papers on our fridge.

I'll keep the unused discs on a spindle and the artwork in a folder in case I change my mind. Empty cases will be reused, recycled, or stored in a box. 

This would work with soundtracks on CD, too. What's fun is the idea that you can make your own custom movie sets. 

I could combine Jaws with Deep Blue Sea...

...and even throw in a custom cover from eBay. Do you see the shark?

I've been brainstorming what other "sets" I can put together. The Cave and The Descent would make a scary, underground double bill.

These three Rocky films make a great trilogy.

I have a couple of SNL four-disc cases that I would enjoy repurposing. 

I can't tell if I'm being creative or if I'm just being weird. I suppose it doesn't matter. Projects like this are totally unnecessary, but they are kind of cool. At least I think so.

By the way, I wondered if Amazon was already selling a Nick Cage movie collection, and if so, what movies were in it? Surprisingly, "movie,""DVD," or "Blu-ray" didn't come up in Amazon's search engine when I typed in "Nick Cage":

I was curious what a Nick Cage blanket would look like...  

Ummm... wow. 

Knowing that products like this exsist and that people actually buy them is comforting. It makes messing around with movie cases feel much less weird. 

Thrift Store Show and Tell: 2020 Edition

Missed the Saturday dance. Heard they crowded the floor... 
- Duke Ellington, "Don't Get Around Much Anymore"

This is the fourth week that Daphne and I have been teaching from home, and it's Char's third week of online learning. Charlotte attends Girl Scout Zoom meetings, and she has drum lessons online as well. Suffice to say, the Monsons don't get out that much.

Not that there is all that much for me to do; we play it pretty safe. If I'm not at home, then I'm either at the grocery store, the gas station, or Goodwill. This means I haven't been blogging much. I can tell that my writing chops are getting rusty, but lately I haven't wanted to practice by writing about our home-life (insert Groundhog Day cliche here). But since I like thrift store finds, I thought that would be a fun post to write. So, here comes show and tell...

Used DVD players still dominate the electronics shelves, and it's much more uncommon to spot a Blu-ray player. That's why I was excited to see this Sony BDP-S470 for $8.99. I tested it with a movie at the store, and seemed to work, so I took it home. The included remote control was the tipping point. If a player does not have a remote, walk away. You can't get by without one, and an official remote will cost you more than the player. I can usually find manuals for these online for free, so that's also a bonus.

I connected the Sony to our TV with a HDMI cord. The TV indicated that there was no HDMI signal. I thought, Shoot, I guess that's why it was 9 bucks. 

Before giving up, I tried connecting the player with a yellow RCA cable. I could now see the menu. The picture was poor, but I could navigate the setup screen with the remote. I reset the Sony to its factory settings, and then changed the output to HDMI. That worked! Fun! 

The Sony doesn't have Wi-Fi to connect to the internet, so I connected it to our modem using a LAN cable. I used the player's menu to "check for updates" and was surprised that not only was there an update, the Sony accepted it.

The Sony played "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" without a hiccup. The only thing you have to be prepared for is the long loading times with these older Blu-ray players. "Cloudy" took over a minute to boot-up. 

Partner the Sony with this Lord of the Rings trilogy set for $2.49 (no artwork, but the discs are clean), and you have a cheap night on the town in the living room. 

That was so much fun, I brought home another Sony (with a remote!) that was even cheaper.

The Urbandale Goodwill is accepting returns on defective electronics. You have three days to bring an item back if you keep the price tag and the receipt intact. 

Necessity does not play a factor here. I did not need another Blu-ray player.  But a working Blu-ray player for less that 5 bucks is too good of a deal to pass up. I used the previous process with this Sony BDP-S360, and it works well, too. 

Both Sonys have a RCA video line out, so that means I can now connect a Blu-ray to our garage theater projector. Last Christmas was t-shirt weather, so watching a movie in the garage this year is not an impossibility. 

Holiday classics: the discs in all three of these sets are spotless and appear to be brand new. Makes me wonder why they were donated. 

These three movies are self-inflicted wounds. I knew Char would think they're fun. High School Musical was the last film we watched in the garage during our Thanksgiving break. She really liked it. I'll probably twist the knife and pick up HSM2 and 3. 

Speaking of knives (or hooks), my I Know What You Did Last Summer collection is coming together nicely. I'm a sucker for 90's horror, even if the movie isn't very good.

I often complain about the poor vinyl selection at thrift stores. In a normal year, if I wanted a new record, I'd visit my favorite record store. This is not a normal year, and it is now uncomfortable to browse through record bins with someone standing right next to you. I buy from ZZZ Records online to support their business, but I dig through thrift store crates to see what I can find in the wild.

I bought these two jazz guitar LPs for 25 cents each.

The records were owned by a gentleman named Carl (his name is on scrawled on both), and Carl either A) didn't know how to take care of vinyl, or B) just enjoyed the music and played the crap out of his records. I like to think the right answer is "B". If either of these records were in decent shape they would be worth a bit, but sadly they are really beat up. I listen to them anyway. Of the two, Tal Farlow only slightly pulls ahead of Billy Bauer because of his cover art.

Here's another 25 cent record, but this one is in much better condition. Our Man Flint was created during the first 007 craze, and its soundtrack is lounge-cool. Today I read a comment on the IMDB that the guitar work on this soundtrack inspired Wall of Voodoo's cover of "Ring of Fire." I bought that exact Wall of Voodoo 12" single last week from discogs... weird. 

This Brothers Johnson cover is sweet, and I was pumped to see what kind of disco funk was lurking inside.

But the wrong LP tumbled out. 

I checked the stacks for The Time's correct sleeve, but had no luck. I bought this record anyway. You can see that the LP was produced by "Morris Day & Jamie Starr." Jamie Starr is one of the many pseudonyms used by Prince, and he has his fingerprints all over this release. "Get it Up," "Cool," and "The Stick" are all fun, funky tracks. Sometimes you just have to make the most out of what you find. 

This makes me consider how slim pickings are one of the benefits of shopping for thrift records. I'll give any record that looks half-way decent a chance. I often end up enjoying music that I would normally have passed on at a record store. This BTO album is a great example. Just the bass line and the guitar riff on the title track of  Not Fragile are worth the price of admission.

The same goes for this double LP from Rare Earth. Do I really want to spend 24 minutes listening to a live jam of "Get Ready?" Yes, I do. In fact, I have. More than once. I am now a Rare Earth fan. 

This cover has seen better days, but "Sunday Bloody Sunday" sounds great on vinyl. 

"Are you ready for Sloooooow Riiiiiiiiddde?" Yes. Yes, I am.

Here's another double LP with live tracks on it. The vinyl is really nice shape which is amazing since there are small bite marks on the top of the sleeve and one back corner has been chewed off. My guess is that the culprit was a house cat. It looks like the damage Earl would cause.

I could cut off the damaged area and pretend that an overzealous store clerk did that back in 1975 when they put this on the sales rack.

Not every LP I buy is a winner. Some get cleaned, played, and eventually returned. You can't hit a home run every time. 

I had magazine subscriptions to Stereo Review and Hot Rod when I was in high school. Both publications were filled with very expensive toys. Yes, I said "toys." In the end of the day, that is what exotic cars and top of the line stereo systems are. Don't get me wrong. I'm not judging. I like toys.

Anyway, one of the fancy brands in Stereo Review was Denon. So when I spotted a Denon DVD player I did a double-take. I looked up the model number on my phone, and the DVD-910 had some really good reviews. I gave the clerk $9 and went home.

I'll confess that the 910 did not come with a remote. I broke my own "no remote" rule. In my defense, the front of the 910 has enough buttons that you don't even need a remote if you are willing to get up and walk across the room to press a button. Plus, it's a Denon!

No, I didn't need this DVD player, but I really wanted to see how well the Denon would play CDs. On-line reviews bragged about the 910's ability to play audio discs. I had my doubts. Can one player really read digital 0s and 1s better than another? 

To my ears, the answer is yes. It's not a night and day difference, but it's like getting an eye prescription updated. Every thing looks (sounds) clearer. One reviewer stated that the 910 shuts off all video related circuitry and focuses on only the audio when a CD is played. He stated that was a "very Denon" thing to do. I have no idea if that is true, but I have had fun playing CDs lately, and I don't care if that's not as "cool" as playing vinyl. The CDs sound great. 

I was able to get my universal remote to work with the Denon, but I broke down and bought the correct remote from eBay. It cost more than the 910, but not by much.

Time to go downstairs and listen to Nirvana's "Nevermind" on CD. Like The Cars' first album, Nirvana could have almost called this "Greatest Hits."

Goodwill charged me $2.49 for this CD. If I wanted to listen to the original LP, then I would have to pay a bit more than that on Discogs:

See? CDs aren't so bad.

This Year We Put Up a Big Christmas Tree