n_maher

After having them I would not drive a 2wd car in NH without them. Actually, the ones we got for my wife's car (non-studded) are quiet enough that we just run them year round right now.

There's a reason it only has 28k on it, it never runs long enough to rack any up. Also, if you're going to own one it'd have to be silver.

A very Happy Birthday to the both of you!

Thanks guys! Tom could you summarize the new recommended CCS settings?

I'll try to remember to email it to you tonight or upload it and post a link.

I took the tube hole distances off of Tom's drawings, double checked them and they seemed good so I went with it. They are 1" diameter holes, be very careful if you use a stepped bit that big even in a drill press. Make sure you've got the panel held very securely and run the machine as fast as it'll go or you'll end up with rough edges from the chatter. And ha, the side holes are a huge pain in the ass. The biggest problem is keeping the extrusion rigid while drilling, I've got some thoughts on how to do it better but it wouldn't be easy.

If I still wanted a Transporter it'd almost be worth it to send in the SB3 given what it's worth these days...almost.

Found another 1/2hr of fab time tonight and got the last of the holes done in the top panel. A few build notes for Tom and Doug - my amp could not be assembled with the bezels in place. If I installed the rear first it pushed the amp too far towards the back and would not allow for proper installation of the front panel. The reverse was also true, front first = can't install back panel, which is to say that the RCAs ended up with inadequate projection. In point of fact even without the bezels it still doesn't all fit perfectly, now the body of the alps is putting stress on the front panel and bowing it out slightly but I think I have a solution for that, details if it works. But enough moaning about the details, what does it look like??!??! I still have to work out the two standoffs for tube support as well as what I'm gong to use for a knob. I'm also going to do some testing without the top panel heat sink since I provided ventilation for the transformer. I'm hoping it won't require the sink, it'd be a pretty to mess with the general aesthetic.

Agreed, I can't really come up with a scenario where this situation could be explained via faulty house wiring. Caveat - I'm just a humble round hole cutter tech, not an electrician.

The likely cause is that the cord to the boombox was damaged (rolled over by a chair, shut in a door, etc) and the two wires shorted together causing both the fire/sparks and the excessive current draw that tripped the breaker. No surge protector would really stop that from happening, only a fuse of some type would have and since the failure was in the cord the only "fuse" between it and the power source was the breaker panel.

Al should be seeing a rather large box this morning .

Congrats Manuel!

Honestly one wonders what they could have actually put in there for the price. I mean don't get me wrong, I love a bargain, but stuff isn't free and economies of scale and China only go so far.

There's also the pesky potential of voiding your vehicle's warranty...

Heh. On a serious note, I wonder when they'll drop the bombshell that your vehicle insurance will skyrocket if you ever admit to having mounted one of those.

Good lord that's cheap.

Haj, try that. It's a spud wrench, used for aligning and then installing large bolts.

I have been told that I may get to play ironworker this week so it seemed like a good tool to have around. [edit]Nice Steve, although you needn't have worried about the DAC. I sent another one to Posty last week.

Fabrication continues... Yesterday was back panel day, I had done all of the layout and marking weeks ago and just hadn't had a big enough window to try to do what I wanted on the mill. This ended up being a blessing since a new vise arrived for the mill in the interim and it's much nicer than the old one. Anyway, my measuring on the RCAs was quite good, although they simply would not fit in a 3/8" hole so I upsized it a 32nd and they fit perfectly, other might want to note that. Also, it would appear that my measuring/layout skills need some work as I definitely oversized the X direction of the IEC a bit. Not horribly, probably .05, but enough to mildly annoy. Today I somehow managed to find an hour to drill the large holes in the top panel. To give you an idea of the current amount of "tech" being used by the round hole cutter tech here you go. Installed pics will come after I get a few ventilation holes drilled but I tested it and it appears to fit just fine. This will be the last time that I try to use a large stepped bit. Even with the best work holding tech that $$ can (reasonably) buy and an exceptionally rigid setup it still isn't perfect. The cleaned up holes look pretty good but I think if I'd used a hole saw in this rig I would have gotten better results and obviously a large bit would have been the cat's pjs. I'll definitely be picking up a few large fractional metal bits in the near future.

There are also some lawns in wooded areas where it's simply impossible to much. At our place in portsmouth we had about 1/16 of an acre surrounded by trees. When I'd help the landlord rake the leaves would be 3 to 6" thick over the entire lawn. Now I just suck them up with the grass-catching attachment on the tractor, this is by far my favorite method.

Jeff, I take solace in the fact that if you had played any of your other bench players (well, practically) I would have gotten crushed. The loss of Reggie bush and failure of others to contribute with no viable free agent RBs is going to make it a tough year for me to be anything other than average.

I had Lily for most of the day so we did lots of daddy/daughter stuff. Went to the hardware store, went to the farm and finally out to dinner (a first for us). All in all it was a very good day. Sandwiched in the middle during nap time I did some fab work in the shop on The Torpedo which came out reasonably well despite being a little rushed.

Cheers to that!

All I can say is that the 4 5998A's all had plates from 6AS7's in them and not the 6 dimple 5998 plates, it was an easy visual distinction.

One fracking point.