Day One: Purchased via CL ($60 + 3 beers) Schwinn World Sport 63cm circa 1980
-Removed Harley low rider bars (bent)
-Removed rear brakes (no room on new bars)
+1 new inner tube (rear).
+Added upside down Bianchi road bars
Rode down Telgraph Ave. Great success!
The finished product
I set out to build a simple, cheap workbench for my audio project. I found some simple workbench plans, which I modified for length, height and width. I sketch everything out quickly and tabulated the sizes I would need and set off to Home Depot. The best bargain of the day is that Home Depot will cut all of your lumber to size – a huge timesaver for me, especially since I don’t own a powersaw.
In total, build time was about 1-2 hours. I really took my time – I think if you’re experienced and focus you could do it in about 30 minutes. Alternatively, you could paint it as well to finish it off, but I think I’ll keep the ‘natural’ look.
Materials:
(7) 2″ x 4″ @ $2.30 each = ~$16
(1) 8′x6′ OSB Board = $9
(1) Box of 2.5″ screws = $5
(1) Ikea ‘Franklin’ 29″ Stool = $29
Total cost: $59
Build progress pictures after the break.
Canon SD300 Bicycle Mount
Much later than originally planned, but I got the Canon SD300 mounted to the bike. It wasn’t actually the mounting that held me up, but rather the time lapse software. I’m using 3rd party software called CHKD for the Canon, which allows custom scripts to be uploaded. The script that I’m interested in is a time lapse script. Basically, I can set it to take a picture every second (or 2, 3, 4 seconds) for the duration of my ride. Then, using software, I can stitch all the images back together into a sort of a movie.
But, back to the mount. It’s a simple as it gets. A cheap reflector mount (free actually, from the local bike shop) secured to the handle bars with a bolt sticking up through it into the camera’s tripod mount. There’s a few more pics of it after the break.
Wow, it’s been months since I’ve posted here and it wasn’t due to lack of projects! So, today I’m going to try and tackle this one. Create a cheap bike mount for my Canon Powershot SD300. The goal is to install CHDK software on the camera to enable the time lapse feature (as well as many others) and configure it to snap a shot every few seconds over the course of a ride. Then, at the end, put together all the shots into a video. It’s certainly not an original idea, many have done it before, but it looks like fun. Here’s another I found online.
Bike Movie from chad cheverier on Vimeo.
The free trunk after a little work.
Ever since I scored some great vintage camera gear the other week, I’ve been keeping my eye on the Craigsist free section in Marin for any potential finds, and today I came up lucky. It was advertised just as ‘Old Steamer Trunk’. No picture, no further description. Just a phone number, which I called within 8 minutes of the ad being posted. I was already the 2nd person to call, but they weren’t able to pick up the trunk right away. Just my luck – so off to San Rafael (just 5 miles up the road).
The offending capacitors on the B&W 600 speaker.
I bought some great (I thought) speakers at a thrift shop on Valencia in San Francisco the other day. Amidst all the usual crap Sanyo and Matsui plastic junk, I spotted some all black speakers on the bottom shelf with the B&W badge. Knowing that they make a quality speakers, I overlooked the holes in the speaker grill and the bruised corners and took them the checkout to pay my $25 finders fee.
They felt nice and heavy, and when I plugged them into my Beomaster 1900 amp, they sounded pretty good. Until I moved the balance control over to the left speaker. All mids and lows, but no highs. I removed the grill and confirmed my suspicion – the tweeter wasn’t working. I opened up the speaker and, woah, just a loose wire. The red wire wasn’t connected at all, so I connected it and waited for victory. But it didn’t come, still nothing out of the tweeter.
The wonderful Bang and Olufsen RL60 Speakers
I just bought some Bang and Olufsen Redline 60 speakers from someone in Oakland using Craiglist to replace the tinny, hollow sounding Sony computer speakers next to my PC monitor. They came with a Beomaster 5000 amplifier and a non-working B&O remote control the size and weight of a longer Tom Clancy paperback. It seemed like a pretty good deal for $150 and an hour and half of driving. Not to mention that I had spent all week bargaining him down from his $275 asking price.
I tried them out at his loft in a bad part of Oakland and they sounded good. Just a weird clunking sound when I moved the speaker, which the owner explained was a metal plate. I wasnt’ sure what he meant, but they sounded good and it was a good price. I got the system down the stairs and into the Saab amid some shifty characters lurking in this industrial part of Oakland.
A 50 minute drive home, and I’m still feeling pretty good about the purchase. Naturally, the first thing I do when I get them inside is to take them apart to find the source of the clunk. I discover a loose oval shaped metal place, and a lot of very old brown foam floating around in the speaker’s chassis.
A quick Google and I discover the Beoword.org forums. It turns out the engineers at Bang and Olufsen employed an ABR (Auxillary Base Radiator) when they designed this first version of the speaker. Over time (20+ years now) the foam holding the ABR together disintegrates and prevents the ABR from working.
The project: Find some replacement foam, stick it on to the metal pieces of the ABR and put the speaker back together.
The conclusion: A huge improvement. I’ve replaced the ABR foam on 1 of the 2 speakers and the difference is very noticeable. I think I have the process down to about 45 minutes for the next one, exlcuding the time it take the glue to dry.
Here’s a picture of the new ABR in place, read on for the full process.
Replacement foam in place on the RL60, ready for reasembly.
Here’s the finished result, ready for reassembly. Click below to see the entire process in detail and photos.
