For Old Guys Only

Allen_Wrench said:

Scotty picks up the mouse to the guy's computer and talks to it, saying "Computer...computer!..."
He's reminded that you have to use the keyboard on this kind.
Says Scotty: "A keyboard? How quaint."
(Then he bangs away like a minigun.)

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...and then whips up a 3-D rotating visual and formula of a molecule of transparent aluminum in seconds.

Having been in computers for decades I always have to laugh at Scotty just whipping up that complex image on an old Mac.

Personally I can't stand 'smart phones', they aren't very smart and make really crappy phones.

My wife and son have SP's but not me, I like my big desktop land line phone.
It has big dial buttons and a big screen for caller ID and phone book use.

Old school. I even have a rotary phone that actually works for answering on the kitchen wall, it came with the house.

Even though my TV and the living room wireless phone pop up caller ID info as well, there is something nostalgic about the actual bell ringing of an old wall mount Ma Bell phone coming from the kitchen when a call comes in ;-}

KC, wee have a rotary phone in the living room. "Dial" me up!

Dan

*snicker* Would today's teenagers even know how to dial a rotary phone if they happened upon one? There's a biker bar down the road which I know has one. Imagine a young guy getting stranded there, and he wants to call home.

My "low" volume amp is a Hacker hi fi slave amp, made no later than 1967, as it's a valve job. The biggest 7w you ever heard.

People buy the modern modelling amps to create their own sound and all end up sounding the same. Me? I sound like me, for better or worse

Ludwig if I plugged into your amp it would be for worse. I can make any amp sound bad!

We'll try you through the Phoenix then, that's serious nasty.

This is one I found online


This is a dealer (look at them gold plated prices)
http://www.michaelmauricerepairs.co.uk/vintage-electronics-for-sale.shtml

I'm still running my music through the Pioneer 8000 (4 channel) amp I picked up around 1971 before I got out of the service. Got rid of the big Sansui 4500 speakers cause they could do damage to a house. Maybe that's why I can't hear anymore?
Dan

We're talking a bout a time before consumerism got rabid, and before the accountants conquered the engineers, when some things were built up to a specification, not down to a price.

Know anybody wants some Rola Celestion G12-80 speakers? I have going spare.

You can still get that glorious valve sound at a reasonable price made by a US company too. Actually you have to assemble it, which should be well suited to the DIY proclivities of this gang.



A whole 3.5 watts / channel of good old fashioned directed heated cathode zero feedback triode joy.

The Co. is called Bottlehead and they are in WA. They sell kits, you have to assemble.

They all sound the same to me, but then I'm nearly as deaf as Beethoven.

Tinsmith said:

KC, wee have a rotary phone in the living room. "Dial" me up!
Dan

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I can only answer the thing, my phone system no longer supports pulse (rotary) dialing.
That's OK, I welcomed the Ma Bell button kitchen wall, desk, and 'princess' phones, especially when there was a lot of 0's in the number hehehehe ;-}

Allen_Wrench said:

*snicker* Would today's teenagers even know how to dial a rotary phone if they happened upon one? There's a biker bar down the road which I know has one. Imagine a young guy getting stranded there, and he wants to call home.

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About as likely as we would know how to hook up a wagon train or start a car with a hand crank in the front.

OK, so most of use probably could because we know history but the younger you are the less history (knowledge) you have.

Then there is the other extreme...
For example years ago I knew Morse code but only remember SOS now and couldn't carry on a conversation using it, a victim of the 'use it or loose it' knowledge long gone.

That's life, but despite how old and poor our eyes are, we tend to see it pretty clear ;-}

There are newly manufactured valve amps available now, as there has been a recognition in some quarters that they do sound better for some players.

As for hand cranking anything, how many remember to tuck the thumb out of the way in case of kickback?

I learned to drive with my thumbs on the outside of the steering wheel for that exact reason. There is something to be said about learning to drive on a Farmall model B tractor.
If something kicks the front wheels and that steering wheel whips around you could break your thumb. That has helped me immensely when I used to go off roading in my pickup truck!
Also, I knew how to drive stick before I ever sat behind the wheel of a car.

Ludwig II said:

There are newly manufactured valve amps available now, as there has been a recognition in some quarters that they do sound better for some players.

As for hand cranking anything, how many remember to tuck the thumb out of the way in case of kickback?

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One time, just one time, before a parade, a firefighter buddy let me try starting up the old Reo engine. I failed miserably; it was back-breaking work. But I remembered to tuck in my thumb. Steve showed me how it was done, and it looked like he was putting the most effort into pushing off the ground with his feet and pulling hard on the upstroke, but I can't recall clearly - it's been years.

Since then, I've driven stick as well as automatic, and owned a car with a manual choke. I've driven an odd VW "manumatic", and I had a crack at my Dad's Plymouth Valiant with its push button transmission. I've even driven a delivery van that had about 8 or 10 gears to it. The reason I don't drink much when away from home is that I often get nominated the "designated driver" who takes other people's cars home 'cause they're sure I'll know how to drive it. If I had a nickel for every idiosyncratic vintage beater I've driven, I could have bought a tank of gas in modern money. Well, maybe a gallon.

Yep, pulling up is the way it's done. Rebuilt my Grandfathers first tractor (IH F-20) around 1973 when I got back to take over the farm. Hadn't run for the better part of 15 years since my uncle had died and in the mid-50's. Engine was locked up real tight. Took the top off the engine and filled all the cylinders with kerosene and eventually got it loose. Took the thing completely apart, replaced what was needed, painted, new decals and used it 'til the day I had to pack it in. My brother still has it. That thing had so much compression after the rebuild it was very hard to just pull it up. I would cheat a little, but never gave it the full down stroke. When that think kicked back it wouldn't matter where your thumb was, it was goin' to hurt you.

Thanks for joggin' the old memory banks!

Dan

I met somebody who owned a veteran De Dion engined car once. He said it hurt everybody who started it. He hadn't long recovered from a broken wrist himself, and told tales of experienced crankers being flung yards away in a second hand condition.

Hi 2door!

Nice thread. Reminds me of riding an old clunker on my grandpas farm in the late 50's. Had to sit on a box to see over the dash and used s of 2x4's taped to the brake clutch and gas pedal, lolol fond memories. Ran into a few trees too lolol. Gas at 8 to 10 cent a gallon lol those were the days lolol. Gas price wars were great back then lolol.

Dave
AssembleThis

AssembleThis said:

Gas at 8 to 10 cent a gallon lol those were the days lolol. Gas price wars were great back then lolol.

Dave
AssembleThis

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Gas Wars, haven't heard that term in decades, that was back when there was a gas station on every intersection, sometimes one on all 4 corners!

Like many of you I was taught to operate machinery and vehicles at a young age, I stared teaching my son when he was 12.
It didn't make him a better driver when he was stupid teen (start of the cell phone age) but he couldn't use not knowing how to operate the vehicle or road safety as an excuse.

I should be dead a few times over from what my dad had me doing on roadways in really unsafe vehicles before I even I got my DL.

Pop's had some 2 1/2 ton roofing trucks, an International scissor lift bed 10-speed, a Ford 8-speed dump truck, a really REALLY long 5-speed pug nose (overhead cap) Ford, a 2-story 4-speed fork lift, and a couple commercial size 'hot tar' kettles.

The scariest:

1. Drive line broke on the Ford dump truck fully overload with roofing equipment and pulling a 2 ton kettle going downhill into Flagstaff from New Mexico.

The brakes were gone in about 20 seconds.
On a curve I took the rig up against the wall where they cut the mountain away for the road to stop it.
I had nightmares for a years.

2. Equally scarey was coming down North Mountain years ago but just a couple miles from me now in the Pug Nose flatbed Ford empty but towing the 2 ton 2-stroy forklift and forklifts surge brake gave out.

For those of you unfamiliar with a surge brake, it is a hydraulic brake system where the hitch tongue acts as a brake lever for the trailers brakes when the tow vehicle slows.

When I hit the first light at the bottom with no weight over the trucks wheels and no brake help from forklift I was jack-knifed over 90 degrees into the middle of the intersection on a red light.

3. Ahh, too many to tell, my point is I was taught how to operate machines early on and I didn't panic.

Well, ya I panicked, but wet pants and white knuckles aside I controlled it and that came from being taught very early what big machines can do and and not freak out when they malfunction.

The UK driving test requires no understanding of correct procedures for driving in adverse conditions. Then, when we get a dusting of snow real winter countries laugh at, most of our drivers balls it all up.