I have a garage shop. Nothing fancy, but it gives me a place to make plenty of dust to track into the house at dinner time. Here’s the question.
Like anyone else of my era, I have a decent library of old cassettes. (All you youngsters asking “what’s that” can just skip to the next posting now.) The challenge is, my boomboxes seem to be in competition with my dust collector. Don’t get me wrong – the dust collector and filter systems work just fine. Its’ just that the cassette mechanisms of my boom boxes seem to do a great job of grabbing every bit of floating sawdust in the air. They eventually choke on the dust and die a painful death.
Does anyone know where I can still buy a waterproof (“sports” style) boombox? I was thinking that if I could find one, it would lock enough of the dust out that the cassette mechanisms would stand a fighting chance. CD player isn’t realy a priority- in the shop I want my “old” music, that predates the fragile medium of CD’s.
Otherwise, how do y’all keep the good tunes flowing in the shop? I have a set of headphones/ ear protection/ radio, but I don’t want to wear those all day long in the shop. Hooking up a stereo in another room defeats the purpose (can’t change tapes easily).
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Cheers,
DJS
“Honey, could you please make a pile of sawdust and track it into the living room for me?”
“Yes, dear…”
“Honey, will you please make some sawdust and track it across the carpet?”
“Yes, dear…”
Replies
I "borrowed" one of the kid's old boom boxes with detachable speakers. I mounted the speakers up high on the walls and keep the tape/CD Player on one of my benches. Build a small dust-tight box for it with a couple of small holes for speaker and power wires and you're set. A front opening lid allows easy access to the buttons and knobs.
Michael Burton
Thunderbird Hardwoods
KD Mesquite
Llano, TX
You might consider the Bosch on-site boombox with CD player.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Why the Bosch? Do you own one? How well does it work?Please tell us!DJK
I too have an old 80's vintage Pioneer stereo with monster 4' high Acculab speakers that have been religated to the shop. My problem though is when I turn on the flourescent lights, I loose radio reception on the stereo. I guess my only chose is to relocate the stereo to another area of the house and run speaker cable into the shop. Sounds like a pain. Has anyone else run into this problem?
Fluorescent lights are a pain for the "noise"... Unfortunately the simplest answer is to sheild your receiver from the room or consider running 75 ohm dipole antenna outside. - dipole is basically just a loop of wire shaped like a "T" - running it outside might provide you with enough shielding from the light fixture RF.Also, be sure your stereo on a different circuit than the lights.You could also consider higher frequency ballasts - but that is a lot of work... (I just replaced an old fixture in our laundry room with a high frequency ballast - and I switched to "daylight" bulbs - a big difference - no hum from the fixture and nice white light.)Part of the problem is that your tuner is too good - it's probably got great sensitivity and can grab stations that many tuners can't grab...of course that means it receives light fixture transmission too :-( Mark
Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, cut it with an ax.
I'd just add that a Terk antenna might be helpful too. Bought my 1st good system in '76 Yamaha rcvr, B&O M70's and B&O linear turntable. The wife thought I was nuts since I financed $2300 w/ HFC for it. Our 2 year old Civic was only $3200 out the door. I had an idiot neighbor running a high powered linear on his CB base station. Sometimes I'd pick it up with the turntable selected.
John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
The more things change ...
We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
Petronious Arbiter, 210 BC
Edited 5/4/2005 5:15 pm ET by ELCOHOLIC
Your post made me laugh.I still have the receipts from my purchase in 1984. It was a lot of money now - I think of the tablesaw I could have bought :-)Mark
Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, cut it with an ax.
I gave up on cassettes for the same reasons you're describing. I work in consumer electronics and I'm unaware of anyone making a "sports" boombox these days. May want to try ebay and look for a Sony.
Good luck!
Kell
I agree with the box idea, while your building the box just throw a sheet or a towel over it, that way you'll keep the dust out and still have music while your at it.
well, I replaced my cassettes with CD's a long time ago. Rather than being "fragile", I think they are a much more robust medium than cassettes.
Most of my cassettes were dubbed from LP's since, as everyone knew in 1975, pre-recored cassettes were crap, and the only wya one could get a good one was to record it yourself from a LP, on a good turntable. Ideally, the LP would be one of those high-quality Japanese imports. ;)
The cassettes that weren't available in CD form, I just fed the output from the cassette player into the Line IN on the computer, and ripped them to CD-R's. Blank CD-R's go for about $0.10 each these days.
You can get "sport" CD-Walkman's; hook one of these babies up to a pair of powered speakers and you're set.
Hey Barry,thanks for the audio info.Ive got a few tapes from when i was in a rock band and would like to copy these one of a kind dinosaurs to cd .never know what youre going to run across in here.geo
My "ultimate" solution: I ran some conduit between the house and the shop awhile back for some low-voltage cables. I put the satellite dishes on the shop rather than the house for aesthetic reasons. While I was at it, I ran some CAT5e ethernet cable.
At the PC in the house (the one I'm typing this on), we've been building a music collection on a big hard disk. I've been ripping our CD's onto the hard disk, and my daughter downloads songs from msn.com for 99 cents a pop.
I plan to get an ethernet-equipped receiver for the shop, that'll let me access everything on the hard drive. No moving parts to worry about dust contamination.
Along these same lines you can also stream just about any type of music you like direct from the internet. I bought a cheep stereo from Walmart that had an "aux" port on the back and wired it to the closest computer in the house. No CD's to burn or songs to purchase and endless playlists.http://www.shoutcast.com has an excellent listing of streaming sites (all free) but there are many other listings. I usually listen to http://www.smoothjazz.com or Solo Piano Radio from http://www.live365.com.
Keep the cassette and the boombox, I got luck with one of my customers when they were getting rid of a stereo and speakers. She said the grand kid didn't want it cause it didn't have a CD player. So I built a cover with some of the plexi-glass I had around the shop to keep the dust from filtering into the cassette player, Two years later it's still going strong, but I don't use the cassette player a lot, only when I get sick of hearing the same ole advertisements over and over. I have enough volume to hear it when I'm working on something outside in front of the garage with the door closed.
If your like me , I can't work in the shop without some music on. That's the second thing that is turned on when I step into the shop.
Furniture Builder, GR, MI
Hi , Have you ever worked with local grown hickory?
RealWood Cabinets
a nice sharp plane cutting trough some cherry or even pine sounds better that any of the music that seems to be in vogue today.
Damn, I sound old dont i?
Wicked Decent Woodworks
(oldest woodworking shop in NH)
Rochester NH
" If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"
Don't worry- I'm' not all loud stuff. Actually, it's kind of a running gag in my house. Saturdays are for classic rock- The Doors, Zepplin, The Who, etc. Sundays, though, have to be Jazz. If I try to listen to harder stuff, it just doesn't feel like Sunday. Interestingly, I do more glue-up and hand work on Sundays. I, too, appreciate the sound a really sharp plane across the long grain.
Thanks for the tips. I have a search running on eBay for a waterproof boombox. Well see what that turns up.
Cheers,
DJS"Honey, will you please make some sawdust and track it across the carpet?"
"Yes, dear..."
Why does it have to be waterproof? I have an old Sony Cassette Boombox that I bought in '87 while on a military posting. That radio has seen about 19 homes, at least 15,000km (some of it wired to the intercom on a Grizzly APC), and three parachute drops; she still cranks out the Zeppelin in my shop. Looks like Franken-radio though. Best $90 bucks I ever spent (even adjusting for inflation).
Just blow the thing out once in a while, and fer gawds sake, keep the cassette door closed.
u are old... :-)
how's it going cherry john?Regards,
Buzzsaw
kiss it Bobbo
it is going
finally got the furniture out at the driveway. A guy stopped by today and bought that cherry demilune table for $100......tell the bride she missed that call a little. Got a sign and a flag and that made a difference. I am thinking about making a local mailing to all the apt complexes and trailer parks.
BTW the sign says
"Wicked decent wood works
Rock solid furniture
Rock bottom prices
Id give em' away but my wife wont let me"Wicked Decent Woodworks
(oldest woodworking shop in NH)
Rochester NH
" If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"
glad to hear it. i don't think her words were that it wouldn't sell, it was that she wouldn't buy it for $100. whatever.
i like the sign and hope u supplement ur income. every little bit helps!
Regards,
Buzzsaw
ok now get this............the guy who bought the cherry demilune table came by to pick it up this afternoon an there was another guy here wanting me to make a chair side table for him. He needed it a special height so i will custom make it for him in oak. We are cooking now huh Bob! You can say you knew me when before this turned into a furniture empire.
When are you bringing the bride over?
Wicked Decent Woodworks
(oldest woodworking shop in NH)
Rochester NH
" If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"
john,
glad to hear it. the wicked decent woodworks and storm door company :-) i hope you sell a ton of them. 'word of mouth' will help you out. to be honest, we are flat out until the summer. our weekends are pretty much full because of the kids in plays and other engagements. For vacation we are going to NYC at the end of June and then up to Montreal the week of july 4th. it should be fun.
try to remember us little people when you are having shmoozing with bernie and phyl...:-) Regards,
Buzzsaw
Who says anyone needs to listen to the new stuff?
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Years ago, Sony used to make a "sports" boom box that was meant for a life on the beach.
I haven't seen them around lately though.
Generally, for job site sound, I buy old boom boxes at garage sales, and run em till they drop.
I have a very nice stereo set up in the shop. The receiver is not in the mainstream (of dust), and I just throw a towel over it to keep some of the dust out.
I have four speakers spread around the shop, and to my amazement, they have been operating for better than 20 years.
"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."
-- Bertrand Russell
As I am usually wearing hearing protectors, I found the solution that let me listen the most was a pair of Peltor work tunes. I suspect any set of fully enclosed headphones attached to your portable CD or whatever would also provide a degree of hearing protection as well. Here is a link.
http://amos.shop.com/amos/cc/pcd/8456856/prd/12305755/ccsyn/260/ccsid/372930514-25405/adtg/04230541
I converted an old speaker into an enclosure. Hinge and install the screencloth front to block out dust and still allow you in to change disc/cassetee.
Holes/grommets for wiring. ......and play lots of Rob Lutes on it.
http://www.roblutes.com a brilliant ex-B.C./Quebec/Maritimer."If 'tis to be,'twil be done by me."
The problems I have with the Peltor are: 1.) FM-only, little talk or sports available, 2.) analog tuning only, no station presets.
Northern Tool has a set of hearing protectors with speakers built in. I use these with a tiny Sony Radio Walkman when I'm driving the tractor or using the brush cutter or chain saw.
Simple solution. I have a pair of JBL Studio Monitors mounted on the rafters of my shop, way up high. They are connected to my stereo system downstairs in my livingroom. I turn on the stereo to the music I want to listen to, and select the remote speakers in my woodshop.
Vacuum out the speaker grilles with the shop-vac once in a while! It does pay to have a decent dust collection system in place though!
Works great for me!
Rob
My wife banished my speakers from the family room and 'made' me get a subwoofer/sattelite system. They are 1' by 1' by 3' high Allison CD-8's. (The audiophiles of the 80's will remember Allison - he used to work with Henry Kloss at KLH). They'll go down to 40hz and can make more noise than all the tools in my shop put together :-)I also have a NAD 100w amp and matching pre-amp (vintage 1985). All Fed by a portable "boom box" for radio and portable CD player. When I get my Ipod, i'll plug that in too.I can rock the shop but the funny thing is, I usually listen to jazz, big band swing etc - if you are in the Worcester MA area check out 90.5 or online go to http://www.WICN.org (they broadcast on the web too) for Saturdays both the "Saturday Matinee" program and the "big band brunch" are great. MarkMeasure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, cut it with an ax.
Edited 4/26/2005 10:26 pm ET by Mark
They'll go down to 40hz and can make more noise than all the tools in my shop put together :-).. LOL
I had a old Heath Kit 200 Watt TUBE Amplifier and some 15? Woofers with 80? (I think) Pound magnets..
Shake the whole house.. Ya talk about HIFI! To bad the needle would not stay on the record if ya cranked it up!
Good Old Days!
LOLBTW what is a record? and Why do you need a needle on your stereo?My 12 year old daughter saw an album (I pulled my turntable out of the attic to play some old records I had and my daughter said,"Boy dad, those CDs are big."I nearly cried I laughed so hard.
Mark
Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, cut it with an ax.
Either buy a cheepie and expect to replace it every year or two, or buy what you want and make a dust proof box.
Mike
ZZ-TOPS and Old Blues here... On CD's..
By the way.. I blow out the dust with my air compressor once-in-awhile
Edited 4/25/2005 4:09 pm ET by Will George
I've been through a couple of boom boxes that start out w/ CD and end up just radios. I sh*t canned the cassettes a long time ago (never did get around to buying a Nakamichi Dragon back in the day). Lately I've been using my iPod in the shop with either ear buds or my Bose Triports. Altough I use the iPod in a sports case, I still worry about fine dust working it's way in. I may try a Lillipod case which is actually waterproof and totally enclosed. I have 8499 songs / 780 Albums in my 40gb iPod with 15% capacity left. Just try to work with 780 cassettes hanging on your belt.
John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
The more things change ...
We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
Petronious Arbiter, 210 BC
I don't think you'll have to worry much about dust in the disk drive of the ipod.Hard drives are sealed quite well. They have to be. The gap between a disk head and the disk is so small that cigarette smoke particles on the disk look like 60 grit sandpaper particles on glass.Mark
Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, cut it with an ax.
I agree about the hard drive, but was still concerned about it screwing up the click wheel or getting to the jacks or hold switch.John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
The more things change ...
We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
Petronious Arbiter, 210 BC
I made a box with a small 120v fan (that's about 4" across) and then made a slot for an air filter on the bottom of the box. This keeps my receiver cool by pulling air through it all the time. Maybe over-engineered, but that's my way I guess. Then I have a mini CD/MP3 player connected to the receiver. Ripped all my music into MP3s then burned them on a CD. That's about 10-12 hours of music per CD. And it's much cheaper than an iPod.
Alan
I like to listen to classical music while I'm in the shop. I have a pair of sealed Paradigm "Atom" speakers mounted about 6 feet off the floor, and drive them with whatever receiver I can find around Ottawa for ~ $20 or less on EBay. The current version in an old Kenwood from the '70s that has lasted three years. I put it on top of the old fridge that I use to store various malted beverages, and cover the vent holes with 3 or 4 layers of the same stuff that's used in furnace filters. I blow out the receiver once a year with my compressor. On average, I figure my music sets me back less than $10 per year. BTW, I usually listen to CBC FM2 (http://www.cbc.ca/listen/index.html#)which is almost totally classical and jazz. You might want to check it out...quite different from most US FM stations.
Regards,
Ron
Milwaukee's jobsite radio is built rugged, sounds great, and is reasonably priced- $72.99 for a recon version. It doesn't have a built in CD or cassette player but you can put a Walkman in the attached bag that it comes with, run the line to the aux jack and zip it shut.
Well I am gonna date myself..(no thats not what I mean..)
My shop sound system is a homebrew three way bass reflex pair of speakers I built 30 plus years ago driven by a Fischer 500c recvr/amp. To give you an idea how old it is, there are these glass things inside that glow...Works very well on fm (was one of the first)... no dust problems...
your cassett player needs a dust filter over it. use a thick towel. not a terry towel, i mean a bath towel. i have had one fror years and never a problem. keeps the dust out, easy to access and you can clean it from time to time.
Tmaxxx
Urban Workshop Ltd
Vancouver B.C.
cheers. Ill buy.
Cassette players are naturally attractive to dust.Remember the cassette head is an electromagnet. So it has a slight charge on it. Some of the dust particles in the air are also likely to have the opposite charge so they naturally are attracted to the head. Some don't make it so they settle out on the mechanisims within the drive and eventually - crash! (plus there is probably an oil based lubricant on the parts - oil loves dust (or does dust love oil?))CD's on the otherhand are less magnetic the head is a laser but the mechanisim that moves the head is a type of motor - the charge is so microsopic in comparison to the tape head that dust won't be an issue.Mark
Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, cut it with an ax.
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