Most liked posts in thread: What's new Pussycat too?

This kit radio is the only one I could find for under $100, it cost me $60 assembled, kit form is selling for $30-35. All other radios I looked at, including the one @Graham suggested in the WEFAX thread, that had SSB, were well over $100 except for one just over, but it was a Chinese one, with the broken English translated text in the listing, and, of course, the features including SSB were not clear, so I figured it best to steer clear! I didn't want to spend more than $100 since I'm not sure how much use it will actually get yet, if I'll enjoy WEFAX or if the devices will just collect dust.

It brings all the up to the minute weather info, charts, images and radar that the ships at sea use from the entire globe, while the weather app just gives you the normal layman's info of the local weather, with no radar or any of that, though you can look up local weather in most parts of the world with the Fujinet Weather app. it will show all of this on the Atari screen as B&W high-res images or you can print them out for full-sized higher resolution.

 

Matt,

You've done another quality job there, mate - very cool and professional looking.

As you say, you could still faff with the proportional spacing to get it a little closer an authentic match to the original Atari logo but as it stands, I'd still give it 11/10.

Great work, fella.

That ATARI IBM 800CX gets another step closer to reality.

 

Cheers for those pics, Matt,
Just like us this time last year, it's a race against time to get things just so and how you want em to look so as to be able to celebrate all your hard work with family/friends when we like to get together and eat, drink, be merry and catch up on all the stuff life chucks at us.
You're doing sterling work there on the shower room/bathroom and kitchen as I know virtually all your work you are carrying out yourself on top of everything else you do to keep the home on an even keel and ensure everyone's fine and dandy.
You've also had the recent heartbreak of the loss of your beloved pets so we can appreciate you've had a massive amount of stuff going on.
Wishing you all the very best on hitting your finished work home improvement targets by Thanksgiving, bud.
By my reckoning, you;ve got...
six days, mate...
Good luck, fella!!

 

It's funny sometimes how you don't notice how dirty something is until you see it in a picture! I'm referring to my cabinets under the sink in the kitchen. I need to get those cleaned! A high traffic area by the sink that we rub up against a lot. That's probably mostly from me too, as I wash up my hands , arms and face at the kitchen sink after doing oily, greasy mechanic work. Which is pretty constant with all the machines I have to maintain, in fact, I'm currently replacing the drum brakes on my Blazer, but jumped on the house remodeling while I wait for parts to be delivered. So it's most likely a result of my dirty jeans rubbing the cabinets while washing.

 

Thanks Andy. My brother is doing the painting and helping me with the flooring, but I had to do all the taping and floating as he's never done that before. He also finished painting the metal roof, something that I left half done for a couple of years as I just didn't have time with proper weather to ever finish it. He also finished up the last quarter of the floor insulation under the house I hadn't finished either. But that's it, the rest of the total rebuild (except for the roof, it was still solid) was all me.

The roof, the one wall were the stove and cabinets are, about half the sub-floor and of course the joists and foundation which were also still solid, are the only things left original. I had to rebuild everything else after my uncle let it all go to pot, the drunk he was, living in it for 25 years after my grandparents died. But it would have cost about twice as much if I tore it all down and started all over with a totally new house. I managed to save the roof by rebuilding the outer walls in 8 foot sections at a time, bracing the areas with 2x4 planks and a bottle jacks to hold the areas steady while tearing out the old wall sections and fitting in the new wall sections, so it wouldn't collapse. That was a major task, especially alone, but I did it.

The reason the house is long and narrow (75'x16'), like your town house Andy, is that about 40 years ago it actually was a mobile home. But my grandfather tore it all down to the steel/iron frame, still using that as the floor joists, then built a foundation under it, then built a real house on top of it all. He did it all himself pretty much like me. We plan on adding on of course, and when we are done it won't look long and narrow anymore, even though half of it will still be long and narrow inside.

 

Nice one, Matt.
That was my impression too - long and narrow - but with lots of interesting bits sticking out here and there.
As you say, very much like ours (Brenski's comment once was, wow - that new kitchen could double as a bowling alley, Baz!)
Amazing that this house of yours has had such a rich history of ad hoc add ons and building around existing structures - it makes it quite unique and the time and effort you have committed to make this home for you and making the structure solid and secure.
It's a shame your unc hit the bottle but he won't be the first or the last to fall victim to the demon drink.
Thank god you inherited it and were focused and driven into putting in the damn hard work, using every ounce of your skills, to save the place from total abandonment and probable collapse.
Excellent work once more, Matt - with a little help from your bro - keep it, literally in the family.
Builders would've charged $100,000s.

 

That's nasty Matt, it seems the fate of many an 800 including mine, I dropped it years ago and broke the case at the back and split the spacebar in half..

Here's hoping you can do a near invisible repair..

 

Here, here, Matt/Paul.

I have all kinds of issues with various glues - just lately I've been trying to re-glue broken wood shards and splinters from the bottoms of doors which were recently planed... badly! All that I got was very gluey fingers and the wood refusing to adhere back to the door at all (only to my fingers) but with masses more patience and some UHU, I got there in the end.

Your broken plastic jobs will hopefully heal a darn sight better with the glues you mentioned, Matt

These things happen, mate - don't feel bad about it - just show the Atari Owner world that you will get even and make a better job than ever before.

Hit it, bud (but not too hard!!)

 

While I was attempting to glue and set the front corner that broke on the cartridge door, I fumbled and dropped it again, this time breaking the back corner on the same side! DOH!



So, I glued it back too. I decided just to use Loctite brand super glue, the type I've been buying for a couple of years now, as it seems to work for me as good or better than Crazy Glue or other brands and it has a nice squeeze bottle that doesn't clog and dry so easily and I can usually squeeze out the right amount. I figure that normally when it's all assembled, those are low-stress areas that never even get touched except when cleaning.

I have not yet put the screws back on the 410 and 810 as I am still going to add internal LED lighting to them to match the 800CX. That and just details of labeling keys and precision painting the raised text on the computer and drive face and/or side plates to really make it all "pop" but still conservative and ready for business.

I was able to get the most recently broken piece glued back with just a hair-line crack that should disappear with paint and clear coats. The other one, larger and with more jagged edges, I was unable to get in perfect position before the super glue would no longer allow adjustment. So I'm doing a little body work on it to hide the off-set crack line before touch-up painting.

The broken hinges I have decided will have to be reinforced by splints, hidden to the best of my ability on the inner sides of the 6 hinge arms (three on each hinge). Otherwise I fear it will soon break again, with with only glue, from the stresses of the springs when closing. Luckily my door moves smoothly when it opens and doesn't "spring" up, so there will be little stress or shock that way. I will probably try and replace the door though due to the broken hinges, if it were just the corner cracks I wouldn't. I'll work on it this evening.

Otherwise everything else is painted, touched up, clear coated and being left alone for 72 hours to make sure it's properly cured. I have already put the 410, 810, CX85 and mouse back together, as they've had 24 hours so handling wouldn't leave fingerprints behind. But they won't be touch again for a few days. The keyboard is also re-assembled with all the keys getting clear coats. I still have to label the grey and blue keys, but waiting for them to cure.



I am going to have to redo the space bar and one key from the keypad as they got raisin-skinned just in one small spot on the space bar and only on the top of the key. They had been finished and cured for weeks, so I can only figure that the one key and that area of the spacebar were not perfectly clean, some fingerprint grease or whatnot I painted over and the clear coat revealed what would have started flaking and peeling soon enough anyway.

 

Awesome, Matt.

The cool shmule finish you've achieved there on your 810s, 410 and CX85, look absolutely class.

I'm certain that once you;ve glued and re-assembled the 800CX itself, the whole new family will look stunning lined up / stacked-up together.

You are so close to a classic renaissance job here, Matt and don't worry about the odd goof - they say genius is a fine line between one state and another and you are so close now to reaching the great goal you set out to achieve with this re-imagined project.

"Stick" with it, if you'll excuse the pun.

 

Me, I'm floating all over the place, having my daughter home for the weekend is always top of my list, then there's stuff with the council and the inlaws just are a HUGE problem.

As for colour schemes / layouts, I'm not your man...I would be the world's most loathed interior decorator

 

Nice Matt. That colour combo is epic. Great work.

 

Matt, apparently there's a new version with colour text mode..See the AA forum..

 

How about a picture of the VTech Laser 500? Here in the states the only 'VTECH' that I recall were little kid computers and stuff. But what I am seeing in these images is an 80 column screen for a serious computer!

 

Nice haul Andy. Gadgets and a few supplies for the forthcoming BazBar

p.s. just noticed that the wee thing I was sending down to you has been delayed in the post, looks like it has been with Royal Mail since the 16th December! Will keep an eye on the tracking...

 

I'll post a couple of pictures later, but did have some fun last night playing Sonic on the C64mini that I treated myself to

 

Is that the 1.2 version Paul?

 

Not sure if its 1.2 or 1.3, think its newer

 

Sorry, 1.2

 

Matt, no rush, do it when it's easiest please..

I had a look at where you are on Google and it seems pretty far from town so please take it easy...

Have to say I like the privacy, had a look at Bob Wooleys house and again, he's in a lot of free space...

 

Bloody marvelous! I found the tea @Andy Barr sent me! Apparently I did, absent minded, take it out of the package and I placed it in a little drawer under my 3D printer! I just went to print something today, first time using the printer in months, and there is the tea bag pouch,starring back at me!

So I'm going to have a mug of Twinings English Breakfast tea for my new year's breakfast, about 1 pm your time, 7 am mine.

 

Never missing a modding chance

 

Bootiful new goodies there, Matt.

Great packaging and contents as we like to see and gratefully appreciate.

We await images of the new refreshed and touched-up Command Center with bated breath, budster.

Hope you guys are steering well clear of those blizzards that we've heard a fair bit about on the news affecting Cape Cod and Boston... could they be heading your way...or our way next?

Let's hope not - it's snow joke.

Ohhhhhh, I'll get me coat, lads and put the kettle on for another brew (Yaarkshire tea of course!)

 

Superb looking man cave that is now thoroughly looking "the business", Matt - it is starting to resemble a 1970s office (if you ignore the black modern monitor and PC keyboard).

A very classy look indeed, fella.

I'm liking it and it nudges me towards "tidying up" a bit in my colossal heap...

 

Great plans and 20/10 for overall effect, Matt.

You should be rightly, immensely proud of what you have created here - a real slice of late seventies/early eighties Atari heaven in your own colour scheme take on this period.

A micro masterpiece, I tell thee!

PS. Sorry, I didn;t even notice the 3D printer over on the left... god knows what I thought that was... some eccentric microscope or some such devilish device ;-) Rock on, Matt - it all goes very nicely in there indeed. Again, immense credit for REALISING the dream from thought to fruition.