https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/ DIY projects, repairs, and experiments. en-us https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/vintage-pensacola-90s-cartoon-business-map/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/vintage-pensacola-90s-cartoon-business-map/ Thu, 23 Jul 2020 18:17:00 +0000 If you lived in Pensacola in the 90s I have a treat for you. You may recall seeing these “Pensacola Fun Maps” around town in area businesses and homes. It was a cleaver marketing gimmick where a business would contact the artist and give them the details about their business. Then the artist made a caricature of the business’s faced and added it to this map. https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/repair-leaking-toro-pressure-vacuum-breaker-pvb/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/repair-leaking-toro-pressure-vacuum-breaker-pvb/ Tue, 30 Jun 2020 03:12:00 +0000 Our sprinkler system is nearly 20 years old. When working on the yard lately I noticed the area near these pipes was wet on the ground and then within a couple of weeks it was leaking tremendously like you see in the beginning of the embedded video . https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/quadra-950-restoration-part-1/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/quadra-950-restoration-part-1/ Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:23:00 +0000 So it’s a normal day at work and I’m browsing. A post from r/VintageApple comes up in my feed like it does on any other day. But today, I end up getting something I’ve wanted since ’94. The post is titled, “I bought a van load of vintage Apple system”. I read and look at the photos. He’s got CRT monitors, display and portrait! He’s got Mac IIs, LC IIs and LC IIIs. He’s got P... https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/five-mile-swamp-fire-in-photo/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/five-mile-swamp-fire-in-photo/ Mon, 22 Jun 2020 16:46:00 +0000 Recently during a drought and week of high winds a fire broke out in Milton, FL dubbed the Five Mile Swamp fire. I drove through to photograph the area after crew had restored utilities and residents had returned to their homes. A majority of the homes remained but several were burned completely to the ground. https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/retro-arcade-control-panel-build-wiring/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/retro-arcade-control-panel-build-wiring/ Sun, 14 Jun 2020 03:50:00 +0000 About a year ago I started a retro style arcade cabinet in the garage. The part that needs the most thought is definitely the control panel. Your arcade control panel build options of configurations and layout are virtually unlimited. Each item or button requires placement with room to accurate that the others in an ergonomically fashion. If you don’t do your homework your b... https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/my-grail-has-been-achieved-macintosh-quadra-950/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/my-grail-has-been-achieved-macintosh-quadra-950/ Fri, 05 Jun 2020 17:04:00 +0000 I finally got what I’ve wanted since 1994. Nineteen Ninety Four was my first year in middle school. I went to a technology focused middle school that was specially funded to have a computer for every student in every class. So in every room we had enough computers for every kid and these were LC II or IIIs. Each classroom also had a “multimedia platform” at the front of the... https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/half-ass-retro-arcade-machine-build/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/half-ass-retro-arcade-machine-build/ Fri, 08 May 2020 16:00:00 +0000 Modern gaming is rather… boring. I just don’t like them, the graphics are great but it leaves a lot to be desired. But thats a topic for another post. I finally got off my ass and put together a retro-style cabinet to mimic the cabinets of the 80s and 90s. Now just to be clear this isnt a flawless replica of any particular cab, just an old PC in a cabinet for the garage. It... https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/restoring-a-king-kooker-propane-cooker/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/restoring-a-king-kooker-propane-cooker/ Mon, 04 May 2020 03:38:00 +0000 A friend was going to throw out this propane cooker a couple years ago. I asked for it with the intention of repairing and restoring. Three years later… here we are. https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/my-battle-with-ethernet-on-mac-os-classic/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/my-battle-with-ethernet-on-mac-os-classic/ Sun, 26 Apr 2020 03:23:00 +0000 As a major Apple fanboy through the nineties it’s no surprise that I am have some vintage Macs around that I tinker with as a hobby. The most annoying part of it all is moving files between modern Macs and the retro ones. Until I solved this problem I had been burning CDs with files I needed but the nature of CDs single write and throw away is less than optimal. I needed to... https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/1974-dodge-charger-barn-find/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/1974-dodge-charger-barn-find/ Fri, 24 Apr 2020 02:35:00 +0000 Everyone has seen or at least heard of the Pickers and other shows like it where these guys tend to find the coolest things in rural areas seemingly by happen chance. In every episode some treasure is discovered covered in dust in and old barn over yonder. Well we all know real life isn’t that lucky. I watched this show often when they first came out, in the early 2010s and... https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/rare-epcot-center-spaceman-light-switch-cover/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/rare-epcot-center-spaceman-light-switch-cover/ Thu, 23 Apr 2020 17:39:00 +0000 Its no secret I am deeply connected to the original Epcot Center. To this day I still remember still frames from my first trip at two years old in 1985. I remember being held under Spaceship Earth looking up. The dinosaurs on The Universe Of Energy. Looking down behind the ride vehicle on Spaceship Earth on the “return to earth” and being scared of the height. https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/spicy-baked-shrimp/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/spicy-baked-shrimp/ Wed, 22 Apr 2020 23:14:00 +0000 So this kinda came up by mistake. Some friends were in town and had me over for dinner. Since we were at their vacation condo they were trying to fix something easy and quick. The Mrs. had this recipe from a magazine for this shrimp dish. The first time we made it she goofed the crushed red pepper amount and it was super hot but that’s all good because I love hot stuff. It w... https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/wilson-wilson-was-not-real/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/wilson-wilson-was-not-real/ Wed, 22 Apr 2020 23:04:00 +0000 On a blog about home improvements we need to talk about the sitcom Home Improvement. One of my favorite shows, we watched from the pilot to the series finale, never missed an episode and have rewatched it countless times since the end in 1998. Everyone loves the brainy neighbor Wilson but I have a perspective on Wilson that many have not considered. https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/installing-active-laser-countermeasures-in-2014-2020-gm-full-size-trucks/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/installing-active-laser-countermeasures-in-2014-2020-gm-full-size-trucks/ Wed, 22 Apr 2020 21:00:00 +0000 Just wanted to drop a embed for my old video where I installed my Laser Interceptor into my 2016 Sierra. That truck turned out to be faulty with the “ chevy shake .” Here is a video playlist of the symptoms of the shake in my truck… any who back to the install. I switch trucks often so its important to have a quick process to move this equipment as easily as possible. The CP... https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/dish-500-linear-mod-for-103w-ku/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/dish-500-linear-mod-for-103w-ku/ Wed, 22 Apr 2020 20:54:00 +0000 I had an old Dish 500 dish on the side of the house from back in the day. As a FTA satellite hobbyist I loved the look of it hanging there but hated that it wasn’t doing anything. So a quick mod got it pulling in a couple channels. The mod is simple enough to be done by anyone with a little handy work. https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/diy-solar-pool-heater-black-hose/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/diy-solar-pool-heater-black-hose/ Wed, 05 Apr 2017 21:33:00 +0000 Let’s talk about DIY Solar Pool Heater Black Hose. Its that time of year again. The weather is warming up and the kids are ready to jump in the pool but it’s still cold! Here I’m going to tell you about my experience building a DIY Solar Pool Heater Black Hose. https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/lc-80le642u-digital-inputs-dont-work-on-sharp-80-inch-class/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/lc-80le642u-digital-inputs-dont-work-on-sharp-80-inch-class/ Sun, 22 Jan 2017 02:44:00 +0000 This is my first go at TV repair but I have a situation where this large TV belonged to a client and something happened where the digital inputs (4 HDMI ports) quit working. The analog (VGA and Y Pb Pr) inputs did work. The client used this tv for the board room and now most things connect via HDMI as well as their A/V Receiver sent everything from the STB and Apple TV and H... https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/c-band-mounting-a-bud-7-5-satellite-dish/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/c-band-mounting-a-bud-7-5-satellite-dish/ Sat, 24 Dec 2016 22:25:00 +0000 So yesterday after noon we took the pole and the concrete and set the pole in the ground for the C-Band dish. https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/c-band-harvesting-a-bud-big-ugly-dish/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/c-band-harvesting-a-bud-big-ugly-dish/ Mon, 19 Dec 2016 17:04:00 +0000 Quick back story, I was driving through the neighborhood and for many years I’d admired the satellite dish that a neighbor had in his front yard. A couple weeks ago I was riding by and he happened to be outside and I stopped to ask him if I could have it. Luckily I had stopped when I did because he said he was getting ready to cut it down and send it to the scrap yard! Fast... https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/solar-pool-heater-diy-and-cheap/ https://www.halfasscraftsman.com/solar-pool-heater-diy-and-cheap/ Sat, 16 Apr 2016 19:18:00 +0000 Spring is here and the weather is warming up but the pool is not. It takes until about May in this part of NW FL for the pool to get warm enough for me. But thats way too far away when its early April currently. The Half Ass Craftsmen came up with a plan to build a solar pool heater to speed this heating process up. Now this isn’t a new idea but we weren’t sure how well it r...