Couldn't Get it in the House!

[Marketblandings]

Hi Folks!

I'm new to So-Mach.com and the hobby as well. But just wanted to share the solution to my problems with you.

My house was built in 1917. There is no way in that doesn't involve steep, shallow stairs and a turn or 2 (what were they thinking in those days!)
Still, I had a lifelong dream of owning a Pop Machine (Minnesota terminology) from my childhood days and "upgrading" the contents to include bottled beer as well!
I found the machine - a 1964 LaCrosse. I was 7 in '64 and LaCrosse was a regional machine seen often around here.
I still didn't know where it would go - and after I drove 6 hours to pick it up, I learned for the first time how H.E.A.V.Y. these freakin' things are!
I brought it home and it spent almost a year in the garage.
In the meantime, my wife had begun to "remind" me that I had promised to build a deck in the back yard some day...........
It hit me like a lightning bolt - as long as I had lumber and tools out I could build a home for the pop machine, too!
I have no construction experience, so it took me awhile to devise a plan. In the end it became  a freestanding deck just above ground level (and AT ground level for the weird step-up our yard has). It has two connected "tin roof shacks", one for food service or seating out of the rain and the other as a hail-proof, protected home for the LaCrosse.
It has been so successful that I went on to build a matching chicken coop for our (urban) chickens.
The pop-shed even has a tin cover that closes it off when we are out of town or for the killer Minnesota winters.
Thanks for your time. Just sayin' hi!

[mznb1u]

Nice!  Welcome to the site!

  Tim

[Pat Pixley]

Looks Great    looks like a great place to hang out on a friday or Saturday night.   Just a note , make sure you don't get the mice building their nest in there during the winters. ( they will chew on the wiring )    And welcome to the site .

[Marketblandings]

Thanks for the mice tip! I will start giving it a mid-winter inspection. If they do eat the wires, I already plan to re-wire it next Spring. I was surprised to see it's done with ordinary lamp cord.

[Pat Pixley]

For the Wiring Harness you can Call Soda Jerk Works  or Funtronics they have the wiring harness  it make thing alot easier and those
LaCrosse's are fun to rewire  I've had a few in my day.

[scalebowler]

That is a really neat idea! I might have to try something like that sometime.

[Marketblandings]

Hi Pat,

Mine didn't look too bad. One thing I had to fix when I first got it home was re-do many of the connections where the wires come together out in the open. They had butt splices that were naked metal! No insulation of any kind. I think these connectors had some kinda plastic covering that fell off over time..... I guess. Anyway, I had a pretty good look then and electrical is my strong suit ( I repair antique radios), so warn me now, cuz I think it's gonna be a breeze (and, of course, it never, ever is).

[collecture]

...electrical is my strong suit ( I repair antique radios)....

Do you have a collection of them? Would like to see some pics.

[Marketblandings]

I have a small but growing collection. Also have repaired freinds' radios - amazing how many people have radios that have been cosmetically restored but don't work!
Also, repaired and gave away 5 different small radios one Christmas.

I'll try and post pix early next week. Not set up with them right now.

[BronzeGiant]

Too bad antique radios won't pick up old radio broadcasts, the stuff being broadcast now isn't worth listening to.

[BrianB]

About the only way that I know to facilitate the listening of "old-time" radio broadcast's on antique radio's is to buy the desired CD or tape with the audio on it that you want and cable up the source to a Signal Generator.

I have an old Eico 324 Signal Generator that I use to adjust/tune old radios when I repair/restore them and they will perform this trick like a champ. You just have to make sure that you don't break FCC rules by having an antenna over 10 feet long.

[Kilroy]

Hmmm, you could get people thinking they were living a Twilight Zone episode with that trick....

[Marketblandings]

Amen to that, bronzegiant! I have totally abandoned terrestrial radio. It's just a junk heap. But Internet radio rocks!

[Marketblandings]

A couple other tricks, BrianB: a surprising number of these old radios have aux inputs (or phono inputs - crystal cartridge phono inputs that can handle a line level signal). I am also going to find the right entry point into the output amp in a coulr of these radios (or would it be into an earlier stage of the radio? I'm a little foggy on just how big a line out signal from another consumer audio device is).
Also for the old radios with (non-Armstrong) FM, there's those 10 dollar FM transmitters for Mp3 players!