| |
|
the history of the Klutzoplex |
| |
The humble
beginnings of the klutzoplex started in 1996. I had moved
into a new townhouse with my brother and my then fiancée.
After living there for a couple of months, all of us had began
to decorate the place, but it seemed to be lacking something.
A certain high tech Panache! So on the first boxing day set
of sales, I'd been running around town looking for "goodies".
I strolled into a high end av store, and fell in love with
a Sharpvision XVH-37U LCD projector. Needless to say, after
a day of thought, I ran back and picked it up. We didn't have
anywhere to set up the Front Projector, but since the townhouse
had fairly white walls, we set the puppy up to project onto
a particularly spartan section of wall. Imagine a place with
no couch, almost no seating, and people sitting and strewn
about a small stairwell watching movies on a wall. Humble
indeed!
-Klutzo
|
|
|
| |
| re-inventing
the Klutzoplex |
|
|
| |
Intro |
Now
what good would a Home Theatre be without as much authenticity as
possible? Well this project is about setting up some seats so at the
very least, your butt thinks its in a Movie Theatre. |
| No
Piccie |
02.02.2001 |
The
main project for the Klutzoplex, at the moment, is the installation
of theatre seating. I already have one row of seats installed (that's
a loose term!), and have acquired seven more seats from the 30's to
40's time period. The arms on these seats are metal and have wooden
backs and seats which are upholstered. |
| No
Piccie |
02.15.2001 |
Found
an upholster that will do the job. I now have to pick out the material
and away I go! |
| No
Piccie |
02.20.2001 |
Ripped
apart the seat bottom portions. Took about a day. Found a couple of
small surprises! There were in two separate seat bottoms, the mummified,
desiccated corpses of a couple of small mice. I can imagine people
sitting on them, hearing a squeak, and thinking it was a squeaky spring.
Those suckers musta been in there for 60 to 70 years! |
| No
Piccie |
02.22.2001 |
Got
some nice gold paint for painting the metal arm portion. Picked up
a cheap grinder to get rid of the old paint. |
| No
Piccie |
03.02.2001 |
Had
a family friend cut up some plywood to replace the bottoms which were
falling apart. Thanks Yuen! |
 |
05.05.2001 |
Ripped
off the upholstery off the seat backs now. Damn there's alot of stamples
in those chairs. Used
my trusty edge grinder on 5 of the 9 cast metal arms to remove the
majority of the paint. |
 |
05.12.2001 |
Finished
grinding down the remaining 4 metal chair frames with the edge grinder..
Those things kick up a lot of noise. Be sure to wear ample ear protection,
and DEAR GOD put on some goggles! The wire brush on the hardware throws
off sparks, and bits of metal and wires that have worked loose fly
around at high speeds. It's all fun and games until someone looses
an eye. |
 |
05.13.2001 |
Spent
Sunday cleaning off the rest of the metal crud that accumulated on
the arms. Boy was that fun! =< Gnome was invaluable helping me
out with this. |
 |
05.13.2001 |
Started
to do some paint tests... I think the colour I chose for the arms
may not be appropriate, but oh well.. I'm pretty stuck now I think...
=< Also did a paint test on the metal chair frames. I think the
gold I chose may be a bit too strong as well, the arms before were
more brasslike I think. Perhaps I'll go to Revy or Home Despot to
find a closer match. Again Gnome was invaluable with her assistance!
Thanks! |
 |
05.14.2001 |
Got
some advice on how to finish the arms from the family friend, and
backs on the furniture. The standard is called French Polish standard.
The first step is to use wood filler to fill up the pores. Then apply
the stain, then possibly one or two more coats. Then fine sand it,
and apply varnish. Apply one more layer of Varnish, then polish it.
Apply another layer of varnish, then buff it. ZOIKS! That's alot of
work! Looks like it will be a long involved project! => |
 |
05.14.2001 |
Did
a quick test on the wood and an arm. Doesn't look too good right now..
but I guess once you do a few coats, and the sanding, varnishing etc,
it starts to look nice. I HOPE! |
 |
05.14.2001 |
Here's
a nice dirty sock that we used as one of the rags for cleaning the
seats.. Mmmm. nummy! |
| No
Piccie |
06.04.2001 |
Gnome
and I went to an upholstery shop and picked out the fabric we wanted
for the seats. It's gonna rock once we get these suckas together.
Material is a velvetty type. It is Diana 3009 Deep Purple. |
| No
Piccie |
06.06.2001 |
Sent
the seats packing to the upholster... I can't wait! |
| No
Piccie |
06.12.2001 |
Picked
up the seats! Don did a great job!!! They look good. I can't wait
to finish off the frames and put em in there to see how they look. |
 |
06.20.2001 |
Been
painting the seats for a while now. Got about 2 to 3 coats of that
gold paint on em now. |
 |
06.20.2001 |
Unfortunately
I had to cut a couple of posts where the seat bottoms attach to. Otherwise
there would be a great big peg sticking out, waiting to shin whomever
walked by. I went to Home Despot, and picked up a cutting disc for
a 5 bux. Man.. that disc goes through the cast iron like buttah! |
| No
Piccie |
08.12.2001 |
Been
painting the seats for a while, but haven't been doing much work on
them. Picked up some screws, washers, some test wood and a handsaw.
I should be able to start putting a seat set together and see how
it's like. So much work to do.. Gotta get it done by the end of summer! |
 |
08.17.2001 |
Just
put together the first seat this afternoon. Feels quite comfy. I'm
gonna try to put together the next five hopefully tonight. I can't
wait! I think I'm going to sand down the wood, but am not going to
finish them.. I'll probably do them at a later date. I'm just too
anxious to just get them together now. |
 |
08.19.2001 |
Put
together a full row of seats. Everyone who's sat in em says they're
pretty comfy.... I likem too! One of the things that's been holding
me up, is that they are a real bitch to screw the seat backs onto
the metal frame. Takes sooo much time to find the right bolt. Oh well...
Went to my fav shop, Home Despot, and picked up more screws and wood.
So now I can start to create some sort of base to bolt the seats onto.
Looks like I'm gonna be done soon. |
 |
06.28.2001 |
Went
to Home Despot and picked up a bit of wood for 5 bucks. Pretty good
considering it had about six pieces in there. So like the first set
of three seats that I set up, I put wood bracers on them. I need to
set some up perpendicular as well, due to the fact that people will
tip over, hurt them selves, give themselves huge migrannes, hemhorages,
etc. etc. I will need to get some carpet some time to wrap up the
wood so they do not appear so out of place either. |
| No
Piccie |
01.22.2002 |
Managed
to get some Aura Interactors from Ebay for a good price. Sure beats
getting $500 Buttkickers that's for sure! I bought a whole pile of
them, and Delsol took a couple as well. |
| No
Piccie |
02.02.2002 |
Working
on getting cupholders in the seats. Tried some Walmart cheapo specials,
but they didn't seem to do the trick at all, they were too flimsy.
Canadian Tire I found some great little cupholders for Pop cans and
small bottles. These seem to work well, so I just have to try some
installation and see how they go. |
|
02.09.2002 |
Here's
a quick visual installation guide for taking apart the Aura Interactors
and separating them from the Plastic housing. Don't throw away the
housing yet, you may want to do like I did and use the backs as a
cover plate. You'll need a torx style driver, the star shaped one
to remove the plates. |
|
02.09.2002 |
Here's
a quick visual installation guide for mounting the Aura bass shakers.
The Mounting points on the seat are actually hard Rubber doorstops.
I bought them at Home Despot for 3 dollars per four. At first I thought
they would isolate the vibrations too much, but they allow alot of
the vibration through to your butt quite effectively. |
|
02.09.2002 |
Parts
you'll need are:
- RCA Y splitter. Picture 1
- mini to mini headphone Y splitter Picture 3. (Optional)
- RCA to Mini headphone adapter. Picture 3
The output, as shown in the second picture, comes from your LFE Subwoofer
out. One end of the RCA shown in picture 1, in my case is a blue RCA
that goes to my SUB. The other RCA end goes to the Aura Interactor
amp via the RCA to Mini headphone adapter. If you are just hooking
up one aura bass shaker, you will not need the mini headphone Y splitter.
If you are hooking up more than one, then the splitter is used to
send the signal to the 2nd, 3rd, and so forth bass shakers. |
| |
02.09.2002 |
Cranked
the Aura Bass Shakers up.. they work pretty good! Gnome said that
she could feel them vibrating from up stairs!!! Ho Yeah!!! => |
 |
02.16.2002 |
Used
the back half of the Aura Interactor Backpacks as a cover plate. It
seems to work in a groovalicious fashion. |
| |
Next |
Now
that the seats are together, I have to just finish off the wood part
of it. I'll have to stain them, and then laquer them. But as they
are together now, I can relax about it. Also need to do the carpet
wrap around the skids trick as well. Not sure how much carpet costs,
but I don't really need that much. |
|
|
| |
Intro |
The
ultimate in laziness? Remote control lights? NO HWAY! What could be
better than sitting down to watch a movie.. and hitting a button and
have all of the lights in the room slowly dim down. Now that's THEATAH! |
| No
Piccie |
04.01.2001 |
Ordered
an X-10 package including the Home automation pack from X-10.com.
Also ordered some wall switches with dimming capabilities. |
| No
Piccie |
04.09.2001 |
Ordered
an X-10 package that converts IR to RF, so that I can use my Marantz
2000 to control my X-10 components. |
| No
Piccie |
04.18.2001 |
Took
a few days to play around with the wall switches. The majority of
the downstairs is now X-10 able. All the lights can be controlled
by the X-10 palm remote controller. A nice little remote, but nothing
fancy. The X-10 stuff is a little flaky, but it may be due to my inept
wiring skills! I'll never make an electrician let me tell you! (Always
fun to shock yourself)! One of the lights I couldn't X-10, and I had
a Leviton IR light switch module, so I used that one on the troublemaker.
Now everything is dandy. |
| No
Piccie |
05.08.2001 |
Received
an HT care package today. Many thanks to Vinny and his folks for playing
courier! |
| No
Piccie |
05.11.2001 |
The
Smarthome package contained the IR to RF converter box I was waiting
for. Unfortunately it only has 4 zones that it could control at any
given time which is limiting. One other drawback, is that it is a
two button function, which means you have to press the zone you want
to play with, then on, off, dim, or brighten. With the palm controller
you can pretty much do anything with a one button function... but
beyond that, it is a nice little gadget. I plugged it in, then after
1/2 an hour of messing around... success! Now I can control pretty
much anything in the bottom floor with my Marantz. It is hooked up
with a section to turn the lights off everywhere! This is definitely
SWEEEEET! |
| |
Next |
The
X-10 stuff is pretty much complete now... I'm relatively happy, except
for the flaky switches. The dimming capability kinda sucks however.
I think I'll have to mess around with the macro functionality, which
will then allow dimming I believe. Oh well.. We'll give it a shot
at a later time. On to bigger and brighter things. |
|
|
| |
Intro |
Most
good movie theatres have at least a small arcade to while away the
time waiting for the movie to start. |
| No
Piccie |
xx.xx.1998 |
Picked
up a Midnight Resistance arcade game a couple of years ago. What could
be more authentic than a real arcade machine? |
 |
04.12.2001 |
I
picked up a podium with a 17" monitor in it for CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!
I love it. It came loaded with bnc connectors, adapters, cables, a
power bar, a couple of keyboards, and a couple of mice. When I first
looked at it what did I think? MAME CABINET! For those who don't know
what Mame is, it stands for Multi arcade Machine Emulator. A great
piece of shareware that lets you play all the classic games like Pacman,
Frogger, Galaga, Tempest, and so forth. Roms were gathered from ACTUAL
arcade machines, and put into an emulatable format. Did you know that
Asteroids was only about 10K worth of code? But it is OH SO KEWL!
This podium has a wood grain finish... is of course particle board,
and has castor wheels on it... SWEET. The angle is a little wrong,
but oh well, you can't have everything. |
| No
Piccie |
04.14.2001 |
Gnome
and I went to another auction. She was bored silly, but I thank her
for accompanying me. Thanks hon! She also helped me stuff the podium
into the little Honda. Oh my.. the thing only fit in about half way
into the hatchback! Needless to say with a lot of struggling, and
slow driving we got it to my house. It's a nice cabinet! I cleaned
up the inside, and removed all the thousands of feet of cabling from
the cabinet, and cleaned it up a bit. Lots of room inside for a PC...
SWEET! Then I did a stupid thing that night... I was imagining playing
an active game of mame, and was jostling around the cabinet.... BAD
IDEA... A piece of wood paneling fell off the podium and smashed my
toe. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH. Needless to say, STUPID. My toe is still
semi compressed and has a huge scab on it. DOH! |
| No
Piccie |
04.18.2001 |
I
borrowed an old notebook from work and loaded that sucker with my
Mame games. Mmmm.. Mamalicious! I installed it into the cabinet, hooked
up a keyboard, and away I went. Excellent! I had a few games of Galaga,
Snow Brothers, Ms. Pac Man, Dig Dug... and so forth.. Love it. |
| No
Piccie |
04.19.2001 |
Brought
home my old arcade style joystick from my folks place (They weren't
using it anyhoo). Essentially it's a joystick that repeats keyboard
commands... perfect for mame, or so I thought. I can't get the sucker
to work! DOH! After playing with it for a couple of days.. it's going
to sit idle.. unfortunately. I'm going to have to wire up some real
controls meethinks. |
| No
Piccie |
05.06.2001 |
Went
to a bunch of garage sales today... I saw a Logitech Trackman Marble
FX... the one with the big red ball on it. D00d was selling it for
20 bux... Of course, I forget about mame, and look at it for a while..
then I pass it by! 20 bux CDN! DOH! So I am kicking myself for the
next couple of days... |
| www.ubid.com |
05.11.2001 |
I
found a Logitech trackman marble FX on ubid.com. Not bad price...
I bid on it, and Won it! WHOO HOO! I just hope they ship to me now...
=> When I get it, it will be PERFECT for Centipede, Missile Command,
Marble Madness etc! |
| No
Piccie |
05.24.2001 |
Having
problems with Ubid, they will not ship to a Canadian address... but
I do have a Backup! Thanks Vinny and Intelgal! |
| No
Piccie |
05.29.2001 |
Had
fun going to a police recovery auction today with Max. Picked up two
typewriters, a dead monitor, two HP4 500 sheet trays, 1 P90 with monitor
and mouse, 1 386 with monitor and mouse for $25.00 CDN! Well, we chucked
out the typewriters, one monitor was dead, so both got canned immediately.
I checked out the paper trays, and they fit perfectly on my HP4! SWEET!
Both trays I bid for 5 dollars! |
| www.ebay.com |
06.01.2001 |
Ubid
seems to be screwing around with me.. I found a big balled Trackball
on Ebay and got it for a buck. Not too bad! I'm just waiting for it
to be delivered. |
| No
Piccie |
06.03.2001 |
Max
and I ripped apart the 2 pcs, gutted the drives, floppies, vid cards,
cables, a CDROM, and tested out the monitors. Before we did that,
we found both machines worked perfectly, but for resale value, we
wouldn't get too terribly much... We needed the components, and did
not want the hassle of selling the machines, then buying new crap.
Max traded the cases, a bunch of jewel cases, an old Model 80 (weighs
like 50 lbs!), and some misc stuff for a discount on a 20 inch Big
Blue monitor. I think we got 20 bux for the lot! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. So
now I think I have almost enough stuff for a mame machine. |
| No
Piccie |
06.06.2001 |
So
I used the 800Mb hard drive (almost too small for the mame roms!),
a small ati PCI video card, 128 Mbs of RAM (Proabably too much), 8X
CDROM, and I put in my Fortisimo sound card into the mame cabinet.
My case is a 24" tower, so that BARELY fit into my cabinet. In
fact I had to take out the cover and casing for the sucker to fit
in! Crazy. Copied an old mame source, and the sucker's working. Excellent!
Unfortunately, the old Mame I'm using doesn't recognize the sound
card... *SIGH* oh well.. almost done though. |
| No
Piccie |
01.01.2001 |
Found
out about a great service. Tombstone.net or something like that. They
have an international network of "Burners" that will burn
you the latest MAME ROMS onto CD's! Is that sweet or what??? Needless
to say, I paid some guy 10 bux US, and got over 3000 ROM images! No
need to go hunting around for them now! YEEHAW!!! |
| No
Piccie |
01.07.2002 |
Did
some scrounging and actually FOUND four PC cases, and misc parts in
a dumpster downtown... I was passing by, so I wasn't really dumpster
diving... An ISP was going out of business and I happened to be around
at the time! |
| No
Piccie |
02.02.2002 |
Turns
out to be 2 AT cases, and 2 ATX cases. One of the AT cases was pretty
kewl, had a neat LCD display on it. I tried, and turned it into a
littel Linux box. Seems to work well. One of the AT cases, had a tiny
Hard Drive and a bunch of stuff. All together salvaged a floppy, 2
small hard drives, some video cards, network cards, a 5.25" floppy. |
| No
Piccie |
02.03.2002 |
Chucked
out two of the cases. One ATX, and one AT case. Am using the small
ATX case as my MAME machine now. |
 |
02.09.2002 |
Did
some woodworking, sawing, and a bit of smashing. I took out the top
shelf of the Podium, and put in some risers for the monitor. The Monitor
before lay pretty flat, and many people had difficulty seeing the
screen. Now I have it elevated and tipped upwards for easy viewing.
Seems to be doing the trick! |
 |
02.10.2002 |
My
ol Celeron 300A, and the salvaged 1.3Gig HD as well as a 4X CDRom
are all in the MAME cabinet now. Set the whole thing up, and now we
have Win98 as well as MAME with ArcadeOS running on this sucka. Works
great. I had to haul out my old PCI ATI card from the machine, but
replaced it with a faster AGP cheapo ATi I had lying around. Now the
games play MUCH faster... much better refresh rate. |
 |
02.10.2002 |
Hacked
the windows bootup file, so now everyone knows that this is a Klutzoplex
Arcade machine. |
 |
02.10.2002 |
Here's
the Trackball hiding in a shelf. |
 |
02.10.2002 |
When
the machine is off, I put this Out of Service burlap over it. This
was found at an old Theater. It was left behind, so I'm using it to
cover up my Mame Machine. |
| No
Piccie |
02.21.2002 |
Checked
out an Arcade distributor, and picked myself up a set of Buttons,
and two sticks! The Sticks aren't, but look like HAPP controls, and
I also am now waiting for my IPAC to come from the UK. Also picked
up a Trackball too! YEEHAW! |
| No
Piccie |
02.25.2002 |
My
IPAC, and Optipac came today! Can't wait to get everything hooked
up! |
|
02.27.2002 |
Here's
the Podium before I start doing the control panel, and here's a buddy
of mine enjoying a nice relaxing game of Stargate. |
 |
02.27.2002 |
Some
of the controls laying around, pre-installation. |
|
02.27.2002 |
Went to Home
Despot to pick up some MDF. MAN That stuff is HEAVY!!!
Did some
cutting with a Jig saw, made measurements according to my Podium
Mame Cab. Here's some piccies of the various stages. Wood glue is
Da Bomb!
|
|
03.02.2002 |
Found a fella
on www.arcadecontrols.com who had some drawings of a trackball in
Adobe Illustrator format. Since I use Corel Draw, I converted, then
chucked it in, drew out some buttons, a Joystick, a Spinner, and
voila! Played around a bit with the layout,a nd found a control
panel layout I liked. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend spending time on
the layout before you drill. I'll post a link soon with my Layout
so you can download it.
Went to Kinkos to get print out my Control Panel. WARNING!!!! Don't
go to a busy one.. they tend ot forget you, and I had to go back
4 times to get it done!
Here's some
piccies of the layout, on the MDF, and soe piccies with the drillin
commencing. Use a Power Drill, and avoid the cordless ones, or you'll
be recharging alot!
|
|
03.03.2002 |
YEEEHAW! Finally
able to actually play a game of Robotron, and Joust! VIVA LA MAME!
|
|
03.08.2002 |
Used some KILLZ
on the MDF box to give it a paintable surface. I used 2 coats of
KILLZ.
Used some Satin
finish Blue spray paint. I think it came out decent enough. I'm
going to do a bit more sanding, then give it another quick coat
of blue though.
|
|
03.09.2002 |
Notice the silver
peg? There are two pegs holding the CP (Control Panel) in place.
To secure the metal pegs are cotter pins. So, the idea is that if
I want to build another control panel, I can pop out the cotter
pins, remove the pegs, and pop in the next control panel! Dirt simple!
|
|
03.10.2002 |
Here's some
shots of the wiring. It does the job, but it's a tad messy. I used
a bit of solder, but mainly quick connects.
|
| No
Piccie |
03.10.2002 |
Got my Oscar
restrictors and spinner today. They look pretty sweet... However
the paint job could use some work.. I think their starting to flake
a bit already.
I worked on
some Plexi today, and used fairly thin stuff. Cut out the CP dimensions,
drilled some holes, and so forth. My advice when working on Plexi,
go SLLLOOOW! Also when scoring holes, I used my Spade bit (Hole
cutting bit) in reverse to score the hole, then worked from the
other side of the Plexi, and completed the cut. Drilling seems to
be my weak point. I think I almost cracked it a few times. go VERY
slowly here. Near the end, perhaps if you run the drill in reverse,
that may do the trick.
|
| No
Piccie |
03.12.2002 |
Well... SHIT!
I cracked the plexi... after all that hard work.. *SIGH* I guess
I'm going to go the painted route. CRAP!!!!
|
|
03.13.2002 |
Here's some
shots of me using my Dremel router.. Man It is SAHWEEET!!!!
|
|
03.13.2002 |
Using some of
that KILLZ stuff I used on the control box. Basically prime it first,
then layer it with Melamine paint and some laquer paint.
|
|
03.17.2002 |
Being putting
layers of that Melamine paint.. nice purple, but it settles REALLY
quickly, and dries VERY slowly. About 14 hours + !!!!
|
|
03.31.2002 |
Check out the
ALMOST finished Control Panel!!! Had some friends ova playing Toobin,
Puzzle Bobble, and Tempest! I FINALLY got the Trackball working,
and it ROCKS! Was playing Marble Madness, Centipede, and Missile
Command. Mmmm... Nummy!
|
|
04.11.2002 |
Another arcade
addict gets her fix of Tetris and Frogger. Mamealicious!!!
|
|
04.18.2002 |
This ol' cab.
A future Bob Villa project! There must be some nice original art
underneath all that crap gray paint! I'm sure of it! Hmmm.. I smell
another project!!!!
|
|
04.18.2002 |
Here's the Mamealicious
cab with my old cab. Old meets New!
|
| |
Next |
Going
to get my Tron / Gorf Stick working. |
|
|
| |
Intro |
After
reading info on HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computers) I figured me
and Max would tackle putting a couple together. |
| www.amazon.com |
03.15.2001 |
Found
a soundcard to use. I think the Guillemot Sound card is best, since
it gives pass through capabilities directly to the amp. It was relatively
inexpensive at 45.00 USD through Amazon.com. Both Max and I grabbed
one each. |
| No
Piccie |
03.20.2001 |
Got
a hold of an input card to use. The Cybertainment mail card. It has
2 Composite ins, as well as an svideo in. It was quite cheap through
cybergeek.com. The priced just dropped and I think the latest was
14.50 USD per card! This vid input card is ideal to use with dTV,
which is now called dScaler. |
| No
Piccie |
04.20.2001 |
Picked
up a Creative Labs 6X DVD for 70 bux. Not too bad, since HTPC uses
demands are about 1X to 2X, but a quieter drives are more desireable.
Tried it out, and it seems to work well. |
| No
Piccie |
06.01.2001 |
Through
Ebay, i got an IR PC remote control. Got it for 20 bux USD. Basically
I'm going to use this to control my HTPC telling it to turn on DVD
player, play music, or what not. I tried it with WINAMP today, and
it is really kewl! Nice strong signal from across the room! Of course
I'm going to Prontoize it as well! |
| No
Piccie |
06.07.2001 |
Once
again I'm indebted to Vinny and Intel Gal! Compusa had a great deal
on the Intel Wireless Keyboard, mouse, and a gamepad for $100.00 USD
after all rebates! They picked up a set for me when they scooted to
Oregon. NO TAX! NO TAX! NO TAX! |
| |
Next |
Still
sourcing parts. |
Miscellaneous
Installation
|
| |
Intro |
Random
stuff like decor, little touches, floor plan layouts, and so forth
really make a home theater. |
|
04.01.2001 |
I'm
going nuts! My house is a mess! My seats aren't done, there are boxes
everywhere... AAARRRGGGHHH! |
| No
Piccie |
04.02.2001 |
I'm
calmer now, but my house is still a mess! |
| No
Piccie |
05.08.2001 |
Received
an HT care package today via Vinny and the Intel gal. I now have an
Xmas DVD, the Death Machine (both fairly limited run and specialty
dvds for CHEAP!) an IR to RF converter, and the big one... an OFFICIAL
THEATRE (not home theatre).. yes MOVIE Dolby Digital Wall Plaque...
SWEETNESS! |
| www.ebay.com |
05.13.2001 |
Picked
up a funky ruby red exit sign from Ebay. It was apparently used in
an old Movie Theatre house. It's in SLC, so I'll have to wait to get
it. |
 |
05.13.2001 |
Here's
a piccie of the Exit sign up. I actually put it up in the new year
2002. |
| No
Piccie |
05.18.2001 |
I
Got my Philips Pronto by UPS today. I managed to put in the learning
codes that it has for brand components, i.e. Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer
etc. in about 15 minutes. Very efficient. I like the machine. Definitely
the way to go for remotes! And something my Marantz didn't do??? The
Pronto controls the Proxima! SWEETNESS!!! Of great honeyness, as in
extreme sachrineage! |
|
05.19.2001 |
Oh
boy, this Pronto is gonna take some time to set up properly. You can
custom create bit maps for any of the buttons... I think it's time
to break out Corel and Photopaint again! But once it's done, Watch
out! All my remotes are gonna be gone and replaced! |
 |
05.20.2001 |
Awww....
Gnome is so supportive of my "hobby"... she just got me
a Ghostbusters II FRAMED poster at a yard sale! Thanks! |
| No
Piccie |
05.23.2001 |
Well...
My in-house vacuum cleaner bit the dust.. (pun intended) so I am going
to take KDman's suggestion and use the in-house system as conduit
for getting my Cat5 network connections up and down the house. I bought
one of those kewl Fantom Lightning cyclonic vacuums. Boy does it suck!
=> Costco has the best prices for those by the by. |
| No
Piccie |
05.24.2001 |
Finally
bit the bullet. I ordered an Outlaw 1050 via phone today. I'll probably
see it in a couple of weeks.. Boy am I excited!!!! |
| No
Piccie |
05.24.2001 |
Hunting
down a THX and a DTS MOVIE plaque. No luck so far. Almost got a THX
plaque, but the bidding went to a crazy 555.00 USD on Ebay! NUTS! |
| No
Piccie |
06.02.2001 |
Tried
to use my metal fish tape to get some cat 5 through the vaccuum cleaner
tubes, but no dice. The metal fish tape is too rigid, and the cat
5 is too flimsy. I'm gonna try to MacGuyver it, and use a ball of
paper, tied to a string, and I'll try suctioning it out with my Vaccuum. |
| No
Piccie |
06.07.2001 |
Got
the Outlaw 1050 Receiver in my hot little hands! Thanks to IntelGal
and Vinny! Hooked the sucker up, but was unable to blast since it
was quite late in the night. I'll do some blasting soon though!!!
I've read lots of things about configuration difficulties, but I didn't
even crack the manual, and had everything up and runnin! The remote
has a neat blue colour to it. (blue LED's are kewl!) |
 |
06.08.2001 |
Ordered
a unique piece. Mr_Sewer_Rat from the AVS forum bought an old movie
theatre to knock down to lay down a Kmart. He was selling off a automaticket
machine! Neat old piece from the 70's / 80's that dispensed tickets
to patrons. The insides aren't there unfortunately, but the kewl factor
is definitely there. He's also thrown in a few goodies to sweeten
the pie! What a great guy! |
 |
06.08.2001 |
Got
about 15 feet of Official Movie curtain... again thanks to Mr_Sewer_Rat.
There were staples everywhere on that ream of material, but got all
of them out I think. Next step is to sew them up for use. Not sure
how to mount them yet, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. |
 |
07.15.2001 |
Vinny
helped me moves some stuff around, and my layout is slowly comin together.
Thanks Vinny! |
 |
08.16.2001 |
Totally
broke, but I've been buying a few small items from Ebay as decoration.
Basically Movie Mylars are those small thin plastic ads that show
what movie is playing next. Pretty cheap at about 90 cents per mylar.
Less money than buying posters. |
 |
08.16.2001 |
Gotta
do some major cleaning up, and have to start moving things around.
Gnome helped me out incredibly with my floorplan layout. It is going
to be nads out great. |
| No
Piccie |
08.18.2001 |
Put
up the mylars with some cheapo poster channel guides... just taped
em together and strung em up. Cheap, but it looks quite alright. |
| No
Piccie |
08.23.2001 |
Found
out the THX sign on Ebay is a fake. The fonts don't even match, and
the quality does not seem too good... Caveat Emptor. So it looks like
no THX sign for Klutzo for a little while... |
 |
01.10.2002 |
Finally
got a hold of the exit sign, and put it up. Looks pretty kewl! |
| No
Piccie |
01.12.2002 |
Used
the handy dandy DVD Profiler, and used the Custom reports. Printed
out a nice binder with all of my DVD titles. Makes it much easier
to look at than staring at the shelf. Next step is to print out some
category headings and dividers. |
 |
01.10.2002 |
Found
a great cheap little fix for DLP projectors. Flesh tones do not tend
to be too real due to the type of lamp these Digital projectors use.
The fix? Stick an FLD type Camera filter in front of the Projector,
and Voila! Nicer flesh tones! |
|
01.10.2002 |
Here's
some before and after shots of the NO FILTER and AFTER FILTER. |
 |
02.08.2002 |
Got
a couple of Director's chairs from the local Buy & Sell. Picked
em up for 25 bux each. |
|
02.13.2002 |
Picked
up some Iron On Transfer Inkjet Paper. Made up a sign and ironed them
to the back of the chairs. I now have 2 chairs that have "Welcome
to the Klutzoplex" on the back as overflow seating. |
 |
02.14.2002 |
Was
lucky enough to raid a movie house that was closing down. Found a
great light box that was used for ice cream novelties. It seems to
fit Mylars ALMOST PERFECTLY! |
| No
Piccie |
02.10.2002 |
Went
to Walmark, and grabbed a dark purple carpet to lay in front of the
Screen. This is a Guy Kou cheapo mod. I think it'll work out pretty
good. |
| No
Piccie |
02.20.2002 |
Vinny
dropped off some stuff I got at Worthington Distributing. Great site,
great prices FYI.. Now my Curtain project will be Underway! |
| |
Next |
Still
need to do major cleaning up, but I've been a real lazy ass recently...
=< |
| |
