Visit With A CT Creeker

[Jim Becker]

Monday night I had the pleasure of visiting with Rob Russell near Hartford CT. This is a man that is going to have a "most awesome" shop in the not too distant future, chock full of amazing gear. (Getting the big stuff into the basement and over to the new room was an engineering wonder!) His phase converter in-progress is a pretty neat electronics/electrical project in itself. The house tour was great, too, and Rob demonstrated a number of super ideas for lighting that I'll likely put to use one of these days in our great roon.

Thanks, Rob, for a great visit!

[Donnie Raines]

So when are you coming to Cincy Mr. Becker??? :cool:

[Jack Hogoboom]

Jim,

I see a whole new occupation for you. Chris DeHut (are you listening Chris?) should pay you to stop in and tour people's shops during your many business journeys. You can then do a piece for each of Chris's magazines showing pictures, describing what you've seen and what ideas the rest of us ordinary folk might want to adopt as "best practices" for our own shops. Sort of a video "tips and techniques" page. Good for Chris, because he doesn't have to pay your travel expenses since you'd be in the particular area for other things anyway.

I for one would love to hear some of your insights.

Jack

[Jim Becker]

So when are you coming to Cincy Mr. Becker???
It's been awhile. I'll have to talk to the account team that I worked with on my last visit to your area to rusle up a trip that way one of these days...
---------

Jack, your idea is interesting, although I don't currently own a video camera. One of these days...you know, JVC just introduced their new HD camera in the US, too...hmm...oh, it costs about half of what my next Mini Max purchase will run, unfortunately.

[Donnie Raines]

Jimbo.....look for another package at your door step in the coming days.... ;) .....no question please....

[Rob Russell]

Jim,

It was nice to meet a fellow Creeker in person - I enjoyed the visit. Jim even tolerated 'leftovers' for supper (wife made a big batch of macaroni and cheese the day before which we nuked 'cuz it takes too long to bake during the week).

Hopefully the next time you swing through the area I'll have progress to show in my shop. You can also vouch for my 6'6" ceilings, although I somehow doubt I'll get much sympathy from you based on the stuff I've packed into the shop!

Rob

[Chris Padilla]

I'd like to hear more about the lighting frenzy at Rob's place! :D I can only imagine....

This, of course, is another opportunity for an avatar for Mr. Russell. C'mon, Rob, use it! :)

[Rich Konopka]

Now that is an interesting idea. Where in the world is Jim Becker??? I love the trip reports.

Next time your in CT you have to have to travel a little bit further South of Mr. Russell and pay a visit.

[Chris Padilla]

Rich,

You only appear to be a shadow of yourself...how's Jim gonna find ya??? :D

[Rich Konopka]

Rich,

You only appear to be a shadow of yourself...how's Jim gonna find ya??? :D
Okay Okay. Let me think about it. How's this?

[Jim Becker]

Ok...while we're on the avitar kick...

[Rob Russell]

Jim,
FYI - your version of the avatar was too big (larger than 50x50, according to the upload page).

Rob

[Jim Becker]

Missed it by one pixel...doh!!!

[Chris Padilla]

I did try to "Hollywood" your face, Rob, but there is only so much a DSP algorithm can do! :eek:

;)

[Jim Becker]

I did try to "Hollywood" your face, Rob, but there is only so much a DSP algorithm can do!
Yes, unfortunately, this pic was taken by my "travel camera", so there was less information to work with than with the "good camera"...not to mention I forgot to save the face before I shrunk the original pic. My bad...but he still looks quite fine from an avitar standpoint.

[Rob Russell]

I'd like to hear more about the lighting frenzy at Rob's place! :D I can only imagine....

As an example of some of what I did, attached is a picture of the rough-in for a wall in our spa room. It has lighting controls; disconnect for the spa; thermostat for the radiant heat; humidistat, timer and master switch for the vent fans; skylight motor controls and speaker volume control.




I did try to "Hollywood" your face, Rob, but there is only so much a DSP algorithm can do!

Yes, unfortunately, this pic was taken by my "travel camera", so there was less information to work with than with the "good camera"...not to mention I forgot to save the face before I shrunk the original pic. My bad...but he still looks quite fine from an avitar standpoint.

Trust me Chris, you didn't want more detail to work with!

Rob

[Chris Padilla]

So you'll post the schematic tomorrow? ;)

[Rich Konopka]

Bob, what is the pipe for?

[Rob Russell]

Rich,

It's conduit to shield speaker wires from interference from all the line voltage cables in the wall.

Rob

[Todd Burch]

Soooooo, Jim and Rob - talking about me eh... must have been a slow night
for conversation!!!

Come on Rob - left over Macaroni and Cheese? YIKES!!! Last time I had that I think I was 4 years old. Jim, you are more of a trooper than me!!

Oh Jim - did you get to stop by Horton Brasses while in that neck of the woods?

[Rich Konopka]

Oh Jim - did you get to stop by Horton Brasses while in that neck of the woods?
Todd: That place is 10 minutes from my house. I have never heard of them. I can't wait to check them out.

[Rob Russell]

Come on Rob - left over Macaroni and Cheese? YIKES!!! Last time I had that I think I was 4 years old. Jim, you are more of a trooper than me!!

Out of fairness to LOML, she simply baked the M&C the day before because there wasn't time on Monday after she got home from work to do so. Monday night was the first meal served from the batch, the rest ended up getting frozen as real leftovers.


That place [Horton Brasses] is 10 minutes from my house. I have never heard of them. I can't wait to check them out.

Trust me on this Rich - that could prove to be an expensive visit!

[Chris Padilla]

Rich,

It's conduit to shield speaker wires from interference from all the line voltage cables in the wall.

Rob
Rob,

I'm going to need to probably do something similar. I need to run some 2+2 cabling (bundled Cat5 and RG-6) through my "raceway" since the phone/cable enter right along side of the electrical in my house. Unfortunately, that 2+2 will run parallel for ~15' with electrical....

[Rob Russell]

Rob,

I'm going to need to probably do something similar. I need to run some 2+2 cabling (bundled Cat5 and RG-6) through my "raceway" since the phone/cable enter right along side of the electrical in my house. Unfortunately, that 2+2 will run parallel for ~15' with electrical....

I'd really refrain from getting used to using the term "raceway" to reference the wiring chase. If it ever gets formally considered a raceway, even though it's not metal, you'll need to relocate all the low voltage stuff outside of it. You want as much separation between the line and low voltage stuff, there is an NEC minimum that I can't remember right now.