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hoagtech

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Excuse the long post. My image hosting went down and I have about a month of blog content to cover. Ill post in real time following this post

Life changed and I'm downsizing. I sold my 24,000 sq ft warehouse and ended leases on 3 containers. (10x40) x2(10x20) .

I found a sweet storage space in Nooksack closer to my house in the County for $500 per month for a 20x30 with a tiny office built in and free electricity included.

My grand plan is to change the office into a rework station, the Back half into a functioning arcade and the front full of racking for CRT and supplies and the in between area for cab repairs.

In order to hold all my monitors. I need to construct racking. I'll be using x2 4x14' 4 tiered racks. That should be adequate for all my Monitors, CRT, Large arcade parts and boxed PCB.

I started by clearing the containers and loading up candy on the utility trailer

The space began to fill quickly.

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The office was in pretty awful shape with the previous owner kicking in the door, removing built ins and leaving giant holes in the wall. I moved this shelf from the front to the office and then deconstructed it and got it out of there completely as it was too big for the office and did not fit in with racking either. The lake house needed a shelf in the garage so off it goes.

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I wanted new surfaces and interiors and a place to nap and play video games so I decided to go gonzo and build a "tiny living room loft" above the office.

I got scrap carpet for $50 and they threw in free padding. Some tack and a carpet knife later. We have the beginning of the "tiny living room"

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It is time to treat the office. I plan on creating a dedicated clean, bright area for a rework electronics station, complete with Melamine shelves.

It's time gut the place. You can see the previous damage from the built ins. the Ikea desk has got to go too.

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I dragged my linoleum outside and traced it with a baseboard

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LOTS of spackle was used in creating this room..

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I used a qt of vinyl adhesive and brushed it out evenly against the concrete. I used my desks and chair kits to weigh it down overnight


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These outlets are Nasty. They sprayed drywall texture over them and it's not a tasteful look IMO.


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After 2 coats of 1-2-3 Primer. The topcoat is ready to spread. I used a "Dolphin Grey" Semigloss. It's easy to clean and closer to white for high visibility. After painting I cut and painted all the baseboard and crown molding to cover the perimeter of the room

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The FLUO fixtures were burning up new t8 bulbs up so I hard wired some LED shop lights in the place and grabbed some fresh diffuser lenses.

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Another problem I ran into was the steel conduit boxes didn't have anchors for Nema outlets so my shiny white outlets just floated out of the wall. That won't do.

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The old conduit receptacle has grounds attached to the steel wall and steel conduit run going behind the drywall. I came up with a crazy idea and used drywall anchor conduit boxes and cut the back off so I could fit them in front of the back half of the grounded boxes. The first cut went off like a bomb and blue plastic shrapnel went everywhere. I ended up Duct taping the cutline and anchoring the box with some baseboard and a C-clamp. Much better



My outlets are now anchored

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I installed a conduit box in the rectangular hole (not pictured) in case I wanted to snake in some ethernet in the future.

Lets build a desk!

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I intentionally left an area blank as I plan on having an office candy cab up to a 25"

That pretty much covers my last month here's some Before and After

BEFORE

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AFTER

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I'd would love to hear your recommendations for favorite tools in your rework stations or any input you have.

Up next: Melamine shelves, Hakko, and power!...

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Well Its been a fun last couple days. I got to meet Retro Perception in Seattle. One of the best CRT technicians I've witnessed, and it was bittersweet as I let go of my first two candy cab projects to make room for the arcade. We made a partial cash and service trade for a recap, convergence, clean and balance and repair on my x2 37" Pro CRT (Mitsubishi XC3725C and NEC XM37+). Goodbye Astro and even more so Sammy Tosh. I know you're in good hands now

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I also sold a Fake Ninja Turtles woody with a Pandora 6 to a Laundromat and was happy to see that one go. I still have a 4P Simpsons, Mario Bros VS, and Raiden 2 woody that should be all that's needed to sell for a functional, playable arcade layout in the back

Those 3 cabs made all the difference. I was able to construct the racking and get all my possessions off the floor. I sorted my tools, Arcade parts, and video games into x6 small clear containers. The arcade panels and PCB went onto the racking. It will be temporary until I buy my rolling tool chest and shelf organizers.

I now have 14' in between my two racks for construction and eventually cab repair.

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This rad "Floor couch" /Futon showed up from Bezos and I bought a $25 NIB 720p black Friday TCL LCD from a garage sale. I tested it with my PS5 but I plan on using the Steamdeck in dock mode to play Batocera MAME and AAA PC titles with no scaling artifacts in glorious 720p in 30-60FPS lol. I fired up R-Type Final 3 and got completely distracted for a good hour. It should be called R-type Final 2+ but the new levels were amazing. This was fun testing out the "tiny living room concept", I used the extra desktop as a floor table for now. I am going to install a floating TV mount in the future and saved a Melamine shelf for an entertainment rack to free up all carpet space for humans and couches only.

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The first cut went smooth. I have to rotate the board to make make a full cut as they are 16" deep shelves with a 10" blade, and I want to keep the finish edge on the top of the shelf. I chose 16" Deep because I ordered a Bench Power Supply and have a 8" PVM for my arcade test monitor and need the depth. My shelf depth went past the window in the office so I'm going to be building a 2 part corner shelf to free up a good 4-1/2 feet of space to enjoy my only window.

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This is where it got unwieldy. I ran a stud finder and found plenty of beams behind the drywall (Phew) and marked center before measuring from the wall and transferring to the first bracket on the shelf. I normally tack the shelf up with the first screw as a pivot while I place the level to find the next screw location. When I pivoted, It chewed right through my paint job.. $*%*

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Thank god I didn't throw away the rest of the paint. No has to know..

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I took a new approach, and built "hydraulic shelf robot buddy" out of a Taito bench and a bin and successfully installed my first bracket. Then my drill died.

Next time.. New battery, finish shelves, and rework layout...

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I also sold a Fake Ninja Turtles woody with a Pandora 6 to a Laundromat and was happy to see that one go.

Haha small world--I sold that same guy a big buck pro a few weeks back, and he recently sent me a picture of the TMNT and a bunch of other games on his trailer, asking if I could help him set them up for to accept coins.

Nice shop!
 
Haha small world--I sold that same guy a big buck pro a few weeks back, and he recently sent me a picture of the TMNT and a bunch of other games on his trailer, asking if I could help him set them up for to accept coins.

Nice shop!
Strange. My coin mechs were working and he didn’t mention he owned a BBH. This client was in Edmonds WA. That would be a cool coincidence
 
Strange. My coin mechs were working and he didn’t mention he owned a BBH. This client was in Edmonds WA. That would be a cool coincidence
Yup, he's in Edmonds and has a laundromat somewhere in the middle of nowhere Washington. He's been buying anything cheap and picked up lots of random multigames off marketplace and sounds like he was confused on how they worked. Nice guy though, and funny coincidence.
 
Had to be tough to let those cabs go, but it's for the greater good! Can't wait to see what you do next. What are you plans for that white shelf?
 
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Had to be tough to let those cabs go, but it's for the greater good! Can't wait to see what you do next. What are you plans for that white shelf?
Its for my rework tools. Mainly the Bench PSU, Oscilloscope, and tackle organizers for capacitors, wire and crimp connections.

As well as soldering equipment thats not a permanent part of the desktop like hot tweezers and ESR meters.

Im going two shelves high with a corner attachment in the office and another shelf is for the TV center in the loft.
 
I'd like to share the final touches of construction in the rework office before we head into the weekend.

After leveling the first shelf. The next shelf went up easy. The bottom shelf has more brackets and has taller storage for heavier equipment.

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I wanted to continue the shelf around the corner and I ended up keeping a good 4-1/2 ft away from my office window. I'm digging the flow and the access to the window.

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I used 3 and 4" Steel Mending plates to secure the corner shelves to the rest of them. They are perfectly level and have no gap in them. Very clean lines to me. I'm a mending plate fan now.

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The 16" deep shelving really took out some of my overhead lighting. A pair of 3' LED shop fixtures nearly covered the entire length of the shelves. A few tedious measurements to mount them later and we have a crazy bright work area. Each speck of dust glows likes it under a blacklight.

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We also have a ton of cords to manage. More on that later

Next up I wanted access to outlets for my hot power station. I don't trust myself with soldering equipment, heat guns, hot tweezers Etc. to check the device is turned off before I leave and don't want to be the "office burnt down" guy so my plan is to install a 12 outlet anchored bar and make sure everything is unplugged before I leave. But I ran into a problem.

I plan on mounting my monitor to free up my deskspace and didn't want to impede the power strip. But the power strip was in front of the shelf brackets which I decided to solve by cutting Mounting spacers behind the install brackets.

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I bought another one for my under desk power needs and mounted it as well

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Let's tidy up some wires. I got conduit staples and zip ties to remove the slack from the LED lights and hopefully route the strip power cleanly to the outlet.

The LED wire cleanup went well and I was able to tuck anything visible behind the fixture and then daisy chain the lights together. Now all I see is one 3" cord going to the strip. the staples weren't big enough to handle the power strip though. Ill fix that later.

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The construction part of the rework office is all done! Enjoy your weekend folks.

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Up next. Equipment layout, PC configuration and loft entertainment center.

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Awesome progress. Can’t wait to see it filled with stuff!
 
Here's an update folks.

It started with a porch gift of Siglent.

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I've always wanted both of these so I decided to invest in my room.

Brand new Siglent SPD3303-E 3 channel Bench PSU & Matching SDS1202X-E 200 MHZ Phosphor Oscilloscope

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I am a sucker for Hakko aesthetics. This purchase was a long time coming. The C1100 Stand for my FR-301 Desoldering gun. If you haven't hydrated the sponge in one of these for the time. It gives you ASMR goosebumps..

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I bought the matching FR-301 care kit mostly for the hand drill bit to clean the nozzle but also to not store that giant Grey handled case for the gun as I no longer need it with the stand.

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This one was bit on the inexpensive side and I can't believe I haven't heard of these before. The WEP 938D Soldering tweezers. These have two soldering irons in one and lift off SMD caps almost instantly. No wobbling and doing both sides while you worry you're tugging on the pad too hard. Just pinch and lift

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This is going to help me identify screw size and use them on my Candy cab repairs when needed. An M thread screw and nut kit

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I knew I would need a rolling tool chest for my monitor and stuffed it full of additional soldering and wire equipment along with standard tools and bits. This 650lb rolling tool chest only costed $150 at Home Depot. My local hardware stores were asking $600 for their brand. I have to build a top plank for it to handle my 33" arcade monitors for my Domy Theatre restore.

This small cart is the perfect size for moving CRT in and out of the office

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Last but not least is this beautiful Andonstar AD249S-M Soldering Microscope. I bought it like new barely used from Australia for $110 on a New Listing! Comps were $250-300 and did not include the clamp on LED halo arm for extra light angles like mine did. I have a Wii ElectronAVE HDMI kit and GDemu Waiting to test its abilities.

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A few honorable mentions not pictured: Hot Air rework station, ESR reader, M-700 multimeter, Tackleboxes of heat shrink and wire connectors, Tap and Die set, Dremel kit ETC.

I'm excited to be able to solder with the right equipment in a well lit environment. The anxiety of taking on these arcade and retro projects immediately lifted off of my conscious.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some tools in the hobby, Have a nice rest of your week!

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Next up: I have to get rid of this desktop setup and turn it into a mounted monitor and slide out keyboard to free up the work surface. I plan on getting another Fiskars cut pad and making a disassembly area. The key features of this desktop PC setup are an RTX 4070 and a 27" G6 OLED VRR monitor.

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Lovely additions! I just snagged the Desolder stand as well. Thanks for keeping up with the updates!
 
I'm getting close here. This should be the last upgrades to my rework office and relax loft.

In the office. It was time to make a custom keyboard slide out to free up more desk space for my disassembly area.

I used the left over desk panel that went unused from my custom desk set and cut with a Skilsawl to my preferred width (28" x 10.5") to fit my the keyboard and mouse. I left room for a drink and extra wrist angles if needed.

The keyboard rail kit worked like it should and came with lots of hardware. It feels very sturdy and allows me to use the same materials as the desktop. Bonus!

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I went with a J5 Articulating arm for the Samsung G6 OLED. I installed it so I could switch the monitor back and forth between by disassembly and rework station so I could follow online guides and videos without having slide around my chair every step. It's supposed to support full TATE mode but I must have overtightened something because I couldn't figure it out.

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Overall I'm very pleased with the extra room and ergonomics of both of these. I saved the other portion of desk so I can make a matching slide out for the disassembly area.

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Now a couple finishing touches on the loft tiny living room. I needed power so I could get rid of that awful extension cord plugged into my office. I tapped into the junction and ran 25' of 12-2 wire under the carpet perimeter and installed a quad outlet where the remaining melamine shelf was to be installed.

There are no pics of the shelf install but it went smoothly and very similar to the ones installed in the office.

We have dedicated power now

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I bought a cheap table and cube organizer and installed an TV stand and place to set down controllers and games in the loft. These were bolted down to the shelf with L brackets in case a drunk guy leaned too far forward.

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The queen size convertible futon was treated with a bed set, extra pillows, and throw just for my fancy cat naps. I got this big basket for storing the sheets for when I went back to couch mode.

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I hope you enjoyed my office and tiny living room addition. I won't be posting in this thread much more as I am back to working on my candy in a productive environment! Cheers!


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