Last night when I got home the first thing I did was tinker with the Pepsi machine some more. I got out the flashlight and searched all over looking for the thermostat control (still haven't found it). While searching I found the rod linkage that goes onto the narrow slot. Didn't find any cams, although I'm considering trying to fabricate them. I have a drawing on the inside of the door that shows what it looks like. I'm not sure how old the machine is, but it's largely an...

Picked up a Pepsi machine today. I can't believe how heavy it is. It weighs at least twice as much as an arcade or pinball, well over 500 pounds. This is as far as I could lug it by myself. I will have to wait for someone to come over to get it into the house. The only thing that I know that definitely works is the refrigerator. It gets quite cold. I can't get it to do anything else though. When I load cans they just fall right through. If I put in money, it spits it out, even if I...

I just finished the first of probably several "cabinets" to hold "drawers." Their purpose is to help me organize the overwhelming number of computer and A/V related cables I have amassed. Being a pack-rat from a family of pack-rats, I never get rid of any of my cables, even if I don't use the equipment they go to anymore. I also have geek friends who somehow aren't pack-rats and often give me their unwanted cables. The drawers are larger versions of the crates I...

It took 5 days, too much spent on wood and knock down hardware, a lot of hard work, and suffering in a cold garage. It still needs to be sanded, stained, and sealed, but who knows if I'll ever get around to it now that I set it up. Most of the work involved fixing goobers that my power tools caused when they tried to exert a will of their own. Trying to get the holes made in exactly the right places to use the knock down hardware was also really difficult. It seems you need a CNC to do...

I got mine, did you get yours? I picked it up just a few minutes after midnight. Around 10pm I went over to see how many people were camped out in front of GameStop. Only about 5 people there. Plus a homeless guy that must have been quite drunk, he was trying to keep everyone entertained. At 11 the store opened to let everyone in from the cold. They also served pizza and soda to anyone that wanted some. Of course everyone had to stand, except me that is. I had my little folding chair that...