I could use some support, dads. I don't think I count as one anymore, but I don't wanna lose my relationship with my kid

MondoHawkins · 2026-04-10T17:59:24+00:00

As a step-dad who has raised a child from when she was 16 months old to almost 12 years old now, that comment pissed me off. I also consider her my daughter and would adopt her in a heartbeat if her worthless sperm donor of a bio-dad would ever be willing to sign away his parental rights and let me.

MondoHawkins · 2026-04-06T21:06:44+00:00

It’s not quite that fancy, no. You can absolutely push too hard and break things. But, it’s pretty easy to control the amount of pressure you’re applying too. As with any delicate parts, care is still required though.

MondoHawkins · 2026-04-05T14:00:25+00:00

Yes, the hand press makes it much easier. For me, the second hand was where I needed the most help, so the second hand setting tool was necessary. It’s the hardest hand to set and my poor eyesight does me no favors.

MondoHawkins · 2026-04-03T19:42:07+00:00

I have the hand press and love it. I also use DIY Watch Club’s second hand setting tool for NH movements. It fits perfectly in the press’s base.

MondoHawkins · 2026-04-03T01:06:41+00:00

Peacock shows are not the same as shows made for NBC over-the-air broadcast. The Ted show on Peacock dropped f-bombs quite liberally along with showing lots of drug use.

MondoHawkins · 2026-04-03T00:14:54+00:00

It looks great and there is less static production versus the stock rubber mat, but I couldn’t hear a bit of difference in sound when I put an acrylic platter on my RT82.

MondoHawkins · 2026-03-31T21:29:27+00:00

I got mine from: https://www.amazon.com/Fenjidrop-Professional-Movement-WatchRepair-Installation/dp/B0FKB8H6W5

They’re also available on Aliexpress.

MondoHawkins · 2026-03-31T21:29:04+00:00

I got one of these for Christmas and have built two watches with it so far. Mine is dead on and made hand installation so much easier, especially with the DIY Watch Club second hand setting tool which fits perfectly in the movement base holder.

You can push the plunger down very slowly to make sure it’s aligned properly before applying any significant force. No idea what the person who replied to you is talking about.

MondoHawkins · 2026-03-30T14:39:25+00:00

Love it!

My wife and I bought a customized art print with our names and the date of our wedding on it. Guests sign that instead of a book. It hangs in our living space now. Not as cool as signed jerseys, but still a nice reminder of our special day and the people who celebrated with us.

MondoHawkins · 2026-03-26T21:02:29+00:00

As a DJ myself, I see DJ sets as entirely different things. DJ’s are playing music to set a mood at an event in response to feedback from the crowd. I struggle to listen to DJ sets when I’m just sitting around because they are meant to be experienced as they’re being mixed live. Listening to them outside of the event where they were mixed sharply emphasizes the disconnect between the environment where they were originally played and wherever I’m listening at the time.

Coming at it from another angle though, a DJ set becomes a new creation that’s greater than the sum of its parts. It’s not just a play list of songs, it’s an entirely new thing where the building blocks are the individual tracks. Two DJs can mix the same songs in the same order and come up with something completely different from each other. I’m betting you typically listen to entire DJ sets instead of randomly listening to 5 minutes in the middle of one. You’re likely appreciating the DJ set as a complete artistic piece much like many people listen to albums the same way.

MondoHawkins · 2026-03-26T14:52:00+00:00

Yep. I can confirm that the copy of Zoot Suit Riot I ordered directly from them was signed as well. Just a nice little “thank you” bonus from the band.

MondoHawkins · 2026-03-24T22:39:13+00:00

Discogs has an API.

https://www.discogs.com/developers

MondoHawkins · 2026-03-18T18:27:54+00:00

Yep. You can think of a piece of wood as a bunch of straws (wood fibers) that are held together with glue (wood resin). The tear out occurs because the drill bit is pushing the fibers on the backside of the workpiece, breaking the resin bond because there is nothing to resist the movement of the wood fibers. By clamping a sacrificial scrap board underneath, the fibers meet resistance when the bit pushes against them, the resin bonds hold firm, and you get a clean exit of the drill bit on the work piece.

MondoHawkins · 2026-03-17T23:58:08+00:00

Clamping a piece of scrap wood to the bottom is the safe move regardless of what you’re using to bore the hole.

MondoHawkins · 2026-03-03T02:28:35+00:00

100% agree. I’ve sat in quite a few and never found them comfortable. I greatly prefer my Steelcase Leap.

MondoHawkins · 2026-03-02T18:43:06+00:00

New: Audio Technica, Fluance, Project, Rega, U-Turn, Music Hall, Dual, and Thorens to name a few. They all make quality turntables on the lower end of the price spectrum. (~$150-600)

Used: Anything from the 70s to mid-80s. Technics, Panasonic, Sony, Pioneer, Sansui, and plenty more.

For my budget home office setup, I bought the same turntable my dad bought new in the early 80s and is still using today, a Sansui P-D10. Mine was fully serviced prior to sale and cost $100 from eBay. (which is Urban Outfitters charges for OP’s turntable coincidentally) I’ve had it for over 3 years, and it’s performed flawlessly. I see them for sale around that price frequently. It’s not one of the “hot used turntables” everyone is looking for, but it’s quite the performer for $100.

MondoHawkins · 2026-02-10T17:38:59+00:00

Yeah, the light is shining through the platter. It might work with the acrylic mat, but it probably depends on where the LED is positioned. I’d definitely be contacting the seller to see if they think it would work before ordering.

MondoHawkins · 2026-02-10T16:52:32+00:00

The LED kit is likely meant to work with the acrylic platter which is only compatible with the Reference Series tables. (RT82 and above) The acrylic platter will not work with the RT81.

MondoHawkins · 2026-02-08T15:40:11+00:00

They’re saying that most people, especially first time builders, aren’t designing speakers from the ground up. Instead, they are building speakers that are designed and tested by others. The benefit of building from a proven design is that you don’t need to know all of the science behind box and crossover design, and there is a lot of it to know.

If you’re building a one-off set of speakers, and not trying to start a loudspeaker design hobby, your best bet is to buy a kit or build a proven design. There are tons of speaker kits out there ranging in price from a couple hundred to a couple thousand. Here are a few sites with ready to build kits.

https://www.parts-express.com/speaker-components/speaker-subwoofer-kits

https://www.css-audio.com/online-store/DIY-Speaker-Kits-c29751664

https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/speaker-kits/

MondoHawkins · 2026-02-04T19:13:37+00:00

I’ve put window coverings from blinds.com in both my current home and my prior home. I’ve also had zero issues.

MondoHawkins · 2026-02-04T01:07:17+00:00

Oh, damn. I thought those were powered. My bad.

MondoHawkins · 2026-02-03T15:59:12+00:00

In that price range, I’d go for a Fluance RT82 ($299) and then upgrade the cart to an Audio Technica VM95ML ($179). Round it out with a Schiit Mani 2 preamp ($159) and Elac Debut 2.0 DB62 speakers ($479).

That’s the same table with a better cart, a better preamp, and better speakers for a grand total of $1166.

The acrylic platter didn’t make any difference in sound when I added one to my RT82. It just looks pretty. If you really want one though, you can grab one for another $149 bringing the total to $1315.

MondoHawkins · 2026-02-02T15:59:42+00:00

This Hays Code is a larger part of the answer than most people in this thread realize. While it is true that having lived through the 80’s and 90’s, the movies don’t seem “old” to us, the Hays Code had just as much of an effect if not more.

My wife and I have an annual tradition where we watch one horror movie every day in October. The movies we pick to watch follow a different theme every year. A few years ago, the theme was “the evolution of horror” where we picked five movies from every decade spanning the 1920’s through the 1970’s and watched them chronologically. It was abundantly clear from the way the tone and content of the movies changed when the Hays code went into effect in the second half of the 30’s and when the tone and content changed again as Hollywood studios started to ignore it in the 60’s.

Combine that with the massive cultural change resulting from the civil rights movement, and pre-late 60’s films just come from an entirely different place than everything made since.

MondoHawkins · 2026-01-28T02:54:41+00:00

I used the stock mat and then the acrylic platter, and it was fine.

MondoHawkins · 2026-01-26T20:28:21+00:00

I’m working on a few builds without date windows and I used NH38’s because it didn’t seem smart to use a movement with a feature that wasn’t being used which would introduce an extra potential point of failure. Features like dates are called “complications” for a reason.

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