Gym Project: Receiver Dies

The main goals of the Home Gym Project were to add a flat screen TV, wireless Internet blu ray player, and surround sound. I purchased the surround sound over 12 years ago, and it has spent much of a decade sitting in storage.

The receiver received some abuse from my kids before entering storage. So, it is no surprise that after only a couple of uses the receiver died.

Luckily I am handy with electronics.

I was able to locate the problem: a short on one of the circuit boards. I don't do circuit board level repairs (I don't know anyone who still does) so this receiver is junk!

I need a new receiver but they are expensive and I am a penny pincher. Luckily I have hoarded a lot of Amazon cash. I was able to purchase a replacement receiver for only $20.

Check back later when the receiver arrives and we'll install it!

Gym Project: Elliptical Repair

Over six years ago I purchased a Nordic AudioStrider 800. Usually I don't buy the extended warranties but this time I did. And thank God I did. The laundry list of part I have had to replace would be pages long. Everything from wheels to arms to bushings - this elliptical simply is not durable.

Nordic's extended warranty service is ran by crooks, from my experience. Whenever I needed a part I was hassled. Parts were often delayed - at one point the elliptical sat unusable for 4 months while I waited for a part. They always wanted me to pay for things I should get for free. And when the extended warranty came to an end and I called 5 days later to renew? They said I couldn't renew it because it had expired. No amount of escalation or yelling could change this situation. While I am glad I had an extended warranty, I can NOT recommend using Nordic's warranty service.

Without access to parts, I started creating my own parts out of things I had in my workshop.

Then I found ereplacementparts.Com . They are able to get all kinds of parts for my elliptical, so, I ordered a new bushings sleeve and axel cover.

I removed the old broken parts from the axel.

Assembled my bushings into the new sleeve.

And reassembled. Now this axel is as good as new!

I am sure more parts will fail and now I am glad I foun ereplacementparts!

Klondike

My youngest is a scout and this year he moves from being a Weblos Cub Scout to being a Boy Scout! That means he gets to participate in the annual Klondike event. The Klondike is when scouts (and their parents) stand outside all day in a 20 degree snow storm performing various events. The older scouts also do a sleepover in tents, something thankfully I don't have to do yet.

Calendar of Events

With seven people in the house (plus two animals) it can be difficult keeping track of everything that is going on. Therefore we devised a system using a whiteboard that keeps track of our activities for the week.

Originally this hung in the dinning room. But after painting the dinning room we didn't want to put it back there because the white board would detract from how nice the dinning room looks now. This week I hung the whiteboard in the kitchen.

Gym Project: Before and After

This is a good time to have a Before and After look at the home gym. The main purpose of the project was to clean up the corner - that large stack of VCR, DVD players, and more. And to replace it with a flat screen TV, blu ray player, and surround sound.

Before:

After:

Gym Project: Adding Surround Sound

We are ready to hang the speakers for the surround sound system in my home gym. Before I do? I had to pull out the big speakers from the old sound system that were sitting on the floor.

I could have bought some expensive speaker hangers, but instead I found a $2.50 solution using eye hooks. The first step was to drill a small hole in the back of the speaker.

The hole is a pilot hole for the eye screw.

And then I used hooks. I screwed these through the drywall and into the stud.

Then I attached the speaker wire.

And I hung the speaker onto the hook.

Then I connected all the wires to the back of the surround sound receiver and to the wireless blu ray.

I ran through the surround sound set up to make sure the subwoofer sounded good and to boost the back speakers (I like to hear those speakers more).

With the surround sound finished and tested, I put the room back together.

Now you can believe the room is done, right? Well... The two major goals of the gym project are completed. But there are many little things I would like to do with the room. So, stay tuned for more updates! 

Gym Project: Preparing the Speaker Wire

The home gym's TV is hung. The shelf for the blu ray and surround sound system is hung. All the speaker wire is run. Now it is time to prepare the speaker wire.

First is to cut down the middle and separate the wires.

Next is to strip back the plastic coating.

The speakers all use spring clip terminals.

What I like to do when spring clips are involved is to twist the wire and then apply a little solder with a soldering iron. This will strengthen and bond the end of the speaker wire.

With that done, we are ready to hang some speakers!

Gym Project: Shelf

I am installing a shelf in the home gym that will hold a blu ray player and surround sound amplifier. In previous articles I installed an electrical outlet and ran all the low voltage (speaker, etc) wire.

Now it is time to hang the shelf. The first step was to measure the size I needed for the shelf and mark a piece of shelf board.

The cut is too big for my miter saw. This is a perfect job for a circular saw.

Next, I added some metal brackets to give the shelf some strength.

Once the metal brackets were done, the shelf board was added.

And now the shelf is hung

Next is to hang some speakers and wire up the surround sound amplifier.

Home Gym: Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound

I will be installing Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound in the home gym. Why? I don't really have a good practical answer to that. I have had a surround sound system sitting in my storage for almost ten years, so, why not put it to use? Besides I am trying to discourage myself from sitting on the couch and watching TV and only rewarding myself with TV while at the gym.

So what is Dolby 5.1? The "5.1"  is not the version number. It means five speakers and one subwoofer. The five speakers are: front right, front left, back right, back left, and front center. The front center speaker is hung near the TV and gives the impression that voices are coming from the TV.

I will be installing Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound in the next blog posts!

Gym Project: Shelf Low Voltage

Now that the TV is hung in the home gym, I need to hang a shelf for the blu Ray and surround sound amplifier. The electric outlet is finished. Now I need to run low voltage cables: HDMI, digital audio, and speaker cables.

The room is already wired to the hilt with speaker wire. Unfortunately, all that wire is 18-gauge (which is probably fine) and I want to use the better 16-gauge wire.

The surround sound is going to be fed by a digital audio cable. This is a coax cable with RCA connectors.

 I could only find 6 foot cables and I needed 10 feet. So I combined two cables with a coupler. Hopefully I won't lose too much signal through the coupler.

I already have a low voltage box installed for the self. Using a 1" bit, I punched out a hole in the back of the box to accommodate the large number of cables that will feed through it.

I already have low voltage boxes in the corners of the room. When I built the room I anticipated wanting speakers someday. Now. I simply need to knock out a hole in each speaker box.

Then run the speaker wire through the hole.

I did this for each corner, center, and subwoofer locations.

And then staple the wires to the rafters.

In the past I had all the speaker wire return to a central wiring closet where I would patch them together. This time all the wire returns to the shelf.

I have some very nice electrical box plates for speakers, but I am not going to use them this time. Instead, I am going to use a cheap trick of drilling a hole into a normal plate cover.

And then I simply feed the speaker wire through.

The low voltage is done! Now I can hang the shelf.

Gym Project: Time Machine

Most of the home gym construction happened in 2006. Wouldn't it be great if we could take a time machine back to 2006 and watch that construction work? We can:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz266IcnELLeeXlXS0hYX2FKOFE/edit?usp=sharing

Gym Project: Shelf Electric

The main goal of the gym project was to hang a TV in the home gym. The second goal is to hang a shelf for the blu ray player and surround sound amplifier. In my last post I cleared out the corner over which the shelf will hang.

The shelf will be above the mirrors. For that I will need to install an electrical outlet. Even though I have access behind the wall by removing mirrors, the area above the mirrors is covered in drywall. To add an outlet here I will have to use a post construction box. These are boxes with wings that tighten to the back of the drywall and secure the electrical box in place.

The first step is to trace the electric box onto the wall.

Then cut out the hole using a drywall saw.

I am adding this outlet to the middle of an existing circuit so before I go any further I shut off the breaker, fed the wires through the electric box, and then screwed the electric box in place so the box's wing deployed and secured the box.

Because I have access to the studs behind the mirrors I was able to secure the electrical wire to the studs by hammering in some staples.

Always use a professional when doing electrical work. I want to share with you a tip for doing the grounding nut. A mistake amatueurs make is to screw both grounding wires onto the single grounding nut on the outlet. Instead, you need to bring the wires together with a green grounding nut that has a hole in the top to feed a wire through. This single wire will go to the grounding nut.  You can make this happen by using a piece of scrap wire to attach to the outlet and screw this third wire in with the other two. Better yet is to simply cut one of your cables so it has a long grounding wire. Push that long grounding wire through the nut and then screw in the second shorter grounding cable.

Consult a professional for more information on electrical wiring. The outlet is now done!

And many of the mirrors back in place.

Next? I need to get all the low voltage (HDMI, speaker, digital audio)  ran to the existing low voltage box.

Gym Project: Extra Supplies

There is little worse than working on a project and finding you have run out of something you need. When that happens to me I know I have a 40 minute round trip drive to the hardware store. Therefore when I work on a project I like to buy more than I will need. At the end of the project I will decide whether to keep the unused and unopened material for a future project, or to return it.

Recently I took a trip to the hardware store to load up on supplies. The cashier failed to hand me one of the bags and I failed to realize it was missing. I estimate there was $42 in that bag. 

I realized it was missing the next day and called. But the hardware store said no bag had been left behind. That meant the guy in line behind me scored a $42 jackpot courtesy of yours truly. 

I was upset about this but what can anyone do? Nothing. So I have to just let it go. And for a penny pincher like me? That is a difficult thing to do.

Gym Project: The Corner

With the TV hung, the next major task is to hang a shelf for the blu ray player. Before I started this project I had a mess in the corner of the home gym.

It was a stack of stereo, CD players, VCR, DVD, topped with a small TV. Before I can install a shelf in the corner above the mirrors, the pile needs to go!

Even with the room a mess? It still looks better now the corner is cleaned out.