HAPPY NEW YEAR, FRIENDS!!

What a year this has been, huh? Ups, downs, and not much in-between... seems to sum up 2010 nicely.

I have friends who've changed careers, quite unwillingly, due to "downsizing" in what is being called an "economic downturn". Our economy is failing and our elected officials, for the most part, have failed us for the past decade, at least, or longer. But, we keep pushing forward, handling all adversity with poise and lots of rum! Okay, perhaps "poise" is too strong a word, but the rum part is true!

So, with all that has headed downward there's always a point at which things begin to turn upward again, and here's to hoping 2011 is the year in which that officially happens! HIP-HIP-HURRAY for 2011!!!! (no, I'm not sucking up to 2011 in hopes of getting on it's good side)

The New Year will bring many changes, some profound, some ordinary, some just plain crappy, and some that we won't even realize for years to come - who knows which category those will fall into. BUT, and this is a rather large, I mean BIG, but: many changes will come to MacGowan's over the course of the upcoming year. One change will be short videos - I'm dreading those, in a way, as I've never produced a video, but they should be fun and "light" for the most part. Some will be "how-to", others will be "how-not-to", while others will be out-takes of screw-ups (I'm fairly certain there will be plenty of those)

Other changes will be the addition of the more complicated custom pieces I typically build, but don't normally post anywhere. These pieces range from tables, counters, cabinets, sewing tables, boxes, etc... Normally I don't photograph them, because they're going to people who've paid quite a bit for them and I want them to be able to decide who can see them and who can't. This year, however, I plan to photograph everything I build. Not everything will be posted, but some customers have complained that I haven't posted photos of their order on our website... The problem has been that I don't have a website I can actually manipulate. It was built by a professional, and it looks great, in my opinion, but it's not very user-friendly for me.

With that said, Dorothea has built a new website that is far more functional, and will allow us to post items for sale, as well as insert a gallery of custom pieces. The new website will launch soon after the New Year, but there won't be much for sale, at first, as we have sold out of just about everything I've made this year. Additions to the web-store will be unique items made especially for the videos; new-old style tankards - some of which will be far more intricate than those I current make; wooden laptop tables - built for cooling; etc, etc, etc... also, I'm thinking of a wooden computer case design that's unlike anything we've seen before. Who knows... could be anything.

Our biggest customer base will remain custom jobs, and everything else will remain unique - no matter how many are made/built.

Wow... got bit off-track! Anyway, just wanted to wish everyone a HAPPY and PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!!!

Back to my rum and rum cocktail!

James

Cutting and Burning the Dewalt Valkyrie

The humble beginnings of the Beastly Valkyrie! Dewalt PC Mod...

Between orders and normal holiday chaos MacGowan's has been burning the midnight oil to build a proper shop PC. Why is a shop PC necessary, James? Well, we're planning to start posting short "how to" videos and normal "day in the shop" videos as soon as humanly possible. Having a fast PC nearby will be incredibly handy for such a task - an added convenience when you don't have a film crew to handle all the media. As a matter of fact, my shop PC has been a mini HP - a great little netbook, but that's really all it is. My "inside" computer is a bit of a monster, but was not built to endure the rigors of shop life, so she will stay where she works best.

MORE POWER is always sought at MacGowan's, and this little Beast will do the trick! She's been put together, updated, unlocked, overclocked, wined and dined, and taken apart to undergo her transformation from skinless mess of innards, to a tough, kill or be killed Valkyrie from hell. Screw Odin! This little Valkyrie will rule Valhalla! Oh, sorry... got carried away.

The first photo is of case #1, which will house the motherboard and possibly hard drive, but I'm thinking of adding the hard drive to the second case to allow more air circulation in the first case. Second photo is of the inside of the case with the original tool bracing removed - a little blood and tissue was removed from myself in the process... it's only fair, I suppose. Third is the motherboard mount from a cannibalized PC case - the cutout part will be used to mount the mATX MSI motherboard, which will have additional metal bracing underneath to allow a more secure mount to the case. And last (for now anyway) is the motherboard mounted in case #1 and the PSU and DVD burner in case #2 (not yet mounted).

The cases will be attached to each other to make transporting easier and to eliminate the possibility of pulling the wiring out and damaging the expensive innards.

A radiator with 2 mounted high output 120mm fans will be added, as well as 2 more high output 120mm case fans to ensure proper air flow. A 350 gph water pump will produce a high flow from the reservoir to the CPU and, finally, the radiator. The ram is cooled by 2 60mm fans housed in a Zalman Ram Cooler, and the hard drive will be cooled by yet another 120mm fan! Yup, she's gonna be one helluva Beast - a loud water/air cooled beast. On this issue of noise: The fans will be controlled by a touchscreen fan controller, so when the ambient temperature is cool I can turn the fans off, such as when the beast is inside in the air-conditioning, or out in the shop on a cold winter's day. But, being a Valkyrie is hard work, and it's bound to raise your body temp when you're busy flying around at top speed killing those who need a good killing, so in the hot summer air she'll have all the cooling capabilities she needs.

Specs to date:

MSI 880G-41E motherboard
AMD Phenom II X2 Calisto Black Edition - 4 core unlocked and overclocked to 3.7ghz
Corsair 4gb DDR3 RAM
Seagate Barracuda 500gb HDD
750 Watt PSU

To be added:

Zalman CPU water block
4gb DDR3 Ram to make a total of 8gb
UV reactive tubing for water supply
UV lighting / LED lighting
Lighted switches for power on/off and reset
LEDs for HDD activity and possibly wi-fi activity

More to come...

Building a pc for an extreme environment...

Working in a shop filled with power tools has it's benefits and drawbacks, as with working in any environment. One such drawback of a small workshop is the lack of heat in the winter, or air-conditioning in the summer. Not a big deal if you lack expensive electronics... well, it's not incredibly comfortable during the heights of summer and winter, but at least I'm not locked up in a cubicle staring at the same stupid comics strips everyday! I always imagine a sign posted on every cubicle that reads, "Live Animals, Do Not Touch".
Back to the main drawback for this particular shop owner: The lack of a computer in the shop. Currently I use the big fella inside to do the things I need to do: pay bills; design; surf; check email; surf; write blogs; upload photos; surf; surf; surf... etc. A computer in the shop would eliminate the need to take the long journey inside to my nice climate controlled dwelling, and would increase work time drastically! So, the problem of building such a computer - one that can handle complex 3-D software as well as several other open applications, as well as editing and uploading HD video (coming soon to MacGowan's) - is keeping the beast cool during those 100F+ summer days.
After extensive research and shopping, I have most of the parts to build the computer itself, and a Dewalt drill case to use as the computer case, along with parts to water-cool the big CPU. The case will be a complete mod with a radiator, H2O reservoir and 320 gph water pump attached. All I lack to finish the actual build are the 4 high cfm 120mm fans, cpu water block, and tubing - the waterblock and tubing are not yet on order, but the rest should be here early next week.
This is going to be my nephew's science project, but will be the new MacGowan shop computer when it's finished.
Photos, and possibly videos to come this holiday break.
On a side note: the 50% off sale has been extended till the end of the year. We received several calls and emails after the sale ended last week, so we made the decision to extend our sale for those who couldn't make their purchase earlier. Hopefully this will lend a small break to our customers who find themselves in harder times due to the current poor economy.
Merry Chanukah, Happy Christmas, and to all a good morning.
James