Mastodawn

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

I'm sick (again!), and so I'm reading old magazines as a comfy way to spend time. I have procured scans of 1961's magazines (that's 65 years ago!), and will share some interesting findings in this thread.

The Workbench magazine features a DIY ukulele on the cover, that sounds... incredible? I wonder if the instrument itself sounded good. We'll find out, I guess?

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

"Workbench" features a catalogue of patterns for sale, from "unusually cute designs" to "electroplating baby shoes" and a gun RACK (edit: it was a gun rack!). I wonder if baby shoes must be in a "never worn" condition for this to work.

After all, who wouldn't want a DIY transformer, right?

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

We're back to the ukulele-making article! Now I know why I'd want to have a bandsaw in our local hackspace, huh.

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

Aha, they're using pre-made fretboard. I imagine making a decent fretboard is probably one of the biggest challenges in making an instrument like this?

Surprised that strings and pegs were considered "difficult to obtain"

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

Darn, I take my words about "fretboard is the most difficult part to make" back. They're making the ukulele body by steaming the wood and forming it in a mold.

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

At least one mold sandwich is needed to build this ukulele. The pattern is relatively simple.

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

I don't know what I like more: a DIY Shoji lamp or a Custom TV Kit....

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

A toy house presumably large enough to fit two kids for $1? What's the inflation-adjusted price.... $10? How did they make it work? There's no way in hell I could buy a mass-produced plastic thing like that for $10 today. What...

Oh, is it like, poles and cheap printed textile? I bet it was....

Or maybe it was $100? %) Not sure. It says it was $3.98 and now just $1...

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

A "Quickee" or a hand-held two-way radio? Why not both?!

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

I'm not sure if I should take advice from a 65-year-old magazine, but I feel like I might be inclined to, the messaging really resonates with me somehow.

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

Breaking news: DID YOU KNOW, any young lady can be a queen?!

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

Apparently "schober organs" are FUN to build. I wish I knew what that was.

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

Want to order a DIY Schober Organ (apparently it's an elecronic piano of sorts)?

Well, "Simply mail this coupon. No salesman will call". Wow, I wish more companies had this pledge even today. This, and "we promise we will never send you an email with an offer"

Also, I wonder if it is still legal to post dollars over mail?

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

I know what I want for the next December. I'll make sure to attach the Santa Star Door Decor upside down, though, for extra "fffuuuu" effect.

paramnesiac Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina Needs a wreath around it. 😆

John Maxwell Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina Yes it is. You take your chances on it getting there, though. Advice when I was a child was to wrap the bills in a blank sheet of paper.

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

@jmax apparently it is legal inside the UK but might be illegal to send internationally. Huh.

John Maxwell Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina Huh.

Andrew Zonenberg Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina @jmax AFAIK there aren't outright prohibitions on sending cash overseas in most countries, but it does have to be declared on customs paperwork and may be taxed (in the US the limit before this kicks in is $10K and even applies to e.g. the contents of your wallet on a flight)

Domestically it's not done often with the local currency, because if it doesn't show up you're out of luck, but it's sometimes done for special reasons.

If i need foreign currency and my local bank branch doesn't have any on hand, i can order it through the website. The corresponding amount in USD is withdrawn from my account and they send me a FedEx envelope full of euros, CAD, or whatever I asked for.

Why fedex and not postal service? No idea. Possible there's regulatory issues around it, maybe FedEx has better delivery guarantees or offers a volume discount or something.

@nina_kali_nina I remember snail mailing a dollar to SDF to validate my free account. That would have been like 1999 or 2000?

@nina_kali_nina schober is what you are when you're not pished? Possibly your schober organ is your liver? But I'm not sure how you build that, enlarged livers are generally not viewed as a positive... though I guess it can be fun trying, if you like being pished that is.

slowtiger Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina
In Germany we had "Dr. Böhm Orgeln", quite a successful company until 1985. I still have that reverb that I built from their kit. And I knew someone who had built one of their organs.

Ash-Miw-Re Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina https://youtu.be/_7Id3rIhaoo?si=InqgQvwYgu4n4ZxQ Presumably this? Basically an early version of synth keyboard. My parents had one( which did look homemade, now I think of it. I was too young to think of asking) in the '70s that I occasionally tried to tap out a rhythm on as small child, but I had no training, wasn't good at it and actually developed a weird phobia of trying to make music as being something for Other People.

Schober Dynabeat Part 1. Demonstration Record 1968

YouTube

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

@Ashmire it sounds pretty neat!

@nina_kali_nina
Of course she can, if she reaches the other side of the chessboard.

DoomsdaysCW Mar 8

Tagging @ai6yr !

AI6YR Ben Mar 8

@DoomsdaysCW Ha, nice!

Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina Remember when appliances were repairable? My microwave oven broke last night.

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

@gcvsa 😢 sorry to hear... I wonder if it is repairable or not. The microwaves I have should be fixable as long as it's not the controller in them dying (I wouldn't risk it to control the magnetron with my own software)

Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina It's a mechanical problem with the door. I can't figure out how to access the mechanism, because there are no fasteners, which means the only way in is prying it apart, which is almost guaranteed to break it even more.

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

@gcvsa sad :<

Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina The better news is that this is a bargain basement microwave that has survived at least 7-8 years, even though it's actually starting to rust out, and better yet, I didn't pay for it—it was left behind by my old flatmate.

In fact, now that I think of it, I'm 57 years old, and I don't think I've ever actually purchased a microwave oven in my entire life.

Diane Bruce VA3DB Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina I'm triggered.

Rob Flickenger ⚡️Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina My dad went this route. Back when electrical appliances were, you know, repairable.

@nina_kali_nina

65 years ago, appliances didn't come with the sticker, "no user serviceable parts inside".

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

@number6 I wonder who first started using this phrase...

@nina_kali_nina

More importantly, are they getting residuals?

notsoloud Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina
I read it like the radio outperforms email 😆

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

@notsoloud I bet it does!

@nina_kali_nina
You can definitely arrange a quickee over 2-way radio

John Maxwell Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina Cardboard.

(I didn't order the log cabin, but I was involved in a group purchase of a Polaris Submarine from the same people.)

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

@jmax oh, it makes so much sense! Thanks!

@jmax @nina_kali_nina Cardboard makes sense, although the ad says "Constructed from specially treated, safe ... genuine DuPont Poly plastic" which threw me!

Some editorial liberties taken in the ad, perhaps?

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

@projectgus @jmax Reddit thread in another comment confirms that it was plastic in this case

@nina_kali_nina @jmax ah, I didn't read far enough - thanks. Loved this link to one of the submarines as well
http://secretfunspot.blogspot.com/2007/12/polaris-nuclear-sub-photo.html

POLARIS NUCLEAR SUB PHOTO

Somehow I missed this last Summer when it made the rounds via Boing Boing, but here's a wonderful look at what arrived when you ordered the...

@nina_kali_nina
Kaczynski frowns at the mass-produced facsimile of his lifestyle.

Luci Bitchface Angerfoot Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina Dupont poly plastic… think temu kids cabin

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

@bri7 most plastic and textile are still $30+

Luci Bitchface Angerfoot Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina i tracked down this thread:

>>>
Slammerworm1
6mo ago
It was a sheet of printed plastic which you draped over your kitchen table.
<<<

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWayWeWere/comments/25qw2l/comics_in_the_5060s_had_dozens_of_ads_like_this_i/

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

@bri7 thanks! Fascinating

@bri7 @nina_kali_nina Amazing! Looks like in 1962 the FTC came down on the "Novel Mfg Company" for a number of deceptive trade practices, including ordering them to cease and desist from:

"Representing [...] by or through the use of any pictorial illustration or textual description that the product is larger or more commodious than is actually the fact."

and sanctioned them for

"Failing to disclose clearly and conspicuously that the product is not inherently or independently rigid without the addition of, or necessity for, substantial interior structural support."

😆

More chilling:

"Failing to disclose clearly and conspicuously that there is danger to children of fire or asphyxiation from the use of the product."

https://web.archive.org/web/20250213201111/https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1962-08-28/pdf/FR-1962-08-28.pdf

Eric de Redelijkheid

@nina_kali_nina I wonder if anything is still being broadcast on VHF or UHF that’s not a digital signal.

@nina_kali_nina I'm reminded actually that plastic coated shoji paper exists (much more durable) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F5PTFSKD/

ONAO Plastic Shoji Paper Roll – 2 Sheets (Each 37" x 78.7"), White, Heavy Duty Shoji Screen Replacement – Tear-Resistant, UV-Blocking, Wipeable, Made in Japan - Amazon.com

ONAO Plastic Shoji Paper Roll – 2 Sheets (Each 37" x 78.7"), White, Heavy Duty Shoji Screen Replacement – Tear-Resistant, UV-Blocking, Wipeable, Made in Japan - Amazon.com

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

@sen I wouldn't call it "paper" though. My side table lamp is something like this, it looks nice

@nina_kali_nina Oh, the phrasing...

(hic/haec/hoc)Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina when I was a kid my dad gave me an old children's encyclopedia from the '60s which had a series of DIY articles with detailed instructions to build a telescope, including *grinding your own mirror and lenses*. I was fascinated but I never had the courage to try

Nina Kalinina Mar 8

@_hic_haec_hoc I heard there's still a circle of hobbyists doing that!

(hic/haec/hoc)Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina i don't doubt it, it's going to be so hard and time-consuming but so satisfying if you manage to pull it off

@nina_kali_nina

If you say that even uke's should have true temperament fretboards then you can continue to claim the fretboard being the most difficult part to make.

Viktor Goryainov Mar 9

@nina_kali_nina I know some Soviet-era booklets and magazines have published manuals and drawings for DIY electric guitars, both solid-body and hollow-body. But since an acoustic instrument relies even more on its shape, this had to be more difficult, I guess...

Toby Jaffey Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina it’s not too hard to make a simple board with a plank and some fretwire. This cigar box guitar I made is bearable... The simplest instruments aren’t fretted though and are still a lot of fun https://youtu.be/XwxBoZmbBk8?si=F3_MBKOmhHMfbrOq

jamesb (MW1CGG)Mar 8

@nina_kali_nina I've made loads of them and despise doing it.