Hoo Ha - Lost Treasure Found, And More

[J T]

Was in the back room tonight. Really have GOT to get back there more. Anyway, retieving my Nam slides to see if they're still viewable

- sotored in those plastic boxes, used on a B&H lide projector. I'd been worried they were bac, because I'd found some that were totally blank - apprently caused by the plastic outgassing, so I was worried. But, so far, they're all good. However, I'm still going to store them elsewhere, and get prints made of them all. And, no, no pictures of bodies. I don't do things like that.

And, under the slide boxes, lo and behold. A book I'd been trying to find for several years. It's got plans for how to make a child's rocking horse. A rocking hourse you say? So what? Well, the what is, it show how to make a hollow-body carousel type rocking horse - the real deal. The only parts you actually need to carve are the eyes, ears, and nose. This one is'n't painted like a carousel horse, but that would be easy enough if that's what you wanted. It's made with poplar, with a walnut stain. Looks like something that'd sell in a place like New Yawk City, or Hollywood, for about a gazillion bucks. It's a minor gloat that I bought the book in the first place, finally found it again, and hadn't gotten rid of it somewhere along the line.

It's been a bit hard getting in and out of there for awhile, because the younger kid has stuff a bunch of junk in there, and generally made a large mess. I've been tossing trash lately tho, so I can a least get in. Glad too. I ran across my N guage setup, that I 'll dig out as soon as I get something made to set it up on. Plus theres a batch of woodworking books, including some on boatbuilding, and misc other books, I'd forgotten even having. I'ts great to save stuff.

If you want to try to find a copy, it's in the Popular Science Woodworking Proujects, 1986 Yearbook. It may be out of print now. It's got some pretty damn neat stuff in there.

I could probably be convinced to sell my copy, "after" I copiy the rocking horse plans, of course. $30, and I pay postage. If you're serious,you can e-mail me. First come, first served.

JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?

- Granny Weatherwax

[Gerald Ross]

I finally dug out all my pictures and slides and scanned them. Quite a production, but now the whole batch will fit on a single DVD disk, or a couple of CD's. Gave copies to the kids and can print out what I want to hang. And digital pictures won't fade.

Snippers

[Charles Self]

If I remember right, JOAT doesn't have a computer, but he can, if he wants to spend the money, get a camera store to scan them in. Expensive, though. With more than a few boxes of slides, it's cheaper to buy a scanner and an old computer.

A note on CDs/DVDSs: lots of chatter right now about the lack of durability of those media for long term storage. I think it's mostly posturing, but will plan to re-do those I want to really keep about once a decade. It's easy enough to copy either one, and the cost is now low.

[Swingman]

What's the best way to go about scanning those old 35mm slides? I've got tons of them from 40 years ago I'd like to archive.

[New Wave Dave]

I've got an Epson Stylus PHOTO RX600, one of those all-in-one printer, copier, scanner, fax, [coffee maker, and electric shaver]. It does a passable job on scans and I can trick them out somewhat with PhotoShop. But, certainly there are more task-specific scanners that might do a more professional job. Get you some canned air though and remove as much of the 40 years of dust as you can (that's where the PhotoShop comes in handy).

[J T]

Sat, Jan 14, 2006, 7:46am [e-mail] (Gerald=A0Ross) doth sayeth: I finally dug out all my pictures and slides and scanned them. Quite a production, but now the whole batch will fit on a single DVD disk, or a couple of CD's. Gave copies to the kids and can print out what I want to hang. And digital pictures won't fade.

I'm gonna go thru mine and get negatives made, prints of some, then put 'em in a picture book. I prefer that to the hassle of projecting, or whatever. I've got one of me in there somewhere that I may just make a large poster of. LMAO It's me, ready to go on an inspection trip - obligatory handlebar moustache, flak vest, .45, not sure if I had the M79 and M14 in the picture or not. I've been told I looked like a walking APC. LOL Great times with great guys. I'm too old for that crap anymore.

JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?

- Granny Weatherwax

[J T]

Sat, Jan 14, 2006, 1:56pm (EST+5) [e-mail] (Charles=A0Self) doth writeth: If I remember right, JOAT doesn't have a computer, but he can, if he wants to spend the money, get a camera store to scan them in. Expensive, though. With more than a few boxes of slides, it's cheaper to buy a scanner and an old computer.

Yep, computer nope. But, if it comes down to that, the older son has one. Not sure just how I'll go about it, but I'm thinking get negatives made, and then prints. Negatives should keep forever, same with the prints. I'll be doing a bit of checking, then decide which way I'll do it.

JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?

- Granny Weatherwax

[George]

I did all ours, then gave a disk to each kid. Did mom and dad's and sent to my siblings. The old Kodak contact prints (Velox paper) don't appear to have faded too badly.

Noticed dad carried a Thompson on his way through France. Scary.

[Swingman]

Howdy Dave,

Color me obtuse, but I have a similar HP can-opener and I am still trying to visualize putting one or more of these small, cardboard framed slides on the scanning bed and coming out with a usable sized picture/jpg that would be high enough resolution to view/print?

It could be because I have never attempted doing it, but what am I missing?

[Swingman]

obligatory handlebar moustache, flak vest, .45, not sure if I had the M79

[mac davis]

Hey bro... if you have a Kinko's or something like it nearby, they can do the job fairly inexpensively.. I had some done a few years ago the they fed them into a slide scanner a stack at a time and got jpg files on a cd out the other end.. pretty trick setup..

Mac... remembering the crazy lady he lived with that burned over 1,000 slides of Nam..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[mac davis]

damn.. the macho pictures... borrow everyone's shit, hang it on your 150 pound teenage body and take the picture before you collaspe..lol

I have one that I look about 12 years old in... m-60 in assault belt, several belts of ammo, etc... shit, was I really ever that dumb? yep.. must have been..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[Brooks Moses]

I got a Nikon Coolscan II off eBay for about $50 (and a new SCSI card to connect it for about $50 more); it's a dedicated slide scanner, and does a _much_ better job of scanning than a flatbed scanner with a slide adapter will do.

(Computers are finally getting to the point that woodworking tools are, where it's better and cheaper to get a used top-of-the-line model from a few years ago than it is to get something new, unless you really need to have the fastest and flashiest.)

Also, the people over at the comp.scanners newsgroup are pretty good with advice (even for newbies) -- if you've got tons of slides, it may be worth paying a fair bit more and getting something with an autofeeder, and they're probably the people who'd know which autofeeders work and which are junk.

- Brooks

[loutent]

I just got this Canon scanner over the holidays:

was not expecting much in the way of slide/negative scanning, but I was wrong. For about $130, this is a pretty amazing scanner. It will do mounted 35mm, 4 at a time and automatically save each as a separate file. It will also do negs and 120 (2 1/4 x 2 1/4) size (not mounted tho). It has a built in light source in the lid. You place the slides in the provided holders to scan. Nice resolution too.

Of course it does a great job with regular scanning too. Comes with some nice software, including Photoshop Elements which would cost about $75 by itself IIRC.

It is not a fax machine, but does have a one button copy function where it will copy to the printer directly. Nice for occasional copies.

A dedicated slide scanner would be better, but I was impressed by this scanner.

Scanning slides I took from the 60's (like everyone else!).

Lou

[Swingman]

Sounds like good advice from both you guys ... thanks!

[J T]

Sat, Jan 14, 2006, 10:56am (EST-1) [e-mail] (Swingman) doth remember too: LOL ... I've got a couple of those somewhere also. While it wasn't for inspection, the M79, with buckshot round, was my weapon of choice in the boonies. You could wear it under your arm commando style, and no matter which way you were facing, it was too.

It always kinda cracks me up, trying to convince people they go "bloop" when you fire one. They're always convinced it makes a big BOOM, and kicks like Hell, because the barrel is so big, and I'm just lying to them. Neat piece.

JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?

- Granny Weatherwax

[J T]

Sat, Jan 14, 2006, 9:47am (EST-3) [e-mail] (mac=A0davis) doth suggest: Hey bro... if you have a Kinko's or something like it nearby, they can do the job fairly inexpensively.. I had some done a few years ago the they fed them into a slide scanner a stack at a time and got jpg files on a cd out the other end.. pretty trick setup.. Mac... remembering the crazy lady he lived with that burned over 1,000 slides of Nam..

Hah, yeah, Raleigh's got one or two. I'll have to give 'em a call, and see what they can do for me. Thanks.

I think I'd cry if someone had done that to me.

JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?

- Granny Weatherwax

[George E. Cawthon]

He didn't say he was enlarging pictures. Scan at

300 dpi and print same size as original and just about any scanner should do a good job. Scan at 300 dpi and a 3x5 will require 900 pixels by 1500 pixels to display on a screen.

[J T]

Sat, Jan 14, 2006, 9:50am (EST-3) [e-mail] (mac=A0davis) cracks me up: damn.. the macho pictures... borrow everyone's shit, hang it on your 150 pound teenage body and take the picture before you collaspe..lol I have one that I look about 12 years old in... m-60 in assault belt, several belts of ammo, etc... shit, was I really ever that dumb? yep.. must have been..

LMAO Not exactly. I was 26-27 at the time, a SSG, a little more than 150, but sill under 200, and that was pretty standard for me, except most of the time I couldn't get the M79.

JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?

- Granny Weatherwax

[Gerald Ross]

Actually mine has a backlit slide holder, but I scan at 400 dpi and get pretty good pictures.