Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with decks

Help me love my decks

asok — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:40:57 -0800

Audiophile/DJ question - Will I be able to hear the difference between a generic Stanton AL500II copy stylus in my existing cartridge, an Ortofon Concord S Pro or Blue stylus/cartridge or a GRADO DJ200i? 0.18, 0.26 or 0.7mm (on the AT 544-7, which is probably not what I need) needles? I have a pair of Technics 1210s with Stanton AL500II's on them. The cartridges are about 15 years old and I have never bought new needles for them. The decks have not been getting a lot of use! One of them has always had a bit of a buzz, which may be related to the headshell, grounding of the deck or otherwise. AL500II's are discontinued, but there are plenty of grey market substitute styluses.

Now I have the money and the inclination to pull out the old tunes, I want to buy them new styluses and (possibly) cartridges. I am hearing good things about the Ortofon range, although I am not interested in having an output of more than 5mV from the cartridge. I am also hearing good things about GRADO, although they do have a price tag to go with the reputation which probably prices them out of my league.

The GRADOs have elliptical shaped needles, whereas the others are all spherical. I will be (back) queueing records up and doing a little scratching, which damages the records more with a elliptical needle, according to folk lore.

Custom Playing Cards

NotMyselfRightNow — Fri, 22 May 2009 05:53:16 -0800

I'm looking to make a couple couple custom decks of playing cards. Google returns a ton of companies that do this. Does anyone have any personal experience and recommendations? And, any idea on what I can expect to pay?

Indentify My Innards!

emptybowl — Wed, 03 May 2006 06:03:02 -0800

My brother found....uh.....something......under his deck. What IS it? (NSF People with weak stomachs) Pictures: Image 1 Image 2 (Sorry, no resizing, I couldn't stomach looking at them long enough to do it.)

In my brother's words:

"My guess was that it was a placenta/embyros from something that gave birth under there. My coworker thinks the thing on the left looks like a stomach, and the other thing resembles intestines. If these are some animal's entrails, how did they get there so cleanly without other carnage around? There's a little blood on the rocks, but I found it just as depicted. Any idea on species? I live in central NC."

How do you remove sap from a deck?

agropyron — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 17:44:10 -0800

We have an enormous [pine|spruce] tree dripping sap all over our deck. What's the best way to get the sap off? I googled a bit and some people recommended mineral spirits. That got a bit off, but not much. Hopefully someone here knows the magic secret.

(I noticed that the previous owners actually painted over some old sap! Apparently they didn't know the secret either.)

Pulling Out Decking Joist Brackets

yerfatma — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 10:42:15 -0800

Currently in the middle of a major deck renovation and a question occurs to me: is there a better way to remove the old joist brackets? We're currently jamming/ sledgehammering prybars into the old brackets and pulling like sunuvabitches. We've also tried an air chisel, but while it makes a pretty mess and vibrates out the odd nail or two, it might actually be less efficient than the prybar approach.

How can I build an outdoor table out of pallets?

jearbear — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 14:58:43 -0800

I recently moved into a new home which has a lovely back deck. I've been searching around for a decent wooden outdoor table for said deck that's not made of some crazy expensive wood that will drain the cash reserves that I frankly do not have. I've heard tell of a wonderful way to construct a rustic outdoor table from old pallets, which are in abundant supply out here at some local orchards and vineyards, but I have not been able to hunt down plans or instructions or anysuch for this mythical table. Anyone done this before, or know somewhere around here where I can find plans/instructions?

Deck maintenance

adampsyche — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 08:50:23 -0800

Adventures in suburbia! I have a deck. Apparently, decks need maintenance, and mine sure needs to be power washed. Is this something that I can do (I'm about as un-handy as it gets)? If I do undertake this task, is there anything that I should know/look out for so that I don't leave a path of destruction?

Determine how much weight my deck can hold

chaz — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 17:15:21 -0800

I have a deck. I want a jacuzzi out there. Is there a way for me to test how much weight it can hold? Do I need to hire a professional to do that? If so, how much does that cost?