SignalTraffic Forums

Yesterday, a long anticipated 'work trip' finally took me to Dallas, TX for the day. Happily I was able to successfully hook up with fellow Forums member Sean T. (DFWSignals89) for a brief visit while there, during which I collected a pile of already-purchased treasures he's been holding for me (only one item of which I'd sorta forgotten about... ) along with another pile of "bonus treasures", and a couple of "last-minute purchases"...like THIS BEAST...?!!



http://s1185.photobucket.com/user/BigTb ... t=3&page=1

OH, MY -- what have I done?!!

Pics snapped this afternoon, after I transferred it from the work trailer to the back of my pickup for its final ride home. (all the guts are in the house already, with everything else) Lemme tell 'ya -- it looks a LOT bigger in the back of my truck than it did in the 18' cargo trailer!! Of course, I've still got to get it out of the truck, AND to figure out where I'm gonna PUT IT....it'll probably live on the patio by the back porch for now anyways, but the problem with that plan is that I don't have any signals outside... yet... ??? A fun (if somewhat scary?) coincidence -- once I got it home and grabbed a tape measure, it turns out I've already got an unused precast concrete 'air conditioner pad' out in the yard, which is just perfectly the right size for it!!

OH, how I wonder if my neighbors are EVEN ready for what might be 'to come'...??

Sweet, I'm sure we'll have plenty of cool pictures of your progress with your "outdoor setup"!!!!

Cool Grab!!!

I don't have a NEMA cabinet yet...

Glad it went to a good home! Enjoy it.

Good to see that went to a good home

mcha9797 wrote:
I don't have a NEMA cabinet yet...

Good luck with that quest. Took me awhile to find one myself.
I had a G Cabinet follow me home from OSM 2013 Plan on working on it this winter

TAFeltman wrote::drool:
Good to see that went to a good home

mcha9797 wrote:
I don't have a NEMA cabinet yet...

Good luck with that quest. Took me awhile to find one myself.
I had a G Cabinet follow me home from OSM 2013 Plan on working on it this winter

I remember that one at OSM, and the price was right!!!

Nice snag! That cabinet represents NEMA TS1 in its prime! Look at all them amplifier cables!!

There's no turning back now.

I know of serial killers who go through fewer machinations to achieve their goals. You happen to be on a work trip to a specific part of the country where you happen to meet up with an enabling friend where you happen to pick up this device which happens to fit in the back of your truck for which you happen to have all these spare parts and which just so happens to fit perfectly on a conveniently unused air conditioning concrete pad in your backyard?!! Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I submit to you that no one is this lucky. This man had this all PLANNED!!

BTW - I just noticed your license plate. I wonder how many dirty looks you get from holy rollers.

And no Flower Mound or Grapevine police stopped you to see if you had stolen a traffic signal cabinet? You did good!

PROJECT UPDATE!!

Today was an absolutely gorgeous (pre-)autumn day in Little Rock after the (well needed) rain yesterday and the previous month or so of 90+ temps, ever since I brought THE BEAST home -- so I took the opportunity to see what I could do about finding the cabinet a more 'permanent' place to live. Made a quick trip to HomeDepot to peruse their selection of concrete anchors, and bought some that seemed like they should work, along with a brand-new 1/2" masonry bit.


First order of business was to get the concrete pad outta the yard, and drag it up on the patio by the back steps where I'd decided I wanted to put it. Happily, that wasn't a terribly difficult task for me (by myself) with the help of a 2-wheel dolly...it actually only had to move about 20' from one side of the porch to the other, but there was the matter of a couple of steps in the way. Again happily, I didn't manage to break the stupid thing in process.


Then I measured it and marked where the holes for the anchors should go. The nice fresh masonry bit drilled the four holes surprisingly easily. (no hammer-drill needed, at all!) I had been somewhat worried that I might crack the pad by drilling so relatively close to its corners, but no problem with that either. :phew:


Moving the cabinet onto the pad was (accidentally) a snap, since Sean had also given me a set of casters with it, attached to a wood strip under each side. I discovered that all I needed to do was roll the cabinet (back) up against the front of the pad (where the wheels just happened to be nearly the same exact height as the thickness of the pad ) and unbolt the rear of each set of wheels, swinging them out of the way while sliding the cabinet onto the pad, then removing the wheels altogether and sliding it the rest of the way into place.
PIECE OF CAKE!!
Even better -- I found that I had, in fact, measured correctly, and all four holes ended up exactly where they needed to be!


Then, all that was left to do was to (carefully) pound in each anchor, and bolt the sucker down!


So...I guess I now officially have the BEAST by the back porch!!


There remains, of course, the matter of how to get the wiring in and out of there...I'm still working on that one. And tomorrow I'll loosen it again, to squeeze some sealant under the edges and keep the water out -- didn't do that today since I'd hosed off the concrete first, and it remained damp.

that's incidentally another reason why I decided I like the cabinet in that spot -- its out of view from the street, AND will be mostly in the shade 75% of the time!

One final bit of good news to report. (or at least I'm gonna take it as good news?!!) When I'd picked up the tools etc and was standing back admiring my work, I called my next-door neighbor (who had been out working in his yard the whole time) over for a quick game of 'Guess What This Is!'. Not only was he quick to the correct answer, but when I mentioned the "future possibility" that a traffic signal (or three?) could eventually materialize in the backyard as well -- his first response was: "Bring it!!"