Online Portfolio of Michael Wach

Here is an interesting story… I recently moved into a nice neighborhood for a change. Actually, I should say expensive neighborhood. “Ahwatukee” isn’t technically a city (nor is Guadalupe), but the name seems to be catching on for a more upper-class area of southern Phoenix. Ahwatukee is the area south into the mountain overlooking my school on 48th street and Baseline. UAT didn’t exactly end up in the safest area of Phoenix, nor the most dangerous. Regardless, there’s not too many appealing places to live near by. If you can afford the hefty price of an Ahwatukee home, then it is for sure the best option I believe for an out-of-state UAT student, unless you go with the school’s student housing. I think you grow out of the student housing after a year or so…

Anyway, being a nice neighborhood and all, theres more peace and quiet. At least there was until somebody desperate to lease out some more apartments decided it was ok to a group of unemployed college drop outs and flunky high school friends move into the neighborhood. Needless to say, it didn’t take long for some violence, police reports, and eventually evictions to take place. During the squables, one very fed up roommate kicked in this 52″ standard definition projection tv screen. Since everyone was evicted, they all moved whatever they could claim to alternative homes. Not one of them brought this tv with them because there seemed to be no hope for it. A few friends tried fixing it but none had the brains to make it happen. Here is where I came into play.

With the owner’s permission, we went over to the completely trashed neighbor’s x-apartment and dragged the tv over to my place. There I began with removing all the screws on the cardboard shield. Next I removed the screws going all the way around the back of the tv. Now I could remove the large mirror the image reflects off of. I put that to the side and continued my mission. The only thing wrong with the tv was the metal frame that holds the screen was bent in. There are four metal braces that are screwed down to the chassis of the tv. I gradually unscrewed one at a time, bending them back and replacing them. This only took about 20 minutes. Once I was finished, I dusted out most of the tv and put the back side / mirror back on. I screwed in the cardboard piece, rolled it into my bedroom, and sat back to enjoy my second big screen tv Too bad it’s not HD like the one in the living room!

The tv has an amazing sound system built right into it. There’s actually a sub woofer that goes along with the tv, but that had a broken RCA connection. This didn’t stop me. I picked that up too and disassembled it a few days after fixing the tv. I desoldered the old RCA input and replaced it with my own purchased from radioshack. Needless to say, my down stairs neighbors are very disappointed that it works just like new. I somehow acquired a near thousand dollars entertainment center for free. Not a bad deal if you ask me! I took some photos while I worked on the tv, in case any one is in a similar situation as I was and would like a little guidance. You can also feel free to shoot me an email about it and I’d be glad to try and help you out. It’s definitely worth it.