WELCOME TO MY WORKSHOP
Central Maine TekWerx has evolved from a small business into the home for my many hobbies. The business was active for a few years before I returned to full-time employment. These days I enjoy repairing and restoring vintage computers, electronics repair, 3D printing, and whatever interesting project happens to be on the workbench this week. I primarily focus on the 8 bit Tandy's, but I've also dabbled in the Atari 8-bitters as well. I also have a few PC systems based on the AMD K6 series with one even having a Voodoo 3 card. But that's not all, as Billy Mays would say.
I also spend time sharpening my electronics repair skills. For a while I was an Electronics Technician in the U.S. Navy. My Navy electronics training may be a few decades old, but it gave me a solid foundation—and it's still paying off today. I've now got an almost full lab of basic test equipment, and I buy broken things to fix. Sometimes. I've been working on repairing devices from a Tandy CoCo 3, a Colecovision, and a Sonos speaker that is currently the bane of my existence. My CoCo specific articles will continue to remain over at Tandy-TRS80.com, while Central Maine TekWerx is where you'll find everything else—from electronics repairs and 3D printing projects to retro PC experiments and whatever catches my interest next.
ABOUT MY PRINTSHOP
A LITTLE HISTORY
Until recently, I had 9 3D printers. Three Creality Ender 3 V2's, a highly customized Creality CR-10, two Anycubic Kobra Max's, a Sunlu and two Flashforge AD5X multi-color printers. Recently, I purchased a Flashforge Cereator 5 - a four color, four toolheade printer.
I typically design things for common use, or to fit a need, as well as finding neat things for holiday gift seasons. As the videos show, I've used ESP-32's with WLED to make sound reactive decorations. Also, I designed a soldering station that also holds a fume extractor and assorted soldering/desoldering supplies.
ABOUT MY ELECTRONICS WORKSHOP
THE PROJECTS
In this workshop, anything electronics has a chance at showing up. I have many interests when it comes to electronics: retro computers & video game systems, audio equipment, and even CB radios when I come across them. I have a number of projects either being worked on currently, or in the pipeline. I've been buying items that are either known not working or 'untested' (which is usually not working) just to have projects to work on. So, in the future there will be many types of items showing up here for repair.
THE TOOLS
The tools I have available are diverse. We'll start with my brain - I'm a retire U.S. Navy Electronics Technician, who trying to refresh those brain cells he used to use - and it IS a chore. My bench tools include signl generators, frequency counters, oscilloscopes, various types of munlti-function multimeters, capacitor testers, curve tracers, component testers, soldering stations, desoldering stations, heated reflow plate - the list goes on. It's not an engineering lab by any means, but the workshop is fairly well equipped.
ABOUT MY RETRO-ROOM
RETRO COMPUTERS
My retro computer collection in 2026 is nowhere near what it was in early 2017. These days, I've got a few Color Computer variants (1, 2 & 3) with the usualy hardware like multipak interfaces, SDC carts, X-Pad among others. I also have a fairly complete Atari 400 system, and a TRS-80 Model 100. From the PC era, I've got an AMD K6-III based system, with a Voodoo 3 3000 card. There are many more on my list to eventually obtain, and they will be listed here as well.
RETRO CONSOLES
My retro console collection is a little smaller. I have a few Sega Genesis - model 1's - that I have obtained, with the intent to repair. Well, one worked fine, the other needed joystick ports. I have a Saturn and Dreamcast also, a Colecovision and an Atari 2600 awaiting repair. There are definitely ones I want to add, like a TG-16, Atari 5200, Game Gear, Lynx among many more. As I pick them up and go thru them, they'll eventually show up here as when appropriate.
