patches

I like the posts on here about heirloom watches. My wife and I both wear Garmin smart watches, which I know will have an end of life in the next 5-10yrs. So for our wedding (just last week) I decided to get her a little wedding day gift that has a longer lifespan and will also go better with her dress. Just a simple timeless looking Tissot ladies watch Hopefully the quality is good enough that this will become a hand-me-down over the generations.

Needed to drill some accurate holes with a 40mm forstner bit, so the acquisition of a drill press was in order. Got the little Bosch PBD 40 and I was very impressed. Compact. Sleek. Digital speed and depth display. Laser. Keyless 13mm Rohm Chuck. Can recommend to anyone looking for a benchtop drill press.

Rode the Lake Dunstan Trail today. 42km of amazing scenery. We did however do the lazy thing and rode it on rental eBikes.

Plus 1 on the cordless, and as you're already on the Makita platform, it's an easy choice. Love my little cordless Makita. Plunge, tilted and offset base options make it even better!

"most livable" clearly doesn't place too much weight on affordability ???? Recently had the in-laws over from Sydney and they were a little shocked at the cost of living here. With the average Auckland house price over $1.3m combined with the cost of food and goods. Add in a dash of lower pay compared to Aus and it doesn't paint a pretty picture. But as we've always said on this thread... There are things money cannot buy and that high cost of living is a worthwhile trade off for many.

Warning, the following pics may trigger jealous jaffas ???? Currently down in Queenstown... Remarkables in the morning from the AirBnB Remarkables at dusk as the Luma festival starts up for the evening. One of the forest exhibits at the Luma festival.

Sorry, a bit late now but Christchurch and Akaroa were fine this past week (and I think the weekend too). We were there Wednesday - Friday. Weather was amazing, floods cleared off the roads. No real issues. Some pics from Akaroa last week...

Today I made one if my most important pieces to date... A ring box for my wedding in 3 days time. Black Walnut with Neodymium magnets hidden beneath opposing corners to create closing latch system and a pivot to allow it to swing open. Fabric samples from SA to add a touch of home. Was a fun build with some interesting challenges.

Being vernierless, I used a steel rule to quickly measure up and model 2 options. The left based on the base opening (should offer more resistance against torsional flex). The right baed on the OEM Festool adpater (or as best as I could judge it.

Yeah was also thinking of printing one. I know roughly what the Festool one looks like. I just need to get some guide bushes so I can work on the ID of the adapter (although it should be 30mm as I believe that's what most threaded guide bush sets are. I did check thingiverse, but no luck, so I'll have to reverse engineer one... once I get my verniers back from Lost & Found at the Men's Shed ???? 1 Canuckistan Copec = 1.13 Kiwi Copecs. Maybe they should rather be called Kiwi Kwacha at that rate!

Stripped down the budget Festool router. When I got it the plunge wasn't working due to stiction. It's infinitely better now, and seems to be running great. Hopefully it's 81 Kiwi Copecs well spent. Next challenge is finding a guide bushing adapter for it. Local Festool agents don't have them.

Exactly! I think the culture and drive towards multiple home ownership is far more prevalent in NZ than I felt in SA. I'm not sure if it is genuinely that way or if I'm just more aware of it now. I know Mick De Brenni's statement of "Last year [2017], more people bought their seventh home than those buying their first." was fact-checked as false, but the sentiment of what he was trying to say is true. And even more so now. As for amending the graph to show feasibility of buying 3rd, 4th, 5th etc homes, I'll do that if I ever get there ???? In reality though, 2 would be more than I could ever hope for. One family home down on the South Island to live in. One in Auckland as an investment and to keep a foot on this super slippery ladder, because I fear that if I sell up here and move down south to buy something better and/or reduce debt, I may never be able to get back onto the Auckland ladder should I ever need to return (due to employment or the alpine fault line, hahaha)

I did this very thing this morning. Switched to an iPhone 12 Pro after a long history of Samsungs (S2, S3, S5, S7, S9, S10e), and having never owned an iOS device before. I used that "Dr app" (dr fone .). What it basically does is take the WhasApp messages on your Android (which I had backed up to Google Drive) and backs them up onto the devices local storage and then onto the PC via the phone's USB cable. One then logs onto their WhatsApp account on the iOS device, connects via lightning cable, and it pushes the backup onto it. It worked pretty well and it gives great step-by-step instructions all along the way. The only downside is that it isn't free. I think it was about $20. I searched for free equivalents, but couldn't find any. Hope that helps!

hahaha sorry gang. I had a random thought in my head one evening, explored where it lead, which was to the colourful graphs, but not to explaining it very well ???? My response to hayleyearth (below) may demystify my random thoughts a bit more. Aaha gotcha! Yeah the grey line tracks what sort of purchasing power one may have at any point in time, but based purely on equity and not on serviceability, because as you noted, life expenses etc vary, and some people may want a 2nd property to rent out while other just want the kiwi dream... "a batch". So for example, 1yr of mortgage payments (on a proactive payment plan, paying off 3.5% of the $800k capital) combined with the capital growth of the property (lets say at 5%) will give one approx $78,000 of equity, and therefore (at the 40% guideline) would enable one to purchase a 2nd property for around $195,000 (total value. $78,000 deposit/leverage and $117,000 loan). The point at wheich the 2 lines meet is when property 1 (initially purchased for $1m) builds enough equity to purchase a 2nd property of equal/similar value. As for the paying off faster, that's a tough one to weigh up if one takes the punt now, especially on emerging markets/areas before the prices get too crazy, or they wait until they carry more equity and make the more expensive purchase down the line. I'm not ready to be a landlord, and I can't afford to have a batch just sitting there, so I'll wait a while ????

I was running some housing numbers again the other day (as the housing crisis is always a hot topic in NZ). More numbers around that move from 1 property to 2. Here's what the scenario is based on 1st Property Purchase Price of $1,000,000 (Low for Auckland, but high for most other places) 20% deposit and $800,000 loan amount 3.5% of principle paid off each year 40% deposit requirement for 2nd property, and based on equity only (dangerous as that is, it's all the rage in NZ) Based on purchase of 2nd property at equal value to 1st. Serviceability of 2nd mortgage not taken into account (as it varies based on income, intent for 2nd property, ie rental, etc). Here's what my limited financial acumen managed to deduce ???? At 2.5% Growth PA (very conservative) One would be able to leverage to buy a similar value house (subjected to the same growth) after approx 9yrs. At 5% Growth PA (fairly conservative) One would be able to leverage to buy a similar value house (subjected to the same growth) around approx 6.5yrs. At 7.5% Growth PA One would be able to leverage to buy a similar value house (subjected to the same growth) around approx 5yrs. At 10% Growth PA One would be able to leverage to buy a similar value house (subjected to the same growth) around a little after 4yrs. At 12.5% Growth PA (not far off in current climate) One would be able to leverage to buy a similar value house (subjected to the same growth) around a little after 3.5yrs. I know the NZ property ladder and the lucrativeness of multiple property ownership is no secret. And the old saying "it takes money to make money" always rings true. I just thought it was interesting to visualise how feasible/possible it really is. It's crazy and just begging for a capital gains tax ????

Anyone going to Rotorua on Saturday? (shot in the dark) I foolishly got caught up in the hype of a TradeMe auction and won an item that is "Pick-up Only" ???? Happy to contribute towards fuel for anyone that is able to assist.

I was listening to one of the Woodtalk podcast episodes the other day, and they were talking about sacrificial layers on Roubo style workbenches and whether or not they use them, especially after putting in so many hours to create these artworks. One of the hosts (Matt Cremona or Marc Spagnuolo, I can't remember) suggested to the person asking the question that they grab a mallet and hit their bench top a couple of times to dent it slightly. They said that although it just seems so wrong and dirty, it breaks that idea of perfection and one feel less guilty about using the bench for its designed purpose, hahaha

hahah! thumbs up for the AvE references! Pity he hasn't got a BOLTR on this router, probably as he takes issue with dirty wood elves defiling dead tree carcasses. Hahaha didn't even notice that! It is a tongue twister for sure! I may be forced to take the motorbike down, as I may not have use of the car that day (I don't actually own a car). If I can take the car (and bike) I may just ride Skyline (where they hold Crankworx). It's right in town, there's a gondola, and the park style trails are short and sweet. The Redwoods is where the real magic is, but it's an all day outing, better with riding buddies, and despite what one may think about shuttle buses making it easy, there are still some mega hills to climb from the shuttle drop off to the trail head.

The full-size router search is over (for now at least). I managed to sucessfully win an auction on an old Festool (Festo) OF 2000E for the princely sum of $81. It's from the liquidation sale of a benchtop manufacturer so no doubt has seen some miles. Hopefully it still has some life left in it. There is a catch though... I have to go pick it up in Rotorua (3hrs away), but I may make a day of it and go ride some of their world-class trails while I'm at it. This past weekend I also added some stability to my foldable outfeed table. I had the idea to use a telescopic leg on a slotted mitre-cleat (don't know the proper name) to add support to the end of the outfeed and reduce the chance of the whole table saw tipping when weight is placed on that side. I also added some of those "clip-in" rubber tool/broom clamps for storage when the whole transformer-table saw is ready to roll out.

Yeah, the timber section of all the big building supply stores (Placemakers, Bunnings, Mitre10 etc) is a little more bare than usual. 4x2's and other common treated pine (the pink stuff) framing timber is still available, but LVL beams and the more specialized structural stuff is in very short supply. What was weird about Rosenfeld-Kidson (where I got the maple and walnut from) was that they mainly deal in rough sawn exotic timber for decorative/architectural use. A very specialised market which I didn't think would be as affected as the construction industry, but I guess they even more reliant on the US for supply as they deal in timbers like oak, maple, walnut, cherry and such. That said, I milled down my 2400x125x25mm board of American Black Walnut this past weekend and I must say that I was disappointed. The colour variance along the length of the board is massive and only a small section (about 600mm worth) had that typical black walnut appearance. The rest looked very light and washed out. I do realise that this is my own fault as I selected the board myself and it was my first time buying walnut so didn't know what to look out for and couldn't see past the rough sawn exterior. Still disappointing though.

Thanks Cap ???? So not too different then. The boards I purchased were 25mm thick, prime grade. Home made chopping boards are getting pricey to make, hahaha

Quickly popped over to the lumber yard to pick up some walnut and maple. The racks are more bare than usual, evidence of the worldwide shortages. And damn walnut is pricey (first time I've ever bought some) They did give me a good deal on the S4S maple though. Sold it at the same price as rough sawn ???? Out of curiosity, what are the prices of the exotics like in SA? Here it's American Black Walnut (rough sawn) - $6,000/m³ (±R60,000) American Hard Maple (rough sawn) - $3,000/m³ (± R30,000)

Yeah, it is creeping into Festool territory, and I don't own me any green & black... yet ???? I have my eye on a couple of 2nd hand $1 reserve auctions all closing in 1 day. The options are: Festo (Festool) OF 2000E - currently at a $5.51 Elu 177e - currently at $10.50 Makita RP2301FC - currently at $307.00 The machines in question would have been worked hard though as they are from a liquidation sale of a door-making business or something like that. In NZ, $1 auction bids are notorious for climbing 10-100x in the last 5min, so I'm not holding my breath for an absolute steal, but let's see. I may get lucky.

After going down some YouTube rabbit holes my heart is drawn to the Bosch GMF 1600 CE This review (although lengthy) shows some good features that make this tool an attractive option. Namely: Fixed and plunge bases (so fixed base can be installed on table router plate making router easier to switch between 2 functions. Plus I believe fixed bases are better for table mounting)Above table height adjustment (through base)Variable speed with electronic constant speed control76mm plunge (which seems to be larger than most routers in this range)1/4", 8mm and 1/2" collet sizesThe downside... price (as expected). For the router and both bases, it comes into just under R10,000 equivalent (almost Festool money)

Yeah, in the land where there's a zero chopped off, one quickly forgets that things are not as reasonable as they seem. I bought some Kreg pocket hole screws a little while back and thought "that's not too bad". I just checked now. Approx R140 for 50x 50mm Kreg Screws Approx. R80 for 50x 50mm 8G Zinc Plated screws So yeah, nearly twice the price. Hopefully I'll be less fooled by "just $14" next time