patches

RE 1/2" router: yup, I was thinking that 1400W - 1700W would be more than sufficient. Add the requirement for variable speed and 1/2" and it narrows down the options a bit. I have had my eye on the Bosch GOF1600CE, which comes in at about the same price as the variable speed Makita. I know it's a popular option with some of the US woodworkers (granted they have the sissy-voltage version). It's about R7,500 new. so will still keep an eye out on the used market. http://www.testntools.co.nz/images/detailed/2/Bosch-GOF1600CE-Router-with-Parallel-Guide-0601624040-A.jpg As for doweling jigs, I agree. I initially considered them, but the more I investigated the less I liked the idea. I have considered the biscuit joiner route (and yes, the battery operated Makita one is on my wishlist ), but again, research seems to indicate their main advantage is in lining up pieces and not offering structural integrity, whereas a Domino or Peanut or Lamello Zeta offers some strength benefit along with the alignment. I think biscuit joiners are one of those divisive tools that people ether love or leave to gather dust. On the other hand the only real negative I have ever heard about a Domino is price. And yeah, this is a big factor for me as I'm a home-gamer, so it's an overkill. Anyway, full size router first. Then maybe a Peanut jig. Then maybe if I win the lotto I'll get a Domino

Definitely a factor. I remember the amazing townhouse my boss in SA had. Dunkeld West, new build with all the luxuries. He paid around R5m off plan (circa 2010/2011). It seemed insane! He sold in 2016 for about R5.5m. Again, in SA a property THAT nice and "expensive" seemed like it was only for the big wigs. (even in 2016 R5.5m wouldn't get you much in Auckland) Then (as mentioned previously) friends-of-friends in Perth earning a decent wicket (talking around $300k+ between a couple) were saying that they couldn't possibly afford or conceive spending $600k+ on a house in Western Aus. The Aucklanders in the group laughed at them. And then there's me... a Saffer who is horrified by Auckland house prices (even just NZ in general), but partnered to an Aussie who grew up in Sydney's Northern Suburbs, so for her they "seem cheap"

Oh I completely agree, the workforce has been hit hard in both public and private sectors and whilst pay increases are unlikely in either. If they said "no increases this year, we'll review next" it would be more understandable. But to come out with a blanket 3yrs (on top of the 1yr prior) was a bit of a punch in the gut. Employees with private sector equivalents (especially engineers and others in the construction industry) are in high demand and the private sector pays better. Soon enough those 5 extra days of public servant leave and the "ideals of being able to shape the industry" will be cast by the wayside in favour of competitive pay packages that enable one to keep up with the cost of living. I wouldn't be surprised if there's an exodus in the near future. I feel for those in the emergency services or education who have little other option with limited private sector equivalencies.

The bad... Yesterday the government announced public sector pay freezes (in various degrees) for the next 3 years. That makes 4 years on the trot, as 2020 increases were also scrapped due to covid. Whilst I recognise that one is fortunate to have steady employment, this is a slap in the face to many that have worked so hard (and on the front lines), are already paid less than their private sector counterparts. Not a great way to convince people to go into essential services like law enforcement, healthcare, emergency services, or education. It's like they saw the massive debt that covid recovery packages left and thought, let's screw over our own employees (who kept the country running) to try fix this. [Gripe over]

As you have noted, the property sector here is going crazy at the moment. Whilst it is disheartening, there are some "other sides to the story" that can bring hope. Things like: Comparing apples and ambergris. I know you are not familiar with all the areas and regions in NZ, so it's understandable that the context of these things is elusive at times. As Wayne and Dave stated, the house you referenced is ridiculously priced due to its location. Whitianga is like rich Auckland boomer central. It's where wealthy Aucklanders (Jaffas) go to retire and complain about other Aucklanders who visit the Coromandel on holiday. 900+ squares of beachfront property there is where the real cost was (similar to buying in Clifton). Add an award winning architecturally designed home and you have a recipe ridiculous prices. Also couple that with the fact that NZ media has so little else to report on that they love fanning the flames on insane house pricing. They thrive on stuff like that. Adios Auckland! Although over 1/4 of the country's population live in/around the big smoke, there are great places to live away from Jaffa-land. Many of these places have everything one needs, decent employment options, and more affordable housing. The Aussies are in a similar boat. Sydney and Melbourne are great cities, but as uncle Ben said in Spiderman "with great cities come great housing expenses" [paraphrased]. So Aussies often look to places like Brisbane, central north coast (NSW), Adelaide and even Perth (aka Australia's Randfontein ). Places where one may not get paid the same big bucks, but are more affordable overall. New Zealand has similar places. Granted they're not as developed and not quite as good a deal (income-to-housing) as their Aussie counterparts, but that's part of the cost of living on the butt end of the world. Last year a former colleague (Saffer) took a job in Cambridge (outside Hamilton) because he could afford to buy a house there. Not a bad move. Other places like Nelson, Whangarei and my personal favourite Christchurch are also viable options. Resist the pull to Browns Bay (there are too many Saffers there anyway ) and look further afield (at least when you are ready to buy a house, which requires Residence, so you have time). Sold the Dream, now what?! In addition to the love of rugby, cricket, char-grilled meat and beer, Saffers, Aussies and Kiwis have another thing in common. They sell the dream of home ownership as a measure of success. This dream has been sold over many generations, and whilst still achievable, it is by no means the same as it used to be, or a measure of success. Owning a house is convenient as they are generally investments that address the basic human need for shelter. But if one looks at the approach that many people take in big cities in other countries (like Germany, Austria, Sweden, Singapore, Switzerland, etc), they look primarily at the shelter aspect and many put home ownership pretty far from their mind and focus their investment efforts in other areas. Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne are fast becoming (or have become) like Singapore, Bangkok, Zurich and New York, whilst some people are adapting and either moving further away so that they can live the dream, or reside themselves to the fact that they can invest elsewhere and rent in Auckland, the general kiwi mindset around home ownership is still firmly set. Anyway, hope my 2c doesn't add to your concerns about a future in NZ.

Thanks for all the feedback gang! I'll keep an eye out for speed control options. I have also read some reviews on other models I have looked at and the depth adjustment from above table is one big gripe people have with certain options. As for the DIY Domino, I was wondering if anyone had dome something. Festool might have the patent, but it's not like it's a floating tenon machine is an overly complicated concept Yeah, I figured bigger bits at full tilt could get a bit scary! Agree. To date I haven't found massive advantage to my battery powered router/trimmer vs the corded one I replaced. However with some of the home reno work I do I have to isolate power, so that's where it'll shines. Also when working out on the front lawn (my garage is tiny) it makes it easier not to have to run extension cords, but in reality it's a minor inconvenience. Truth be told, I was going battery powered on the plunge/track saw, so I thought why not with the trim router As for the collet size, thererin is my limitation. The little battery powered Makita is only 1/4" and would be under powered for 1/2" even if it could. Most of the 1/2" routers I have seen have the insert to take 1/4" bits too. Between the Peanut jig and large router bits (that only come in 1/2" options), a second router would be handy. I have already written off the idea of a battery powered full size router as I think only Hikoki make them at present, they're pricey, and I don't need to add a 6th battery platform to my setup I have seen a Triton option or 2 pop up now and again. Mostly in a Triton router table setup. I have heard they're decent value for money tools, and like Carrera4s mentioned, a decent 2nd hand option may be better than a brand new entry level.

That's a Jaffa trap Many Aucklanders don't get past their batches and Queenstown is the only South Island location they can point to on a map It is tricky though with travel by car being so slow, and many tourist attractions geared for international visitors (and their deep pockets). That's why regions like the West Coast (and even tourist-mecca Queenstown) have been hit so hard. Locals cannot afford the upmarket experiences (or are just not willing to pay for them, when most are happy with a stay in a Top 10 Holiday Park). The local tourism industry has been trying hard with annoying songs like the "Do something new New Zealand", and discounted rates to try keep things ticking over. I would have never considered the 2 week South Island camper-van trip I did last October, had it been full price. That said, I have a few friends that had big overseas trips planned for 2020. They ended up diverting the resources and energy into things like starting a family, buying into a business, or going back to uni to study (2 of the 3 couples already owned property). So I can definitely see how others in similar situations have traded in their world tours for a rung on that property ladder. And with current prices (AKL average reported to be in excess of $1.2m now), I think travel & tourism is going to be less and less of a priority.

So after detouring this thread with DIY posts and talk of paint colours, I have a question for the woodworkers on here. It's about routers. I have one of those little Makita brushless routers with a plunge base and other accessories. It's great for a number of applications, but it is limited by its 1/4" collet. So I'm looking at getting a big-boy router with a 1/2" collet and a deeper plunge so that I can use bigger bits and have the option to mount upside down. The model I'm looking at is the Makita M3600B as it is pretty reasonably priced (approx R2600). The catch is that it is not variable speed (22,000 rpm only). How crucial is the ability to vary the speed? I know the general rule is "the bigger the bit, the slower the speed". Would 22,000RPM cause issues with something like a 20mm radius roundover? The ultimate plan for this router is 2 fold. First: Mount in an aluminium plate and build something to mount it onto the extension of my table saw. These are reasonable from Aliexpress Something like this where the table saw fence can double up as the router fence. Second: Looking to get a Peanut 2 Mini Jig at some stage and they only have options for 8mm or 1/2" bits. If you haven't seen the Peanut jig it's pretty awesome. It's a way to create accurate, strong, self-clamping joints (90deg and 45deg) for collapsible builds. Whilst I would love a Festool Domino, currently I cannot justify the price (Approx R18,000 for the base setup). The Peanut mini jig, whilst slower, is a fair bit more affordable (approx R3,600 after shipping form the UK) Keen to hear your thoughts on the router (or any of the above)

Thanks! The warm vs cool colour debate was one had in the house from day 1. The previous owner (an old lady in her 80's) had the walls painted a sort of manilla beige colour. We hated it After dozens of test pots and paint patches on the walls we settled on a slightly cooler white. However we do have flexibility in that the lights I have been installing are all 16 million colour smart LED's, so I can change the lighting colours to give the rooms a warmer feel, all controllable through the Philips Hue app and Google Assistant. As aside though, in SA we tend to go for warmer more earthy colours in our homes. I remember looking for places to rent in NZ and the abundance of dark grey/charcoal carpets in houses was weird at first. Now I'm used to that and when I see a beige carpet it looks weird to me. It's the same with wood furniture. They love the white oak/scandinavian look here. Sometimes walnut makes an appearance. But if I look back at all the dark brown reddish woods I grew up around, they seem outta place here. "Style" is definitely regional.

Was going to suggest it as a plant based condiment for you WP. I'm going through a Frank's Red Hot sauce phase at the moment. Before that it was Cholula and Culley's No. 3. Don't know if I'm brave enough for a No. 8

As a vaalie I have no clue or business filleting a fish But yeah, definitely some nice battered fillets on the cards. Plus I recently discovered this: So tasty on everything it graces! And as it says on the bottle "Great on Fish"

So after a weekend of gap filling, sanding and painting, I managed to finish the hallway just in time before my partner arrived back from Aus. Before: After:

Had a tough day in the office on Friday... Early morning departure from Whangaparaoa marina Heading out from there to the mussel farms near the Coromandel Good day fishing! Action packed! We each got our 7 for the day! Luckily one of the others on the boat mentioned that Oceanz (Greville road) will fillet for you at $3.50/fish. I ended up with around 2kg ($90) of snapper fillet!

Yeah I remember the polystyrene ones from SA. I know the UK uses them too. I remember my dad using toothpicks to join up the mitred ends. Unfortunately they don't seem to be a thing here. Not sure why?! Possible fire?! I installed gypsum ones in the lounge as I needed a slightly bigger profile to cover some terrible gaps in the top of the drywall from a previous owner's reno. And you are quite right... they are K U K to work with. Snapped at least one trying to install it. Definitely a 2 person job for the longer runs. The mess the cement makes is also a pain and results in plenty of sanding to get grubby splotches off after. They also only come in 3.6m lengths here so a join is inevitable. Disguising the join is not always easy. I stick to the wood variants wherever possible. Measure, cut, cope, nail gun, done!

There's a radio advert here where you hear all sorts of trades saying "no worries, the painter will get that" to things like leaky roofs, short circuiting electrical etc. The ad is for tradie's insurance because the painter can't fix everything

Last night after work it was time for some sanding and installing the cornices. I'be been converted to the coping method of joining cornices over the mitre method. Good practice would dictate that my copes should be on the long 5.2m lengths and the shorter 1.2m pieces for the width of the room would be square cut, as ones eye is drown down the length of the hallway and so looking down the cope would appear more seamless. However I wasn't keen to wield 5.2m lengths with fragile coped ends, waiting to brake off at the slightest bump. Also if I messed up the coping I would waste a full length of material and not just 1.2m worth. Not my finest work (or tightest copes) but gap filler and paint will do what my novice skills cannot

Thanks Ed! Keeps me outta trouble and gives me an excuse to buy tools without my partner batting an eye. Plus at the labour rate of tradies in New Zealand, I'd be broke! Haha, you joke but if I took ceiling board from the hospital they would probably contain asbestos Coincidentally the head of asbestos management was kind enough to lend me his drywall lifter to assist with the job. These contraptions are game changers when it comes to installing plasterboard ceilings.

As all my trim mouldings are white, I just went for a white wood filler (whatever's cheapest at the hardware stores here in NZ). That said, because I use an 18Ga brad nailer to fit most of it, the holes left behind are tiny. With wall screws one will have to finesse the filling a little more to make the fasteners invisible, but a decent fill and sand and you should be fine!

I had it delivered direct from the manufacturer, through one of the big building supply chains (Placemakers). Bunnings wanted to charge $270 delivery to do the 1 board (which itself is only about $60). Part of that high cost is because of the small order quantity, and part is because they get the manufacturer to delivery to my local Bunnings branch, then that branch has to hire a truck big enough. Or if I increased the order to all the boards I need to do the rest of my ceilings (10 sheets of various sizes, approx $400 worth), delivery would be over $600, $350 of which I would get back when I return the special pallets to them, but how am I supposed to return giant plasterboard pallets if I can't transport giant plaster boards in the first place. So although I paid more for the boards from Placemakers (about $520), they charge a flat rate of $100 delivery (as they just get the manufacturer to deliver direct). Plus they deliver about 1 week quicker. EDIT: That said, I did have to buy 2x 2400x1200x18mm sheets of ply to create a sturdy lean surface to store the boards in my garage. Those sheets, along with 2x 5.4m lengths of cornice, got transported on the roofrack of a Polo

This past weekend was a long one here in NZ and with the better-half away in Aus, I decided it was a good time to make some mess... Behold... some nasty swirly textured ceilings with ugly power-hungry lights. After Dexter-ing up the hallway it was time to start the messy work The manky "insul-fluff" insulation goes everywhere. Between a rake and a garden-vac I managed to clear most of it up. After sorting out some electrical for the new lights (and a 24V supply to my Google Nest Doorbell) the new insulation needed to be installed. But before I could do that I had to remove some of the nogs between the joists as they were down the centre of the hallway, which meant I couldn't install downlights in those positions. I replaced the single removed nogs with 2 offset to either side (as seen by the pink treated timber). Then some new R3.2 pink bats could go in. The new framing nail gun was a treat when installing the new nogs! After that it was the real challenge. The crazy (or lazy) part of me decided to try get away with installing 1 giant sheet of drywall, to avoid having to plaster the joints. The hallway is 5.2m long by 1.2m wide. The largest board available is 6m x 1.2m, and because it's a ceiling I went for 13mm thick (as the 10mm versions tend to sag). The result more physical exertion than I have done in a while. Fortunately I had a drywall lifter, but wrestling a 50kg 5m sheet along a hallway that it just fits through was still no easy task. I ended up trimming 20mm off the width of the board because it kept getting wedged when trying to lay it flat up against the joists, but ultimately, it worked! Here it is, installed with probably over a 100 drywall screws (thank goodness for autofeed collated screw guns) and a all 3 coats of plaster over the screw dimples. Zigbee controlled smart downlights with a Zigbee smart switch which all work with Philips Hue, also installed. Unfortunately I didn't get as far as installing the cornice, sanding and painting this weekend, as I had to wait for the 3rd coat of plaster to dry. But all-in-all, it went pretty well.

I guess the other question is whether the architraves are to be painted or not. Paint (and no-more-gaps) can hide a multitude of sins As Rocket-Boy mentioned, a mitre saw will not be as accurate as a dedicated framing sled for a table saw. However the chances that your window openings are perfectly square is slim-to-none, so pefectly 45deg cuts may not help you anyway. What may help is something like a Starret protractor I've been installing a fair amount of new skirting board, cornices and the odd architrave or 2 over the past year and this little tool has helped get more accurate angles on out-of-square walls and windows.

Architraves are pretty easy to do and there are a number of decent YouTube resources out there. From the bespoke carpenters to handy DIY tips from hardware stores. As for equipment, a mitre saw will definitely make life easier, but take the time to make sure it's calibrated properly. Assuming they're square out of the box can lead to frustration when cut the mitres as any error will be magnified 6x (2x per side of the architrave) and look terrible. Fixing wise, are you fastening into wooden jambs or brick? If into wood, a finish/brad nailer will make your life a while lot easier. If you already have an air compressor, you can pick one up pretty cheap. Not sire about brick, but I guess it would involve wall plugs, screws and countersinking. Here are a couple of those youtube vids I found handy. SkillBuilder has some great tips on all sorts of carpentry tasks. Mitre10 is one the 2 main hardware stores here in NZ. Their "Easy As" videos are great for quick reference And just for Hairy, here's the Scott Brown version (Hairy and I are Scott Brown Fans)

Hi eibmoZ, I've pinged though my application to join this North Shore Bicycle Gang which you speak of!

Is all the Irwin stuff in your part of the world orange and black? In NZ and Aus it's typically blue and yellow. Just wondering if they "regionalise" it?!

That looks remarkably similar to what my little 350 once did (circa 2017).