patches

As I learnt a little while go, Ryobi is regional and the licensed manufacturer for that region can be completely different and produce very different tool offerings. In Aus, NZ and the US Ryobi is produced by Techtronic Industries. The same brand that does AEG, Ridgid and Milwaukee. They run the One+ range here and it's probably the most comprehensive variety of 18V battery operated tools that one can get. Drills, to vaccums, to soldering irons (yes, 18V portable soldring iron!), to mowers to drain unblockers. THey have an 18V tool for just about anything! They're high end trade grade tools (like the Milwaukee and AEG), but they are decent quality (similar to green Bosch) and make power tools more accessible to the home-gamer/DIYer (this isn't even the half of it). It's a real shame that they don't offer this version of Ryobi broader.

Not sure if these are available in SA, but this is what I have been looking at for compressed air in the garage. With a 1.5HP motor and integrated 10m heavy duty air hose reel this oil-less air compressor is ideal for use around the home.Heavy Item1 outlet with quick connect fitting.Integrated wall-mounted hose reel.160L/min air delivery.Up-to 8 bar (116psi) pressure.Duster gun accessory included. They're not cheap (about R4500 equiv from my local hardware store), but they're compact and neat. They are limited in terms of function, as they cannot do some things a regurlar air compressor can do (like spray paint, or drive air tools), but I don't need it for that. I also looked into some other compact and portable options like this: DUAL 18V power supply allows use with either one battery pack or two3.8L tank with roll cage for portability and protectionNITTO quick-release fittings for easy compatibility120PSI max pressure with outlet regulatorOil free pump design provides a maintenance free solution and up to 30.8L/min FADOr this (which is only really good for inflating tyres) High flow rate and maximum 150psi allow for rapid inflationDigital display shows a clear pressure reading even in direct sunlight or at nightDisplay can swivel up to 180°, so the pressure is legible when the unit is lying flatLED light for late-night and early-morning useBut yeah, for now I have other tools higher up the priority list so it may have to wait.

They should have called it the Shovelface

As davetapson said regarding the 6 and 12 month WOFs. New cars (and bikes) get a 3year WOF. Rego (registration) can be bought in 1 month increments. Most people just buy 12 months at a time for cars, but for bikes they sometimes take shorter periods (either due to cost, or because they "winter" the bikes by putting the rego on hold). One can put a rego on hold for 3 months + (might be a limit at 12 months. That means that one cannot legally use that vehicle on public roads during that time but also doesn't have to pay the associated rego fees. Many people do this for bikes over the winter/rainy season as bike regos start at around $400pa (so not cheap). A vehicle can have a WOF without a rego but one cannot get a rego without a WOF. I had some WOF & rego hassles with my Husky 350. The bike was down in Christchurch so getting a WOF was tricky (but rego I could do online). When I eventually got it back up to Auckland the WOF had expired. I took it to get retested and it failed (some plonkers at VTNZ and the rally kit didn't help). Anyway, I took too long to built the OEM road kit back on and once my rego had reached 12months of expiration, they deregistered the bike and requested that I send the plates back. Sucks for me, but a pretty good system to ensure roadworthy vehicles. Imagine if SA had something like this. Taxis and skadonks would be deregistered left-right-and-centre. Corruption at WOF testing centres woulnd't help either as here they can result in a $250,000 fine for the business, so not many of them take some under-the-table persuasion.

Whilst browsing TradeMe I came across this and it made me chuckle (schadenfreude alert) So having no clue as to what a used G63 goes for, I thought "that's a lot of money, but maybe reasonable" (not that I'm in the market). Then I saw this... So $150,000 for a written off G-class. I thought, that's pretty mental. Are the spares really worth that much? Is it salvageable? But then I got curious as to why someone is trying to sell a written off G-glass. Surely that's insurances' problem... So this idiot paid THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS for a car, waited 2 years for it, then wrote it off on a post (so driver error), within 2 months. PLUS Hadn't bothered to insure it! :lol: How can anyone feel sorry for them! Goes to show that there is more money than sense flowing around NZ.

Napier "city" (really a town) is meh (I don't think art deco is as great as it's made out to be). Hastings is apparently dodgy (I've only passed through). However, Havelock North (a suburb of Hastings) is rather nice. I stayed in an AirBnB there over New Years and the neighborhood was great! That said, my requirement/desire to be within 1hr drive of an international airport excludes the Hawkes Bay are from my "Escape Auckland in the next 5yrs" list

Regarding housing affordability, I was recently reading this article (and showing my partner as I tried once again to convince her that Chch is where it's at ) Disclaimer: these house prices are pre-covid boom I know the article is from over a year ago, and housing prices have gone mental since then, but it had me thinking once again about how a higher disposable income is not mutually exclusive to the higher salaries that a big city (like Auckland) brings.

*FREE POWER TOOLS Well not quite, but now that I have your attention I can tell you about a little idea I had where I have managed to get "free" or almost free power tools (and no, I'm not referring to the Five Finger Discount method). It's really quite simple. Buy more tools than you need. Sell the ones you don't. About a year ago I was after a few cordless tools (jigsaw, circular saw, impact driver, 2x extra batteries). Individually priced I'd be looking at around $1,500. But then a saw a 9 tool kit, with batteries, chargers and some free tools (via redemption offer) for $2000. (slightly different redemption offers from what I got) As I didn't need most of the tools and the RRP of the whole kit (if bought individually) was around $4,100, I figured I could sell what I didn't need at a hugely discounted price (about 40% off RRP) and get everything I wanted for $740. Less than half the RRP. A win indeed! Yesterday I did the same with a lawnmower. My little 18V Ryobi mower struggles if I let the grass to grow too long, so I upgraded to this: 36V (dual 18V) brushless mower. WAY more powerful. The kit sells for $850. I paid $750 (I have a card which gives me trade pricing). The mower skin alone sells for $600. As I don't need the batteries, chargers, or radio, I'll sell them (again at about 40% off RRP, so a bargain to potential buyers), and I've worked out that I should be able to do the mower upgrade for only around $150 out of pocket (75% off RRP). And whilst big 9pc AEG kits may not be available in SA, I'm sure Makita, DeWalt, Bosch and the like may do something similar. Not a bad way to get cheap tools, if one is willing to go through the hassle of selling off the excess.

Amen! When I started collecting power tools again (after moving to NZ) I found a good combo deal on a brushless AEG 18V hammer drill and 2 batteries (5Ah and 2.5Ah).I should have looked around more as this initial purchase (particularly the 2 batteries) started me down the path of a specific brand. Whilst I have been very happy with the AEG stuff, there are some tools that Makita does which AEG doesn't (like track saws), and I find myself hesitant to invest in another battery platform. I did end up with Ryobi batteries from my lawn mower, weed eater and hedge trimmer (I was too cheapskate to spring for the AEG garden tools), so I do have a bit of flexibility. This enabled me to buy an 18Ga Ryobi nail gun (the AEG/Ridgid verson is only available i the US), I have also got an AEG-Makita battery adaptor although I am yet t try it (all my Makita tools are corded). But yeah find a battery platform and try stick to that one. And if I could do it over again I'd probably go Makita, due to the wide range of tools that are reasonably priced considering the quality.

It's extremely important that they're impact bits. As an impact driver's "chuck" cannot hold normal drill bits (without some form of adaptor, however a normal drill can hold impact driver bits (so they're multi-use). The impact driver drill bits look like this. This notched hex base allows them to click into place. Not a dissimilar system to SDS bits. All driving bits (philips, torx, hex etc) will have the same. Just make sure that the set you choose works for your particular driver. They are mostly universal, however I have got some Makita bits that won't hold in my AEG drivers (the notch is about 5mm higher up the shank). As for quality, I only have experience with AEG and Ryobi bit sets. Both were about NZD30 for sets like these: Nothing fancy but work well enough. So I guess by a "decent set" I mean decent (bit not over the top) quality, but more the fact that a comprehensive set will make your life easier.

Ask them if they ship to New Zealand

I have 2 hammer drill/drivers (12V and 18V) and 2 impact drivers (also 12V and 18V) Out of all those, the tool I use the most is the little 12V impact driver. It's my go-to for just about any threaded fastener/handyman stuff around the house, and even drilling holes, where hammer function is not needed. (Just get a decent set of impact drill bits/ The 18V impact driver is vicious (280Nm torque) and has too many modes for me to bother figuring out. But yeah, impact driver will change your life!

I have an Aussie friend that lived here for many years, but then moved back about a year ago. One of the fist things he sent was a picture of how cheap mangoes are

Damn! I found the Metabo mini socket set in Hobbit-land. Sold out AND over NZD100. That 71pc bit set is NZD165 here. Ouch!

Dammit! I have fomo now! I can't find these locally in NZ (Metabo isn't very big here. Mostly Makita, Milwaukee and Hikoki/Hitachi) Really good price for a little socket set! This little set would go nicely in my Kriega Tool Roll. I have a small 1/4" socket set in there, but it gets borrowed from my larger Bahco set, each time I pack for an adventure. It's only a matter of time before I start losing pieces of it A dedicated set would be ideal! (not mine, but the idea behind the Kriega tool roll

I wish, haha! Yeah that's plugged in. My wifi (indoors) ranges from about 250Mbps down to 150Mbps depending on location. I have 2 mesh wifi access points, but they're not super high speed like the latest devices out there. I did spend many hours running Cat6 cable under the house and within the walls to hard wire the 2 TV's. Ran a speed test and it capped out at just under 100Mbps. I then found out that most TV's only have 10/100Mbps network cards (not Gigabit), so they actually run better off wifi than hardwired Lesson learnt! Also, apologies to our Aussie friends on this thread. We're spoilt brats complaining about 150Mbps connections while you guys are subjected to NBN. Just feel comforted that although we get way better internet here, we're totally shafted on the cost of groceries

ISP switched. Pretty seamless. Just needed to update my router settings when I got home. That'll do pig, that'll do!

For a second I read "BB" as "BlackBerry" and wondered who still used BlackBerries and why 2degrees cares if they fail I'm in the process of a broadband switchover and the Saffer in me prepared for the worst, tried to organise it all before hand. I went about setting commencement date for new ISP and notifying current ISP of cancellation and scheduling them to stop their services a few days after commencement (to ensure overlap just in case). Turns out that trying to be helpful was actually a hindrance and the ISP's just talk to each other and schedule it all themselves. And by me setting a cancellation date I actually put a block on the new ISP from doing that, so I had to reverse it. Years of dealing with Telkom, Vodacom, Cell C and the likes, and having to notify them 20x to cancel a service had me fearing the worst with the ISP's ere. Hopefully it all goes smoothly.

Well done Potgieter gang! It's still one of the to-do's on my list! Some of your pics make it look like another planet (Mars). Reminds me of the top of Mt Haleakala (Maui, Hawaii), with the red soil and sparse vegetation. (I was lazy on that one though and catering largely for American tourists, one can drive to the top, some 3,000m up) I have ridden an awesome trail (dirtbike) called the 42nd Traverse, which connects Owhango to the Tongariro national park, but I need to get my butt into gear and do the Crossing itself one of these days! Keep the photo-spam rolling in!

This past Christmas my partner decided to treat herself to a Kiehl's advent calendar. I never knew such things existed. My only reference to advent calendars were those Cadbury's ones with the tiny chocolates in. Anyway, apparently skincare advent calendars are a big thing (and often costing R1000 - R2000). So what does that have to do with this thread... Well while I was searching into fancy-branded and useful advent calendars, I discovered this... The annual Wera advent calendar! I missed out last Christmas, but definitely keen to get one this year!

I mostly buy 'Cheapex' (Irwin) as I often misplace pliers and the rust here in Auckland is a constant battle. As for socket sets, like many of you I grew up dipping my hands into my Dad's Gedore set. Often forgetting to put spanners away when I was done Here in NZ Gedore is hard to come by. So a few years back when I wanted to get decent, comprehensive set, for a reasonable price, I ended up with a set from Bahco (Swedish tool brand, now owned by the Snap-On group). Started off with this set Quality and tolerances seem pretty good. Does what I need it to. I'm not sure if they're popular in SA. I can only find 1 supplier (Wantitall), and because they specially import them, they want over R12,000 for that same set. Insane! They retail for around $250 (approx R2700) here

I'm sure it could be replicated. It's a clever design, but not rocket-science and considering the price one is definitely paying for name or something and not some super intricate system. It's basically just an arm that allows the trays to travel in an S motion. I guess not that dissimilar to certain MTB linkages. EDIT: my bad, I over simplified it, and the linkage design is a little more custom than I thought

Amazing bathroom that!

Was this the guy you were speaking to? *queue eerie "duh-dun.... duh-dun... duh-dun, duh-dun, duh-dun" *

I think I'm almost ready to branch out from the safety of PLA and PLA+. I see a number of you on this thread use PETG as your go to. I'm guessing it prints fine without an enclosure? My local supplier also sells PMMA (which seems great on paper, but may be tricky to print). Any recommendations for printing PETG? (I'm using an Ender 3 v2 with no hot-end modifications).