patches

I'm almost completely cordless. Just the table saw and my big Festool router left. Very convenient, but at times also not. The 36V track saw coupled with the cordless dust extractor meant 4 batteries were in use at any given time (I only have 5). If 2 go flat, I'm snookered. As for sliding mitre saws, I really like the Makita's with forward facing rails. The only other options (off the top of my head) with that system are Festool's Kapex and certain Hikoki models. (Bosch glide system is also great if you want a mitre saw that doesn't require space for sliding rails). I nearly went the Makita 36V route (think I was looking at the 260mm), but I decided to go for the small 40V (216mm, LS002G), as it was more compact and the 40V saws use shadow lines in stead of laser. For what I do the 70 x 312mm cut capacity is sufficient. For it's compact size and weight (16.4kg), the saw is dynamite in a small package. I possibly should have waited and saved for the 260mm or 305mm version, but the 260mm version is less convenient for what I do (deeper but shorter cut capacity @91 x 279mm) and the 305mm was about R5000 (equiv) more expensive. Very happy with my little 216mm 40V, so if the cut capacity will suit your needs, I'd go with that. Otherwise go big (305mm), either 36V (DLS211) or 40V (LS003G) as the differences are mostly the laser and some other minor things.

Time to try out the new-ish XGT track saw On the left, Makita XGT 40V plunge/track saw (although 40V is it's max rating, it's actually 36V nominal). On the right, Makita LXT 36V (2x 18V) plunge/track saw. The 40V is a fair bit narrower than it's 36V counterpart. Might be handy in tight spaces. One battery is more convenient than 2! Especially when it comes to having spares! The single battery and lower centre of gravity should make bevelled cuts a lot more pleasant. Although the Makita track saws have an anti-tip washer in the base, they still have the potential to flip the whole track if not careful. With great power comes... slower top speeds?!?! 🤨. The 40V version has 1400 less rippums than the 36V. I'm interested to see how that translates into performance. I'm guessing the science-people at Makita did it to focus on torque and perhaps lean more towards a tool that can hold a constant speed through tough material, more than outright pace. Whilst I'd love to do a head-to-head shootout between the 2, I'll be selling the 36V ASAP to try recoup some clams.

For sure! One of THE MOST used tools in my garage is a little dust blower. Whether it's to send sawdust from the workbench out the door, dust off a dust off a piece I've just sanded, or even (and often) dust myself off, particularly after the nasty ceiling demolition I was doing.

That's a great deal for a cordless leaf blower! Good buy!

Nothing too exciting for us. The usual (or pre-covid usual) visiting the in-laws in Sydney for Christmas, then back to NZ shortly after to road trip down the east coast to the Wairarapa, across to the Kapati Coast and back up to Jaffaville. I'm having South Island withdrawals. Looking forward to the Dusty Butt in Feb, and a bigger South Island road trip once INZ grants my mom a visa and I can get her over here (she applied for a Parent/Grandparent Visitors Visa during that period that INZ dropped the ball). @Wayne Potgieter, did your in-laws come right with their visas?

No Festool, stop tempting me! Festool has a new portable table saw coming next Feb(ish), and it looks mighty purdy 😍 https://www.festool.co.uk/products/semi-stationary-work/cordless-table-saw/577371---csc-sys-50-ebi-basic-set

Good idea with the light, sandable pass to determine position. The wasteboard I made (albeit with the damn rombus grid on it) has tabs in 3 of the 4 corners so that I can position the laser frame in the same spot each time. Had my grid markings been square, and with 0,0 (home) being 0,0 in Lightburn and the machine's home, it would have made positioning that little bit easier. Once I go to a honeycomb bed, and even next time I do a cut on the cookie tray, I will be sire to try your masking tape trick. 👍

How does one resist the urge to laser engrave every damn tool in the garage? 🙈 (seemed to work pretty well on this titanium hammer head. My positioning could do with some work. It engraved even better on a blue anodised aluminium framing square)

Continuing with my lazyness, some non-traditional woodwork creations from this weekend A dice tower for one of our favourite board games. Can't claim credit for the design, I downloaded it off Thingiverse. I just laser cut (3mm MDF) and assembled. A test of how fine/intricate the laser can cut (on 1.5mm ply). Also downloaded from Thingiverse. Had to do something festive as "I can make Christmas decorations for you" was one of the justifications I gave the wife for my impulsive laser cutter purchase 😅.

Any easy/smart hacks for milling lumber without a jointer? I went to the Men's Shed this morning to mill some maple. Their jointer is broken and I didn't have the materials (or patience) to build a sled and shim the lumber to send it through the planer. One of the other guys there suggested hand planing. Again, I lack the patience (and more importantly) the skill for that. So my lazy-guy hack was to cut boards to very-rough dimensions (as is good practice with the jointer anyway) flatten one face on the belt sander (they have a large one with a cast iron bed) flatten the other face on the planer flip over and re-plane the sanded face (as I near the final dimension) square up one edge with the track saw (was not keen on potential kickback from sending a rough side through the table saw) square the other side on the table saw (when I feel like setting it up) Turned out ok. Loads of tear-out on some boards, no matter how I orientated the grain. I've stickered them and will leave to acclimate in the garage for a few days before checking for movement and reworking. (solid maple is beautiful but so much more effort than ply 😅)

Thanks for the tips! I did briefly read the no-no material list that can produce chlorine gas and other nasties. Overall (as a laser noob) I've found the initial learning curve is quite steep with regards to speed, power, passes and materials. I should keep a notebook next to the machine and record what works and what doesn't. I also made a massive assembly/alignment mess up and in my haste to cut something, I didn't square the gantry properly. The result... I engraved a workspace grid in this waste-board and it's a damn rombus! Gantry is square now, and overall working well!

Thanks! There are a few ways to send files to the laser. Simplest is to connect the PC directly via USB and use software like Lightburn. Next is to save the G-code file into a micro SD and insert that into the laser. Then use the touch screen controller to access the file and start the cut. Third is to connect to the laser via it's onboard wifi hotspot, then use the app to control the machine and access files off the the phone's storage. Fourth (and the option I use as the laser is far from my PC and I don't have Lightburn on my laptop) is to connect directly the the onboard laser wifi. Then upload the G-code file to the laser via an IP address landing page. Then go to the laser and start the cut via the toch screen controller. Option 1, the direct PC connection gives one the most control and allows one to use tools like framing and checking laser point locations via Lightburn.

hahaha, yeah, AliExpress can be dangerous! So full disclosure, I'm a noob to lasers. My education is the sum total of watching YouTube vids on my bus commute for the past 10 days. From what I have learnt, there are 3 types of lasers: Diode ~ R500 - R30,000. 5W to 20W (like my little one. Cheapest, easiest to use, but least powerful of the 3 types) CO2 ~ R40,000+ 40W to about 160W - (require water cooling, take up loads of space, more capable for cutting than a diode) Fibre ~ R50,000+ (small work area, fast when used with a galvo head, for metals) Here's a vid with a more detailed explanation A decent CO2 laser is probably what you'd need (depending on the metal. Some metals will require a powerful fibre laser. So yeah, getting close to small CNC router money. Here's my one in action doing some material test pieces (to help me dial in speed and power settings) It cut through this 7mm ply at 80% power, 5mm/s speed, and 3 passes. Also did some 9mm MDF Took 6 passes at 80% power and 5mm/s speed to cut through. Ignore the smudging on the ply (right). I tried to while the char off with isopropyl alcohol and made a mess 🙈

New tool day. This one was a bit of an impulse purchase (suckered in by AliExpress' 11.11 sale) and ultimately it's a nerdy toy. But yeah, I added this little guy to the workshop Atomstack X20 Pro, 20W Diode Laser Engraver & Cutter. This won't be it's permanent home, and I need to do some tidying and proper setup. But in my haste to try it out, I manged to cut out the one of the test files on the supplied test material and was pretty impressed with the quality Some charring is from the beginning when I forgot to turn on the air-assist, and yes, I'm using a cookie cooling tray as a raised cut bed, but don't worry this wasn't stolen from the kitchen (I know my limits). I bought it as a cheap temporary solution while I wait for a proper honeycomb bed. Overall, I'm very impressed with the build quality, ease of assembly (approx 20min and pretty good instructions), accuracy and detail of the cut and delivery time (1 week via DHL). As mentioned, it was a bit of an impulse purchase, but I do have a number of uses and projects in mind (which I'll probably post on the woodwork thread one I figure out the software and settings and make something constructive). I also justify it to myself (and my wife) by saying that it's far cheaper than a CNC router (although I still plan to sneak one of those in someday 😅)

Only about a year overdue, but... I finally cut, varnished (a gazzillion coats of marine stuff) and fitted the cupboard doors for the outdoor kitchen project It's not completely done yet. I still need to dismantle the Weber and figure out how to mount it onto the right side of the benchtop. But one step closer!

Sorry to hear that BigDL. Unfortunately I don't have any great ideas on where the tools may find new homes. When my Dad passed my Mom gave most of his stuff away to friends etc (although his collection was pretty basic). I see others have mentioned guilds and the like. Not sure if PMB has a Men's Shed chapter, but that could be another option.

Good find! There are a few crossovers and some badge engineering (like AEG and Ridgid). A number of brands also clubbed together to subscribe to CAS (Cordless Alliance System), where by the battery platform is universal between 30-something brands. Unfortunately most of those brands manufacture pretty specialised use tools with limited range. Not the kind of tools an average Joe or Joanne wold have need of. Metabo and Mafell seem to be the 2 exceptions. But if anyone thinks Festool is pricey, wait until they see Mafell! Sadly most of the brands with the broadest range like: Makita, Milwaukee, Dewalt, Ryobi (their One+ platform), AEG/Ridgid etc, don't seem to have much in the way of house-brand compatibles. There are Aliexpress cheap-n-cheerful tools designed to run off the popular platforms (particularly Makita's and Milwaukee's 18V). For older tools where battery tech is limited (ie old NiMH or even NiCad) or weird voltages, then aftermarket replica/replacement batteries may be available on places like Aliexpress (for those willing to wait). I probably would't use these off-brand batteries on current, high performance brushless tools with Li-ion cells and all manner of smart controllers within the tool or battery pack. Another option is battery adaptors, but they can make tools bulky and only connect to the positive and negative terminals, so any other terminals for battery smarts (like thermal monitoring etc) don't translate. I try to justify to myself that going onto a new battery platform to get a specific new tool then frees up the existing batteries I have, and opens up a whole new range of tools to add to the wish-list 😅 The initial hit of buying batteries and charger does hurt though 😖

With only 2 eBike excursions under my belt, I am by no means an expert, but I can say that they make a HUGE difference when pedalling. Both outings were with my wife (non-cyclist) and more about the scenery than the ride or workout. First one was the Lake Dunstan Cycle Trail. A 55km trail conisting of moslty gravel path or decked bridges. Did it on cheapo rental eMTB's. Ambling along in eco mode for the flats and going into Boost mode on the climbs (some of which were pretty big) made the ride very enjoyable. Second was the Rotorua Forest Loop. About 31km of easy-to-moderate forest trail, undulating, plenty of roots, tight switch-back climbs etc. This time we rented some Scott Genius eMTB's. The bikes and trails were far more rider orientated than the previous experience. I mostly just ambled along with the group (non-cyclists), but did take the odd offshoot to have some fun and test the bike. As others have said, the ease at which one can race out of corners is amazing. The extra weight at a lower centre-of-gravity adds a sort of stability of the rough-stuff (similar to how a dirt like feels riding over bumpy tech stuff, but to a lesser extent). Where I did find it lacking was in the air. Granted this was my first time on a "fun" eBike, so I have much to learn in the way of the different technique, but it felt dead in the air and required a lot more effort to get it there. Although it is 9kg heavier than my Trek Remedy, it felt about 30kg heavier when trying to playfully hop around on the trail. So would I buy one... Yes! They are pretty darn fun, and for someone like myself (who has become a lethargic rider in the last few years), it could be the difference between deciding to drive the 45min (each way) to the local trails and enjoy a good few hours out there, or dissuade myself that the lengthy drive is not worth the 1.5hrs of gruelling climbs for a few brief (but fun) descents. After all, I ride for fun. Would I have it as my only bike... No. With fun being the main reason I ride, the dead-weight dynamics of the eBike when trying to be playful on the trail, or get some air, are a bit frustrating. As mentioned, I'm sure this would get better with time and practice, but on descents, I still prefer my Remedy. So in an ideal world, I'd have R140k of fun money just waiting to be spent, and I'd get a Trek Fuel EXE (the "in-between eBike" and only about 4kg heavier than my Remedy). But as such amounts of fun money seem to evade me, and I cannot deny that I have considered selling my Husky dirt bike to fund such a toy, as realistically I'd probably get more use out of it than the dinosaur-juice burner.

While pottering in the garage yesterday I noticed my tyres were looking long-in-the-tooth/short-in-the-tread and with an upcoming 1400km adventure rally next Feb, I figured it was time for new ones. Good thing I happened upon this, as one of the local suppliers had my tyre of choice (Motoz Tractionator RallZ) for 30% off. $335 (approx R3350) for both and shipping. Only a shade more expensive than MTB tyres (which gram-for-gram are ludicrous) Now to build up the energy & motivation to wrestle with some Tublis inserts and change these tekkies!

Congrats Many happy miles! My wife is slightly regretting her decision to jump the gun and get the XC40 T5 and not wait for the Recharge or C40... although those are about another $15k on what she paid. Maybe a Polestar 3 for her, if she wins the lotto, haha!

As per the toolbox thread, I managed to pickup a used filing cabinet for dirt cheap ($5), so with some ply and castors I had lying around, I thought it was time to dust-up the track saw and peanut jig and make a "skin" for it. 18mm ply, mitred corners joined with glue peanut connectors (for strength) Thought I'd add a nice little bevel on the face, cos why not. The intended use is tool storage, and perhaps a base station for my drill press. And speaking of track saws, my previously fabri-cobbled track saw storage brackets gave out one evening (damaging the corners of my 1m rail 🤬 ) So I had to whip up another set, this time they should be a fair bit sturdier...

This week in the Toolbox thread... Some bargains! First off, a little air compressor I picked up for half price Second, was an idea I had to repurpose old filing cabinets into tool storage. Picked up a 3 drawer unit from TradeMe (like Gumtree in NZ) for $5 Used some plywood and castors I had lying around to pimp and mobilize it.

When you and your friends all have Harleys, but all you really want is a KTM

Haha sorry didn't read too good! Driver vs wrench it's pretty much what dave303e said (Ie wrenches typically have higher torque). They also come in a variety of sizes (both anvil (ie 1/4" - 1") and have various classes (compact, medium torque, high torque and "I'm installing train tracks" torque. Even a compact (1/4", 3/8" or some even 1/2") is typically more bulky and heavy than an impact driver, but can be used for driving bigger lag bolts etc than the driver would. Mediums are a good size for automotive work. Wheel nuts etc. High torque would be for the likes of steel structure fabrication, and earthmoving equipment mechanicking. I think for the average person doing woodwork, DIY, and some light mechanicking, an impact driver with a 1/2"and 1/4" square drive adapter will more than suffice.

Impact drivers and wrenches have a fast, repetitive torsional impact action via a hammer and anvil. These "jolt" fasteners tight or loose. As dave303e mentioned, they can deliver significantly more torque than a drill-driver. Some are downright vicious and can strip out fine fasteners or woodwork if not careful. However, unlike drill-drivers that get carried away and try break your wrist when the bit gets caught up, impact drivers and wrenches deliver the torque via the impacts without the twisty-wristies. This will probably explain it better than I can...