New Zealand - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

[patches]

I'm going to have to get a Ryobi impact driver... nothing like buying into a line of crap.

 

Edit: That said, I've done a lot with my Ryobi crap over the years, except drill 2mm holes.

 

Damn! I could have done you a package deal on a brand new AEG with 6Ah battery and charger. Unfortunately I have sold the charger, but the driver and battery are still available haha

 

As for the 2mm drill bits, I wonder if it's a chuck manufacturer issue?! Jacobs vs Rohm vs whatever else?!

 

EDIT: I was going to proposed a package deal for a driver, battery, and spare barely use charger I have, but the I looked up the Ryobi prices and damn one can get an entry level impact driver from them for a pretty decent price. So unless one needs the heavy hitting power of the AEG Fusion driver, then the Ryobi looks like a good bet. As I said, I use my little 12V more than anything else.

Edited August 13, 2020 by patches

[davetapson]

...Ryobi looks like a good bet. As I said, I use my little 12V more than anything else.

Yeah, for whatever I say, my Ryobi drill is awesome, 2mm holes aside.  I really, really like the clutch as I use pretty light wood/ply, and I can just set the clutch on 1 and drive screws without paying attention...

 

I figure it wouldn't be the same with an impact driver.  But I'd better get one to make sure... 

[davetapson]

Yeah, for whatever I say, my Ryobi drill is awesome, 2mm holes aside. I really, really like the clutch as I use pretty light wood/ply, and I can just set the clutch on 1 and drive screws without paying attention...

 

I figure it wouldn't be the same with an impact driver. But I'd better get one to make sure...

I lied. It does drill 2mm holes, but not 1mm holes.

 

Bought click and collect impact driver (and spare battery - good excuse) from Bunnings for the 70 holes I needed to drill/screw to fit the boat decks.

 

"Pick it up on Monday" they said.

 

So did it all with the drill... [emoji19]

 

Pic from 01:10 this morning. Took a little longer than I thought it might.

 

Edit:

Bunnings: "Come and pick it up NOW!!"

 

So it looks like I can use it to break the screws out of the epoxy joints. Just what I need.

 

The battery, which I think is the second smallest available, has over twice the capacity of the batteries that came with the drill.

Edited August 16, 2020 by davetapson

[davetapson]

It's awesome.

[patches]

I recall last time we went to level 3 and I did a few Bunnings click-and-collects they were super slow in getting orders ready.

 

Which Bunnings did you order from? Glenfield? Constellation?

Hopefully now that people haven't been in Level 4 for weeks on end (like last move to L3), the sudden demand on the click-and-collect system isn't overwhelmingly high.

 

BTW, the boat is looking good and coming along nicely!

[davetapson]

Which Bunnings did you order from? Glenfield? Constellation?

 

I ordered online from Constellation who phoned me to say they don't have stock but Glenfield do, would I like to go there instead.  I said OK, got a mail to say book a pick up time, the first of which was Monday.

 

Then got a call Sunday saying I must pick up within 24 hrs or they will put my order back on the shelves, so I popped down there.  You park in a slot, phone them with your order number and parking place number and they bring it out.  Pretty efficient really.

[patches]

I ordered online from Constellation who phoned me to say they don't have stock but Glenfield do, would I like to go there instead.  I said OK, got a mail to say book a pick up time, the first of which was Monday.

 

Then got a call Sunday saying I must pick up within 24 hrs or they will put my order back on the shelves, so I popped down there.  You park in a slot, phone them with your order number and parking place number and they bring it out.  Pretty efficient really.

 

Awesome! Glenfield is my local.

 

Yeah last time they used the drive up system. the backlog seemed to be on the part where they got orders ready. It took them about a week to gather the 5-or-so items in my order.

 

Luckily this time I only need one.

[intern]

Project looking great Dave! So you're sold on the impact driver then? Was thinking aboot this on the weekend,I also once wondered what the point of an ID was until I got one. And when you're building a deck or whatever with hundreds of 5mm hex bugle head 100mm coach screws, oh boy do you like that rattle!

[patches]

Not good, bad, ugly... but just different and a random small thing I noticed.

Bathroom light switches.

In SA they always seemed to be just outside the bathroom. In NZ they are nearly always inside the bathroom.

 

I forgot about this until 10min ago when some old instinct kicked in and flicked on the hallway light switch, which just happens to be outside the bathroom

 

But yeah, wonder if it's a building code thing in SA?!

 

Small little differences in everyday life. Neither good or bad. Just different.

Edited August 16, 2020 by patches

[intern]

Not good, bad, ugly... but just different and a random small thing I noticed.

 

Bathroom light switches.

 

In SA they always seemed to be just outside the bathroom. In NZ they are nearly always inside the bathroom.

 

I forgot about this until 10min ago when some old instinct kicked in and flicked on the hallway light switch, which just happens to be outside the bathroom

 

But yeah, wonder if it's a building code thing in SA?!

 

Small little differences in everyday life. Neither good or bad. Just different.

 

Ten years in and I still feel the outside of the wall. Right up until I'm back in SA. Then I'm fumbling around on the inside.

[intern]

Guys, who still thinks lockdowns are the way to combat the Rona?

Read this piece from Simon Thornley (his bio here, he is an epidemiologist) https://unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/profile/s-thornley

And the piece in question:

https://www.covidplanb.co.nz/our-posts/is-new-zealands-covid-19-story-past-its-use-by-date/

 

Note the bits which point out how NON-LETHAL covid really is. If you're under 90, 80 or 70 years of age.

[intern]

An excerpt which I found noteworthy (emphasis on the last sentence mine):

 

It is also clear that around the world the average age of death of Covid-19 patients is near that of the average life expectancy of that country. This is also clear for New Zealand (figure 1), where the shape of the age distribution of Covid-19 deaths closely approximates the spread of deaths over the same period the year before. A formal test for differences in counts between these data sources shows no evidence of difference. It is very difficult to argue from this plot, that Covid-19 is shortening life spans.

[patham]

Not good, bad, ugly... but just different and a random small thing I noticed.

 

Bathroom light switches.

 

In SA they always seemed to be just outside the bathroom. In NZ they are nearly always inside the bathroom.

 

I forgot about this until 10min ago when some old instinct kicked in and flicked on the hallway light switch, which just happens to be outside the bathroom

 

But yeah, wonder if it's a building code thing in SA?!

 

 

 

I think so. I always understood SA building code was to avoid switches and plugs at 240 V within a bathroom. You could still run power to your shaver powerpoints, but with circuit breakers set at lower amperage.

 

On a similar note, when we first moved into a house here we looked high and low inside for the circuit breaker / DB board. Admitted defeat and phoned a fellow immigrant who had been here for some time. "It's where - on the the outside of the house ? No kidding?"

 

So if the power trips, its a walk in the elements braving the snakes and cane toads. Far more convenient having it inside as per SA. 

[patham]

Not good, bad, ugly... but just different and a random small thing I noticed.

 

Bathroom light switches.

 

 

 

Small little differences in everyday life. Neither good or bad. Just different.

 

Do you NZer's also have the little 20 to 30 mm high step into the bathrooms, caused by laying tiles onto the timber floor ?

 

At least that I can understand, But I have been in quite a few houses here with fully tiled floors on concrete slab, and there still is a raised level to the bathroom floor. The only other reason I can think of is to try and create drainage to central waste that is normally put in the bathroom floor.

 

It only takes a few toe stubs to learn how to enter !

[Wayne Potgieter]

Man, time to vent.

 

2020 is like the year of all work and no fun. I normally take a long weekend break at least every 2 months and 2 longer trips throughout the year to try and balance a heavy workload.

 

This year has all been about working hard to keep my job safe. Lots of university work to try and make use of more free time. Basically, all the mahi, none of the treats.

 

I am really tired of it all and feel a little punch drunk. I get that life is not always pleasant, but I used to be pretty good at balancing the good with the bad, lately it just seems to be bad on bad.

 

Rant over.

[davetapson]

Project looking great Dave! So you're sold on the impact driver then? Was thinking aboot this on the weekend,I also once wondered what the point of an ID was until I got one. And when you're building a deck or whatever with hundreds of 5mm hex bugle head 100mm coach screws, oh boy do you like that rattle!

 

I bought the dinky one as anything else would be overkill for what I do.  But now the decks are on, the boat is rigid and I can move it about with breaking anything so unscrewed some 4" screws I had through a brace made of 2x4's - it did have to think about what it was doing... my first thought being, hmm, I'll have to get a bigger one...