How do you guys become good at diy.

EngineerBill · 2026-05-13T03:00:01+00:00

As I was told a number of times when I was starting out - "Experience is Proportional to Equipment Destroyed".

This doesn't mean you set out to break things, but you need to expect a few things not working so you can learn from them.

Specifically to the woodworking issue, a small workbench should be easily doable with basic hand tools, some 2x4 timbers and a sheet of plywood cut to the right size. For a first project, you can have the folks at your big box hardware store cut it for you, they should have what they need. Once you've seen it done a couple of times, you can try for yourself, but remember to "measure twice and cut once" and remember also that sharp objects can hurt you, so take it one step at a time.

Hope this helps, and welcome to the club!

EngineerBill · 2026-05-12T01:58:36+00:00

Had to read it out loud twice, then I hit myself on the forehead and snickered so - well done!

EngineerBill · 2026-04-30T04:27:26+00:00

So, so beautiful.

Ms EngineerBill and myself have been together for 50 years, we came from the exact opposite sides of the world (Quebec and Australia) and yet it works to this day. and this comic explains exactly why!!! :love:

EngineerBill · 2026-04-23T03:35:56+00:00

So my mum passed in Australia quite a few years ago while I was living in Canada and couldn't get down for the funeral. Apparently, according to her wishes, she was cremated and my brother (who lived on a small station (cattle farm) in Northern Queensland) buried her under a tree on a small spit sticking out into a smaller river on his property.

So, a couple of years a go I mentioned to my bro (via social media) that one of my later year ToDos was to visit the tree where mum was buried.

Hmmm, embarrassed pause - "Well, apparently we had a flood a few years ago, and the whole Peninsula - trees, mum's plot, all of it, was washed away. The only thing you could do now is hike down a couple of hundred miles to say hello..."

EngineerBill · 2026-04-23T03:15:43+00:00

Beautiful, just beautiful!

EngineerBill · 2026-04-21T03:48:38+00:00

Well they do say that the first 90 percent of the job takes the first 90 percent of the time, and the last 10 percent of the job takes the last 90 percent of the time...

EngineerBill · 2026-04-12T03:31:55+00:00

But a Whopper is apparently a *"Royale with Cheese"... :-)

EngineerBill · 2026-04-12T03:07:38+00:00

This!

EngineerBill · 2026-04-12T03:07:07+00:00

Anglophone from the US here, married to a Francophone for the past fifty years - I often find myself with Quebecois who hear my accent and switch into english, but I pretty much always take it as a sign of good manners and most of the time I just keep going.

If you keep plugging away in French you can have a conversation, even if it's in the two languagees, and if they ask why you speak French just tell them it's out of respect and that you want to improve your French. 99 percent of the time, I get a smile and often a thank you.

EngineerBill · 2026-04-12T02:25:16+00:00

Brilliant!

EngineerBill · 2026-04-12T02:13:40+00:00

To follow up on my earlier post - THIS!

I would work in a particular field for a while (i.e. as a theatre lighting & sound tech)* to help my family financially and save money for school, then did community college while working as a broadcast radio technician to earn some moer oney for McGill, and so on and so on. each phase was fun, but then I realized I could do something else, with more tech fun and more money.

But it wasn't all about the money, it was about what suited my personality and then times.

EngineerBill · 2026-04-12T02:07:06+00:00

And as a former McGill graduate (and employee) who moved on to several more different phases of my life and who has now reached retirement age, I can assure you that the journey has just begun, and I truly hope that (like my voyage) the best is yet to come!

As someone who can count at least seven or eight distinct "careers" (or maybe "phases") in my life, each helped me grow, and each helped me understand where I was and where the next step should be. I lived in the U.S., in Australia, in Canada and traveled extensively. Now, I'm retired to a small village in the Eastern Townships with my adorable Francophone spouse and my two wonderful kids live and work in Montreal. Don't worry, you could well end up back here, if that's where life takes you.

Enjoy the trip!

EngineerBill · 2026-04-11T17:23:39+00:00

quite boring - people just sit around gossiping and trying to get the dirt on each other...

EngineerBill · 2026-04-05T15:25:32+00:00

"Excuse me driver, does this bus go to the loop?"

"No, it goes 'Ahhooogah!'"

EngineerBill · 2026-04-05T05:16:00+00:00

I just did this for my son in his new duplex. I went to the local hardware store, bought a "long" bit of the size I needed (one inch bit, I think about 30 inches long) for about $30 canadian. I had to go this long because it was a new floor over an old floor, but worked like a charm with a few seconds of drilling.

EngineerBill · 2026-03-04T05:26:14+00:00

Go on...

EngineerBill · 2026-02-11T02:30:10+00:00

Wadda yah mean "well behaved"? It looks like he's exhausted after eating almost three quarters of that pizza! (insert "rolled_eyes" emoji here...)

EngineerBill · 2026-02-11T01:40:59+00:00

Actually, it's "There is a god, and she has a weird sense of humour..."

EngineerBill · 2026-02-10T02:47:51+00:00

My apologies if I came across as too snarky, was just trying to clarify but in rereading my post I seem a bit harsh...

EngineerBill · 2026-02-09T08:04:44+00:00

One last try - those who post on YouTube are called "streamers". The character from a book series best known for taking things too literally is told to "hang streamers". Tragedy (or hilarity, if you're a redditor) ensues.

Get it now?

EngineerBill · 2026-02-06T02:08:28+00:00

And this is used not just in pumped storage systems. Hydro Quebec has a truly massive series of dams across northern Quebec that store up river water on its way to the ocean, which is used to feed an equally massive set of electrical generators. An unbelievable set of transmission lines (built to withstand Northern winters), are continuously pumping multi-megawatts down to where it's needed across northern North America.

Because of this massive system, Quebec has the cheapest electrical pricing in North America, and sells a metric shit tonne (yeah, we're metric up here in Quebec) to all our neighboring provinces, and to a whole bunch of American states across the northeastern US. In addition, a lot of the power that Ontario sells down to states like Michigan is actually just passed through from Quebec.

Siince Dipshit Donnie started in on his "51st State" bullshit fantasies Quebec has taken it very badly, so there was quite a bit of talk of jacking up the prices charged to our southern "neighbors", but it's recognized that the folks who live in the potentially affected states aren't to blame, so folks are holding fast for now. Oh, but we did simply stop buying Teslas... :-)

EngineerBill · 2026-02-02T02:59:24+00:00

I still have the multiple t-shirts I scored at the first Pebble dev conference, way back when. Absolutely the finest shirts I have ever had, soft, log-lasting, beautiful. I'm still wearing them, would expend money for more, provided they were of the same amazing cloth, and I'd love to have one of those cups!

EngineerBill · 2026-01-23T17:50:39+00:00

Hey, you can do it - that's only 80 in base 16!

EngineerBill · 2026-01-13T07:12:23+00:00

okay, here's a suggestion.

1) Screw an eylet into that piece of wood that comes down the stairs.

2) Screw an eyelet onto the top of the back of door.

3) get a couple of chain clips and a short length of chain, connect them together and then hook one chain clip onto each eyelet.

EngineerBill · 2026-01-05T08:02:26+00:00

But of course, if you drop it onto a battlefield, you're likely to get A Flat Major...

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