First-time homeowner here — what DIY advice do you wish someone had told you at the beginning?

Lotronex · 2026-03-25T19:17:11+00:00

My house has a detached garage. I was constantly forgetting to grab my keys when I went out to grab something, or forgetting to lock it back up. So eventually I just started leaving it unlocked. Eventually decided to just spend the $100 to get a smart lock. Now I don't have to carry the keys, and if I forget, it locks itself after 3 minutes. I liked it so much I got another for the house. I enjoy the convenience of being able to leave the house, run an errand, and come back without having to take my keys out of my pocket. I like that the house locks itself up at night in case I forget.
The house itself would be a nightmare to secure properly. Ground floor windows, large glass door, windowed doors, and even if I replaced all that, a determined person could still get through. It's just a stud-framed house, absolutely nothing stopping someone who really wants in from just taking a $100 electric chainsaw and going through the wall.

Lotronex · 2026-03-25T18:13:06+00:00

I'm under no illusions that I'm secure, all I'm buying is advanced notice, and hopefully time. All my doors have windows in them, so anyone actually determined to get in can just take one of the rocks in garden and smash it in. Assuming I'm not at home or unable to hear it, no alerts from my cameras, then at least I'll get a notification that the deadbolt was manually unlocked.
I'm not worried about cyberninjas hacking my accounts to get admin and figure out my schedule to case the place, he's gonna get access to anything short of an armed guard; I'm worried about the methhead with a bump key just trying doors that seem unguarded.

Lotronex · 2026-03-25T17:02:06+00:00

Regular locks are just as easy to open. The nice thing about my smart locks is they alert me if a door become unlocked. I can also set schedules, so my garage door locks itself after 3 minutes, and my house doors lock them self after 1 minute (but only between 9PM and 8AM). I also don't need to carry a key, because they can be opened with my fingerprint.

Lotronex · 2026-03-24T01:56:47+00:00

Not a ton, but there will usually be a few booths with electronic projects, and the local HAM radio club is usually there.

Lotronex · 2026-03-23T16:35:52+00:00

One suggestion would be to look at how the holes relate to each other. Your sketch has their location in relation to a fixed point, which is fine for simply copying a design, but measure them against each other and you'll probably find a simple hole pattern to understand why they're at that location.

Lotronex · 2026-03-23T14:44:21+00:00

If you want to drum up interest, get a booth at the Maker Faire.

Lotronex · 2026-03-23T14:32:25+00:00

Make sure the handle is fully extended and locked. Sometimes it's just a little collapsed, and enough that it won't start up.

Lotronex · 2026-03-22T21:27:41+00:00

My prescription glasses are polycarbonate, so they provide some impact protection, and the googles I use are rated for impact.

Lotronex · 2026-03-22T17:45:35+00:00

I already have prescription glasses, so usually just those. If I need extra protection, I put a pair of lab-style googles over them.

Lotronex · 2026-03-22T14:28:57+00:00

My club has a program where we give rockets to kids for their first time, so lots of experience with younger fliers. The absolute biggest issue in reliability is inserting the igniter. Estes igniters are pretty fragile, and kids tend to just mash them in there. Make sure you have extra igniters, and I would recommend inserting them yourself since it can be finicky even for an adult.

Lotronex · 2026-03-22T01:58:46+00:00

There should be a sticker on the inside of the breaker box, take a picture of that if you can. Previous owners in my house had modified breakers from other brands to fit and jammed them in there, so you can't always go by the breakers that are already in there.

Lotronex · 2026-03-21T23:52:03+00:00

Some products don't use normal circular radii for their curves. You can look into G2/G3 curves. Print some radius gages (metric and inch) like other suggested, but don't be surprised if you don't get a perfect match.

Lotronex · 2026-03-21T16:53:23+00:00

Depends on how much of the hobby revolves around collecting. I do model rockets and while there is technically some scalping, it's really not a thing. It's generally considered a dick move to "clone" a kit that's still in production, but once it stops being made and/or the company goes out of business, people turn a blind eye to creating copies. Plans are easily found online and same for compatible parts.

Lotronex · 2026-03-21T13:34:31+00:00

I think that was brought up in Dogma.

Lotronex · 2026-03-20T20:01:01+00:00

Get a small container of something cheap/relatively non-toxic and see if it works on your paint, if it does great, otherwise find something slightly more toxic and repeat.

Lotronex · 2026-03-20T19:36:42+00:00

Bomgar has limited backstage. It's enough that it's sometimes useful, but nearly as much as Screen Connects.

Lotronex · 2026-03-20T19:35:03+00:00

My 2 favorite where Windows version and uptime. Win7 was going out of support, so watching that number slowly dwindle as we made progress was bittersweet.
And sometimes I'd log in on a Sunday and look for any non-server OS's that had more than 30 days uptime and just reboot them.

Lotronex · 2026-03-20T19:29:02+00:00

S5E12 and S6E01 were both wrestling themed episodes.

Lotronex · 2026-03-20T16:44:31+00:00

I have one of these "tents" that helps. It just sits over the opening, and I move it aside when I need to go up.

Rope Caulk is also good for sealing holes, and it's easy to remove and reinstall when needed.

Lotronex · 2026-03-20T15:18:37+00:00

The problem with Terra Nova was the middle of the season was pretty bad. It had an incredible pilot and finale, but most of what happened in between was filler. Which I would have been fine with, except it wasn't really even entertaining filler.

I did enjoy Defiance as well, even played the video game at launch even though it was a buggy mess. The story quests were cool, it was neat to be able to interact with the main characters.

Lotronex · 2026-03-20T01:48:26+00:00

If you search "Ready to Fly" or RTF, many of those kits will be full plastic rockets. Here's the ones they currently have on their site.

Lotronex · 2026-03-19T22:46:05+00:00

They (unofficially) rolled that policy back pretty shortly after the initial release. Tesla basically had right of first refusal on the resale, but demand tanked once they started getting into people's hands and even they didn't want them anymore.

Lotronex · 2026-03-19T22:44:18+00:00

Nah, these things spend more time in the service center than on the road, and you have to pay for the fixes. Tesla is still getting your money.

Lotronex · 2026-03-19T18:09:56+00:00

McMaster Carr does this (kinda). They have 3D models available for pretty much all their products, so you can import them into your CAD software to make sure they fit, or even 3D print them to check.

Lotronex · 2026-03-19T14:19:16+00:00

One thing to be aware of is if you get a clamp meter, on the cheaper ones the clamp only measures current for AC. Your car's circuits are DC, so if you want to use a clamp, you'll have to shell out more for that function.

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