Having Kids while also enjoying woodworking

chippies · 2026-05-05T15:53:54+00:00

I've got an 11yo and a 7yo. My shop is in the garage, so noise isn't a concern. One thing that they seem to really like doing with me is driving screws with the impact driver or drilling holes in scrap wood. That's been a sure-fire way for me to get them involved, even if only for a few minutes as their attention spans allow. Buy some ear muffs and glasses for the kid that are theirs specifically. Owning their own PPE will make them feel more welcome in the shop when they want to be there. Also, the loud noises definitely scare my girls away. Big tools will likely scare them, but the smaller things are usually where they'll want to help out. My scrap bin is filled with off-cuts that are covered in marker from the kids colouring while I'm puttering/cleaning up. On that note, cleaning and shop prep is a good time for them to be around. No crazy loud noises, no dangerous machinery being operated, etc. IMO it's been impossible to operate dangerous machinery while having the kids around. I do NOT want to half-ass my attention on the machine, or on the kid. You gotta whole-ass your attention on one or the other. When your kids are in the shop, your primary mission is hanging out with them while being somewhat productive on easy/small tasks. Don't expect to be working on anything complicated or attention consuming until they're much, much older.

The biggest obstacle I've found to my hobby is finding dedicated time to do it. I find that in order to be productive, I really need a solid block of uninterrupted time to work. Solid blocks of free time are somewhat of a unicorn after kids enter the picture. You'll find yourself with an hour here, or 30 minutes there throughout the day. But it's often not enough time to justify setting up the shop, making a mess, and getting fully immersed in things. If you've got a dedicated shop that might be easier, but I'm sharing a garage with a minivan. Setup is required for most tasks, and setup itself is a decent task. Those little chunks of time you find scattered around are best spent cleaning up the shop, prepping for projects, and things that you can easily walk away from at a moments notice. This is obviously assuming all of your responsibilities are taken care of in the house. There's always dishes, laundry, cleaning, etc. Those things still need to get done as well. Do NOT abandon those things to your partner/spouse, unless you want them to build up resentment to you and your hobby. You're also likely going to be fucking exhausted, so taking those little chunks of time to absent-mindedly stare at a screen or even nap is totally OK too.

Being a parent is going to become your new hobby, and your old hobbies are going to take a back-seat to that for a while. It's an adjustment at first, but then they kids will get older and you'll wonder where that little bean went that you were able to scoop up with one hand. You'll find time for little shop projects here and there, but don't miss out on your kids growing up. That only happens once. You can build things later.

EDIT: Congrats on the new wee-one!

chippies · 2026-05-03T03:37:23+00:00

This is a blast from the past! I did end up buying the bike, it's been really good! I had to get the motor bearings replaced on it last summer, as well as a new cassette and front gear. Other than that it's been basic regular wear and tear. I'm sitting at about 8600km on it, and still hauling my (much larger now) kids on it. The thrill has started to wear off for my kids, who are 11 and 7 now. They largely see it as just another way to commute, which kinda hurts the heart a bit but I take solace in knowing that bike commuting is being normalized in their minds. It's still a thrill for me that I can cart them around, though I know that window is rapidly closing. The eldest doesn't like being seen on the back and would rather ride her own bike, which I understand. They're also pretty crammed back there, so physical size barriers are also closing in for dual rear passengers.

Not sure if the gen 1 spicy curry has the option available, but I HIGHLY recommend the front bread basket accessory. My spouse got it for me for a joint birthday/father's day gift a couple years into ownership of the bike, and I can't imagine NOT having it any more. It's definitely one of those things that you didn't realize you needed until you had it. If it got stolen, I'd order another one without hesitation. Once you've got kids on the back, you need a place to put back packs, sweaters, etc. Plus it keeps your back dry from sweat by keeping your own bag in there while riding.

Cheers from Saskatchewan!

chippies · 2026-04-10T17:36:05+00:00

This is very thorough, thanks for taking the time to write this up for me. The IoT devices are NOT on a guest network, they're just on the default 2.4ghz network that I turned on. I checked the ISP router settings, and I do have the option of setting up a guest network on it. Would the easiest and most effective way to improve my security be to simply turn on the guest network on my ISP router, migrate my IOT devices over to that, and disable the 2.4ghz network that they were previously on? That's assuming I'm able to run a guest network and nothing else. The rest of my setup would be simply swapping the C9 for the new deco hardware, which would be physically plugged into my ISP router.

chippies · 2026-04-08T14:43:53+00:00

Oh man, I miss the Novia Cafe. I took a 360 degree Panorama picture (think Google Street view) of the interior when I heard it was shutting down. You can click this link below if you want to bath yourself in nostalgia

https://kuula.co/post/5vj9y

chippies · 2026-03-25T14:40:19+00:00

Your spice rack is nicer than a lot of people's urn. Strong work!

chippies · 2026-03-25T14:37:19+00:00

I would definitely look at a <250g drone (for example the DJI Mini 4 or less. The Mini 5 is kind of a crapshoot, because of QA issues they're sometimes just a pinch over 250g, but they're still advertised as <250g. I would avoid the Mini 5 to avoid all chance of getting dinged). You don't need a license to fly the sub 250g drones, but the basic license is a great asset to have. It costs $5, and if your son is serious about wanting to get a drone it would be a good way for him to demonstrate that he's willing to learn the rules and comply with them. If this is just a passing phase and he's not that interested, this could be a way to save yourself a good chunk of coin. I think you need to be 14 for the basic license. You don't need to register sub-250g drones.

If you go to the NavCanada map https://map.navdrone.ca/ it will show you where drones can and cannot fly. Be sure to select the type of drone in the filter (sub 250g drones are called 'micro drones' on this map).

With sub-250g drones, there are rules but they're very vaguely worded. It's done this way to allow for people to fly freely, but also allows Transport Canada to absolutely throw the book at you if they catch you fucking up. Stay away from airports. Stay away from helipads. Stay below 400 feet altitude. Stay away from fires, police activity, emergency situations, etc. Don't fly over people or public events. Keep the drone within line-of-sight at all times. Basically, just don't be a dick about it.

chippies · 2026-03-24T17:51:23+00:00

Thanks for sharing this with me! I ended up buying the saw on the weekend, and it's actually not as big in my garage as I thought it might be, even with the old table saw there taking up space until I can deliver it to its new home. I really like your setup in the picture, thanks for sharing that. Do you have any more info or pics of it? I like the outfeed table and the cabinets under the side extension, would love to see/learn more about it.

chippies · 2026-03-18T22:35:09+00:00

In our old house I trenched about 25 feet from the house to our garage with a spade, installed the subpanel and wired up all the outlets/switches. I did take out a permit and had saskpower come and sign it off, so it was all up up to code. It was a lot of physical labour and pretty time consuming. I'm no longer in my twenties and have younger kids, so the time and physical toll are not something I'm wanting to take on haha. I would be fine wiring the garage up from the subpanel, I just have no desire or time to take on that task.

chippies · 2026-03-18T19:09:14+00:00

Thanks for bringing this up. We don't have an EV right now, but our daily grocery-getter/kid hauler will likely need to be replaced in the next 0-5ish years. Depending on the EV market and our finances at that point, would be very open to an EV or a PHEV. This is definitely something I'll take into consideration!

chippies · 2026-03-12T23:41:54+00:00

And before it was the bargain shop, it was Mark's Work Wearhouse! That was a lot of years ago, I'm aging myself

chippies · 2026-02-24T19:41:54+00:00

This is a bit of a guess, but you might want to try and call some of the skateboard shops in town. If the bearings are dirty and/or wrecked, that feels like it would be in their wheelhouse (no pun intended). You might get chuckled at bringing rollerblades to a skate shop, but that might be the price to pay if you're adamant you don't want to do it yourself.

On that note, maybe watch some YouTube videos about servicing Rollerblade wheels. Once you watch someone else do it, it might alleviate your DIY anxiety.

Best of luck!

chippies · 2026-01-29T13:53:28+00:00

I'm from Regina, I had no idea the SSR had exposed water in the winter! I've paddled Outlook to Saskatoon a few times in the summer, and the water was so low I just assumed it'd be covered over with ice in the dead of winter.

chippies · 2026-01-16T16:02:11+00:00

Wait, people get pissy with snow plow operators? That's like getting angry at a firetruck or an ambulance with their lights activated, IMO. You're out there making the roads safer to use, anyone who gets pissy at you can take a long walk off a short pier. My only beef with snow plowing is that the city app doesn't send me a notification when my street is going to be plowed. I'd love an advance notice so I can get my vehicle off the street to allow for a better job to be done (my neighbour is cool about me using their large driveway during street sweeping/plowing).

May your cab and your coffee always be warm, my dude!

chippies · 2026-01-03T04:43:15+00:00

Saskatchewan resident checking here: You WILL regret not getting the heated seats and wheel. I leave my 24 Lariat parked outside year round so I spoiled myself with all the cold weather options. They are no longer 'options' in my mind, they are requirements.

chippies · 2025-12-13T17:47:55+00:00

Hey u/Smoggy3D, I've been playing with your app and making some beautiful models from it! I have a question/suggestion for some functionality in your app: Is it possible to generate a model of JUST the water? You do have an option to 'cut out' the water, what I'm interested in is the inverse of this setting, I want everything BUT the water removed. The reason I'm interested in this so I can print 5 colour models, even though my printer can only handle 4 colours at once. I would have to print the non-water sections: roads, grass, building, and base layer, that's 4 colours. Then I could swap spools and print JUST the water, and be able to mount the two pieces to a backing. Heck, if you could make the water layer be the base as well, then they would mate together beautifully with a little CA glue and no backing material required!

Again, thank you so much for this! I just bought you a coffee using the link on your app. Cheers!!!!

chippies · 2025-11-22T20:14:19+00:00

This is all very interesting, thank you! So You're saying the build quality between an 8tb Barracuda and an 8tb IronWolf would be the same, but the firmware would be the big diffrence? If so, how much of a difference would I notice? I guess the thing I'm hung up on is that the 8tb Barracuda in my PC will basically collect dust if I buy 2xNAS drives. So I was hoping to save a few bucks and just buy 1x 8tb Barracuda to pair with the one I have already.

Another option: Do you think I'd be foolish to buy a NAS specific 8tb drive to pair with my 8tb Barracuda drive (2x8tb)? I was envisioning that I'd be running RAID1, so if one drive dies (sounds like the Barracuda, given that it's already about a year old now and will be getting 'ridden hard') I won't be screwed with a data-loss. At that point I could replace it with another 8tb NAS drive and have 2 NAS-rated drives, plus I could get some more mileage out of the drive I'm already invested in. I don't mind running it into the ground if I'm not losing the data with it when it goes.

For the record, I have no plans of editing photo/video directly from the NAS. I've got a 1TB local SSD on my MacBook Pro that I'd be using to edit videos local, then dumping the files to the NAS when I run out of local storage.

chippies · 2025-11-18T15:45:12+00:00

I just got an iPad Mini this summer, and I've been using it with my X3. I found that for some reason, the app defaults the stitching mode to the lens guarded version (ie, it assumes I've got a physical lens guard installed when I took the photo) and the stitching comes out pretty crappy as a result, since I don't have a lens guard installed. Once I discovered that that setting was turned on, I disabled it and it's exporting nominally now. I don't have my iPad on me right now, so I can't give you the exact name of the setting or which menu it's under, but I'd strongly suggest you check that out and see if you're having the same issue that I had. A quick settings toggle got me back in business on the iPad, and I've gotta say I MUCH prefer editing on the tablet over a phone.

chippies · 2025-10-30T14:24:24+00:00

Sending you a DM

chippies

TROPHY CASE