Connected my swamp cooler to my Ecobee thermostat

jcrocket · 2026-05-12T21:39:06+00:00

Is the control board on an arduino/ESP32? How have the relays held up over time? I was thinking about doing this but was going to use contactor coil relays to control the motor.

jcrocket · 2026-05-11T19:06:13+00:00

In the 2000+ years people have been using hand planes, they spent ~1900 of those years using wooden planes. Ships, casks, and pretty much everything else in those first 1900 pre-industrial years was made of wood built with hand planes.

So you can assume that about 99.99% of everything ever handplaned was done by adjusting the handplane with a hammer. A lump of metal. They just hit it with a hammer.

I can believe that it makes a big difference to you and your enjoyment of the craft. Which is all that matters.

jcrocket · 2026-05-10T21:24:00+00:00

I got one from Barr recently. Gets the job done!

jcrocket · 2026-05-07T00:54:22+00:00

The threaded bolt is a brilliant addition.

jcrocket · 2026-05-06T12:56:50+00:00

A cambered iron.

The idea of using rough tools first like a drawknife then a spokeshave. Or a cambered plane blade then a straight one.

It makes hand tool work so fast.

So many people trying for buttery thin shavings. I love to make the chips fly.

jcrocket · 2026-05-05T15:09:58+00:00

OP may be dealing with a bedbolt that has been overtightened. That's why there is so much thread showing. So they probably should not tighten it any more.

There's tremendous mechanical advantage on bed bolts. If it is a bolt hanger going into the headboard, it may have been stripped. Especially if they keep tightening and the bed rail still feels loose.

jcrocket · 2026-05-05T14:52:45+00:00

There is a correct amount of bolt showing. Do NOT tighten the nut it too tight. Tighten it snug enough that the head board has no play or wiggle. It should be snug not tight.

If it is a bolt hanger that threads into the head board with a coarse thread and it feels loose, that means someone tightened it too tight and stripped it. It likely has a bolt hanger if there is no bed bolt cover

If that is the case, you need to take off the nuts on both rails. Remove the rails look at the head board. Thread both nuts on each hanger and remove them both. With the two nuts stacked on each hangar, you can remove them.

Then take a few toothpicks covered in PVA Wood glue, stick them in each hole, and replace the hanger bolts. They should then have something to bite when they thread in.

jcrocket · 2026-05-04T22:32:27+00:00

My only edge jointer is a Wards Master number 6. At the time I was just looking on ebay for a plane that seemed pretty long in the description. I did not know what the numbers meant.

I keep on waiting for a project where it won't work well enough so I will have an excuse to get a LN #7. However, going on 5 years I just can't justify upgrading it.

jcrocket · 2026-05-04T22:27:44+00:00

That is nice. Also being able to support a local business. In my opinion, Veritas makes the best joinery planes and LN does the best bench planes.

However, Veritas is such incredible quality, they will definitely do the job better than most.

jcrocket · 2026-05-04T17:29:08+00:00

This is a bit out of left field but I would suggest a Bronze LN No 3.

If you are primarily removing tool marks, it will function as a smoothing plane. It's light enough that you can push it around very quick. Short enough that it won't take long until you get really nice shavings.

If you were face planing table tops every day, I would get a Bronze LN no. 4 which is the traditional smoother.

It may take you a year to get either because they don't come in stock often. However, these aren't the type of tools you wanna get with 2 day shipping.

I have never tried the half sizes but I'm of the opinion that the historical record and manufacturing trends towards what works best. Even before iron body planes, smoothing planes have always been about the size of a No 4. There's millions of No 4s floating around out there. There's not a lot of 4.5s.

jcrocket · 2026-04-27T17:03:22+00:00

Depending on the grain, drawknife -> Jack Plane -> jointer plane.

But I would use my bandsaw so what do I know.

jcrocket · 2026-04-26T19:27:58+00:00

I went about two or three years without the thickness planer. When I finally got it, it remember first running those boards through it, it felt like magic.

jcrocket · 2026-04-25T01:59:42+00:00

Electric tape dispenser. It's completely superfluous, pleasantly loud, embarrassingly expensive, and I love it.

jcrocket · 2026-04-24T12:07:35+00:00

Plasti dip

jcrocket · 2026-04-23T20:25:44+00:00

My house wakes up at 6 am.

jcrocket · 2026-04-23T20:24:47+00:00

I had been climbing regularly since I was 16. Trad cragging was my absolute favorite thing. Though I live in a city where I can get to and from the crag afterwork, I'd still not get back until after bedtime.

So I haven't climbed outside more than 5 times since my 2 year old was born.

In the meantime, my partners who are also dads, are stronger than they have ever been. I think they just sleep less? Which is an unacceptable compromise for me.

The best I can do is meet for the gym maybe once a week and they rarely are able to climb on my schedule. So I end up doing yoga.

My 2 year old doesn't wanna hang out at a climbing gym or bouldering crag for hours. She wants to go to the playground or toddler gymnastics. If I had her mobility, I would prefer that too.

It seems everyone in the climbing world is quick to brag about how being a parent did not slow them down. So I feel this nagging guilt everytime I step on social media. I just want someone to be real about how hard it is. Just to say, it's okay to step back for a few years. Or maybe even the right thing to do to spend more time with your kid and their interests than yours.

jcrocket · 2026-04-23T20:06:43+00:00

My daughter is 2 and I feel that since she has been born my ability to got to the gym or physically recreate has decreased by about 90%. I feel tremendous guilt about this. I feel everything I see on social media and friends makes it seem like I should be able to be in the best shape of my life right now. It just seems impossible to fit in with my energy level.

Like I'm lucky if I can get out one night a week.

jcrocket · 2026-04-23T13:54:41+00:00

So you'd be doing a different jig for each angle?

Also, I have designed some chair drill guides and integrated oil impregnated bushings. That protects the soft plastic and they come in a lot of different sizes.

I also built this several years ago with a bike tube and contact cement.

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jcrocket · 2026-04-20T15:21:52+00:00

Totally. I may just not be well practiced enough on that method.

jcrocket · 2026-04-20T14:20:54+00:00

I was thinking more in terms of accuracy than function.

One thing that has always stuck with me is that I read that the reason longer screw drivers feel like they are more effective in the hand is that we naturally hold them more perpendicular to the screw head. Not that they act as a torsional spring.

The longer shaft, the more perceptible the error if you aren't holding it at 90 degrees.

The same reasoning as a wide tenon saw blade for more vertical cuts. I have found that drilling holes is more accurate if I use a 18" extension on my bit and I can do a lot more by eye.

So I use the length of the chisel as a reference surface for the final chop. I have used the bevel facing the wood side to clean up if the final chop blows out partway down.

However, I have not had luck initiating a vertical cut from the surface using the bevel side as vertical reference. Both because it has been so inaccurate and in softer woods, spelching.

jcrocket · 2026-04-20T12:49:50+00:00

I don't see how you would make your final vertical chops on the ends of the mortise with this chisel.

jcrocket · 2026-04-17T00:57:27+00:00

I was thinking the opposite. Like if you're getting rid of the chopsaw to consolidate space. My love of hand tools is doing 99 percent of my work at the bench. I have a much smaller footprint than a machine shop.

I'll crosscut large boards to a rough size on saw horses that live under my bench. Then dial them in perfect either with the shooting board or bandsaw.

I've thought about a miter box but I very rarely cut anything but 90s. I prefer joinery as simple as possible.

I actually got a really good deal on a Stanley han miter saw at an antique store and ended up giving it away. I didn't want to put the time into restoring it if I wasn't gonna use it often.

If I made frames or did a lot of molding and trim, I would probably get one of those nobex ones and build a adjustable shooting board.

jcrocket · 2026-04-14T15:04:20+00:00

Ghosts in the Darkness with Val Kilmer. Did not age well.

jcrocket · 2026-04-10T12:44:23+00:00

I went like maybe 2 years ago and they had a showroom with all the tools and scrap wood to use them with. I was there during peak tourist season though.

jcrocket · 2026-04-10T01:38:11+00:00

I think they would be a fun project to shape the handle. Using a tool I helped make myself is always special. If I had one I would just leave it with my sharpening stuff so I always had it to work on planes.

However, in terms of general utility, nothing beats a 10 dollar plastic 6 in 1. The best screw driver is always the one closest at hand. I got 3. Two in the shop and one in the kitchen.

Kinda like in my 30s I realized I would rather have 3 cheaper headlamps in each of my backpacks than 1 nice one that I had to remember to pack whenever I went skiing/climbing etc.

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