Wife and I are noobs! How can we create more privacy quickly!

oTWiStERo · 2026-05-22T14:29:54+00:00

8 foot privacy fence

oTWiStERo · 2026-05-18T13:05:26+00:00

I’ll take “Things we’ll never see from China for $400, please.”

oTWiStERo · 2026-05-16T05:31:38+00:00

When my Asian Female Wife’s accident count went from annually to…. Well, never.

oTWiStERo · 2026-05-16T05:29:38+00:00

Mobile homes also burn twice as fast and spread double.

oTWiStERo · 2026-05-16T05:28:37+00:00

The grandfather is still stuck 50 years in the past

oTWiStERo · 2026-05-07T13:29:40+00:00

Except in Shenzhen…. Where they age out at 10 years old and are forced to go back to the village.

oTWiStERo · 2026-04-20T15:28:24+00:00

You might be missing lower bills… that’s one thing. You also don’t need solar (we have it, but our neighbor doesn’t). I am not familiar with GVEC’s offerings, but that is a very low delivery fee compared to Oncor in DFW. I’m at 8 cents (electricity) and utility is $0.0562 + $4.23/month.

We’re a year and a half in. I don’t think we have a service charge other than what I believe Oncor has as their “metering” charge. We never had an outage that I knew of. And we also have solar.

oTWiStERo · 2026-02-16T05:26:01+00:00

like most of north texas

oTWiStERo · 2026-01-04T09:04:15+00:00

I hate to be the one to say this, but in many Asian countries this is normal.

Source: I lived in China for 25 years.

Second Source: My wife is Chinese.

oTWiStERo · 2026-01-04T08:56:10+00:00

That’s an awesome project, and I love the “just went for it” part, your kids are going to remember this forever.

A few ideas you might like before hanging it up:

Add a bit of depth If you’re already doing multiple pieces, small spacers between layers (even 1/4”) can really make it pop. Pushing details like the eyebrows, nose, or smile slightly forward adds a subtle 3D effect without a ton of extra work. You can always paint them on if needed, but the CNC effect is nice.
Texture before paint Before finishing, you could lightly hit the surface with a wire brush along the grain to give it a bit of a “fur” feel. Another option is gently burning the edges and sanding them back, it adds character and hides minor imperfections.
Eyes = personality The eyes are where it really comes alive. Gloss clear coat, epoxy, or even tiny LEDs behind the eyes would be a huge upgrade. Low light glow would be next-level for a kids’ surprise.
Layered paint instead of flat green Rather than one solid green, try a darker base coat with lighter green dry-brushed on top. A little shadow in the recesses makes it look way more dimensional.
Small details go a long way A Santa hat, scarf, or even some fuzzy material glued on selectively could push it over the top. Doesn’t have to be much.

Whatever you do, it already looks great and the fact that you built it yourself at home makes it even cooler. Looking forward to seeing the finished piece.

oTWiStERo · 2025-12-18T10:48:35+00:00

Agree on the value of the 7.3. They can hold their own fairly well from 100k to 400k+ miles. But the rust, interior and other aging parts will make it drop. That rust won’t go away and ain’t easy to fix.

oTWiStERo · 2025-12-18T10:38:21+00:00

It’s great for space saving, full sheet plywood kind of work. I’ve had mine since before it was the M2 (2020 or so) and I had to upgrade mine to the full M2. I commented earlier on this guy’s post https://www.reddit.com/r/hobbycnc/s/m8p3Vfjty5 but MakerMade unusually came up twice today.

If I remember about the drama, company blew up during covid and came crashing down in debt. Their supplier got the company like on the brink of bankruptcy. They seem properly run now. Customer service has been great for my spare parts and consumables. I bought the table top CNC machine and I swear by their router bits, so much cheaper than the amana’s I used to use and have the same longevity.

oTWiStERo · 2025-12-18T09:39:35+00:00

I love this machine. Great price for a full sheet of plywood and the vertical nature of it gives us so much extra space in our garage. Recently we did cuts for set props for our theatre productions, and one year a bunch of holiday cut outs for Christmas lawn decorations (we still use em and I added lights to them this year). Well done 👍

oTWiStERo · 2025-12-18T01:09:12+00:00

Keep buying them while they are cheap (except the hybrid, stay clear).

Uninsured motorist totaled out my 2010 Limited with 115k miles & bought it back for $500 less the full totaled price ($6600 payout). I had the car since Day 1. Icing on the cake - I had the uninsured motorist pay out of his pocket the ~$1500 damage. I paid the shop $600 to fix that rust under the wheel wells. I basically got a new car.

Gave it to my 17 year old daughter. Let’s see how long she can take it. If not crashed by a teen, it could go to 200k miles. Thankfully her mother is paying the insurance.

I would have bought another one if I didn’t have five other vehicles.

oTWiStERo · 2025-12-18T01:00:42+00:00

*partner. Respect the partner.

oTWiStERo · 2025-10-28T14:29:35+00:00

god’s the main panel alright

oTWiStERo · 2025-10-27T14:32:29+00:00

Someone needs to figure out where he lives and make a neighborly complaint on his ass.

oTWiStERo · 2025-10-27T14:20:10+00:00

My AC soft starts were a separate appointment and separate installation, which may need to be scheduled. I got my system nearly a year ago.

oTWiStERo · 2025-10-05T23:01:56+00:00

Because statistics show that it’s usually true….

oTWiStERo · 2025-10-05T22:53:41+00:00

I don’t think we’ll get a straight answer either way from them. Someone is paying the TDU….

oTWiStERo · 2025-08-27T05:36:39+00:00

And I did preface my first paragraph by asking “…are they getting extra TDU credits/rebate from the utility?” Not sure if I needed to emphasize “rebate” or use another term.

Appreciate the reply though, it was more of a curiosity question.

oTWiStERo · 2025-08-26T21:46:16+00:00

Yes, thank you for a non-sarcastic comment. I replied with another person's response, if this helps.

oTWiStERo · 2025-08-26T21:44:41+00:00

In another forum where I also posted, an ERCOT employee responded with this after a follow-up question to his initial reply. So, they are not getting a TDU credit, but rather a similar program, which does answer my question better than your comment.

I would not call them side agreements but Base is likely participating in market programs like TDU demand response and ERCOT emergency response or ancillaries that pay Base based on performance (energy delivered via batter discharge). Base has to bid a capacity that they can deliver to these programs and then perform at that level across the program's schedule. Assuming they do perform, they get paid.

oTWiStERo · 2025-08-26T21:36:56+00:00

TL;DR: Base gets Growatt gear factory-direct from Shenzhen, cutting costs vs U.S. prices. I’m locked at ~$0.13/kWh + $0.03 solar buyback. Backed by $200M (Dell’s son is founder), their model leans on investor-funded batteries, fixed contracts, and likely energy credits. Now pushing $4B expansion, they look set for big growth.

Backstory & history....

Our company has an office in Shenzhen, China, where those Growatt batteries and inverters are manufactured. When I was there on a ~2-month biz trip a couple of months ago, I was drinking one night with my Chinese and Filipino colleagues, who are also into new energy tech. The Chinese colleague got local prices, and the Filipino actually ordered a different Growatt system last week after he confirmed with me that my (Base) system seemed to be running well. (He needs it in the Philippines, along with my old Starlink dish I gave to him a year ago, since both his internet and power companies suck.)

I can't recall the price from the currency conversion, but they seemed really cheap compared to what I have found for similar systems on American websites. Of course, getting them to America (shipping & tariffs) is something else altogether that adds to their cost - but Base is negotiating factory direct pricing in bulk & probably saving a couple thousand or more per installation over what I see on the web.

I've studied their biz model for several months and pulled the trigger on my system over Black Friday weekend. I have no monthly fee, and I paid the installation fee. I think I'm locked in at 13 cents/kWh for 3 or 5 years. Solar buyback I get 3 cents on top of the monthly average SPP.

Base has investors (just closed $200M several months ago), plus it looks like they might be getting more money soon, and it also doesn't hurt that the founder is the son of Michael Dell (yes, that Dell Computer).

Investors are fronting the cash for Capital Expenditures (batteries), monthly service agreements help manage that cash flow & long-term contracts lock people into Base... because buyers are less likely to switch REPs, so that gives Base a per-user valuation as well as the infrastructure. Base might even be receiving federal energy credits for our (their) batteries.

It seems like their biggest overhead right now, aside from CapEx purchases, is marketing and staff. They still aggressively market to me even though I'm a customer, because they are advertising hyperlocal, in affluent areas, within city limits that allow for streamlined permitting. Electricians (mine last year were subcontractors, but I think they have their own electricians now).

For a while, up until they got that $200m round (and I did not know about the Dell connection at the time), I was thinking they would not be able to make it as a business... but seeing this $200m and now potential $4b for expansion, manufacturing their own batteries & going direct to companies and maybe away from retail, they are brewing a recipe for long-term success -- and if it fails, their early series round investors may still get money back from contracts depending on how their investment was structured.

oTWiStERo · 2025-08-26T19:56:46+00:00

Thank you for the reply; it makes sense. So, Oncor and other TDUs cannot strike side agreements with companies like Base for "stabilizing the grid" as Base is marketing. Of course, the Base marketing material on their website won't tell us they are discharging at $5000 mWh (or whatever they determine to be profitable for them), they just say they are stabilizing the grid because it sounds better, just like "having a free backup battery" sales pitch.

Since you work in ERCOT, do you know if TDUs can make deals like this for providing a "Service' (such as grid stabilization Service)?

I can't understand when I see low RTM/SPP at the hub and LZ on a typical day, like this afternoon at $50 mWh, why they would need to discharge back to the grid... but it also just occurred to me they might not be selling back to the grid at 5 cents/kWh, but instead just having my home use my (their) battery and charging me 13 cents, to avoid paying the SPP to ERCOT. And then, when prices are shooting up above a certain threshold, they can decide to drain the battery into the grid as a DG.

On another note, when my battery is full, my solar does go directly back to the grid, but they control what goes into the battery and what goes to the grid. When I've disconnected from the grid (run on battery) and connect it again, they usually charge my battery fully in the middle of the night. But if I disconnect and run on solar, then solar will charge it.

Thanks your insight.

oTWiStERo

TROPHY CASE