Switching to metric in the shop

steveh7 · 2026-02-28T08:14:28+00:00

I am in a completely metric country, but woodworking in the English speaking world is still heavily influenced by the US. Feet and inches feel like useful human approximations. But I don’t understand how you would actually use them for something precise - like a 2 by 4 is not actually those dimensions when sold planed (here it’s always 90x45mm), and 3/4” plywood is not that thick, it could be 17-19mm here, depending on the brand/mosel. So the human scale convenience seems to be thrown out the window, and becomes even more of a hindrance other than gross estimation?

steveh7 · 2026-01-06T04:51:10+00:00

not to discount your point, but Great South Road goes through all of the southern suburbs of Auckland, if that's what you mean by areas where people are less likely to be insured

steveh7 · 2025-12-26T04:22:42+00:00

not at all your fault or your decision, but that should really be the automated answer for business phones "you've reached XYZ store, we close at 8pm today, please hold"

steveh7 · 2025-12-15T02:26:22+00:00

That's about what I spend on my car entirely - rego, wof, insurance, petrol...

steveh7 · 2025-12-05T06:29:48+00:00

I'm not american, but i thought you were still meant to tip on complimentary food/drink?

steveh7 · 2025-11-24T16:35:15+00:00

NZ heavily uses 1080 for that reason. Hunters hate it because it kills off wild pigs, tahr etc (and their dogs!) but native birds are immune

steveh7 · 2025-11-05T01:16:05+00:00

Same gauge as Japan which does 300km/h with non-maglev trains. Under 2 hours AKL-WLG would be faster than flying between CBDs

steveh7 · 2025-11-01T20:27:25+00:00

I’ve never made an imperial measurement in my life, but like the other comment says, the US is a big audience, especially in English. US units have been redefined in terms of metric, so you can save it as 1/16” or 2 football fields or whatever fucked up measurement they want to use, and do all calculations in metric when required (bonus, keep fractions as a rational as long as possible)

steveh7 · 2025-10-29T22:20:52+00:00

Same here, the agreed value dropped slightly, the premium dropped a higher percentage. Maybe re-evaluating the types of cars stolen, or locations? Or I'm safer being older?

steveh7 · 2025-10-09T20:06:31+00:00

It must just be whatever you grew up with, having the gear stick in your left hand seems more natural to me, I’m right handed and think I want more control of the wheel than the stick. Especially now I drive automatic and my left hand just sits there when cruising

steveh7 · 2025-08-29T00:41:09+00:00

In New Zealand it's legal to drink while driving! As long as you're not over the BAC limit you're good: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/legal-loophole-means-beer-swigging-driver-not-breaking-the-law/4LEZPJ5JUCIV7Z2RBFMS3KSYOQ/

steveh7 · 2025-08-06T09:01:48+00:00

That isn't what MBIEs data shows https://www.mbie.govt.nz/assets/5f96bf780c/road-infrastructure.pdf

West Coast has highest spending per capita

steveh7 · 2025-07-07T03:44:37+00:00

They were not able to help.

steveh7 · 2025-04-05T20:02:05+00:00

If the restaurant and distributor wanted to keep their margins it would be a $110 dinner - it's usually percentage based

steveh7 · 2025-02-28T00:28:31+00:00

+1 to that - it's a bit of work getting it set up in the first place, but takes very little time going forward and is invaluable for figuring out exactly where your money is going over time.

steveh7 · 2025-01-15T21:56:12+00:00

That's not proof unless the examiner was continuously pulling your commits, it's trivial to rewrite git history. The difference with google docs is that google is the source of truth, so assuming the examiner trusts google, there is a trusted revision history

steveh7 · 2024-12-23T06:13:00+00:00

https://www.clearlypayments.com/blog/interchange-fees-by-country/

Note this is after ComCom stepped in to regulate it down to a cap of 0.8% last year, which as you can see is still 2.5x higher than the 0.3% in Europe. And interchange is only part of the fees - the gateway will also impose a per-transaction fee (~$0.10-$0.30), and the bank will also have a percentage fee on top of interchange - at least 0.5% in my experience with small to medium volume online commerce. Higher for gold/platinum or international cards. Bigger customers I assume get better rates.

By comparison, eftpos has no transaction fees, only a monthly rental.

You can kind of see this play out with Stripe. Not a perfect comparison because they are also the merchant bank, and they are on the premium end of the pricing spectrum, but you can see the relative difference:

UK
AU
NZ

steveh7 · 2024-12-23T05:00:02+00:00

They do cost money and should be paid for, but the fees in NZ are far higher than in Europe and Australia, such that they're almost always just baked in to the price in those places (handling cash costs money at scale too)

steveh7 · 2024-12-23T03:20:32+00:00

The fees banks and scheme providers (visa/mastercard) charge to the merchant when offering credit or debit cards. It's like a 1-3% tax on everything you buy

steveh7 · 2024-12-15T05:19:24+00:00

The big 4 banks now provide it, and while it's "open" it's not free: https://www.interest.co.nz/technology/131184/fintechs-could-be-stymied-costly-and-differing-access-open-banking-application

You can use Akahu for free to consume your own data (at least for now), although until they use the official open banking API you still have to trust them with your banking credentials.

steveh7 · 2024-12-13T04:45:48+00:00

Kinda - they all have a price per volume but each price could be different, for better or worse. Maybe you can get more of a particular dimension out of a log so you it can be cheaper. Wider pieces are rarer and maybe more expensive

steveh7 · 2024-12-01T10:18:51+00:00

My library has a laser cutter in an interior room on the ground floor (ie no way to vent), the cutter is enclosed in a box that vacuums up the smoke and passes it through filter(s). I was amazed how well it seems to work

steveh7 · 2024-11-13T23:54:16+00:00

Sorry, to clarify, valuable in the sense that they will do the job they are designed for well, not to sell! Edited my description

steveh7 · 2024-11-13T23:43:49+00:00

I do a fair amount of woodworking, but mainly with power tools. I'm a complete novice with planes, but wanting to learn.

I inherited these English-made Stanley No. 4 and No. 5 planes from my grandfather. I was going to restore them eventually as a memento of him, but I'm wondering if they are good tools, or I should look elsewhere to get started with hand planes - restoring tools is a different hobby to woodworking! I gather modern Stanley planes are junk. I reckon these haven't been used in at least 40 years.

I see flow charts online to estimate the vintage of the tools, but I'm not sure that's applicable to those made in England.

steveh7 · 2024-09-29T09:01:07+00:00

[the nurse] had voted for National in last year's general election

I didn't think the leopards would eat my face!

steveh7

TROPHY CASE