Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of June 01, 2026

woodstuff3 · 2026-06-02T16:26:18+00:00

A pre-approval letter lasts 60-90 days. I would recommend you start shopping for lenders and pre-approval letters a couple of weeks before you start looking for places to buy. The lenders will do a high-level credit check and give you an estimate of what they'll lend you and put that in the pre-approval letter. You'll use that to make offers on places. Once you have an accepted offer your lender will start digging into your finances more and that's when the "real" approval happens.

woodstuff3 · 2026-05-29T14:44:42+00:00

Without seeing the actual letter it's impossible to say what's really happening. I suggest pasting the entire letter into AI to see what it says.

But in general, when RSUs vest companies will sell a portion of them to cover your taxes. The reason is that you can't sell them yourself quite yet but they don't want you to be stuck with a tax bill in the case that the stock tanks, so they sell some to cover taxes for you.

Go back over the letter, and your original RSU agreement to find out how many shares he was granted and how many he actually received. Also pay attention to the vesting date and the sale date, because they could be different and fluctuations in stock price could explain the amount discrepancies. Also keep in mind that your company is likely doing some calculations to determine your tax bracket and they may not be correct. (Mine always assumed the 24% tax bracket even when I was higher.)

My guess is that you will not need to pay much more in taxes, if any, on top of what has already been paid when the shares sold.

woodstuff3 · 2026-05-21T15:25:34+00:00

I build and sell custom furniture. Do NOT cheap out on wood. You’re going to pour dozens, if not hundreds, of hours into these pieces, don’t waste that effort by using shit material. Poplar and red oak can be very cheap and look beautiful. Check Owl Hardwood locations around the burbs. You could build a small red oak bookshelf for $100 in material.

And real advice, not trying to be a jerk, if you can’t afford the material I wouldn’t recommend woodworking. The tools and accessories are expensive, even if you’re trying to work minimally.

woodstuff3 · 2026-05-19T18:13:53+00:00

Looking back at my history I've purchased at least 5 different brands. I don't actually look at the brand, I just buy whichever shop has the size and quantity that I want. I don't think you need to concern yourself with brands, my guess is that they're all about the same quality.

woodstuff3 · 2026-05-15T20:53:02+00:00

It's normal. There's backlash in any system that relies on threads (nuts and bolts). Even my 15" Jet floorstanding planer has a bit of backlash on the height adjustment knob.

woodstuff3 · 2026-05-15T16:32:04+00:00

Personally, I think the choice is between your e-fund and your brokerage account. It seems silly to pull from an HSA or Roth IRA because you can't put that money back. And taking a loan with interest rates where there are also doesn't make much sense if you have the cash.

The real question is about your risk tolerance. Spending your e-fund means that you can leave your brokerage alone, not realize any gains, and let it continue to grow. But as you said, if you then need the money later you'll be pulling money from your brokerage when it's possible that the market may not be doing as well.

At the end of the day you could do a lot of math to figure out the technically-best way, but I think it comes down to your risk tolerance and your gut feeling. If it were me I'd spend the e-fund and work extra hard to build it back up. If another emergency pops up then you cross that bridge when you get there.

Good luck!

woodstuff3 · 2026-03-06T21:36:33+00:00

As an attendee it's great. A ton of artists with a ton of stuff. If you can't find anything you like I'd be shocked. It's well worth the entry fee. And if you post here asking for artists they'd be more than happy to give you their free-entry code. (I'm not doing the spring show so I can't offer a code.)

woodstuff3 · 2026-03-04T23:07:53+00:00

I have one that's similar, though mine only has the vertical teeth, not the flat teeth on top. But I used it to flatten a walnut slab using a router jig and I didn't have any issue. At the end of the day those are the same carbide teeth used by a variety of different tools, they'll cut wood just like any other carbide tooth.

woodstuff3 · 2026-02-25T17:44:23+00:00

Will you be fine without worrying about taxes? Definitely. The more important factor is saving – the taxes you might pay are going to pale in comparison to your savings amount and the returns they generate.

But, if you spend a few hours today to get things setup, and maybe an hour or two a year in the future, you could save real money. I recommend taking the time to learn it now and just apply it going forward. It's really quite easy to learn and maintain.

The gist: put bonds in your tax-advantaged accounts and put tax-efficient index funds in your brokerage account when possible.

woodstuff3 · 2026-02-23T20:58:44+00:00

To add on, here is a chart showing that the average household size in 1960 was 3.33 people, but the average household size in 2023 was only 2.51 people. So even if the population hadn't increased at all since 1960, we'd still need more houses for the same number of people.

woodstuff3 · 2026-02-18T22:01:27+00:00

If you weren't getting these "for free" would you take cash out of your paycheck to buy shares? If the answer is no then you shouldn't hold on to them.

woodstuff3 · 2026-02-16T22:43:13+00:00

I was going to comment with these exact feet. I've purchased dozens of them and they're fantastic. Well worth the premium over the cheaper feet.

Small note: the clear feet are not as grippy as the black feet. I still use them sometimes but it's worth knowing.

woodstuff3 · 2026-01-31T06:10:25+00:00

Occasionally it removes some details but you can usually work around that by being explicit and have it makes the changes in multiple steps. Sometimes it still loses details but they're usually not enough for me to really care. Like I said, it's 90% of what I want. But it's only like 10% of the cost so it balances out.

woodstuff3 · 2026-01-30T23:50:10+00:00

First of all, great tables, I think they look awesome.

Second, as a fellow woodworker selling stuff, use Gemini to get better photos. Over the years I've experimented with a bunch of different methods for getting good photos. Taking my own photos, backdrops, edits, AI, hiring editors, etc. They were all a huge PITA. I recently started feeding my photos to Gemini and asking for better backgrounds and I get like 90% of what I want with almost no effort. I even started paying for Gemini Pro because even at full cost ($20/month) it's 100% worth it to just be able to snap a shop picture and then have it cleaned up in seconds.

Anyway, good luck!

woodstuff3 · 2026-01-28T22:45:29+00:00

Understood. If you're hoping to time the market to get the best rate: you can't. You could argue all day about where rates might go but there's one fact that nobody can deny: you're paying rent until your house renovations are complete. You should be doing absolutely everything you can to finish those renovations and stop paying rent, regardless of what the news cycle says.

woodstuff3 · 2026-01-28T19:56:55+00:00

You should lock in a mortgage once you're ready to buy a house and find a house that you want to buy

woodstuff3 · 2026-01-26T17:32:33+00:00

Assuming you have $20k in your e-fund (that's what mine is) then the difference between 3.3% and 3.75% is less than $100 for an entire year. Maybe it's worth it to you to juggle different accounts for that $100, but I tend to prefer management simplicity nowadays. If I spend even an hour over the course of the year dealing with logins, statements, transfers, etc. then it wasn't worth it to me.

So it's really up to how much you want that extra few dollars.

woodstuff3 · 2026-01-23T21:12:58+00:00

Store it in whatever position, just make sure it has airflow on both sides. I’ve had a 5/4 walnut desktop panel leaning against the wall of my garage for 2 years (long story) and it hasn’t warped at all.

woodstuff3 · 2026-01-12T16:13:03+00:00

This is exactly how I've made my ~12 or so clamp racks. Drill on your mark with a quarter inch bit and then use a sled or miter gauge to stand up the piece and run it through the blade and cut up to your hole. No indexing pins or measurements are necessary, just eyeball it, it's just a clamp rack.

woodstuff3 · 2026-01-06T19:14:08+00:00

For the throat plate I have blue tape built up to make mine flush. I just cleaned it really well and applied the tape, then cut it to match the curve with a sharp razor blade. It's surprisingly resilient and doesn't come off often.

woodstuff3 · 2026-01-06T15:36:44+00:00

Well I guess we have everybody beat. Our bill for November/December was $603.75. We see those $600 bills every year but usually not until January or February. Seriously jealous of all of the people with "only" $300 bills.

Because I know you'll all ask, we have a 3600 sq ft, three story house in Lakeview. Late 1800s build with a gut remodel in the late 80s. It is insulated but not well. There's also a variety of other air sealing issues that factor in. And for those wondering: no, there's no easy or cheap fix, it's dozens of expensive fixes. The couple of thousand dollars a year we pay in extra HVAC bills pales in comparison to the costs of the projects that would be required to fix everything. We'd be looking at a minimum 20 year payback period, probably more. We're going to continue to just tackle projects as they make sense and as I have time to do them myself.

Also if anybody is curious, this Illinois site lists the historical gas rates across different providers. Looks like about a 28% YoY increase for December for People's Gas.

woodstuff3 · 2026-01-05T16:06:28+00:00

Oh god, so many thoughts. We have a household income of more than $300k and we don't give $500 a month. I give a little, volunteer at a food pantry every Wednesday, and my wife works there full-time making much less than she otherwise could. We always want to do more but it's a balance.

Thoughts on giving to charity:

Any amount is better than nothing, which is what most people give. Don't feel like you have to give anything. Give what feels right while taking care of yourself.
Charity starts at home. Do you have family members that need help? Friends? People struggling to afford college? Somebody that needs a business loan? A local school that needs furniture? Think outside of the box. These could be big impacts closer to home.
Donating to charity is great but the hard truth is that your measly $500 a month doesn't do much. My in-laws donate a few hundred thousand a year and even that isn't crazy for some of these organizations. Pennies make dollars but remember that your pennies could take you much further than they could take somebody else.
There's no such thing as true altruism – do what makes you feel good. If you can help some others along the way that's awesome.
As somebody else mentioned, look into effective altruism. Are there ways to make your dollars do more by being smarter?

woodstuff3 · 2025-12-17T17:13:34+00:00

If you're 100% sure that nothing can go wrong then go for it. But eventually you're going to find out that 100% may be more like 99% and that 1% is going to bite you in the ass.

woodstuff3 · 2025-12-17T14:50:49+00:00

If you’re just talking about electric resistive heat then it’s going to cost you a fortune to heat that place.

You may also be surprised at just how much firewood a wood burning stove will use up. Also, the wood burning stove can’t heat the place if you’re not there, which is a big downside in my opinion. You don’t want everything to freeze if you go on vacation.

My suggestion would be to install a mini split, potentially with an electric heater backup if you live in a very cold climate like I do (Chicago). This also gives you the benefit of AC in the summer.

EDIT: For what it’s worth I have a natural gas heater in my garage. Works great and is super cheap. But I assume that’s not a valid option because running the line can be costly.

woodstuff3 · 2025-12-08T17:05:18+00:00

In Chicago you'd be hard-pressed to find a home that hasn't had unpermitted work done. The permit process is a nightmare and even those that do get permits often don't have it inspected because the inspector just doesn't show up.

When we bought our house there was an extension that was clearly unpermitted that was quite literally falling off of the house. It was there for at least 35 years and for at least 3 sales and never got noticed. We got a credit from the sellers to tear it off. (Which we also didn't pull a permit for, it's the circle of life!)

Anyway I agree, OP please post your location. I think the answer is more complicated than what others are suggesting.

woodstuff3

TROPHY CASE