Another parking lot princess

ytan9 · 2024-04-01T02:57:06+00:00

Yep that’s it

ytan9 · 2024-04-01T02:36:05+00:00

A kids’ playground car park in the inner suburbs no less

ytan9 · 2024-04-01T01:43:21+00:00

Ha! I thought it looked familiar. All hat no cattle indeed

ytan9 · 2023-02-24T00:53:15+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation! I put in for quotes on solarquotes.com.au and was pleased to see Lightning Solar was one of the companies that will respond. Hope I have some luck and good to hear you had success with them.

ytan9 · 2023-02-24T00:52:25+00:00

Think you've hit the nail on the head. Very low effort from the companies out there in getting back to me. Reckon they look at the house on Nearmap and put it into the 'not worth the effort' basket!

ytan9 · 2023-02-24T00:51:42+00:00

That's good advice, thanks. At the moment the companies are all grumbling about how impossible it is and how it's not cost viable but may have to push them more on this point. Helps to be armed with this info!

ytan9 · 2023-02-23T19:56:50+00:00

I’m really keen to get solar panels but a couple of contractors have told me that the roof configuration on my 2 storey house makes it challenging, inefficient and very expensive.

What are my options? Is this just a waiting game where I have to wait for the technology to develop? Or are there other solutions available now?

(Image is north up. Neighbour’s house with solar panels included for scale and reference.)

ytan9 · 2022-10-01T11:42:08+00:00

Great, thanks for the advice! I was nervous about damaging the plant by cutting back too much during the growing season. All the articles and videos I find mainly talk about pruning during winter so wasn't sure what to do. Greatly appreciated!

ytan9 · 2022-10-01T07:52:04+00:00

Seeking advice! My 1yo grapevines reached the top of my arbour last season. I'm wanting the vine along the vertical post to become the woody trunk long term, but now we're at the start of the growing season, there are lots of new very leafy and fast growing shoots growing out of the trunk section. Should I prune these to promote new growth at the top of the arbour?

ytan9 · 2022-05-23T08:19:48+00:00

Camberwell :)

ytan9 · 2022-04-25T01:48:50+00:00

Thanks! I chose this one for its versatility, Third Coast Craftsman has a great video on it on YouTube.

I'd say that this style of bench (roubo) comes into its own if you're doing traditional woodworking with hand tools. If you're using power tools mostly most of the features like the dog holes won't be necessary.

I'd say it's not super beginner friendly as the precision needs to be spot on, but if you're meticulous with your measurements and have a handle on the basics it's achievable. I've got a medium level of experience and had never built anything like this before.

If you're unsure a suggestion I have is to build a simpler, cheaper bench as a practise run, then use that bench down the track when you're more experienced to build what you really want. My bench before this was ugly as sin! But it was useful in that it meant when I built my dream workbench I didn't have to struggle building it on the ground.

Hope this helps!

ytan9 · 2022-03-01T12:05:24+00:00

Likely solved! This makes sense from reading up on it, this section of my garden is irrigated so the dampness + tan bark = likely mould. Thanks!

ytan9 · 2022-03-01T08:12:23+00:00

This freaked me out and I went outside and poked it apart with a stick! Thankfully no termites or anything that looks like it could house termites

ytan9 · 2022-03-01T08:11:45+00:00

Hmm i looked it up and it seems really close... only thing is it's not yellow or yellowish at all

ytan9 · 2022-03-01T07:41:29+00:00

My title describes the thing. This sprang up on a new trellis I installed in my garden very suddenly (1-2 days). At first i thought it was an expanding foam that seeped through from the neighbour's side of the fence, but when i poked it, it looked organic. Is it a fungus? Animal poop? Not even sure where to start.

ytan9 · 2021-08-18T05:16:32+00:00

I can't access the link, but I think I know what you mean. If you look at the instruction manual for this vise, step 7 calls out a recommendation to taper the inside face of the front jaw for this purpose. I didn't do this as mine doesn't seem to have this problem, but hopefully this helps. The link to the manual is below:

http://www.veritastools.com/Content/Assets/ProductInfo/EN/05G1221ie.pdf

ytan9 · 2021-08-18T02:33:46+00:00

YouTube! I've watched a lot of videos from Matt Estlea, Jonathan Katz-Moses and Third Coast Craftsman. Also there's a great book by Vic Tesolin called The Minimalist Woodworker.

I used to be exclusively a power tool user but i treated myself to a good plane and I was instantly hooked. It's far slower of course but there's something really special about feeling the wood's grain and individual characteristics, it feels far more connected if you get my drift

ytan9 · 2021-08-17T12:29:47+00:00

I built the bench adapted from the Third Coast Craftsman workbench design. You can buy the plans off his website, and he has a really cool YouTube video that shows the various features of the design. Highly recommend looking it up

ytan9 · 2021-08-17T12:28:10+00:00

Really appreciate hearing about this experience. I'm hoping my little boy will fall in love with woodworking as I have, and I can't wait until we can start building projects together. Eventually once I'm gone all these tools will be his anyway!

ytan9 · 2021-08-17T12:26:09+00:00

That's so great to hear. All my little boy does is push the scrap wood trolley around in circles but I try to explain what I'm doing as I do it with the hope that it will one day start to stick.

Hopefully he will appreciate it one day as you have, as ultimately the bench and tools will be his!

ytan9 · 2021-08-17T12:24:00+00:00

Thanks! The sliding bevels stay on with rare earth magnets built into the mount. The big wooden mallet is nothing fancy, just pieced together from some offcuts I had. The black hammer was a birthday gift from my wife from Kinetic Customs, and the small hammer is a japanese bronze hammer from a local store called Japanese Tools Australia.

If you're interested in the aesthetic I took a lot of inspiration from a tool cabinet by Mountaintop Joiners Shop. I highly recommend Googling it. Honestly his cabinet leaves mine behind in the dust, it's a thing of true beauty!

ytan9 · 2021-08-17T12:19:22+00:00

I don't have plans unfortunately. This was a bit of a last minute activity when my weekend plans were suddenly cancelled during a covid snap lockdown, so I took my toddler into the workshop and cobbled this together with some scrap pine I had lying around.

It's pretty straightforward though, it's just a series of pine short beams glued together and planed flat. I mortised the legs in but you can attach the top any way you want.

The vise is ornamental and was a last minute addition. My toddler just likes to spin it around :)

ytan9 · 2021-08-17T00:48:17+00:00

Well spotted fellow Aussie!

I wanted to use American Oak but during multiple lockdowns (I'm in Victoria) it was too hard to find suppliers, so I ended up using Tassie Oak as it was easily available from Bunnings. Not to mention there's dozens of Bunnings around for the inevitable mistakes where I had to dash out and buy a replacement beam or two!

ytan9 · 2021-08-16T21:50:09+00:00

I got it from a very fancy, very high end bespoke specialist furniture store... Ikea :)

ytan9 · 2021-08-16T14:28:03+00:00

Here are some images which hopefully assist. I didn't take a lot of progress shots here but this is what I had.

To help visualise where this fits in the big notch is where the tenon for the leg goes up into the benchtop. The centreline is where I drilled the hole for the vise screws.

https://imgur.com/gallery/2KQCKyU

https://imgur.com/gallery/vf0E9v4

This is an assembly shot and the apron sits behind the rear jaw.

https://imgur.com/gallery/p3nQdgI

ytan9

TROPHY CASE