OT: Whatcha' DIYin'?

[Boom Boom Apathy]

This was the video that convinced me to buy it:

Their sandpaper also is getting pretty great reviews.

Thanks. I watched a lot of his videos as well, but didn't see that one. I bought that Ridgid in the video and what a POS. I've owned a number of Ridgid tools and for the most part, have been pretty happy with them from a cost/performance POV. That sander was terrible.

I was in a pinch on a project and my trusty Porter Cable died so I needed something in a hurry and bought that one. It did a terrible job, then died about a month later. It had a lifetime guarantee so I brought it it and they had if for 2 months fixing it, and when it came back, it worked but was twice as loud. In the meantime, I bought the Festool sander as I was stuck with nothing and have been very happy with it. It does a really good job at dust collection which is key, but I not as good as that 3M so I'll take a look at that.

Have heard the kapex comes in pretty rough shape quite frequently and needs a lot of work to tune up. Definitely not something I’d be happy about doing after spending that much. Supposedly the motors burn up fairly frequently, as well. I’ll likely go with another Dewalt once I size up to a larger saw.

The person that owned it said his came in fairly well tuned and he only needed to do slight adjustments. My only point was I don't have any clue what "in tune" meant for him vs. meant for me. In the end though, the Makita makes great cuts once tuned so can't imagine the Festool is any better. Apparently it's the older motors that burned up and the newer models have improved.

 

[MinJaBen]

Put in a new radio, cubby and center console in my car yesterday. Getting the radio to sit just right so I could attach the trim/bezel was a pain in the ass, but I eventually got it by cutting some trim away from the back of the dash front.

Before:

After:

 

[raynman]

Put in a new radio, cubby and center console in my car yesterday. Getting the radio to sit just right so I could attach the trim/bezel was a pain in the ass, but I eventually got it by cutting some trim away from the back of the dash front.

Before:

View attachment 581407

After:

View attachment 581408

What is that thing at the top of the console above the vents?

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

What is that thing at the top of the console above the vents?

Millennials be asking, “what’s that brown wooden round thing below the radio?”

 

[raynman]

Millennials be asking, “what’s that brown wooden round thing below the radio?”

Haha it’s funny I’m currently in my first automatic in over 15 years and I’m thinking of getting back into one. The auto is really nice in the daily traffic but it has terrible shift points and drives me crazy. Plus a manual is an anti theft device these days

 

[MinJaBen]

What is that thing at the top of the console above the vents?

MagSafe phone holder/charger:

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Now that I moved and downsized, this is my workspace. 90 degrees every day, and each night, everything has to go back against the walls so I can fit my truck in. On top of that, my wife finds a "sideboard" at a thrift store (left in the picture) that needs a drawer rebuilt for and to be refinished from a horrible paint job someone did, so I have to squeeze that in as well.

I am currently building a "built-in" desk for our spare bedroom where the desktop will fold down so an air mattress can slide in and serve as a guest bedroom. The two end cabinets of the desk will serve as night stands. For this project, I only have to buy 1 piece of 1/2" cabinet grade maple plywood and 1 piece of 3/4" cabinet grade maple plywood. All the hardwood for the face frames, the drawers, the tops of the night stands, the door for 1 cabinet, the drawer fronts for the other cabinet, and the soft close drawer slides and drawer pulls was stuff I grabbed from the stuff the builder throws away (yeah, I'm not too proud to dumpster dive). Incredible how much builders throw away these days.

* Don't pay any attention to the pocket holes on the bottom front of the cabinets. Yeah, I got going too fast and put them on the wrong side, but thankfully, they'll be covered by the trim piece so they won't be seen.

 

[NotOpie]

Man, @Boom Boom Apathy you put my amateur efforts to shame. Plus that shop is just too clean by my standards.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Man, @Boom Boom Apathy you put my amateur efforts to shame. Plus that shop is just too clean by my standards.

It has to stay clean. I have to move everything and put a car in every night, and if I create too much sawdust, it tracks into the house. The festool sander is good to keep sanding dust down (not as good as the 3M that Cardiac Jerks posted about), and the little Dust Deputy (the cyclone separator on top of a 5 gallon bucket) attached to my shop vac does a fantastic job at the bigger chips.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Drawer's all cut and ready to finish then assemble. These are made from Maple and Ash since that's what the pieces were that the builder threw away. Most of this was leftover or mistakes from their cabinet installations. The larger pieces were from the cut-outs for the oven/microwave that they must have messed up on and tossed. The smaller pieces were either pieces of spacers for the cabinets and/or drawer fronts they threw away that I planed down.

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

Drawer's all cut and ready to finish then assemble. These are made from Maple and Ash since that's what the pieces were that the builder threw away. Most of this was leftover or mistakes from their cabinet installations. The larger pieces were from the cut-outs for the oven/microwave that they must have messed up on and tossed. The smaller pieces were either pieces of spacers for the cabinets and/or drawer fronts they threw away that I planed down.

View attachment 581855

How do you like the job site sawstop? Do you ever wish you went with one of their cabinet saws? Iirc you can run a dado stack on it which is pretty nice for a portable saw. I still just have a dewalt job site saw that I put in a Rousseau stand and it does most things I need but I sure wish I could put a dado stack on it.

Good looking dovetails. How’d you cut them? I’ll have a bunch of drawers to build shortly but I think I’m just going to go with the 1/4 1/4 1/4 method on my router table since they’re just for shop cabinets.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Now that I moved and downsized, this is my workspace. 90 degrees every day, and each night, everything has to go back against the walls so I can fit my truck in. On top of that, my wife finds a "sideboard" at a thrift store (left in the picture) that needs a drawer rebuilt for and to be refinished from a horrible paint job someone did, so I have to squeeze that in as well.

I am currently building a "built-in" desk for our spare bedroom where the desktop will fold down so an air mattress can slide in and serve as a guest bedroom. The two end cabinets of the desk will serve as night stands. For this project, I only have to buy 1 piece of 1/2" cabinet grade maple plywood and 1 piece of 3/4" cabinet grade maple plywood. All the hardwood for the face frames, the drawers, the tops of the night stands, the door for 1 cabinet, the drawer fronts for the other cabinet, and the soft close drawer slides and drawer pulls was stuff I grabbed from the stuff the builder throws away (yeah, I'm not too proud to dumpster dive). Incredible how much builders throw away these days.

* Don't pay any attention to the pocket holes on the bottom front of the cabinets. Yeah, I got going too fast and put them on the wrong side, but thankfully, they'll be covered by the trim piece so they won't be seen.

View attachment 581432


View attachment 581433

I see that you have overhead storage. Mrs. Hank talks about getting that for our garage. How did you install it, and how is it working for you?

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I see that you have overhead storage. Mrs. Hank talks about getting that for our garage. How did you install it, and how is it working for you?

I got it from Costco on one of their sales. It was this one in the link below, but when it was on sale, I got two 4x8 storage racks for $239 total so it was a good deal. Right now, they are $299 for ONE so more than 2X the price I paid in 2020. So the rack is above my garage door and is 16' long x 4' wide.

https://www.costco.com/saferacks-4-ft.-x-8-ft.-overhead-garage-storage-rack-and-accessories-kit.product.100006897.html

Installation was very straightforward once you find the studs and get the measurements down. Just lag bolt the cross pieces to the ceiling, attach the vertical pieces are the correct spots and the rest snaps together. It's been a life saver for us as our house has no storage (on a slab and no attic space).

I had 2 issues.
1) The supplier drop ships it and they only sent me enough for 1 1/2 racks. Costco, for how great they are sucks when it comes to customer service on stuff ordered online. I basically had to track down the supplier myself and have them send me the pieces.

2) the vertical pieces were too long for me to put it above my garage door so I had to cut them so that the garage door didn't hit it. Still, I have enough vertical space to fit the 27G totes so it's fine.

I highly recommend them, but would wait for a sale. It holds a LOT as you can see from this picture. I have a few totes down right now as we are preparing to go to the farm and we use the totes to put stuff in when we travel up there, but usually it's full.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

How do you like the job site sawstop? Do you ever wish you went with one of their cabinet saws?

I do have one of the cabinet saws and it's great. Have had it for 5-6 years, but when I downsized, I no longer had a dedicated woodworking shop, thus I have no space here in NC so I keep it at my farm and use it when I'm there. My previous saw was a Powermatic 66 that I bought in the 90s. I also have that at the farm but it's set up only as a Dado saw as that's less risky for cutting a finger off and I don't want to change the cartridge out all the time on the sawstop. As far as table saws go, I'll never again own anything but SawStop. I've seen too many very experienced wood workers lose a finger or two (my grandfather being 1 of them). It's worth the extra cost and it's a great cabinet saw even without the safety feature.

I like the job site saw. I like the DeWalt a little better in terms of both blade and fence adjustment, but it's close. The SawStop's dust collection is better than the Dewalt which is important in a garages shop. The SawStop feels beefier also. The finger saving capability is worth it for me, especially as I get older. When I put a good Tenryu or Forrest blade in it, I get just as good of a cut as with the cabinet saw.

Iirc you can run a dado stack on it which is pretty nice for a portable saw. I still just have a dewalt job site saw that I put in a Rousseau stand and it does most things I need but I sure wish I could put a dado stack on it.

You can, but I almost never do. With the router table I built years go (in the earlier picture of the garage), 95% of the dados and rabbets are cut using the router table.

Good looking dovetails. How’d you cut them? I’ll have a bunch of drawers to build shortly but I think I’m just going to go with the 1/4 1/4 1/4 method on my router table since they’re just for shop cabinets.

I cut these with a dovetail jig. I have a Leigh jig and really like it. The learning curve and set-up time is a bit intimidating, but once you have it down, it is great. I got it used for dirt cheap from someone who was getting rid of all his stuff.

If I'm doing only 1 or 2 drawers, I will cut them by hand using a dovetail saw, a dozuki saw and chisels. I can do 1-2 drawers in a similar amount of time as setting up the jig, getting it dialed in, and doing a test board or two. When I have to do more than 2 drawers though (this was 5), the jig is the way to go.

 

[JustJonK]

Nothing much here. 1991 Miata on jackstands, where it's been for several years. I've decided that the bodywork is beyond my skills, so I've turned to working on the suspension and brakes.

Planning on transplanting the calipers and brackets from a 1995 (parts car, also on jackstands next to the 1991) so I can use the slightly-larger 1.8 rotors. Not that I need them, but they're there, so why not? I suppose I could just transplane *everything* from the '95 (larger rear-end, etc.) but we'll see.

Trying to decide now whether to just go with nice upgrade standard shocks or to spend a bit more and get decent heigh-adjustable coilovers. It's mostly going to be a fun-driver, not an autocross or track car, so I'm not convinced that the extra dollars would be well-spent.

 

[MinJaBen]

Nothing much here. 1991 Miata on jackstands, where it's been for several years. I've decided that the bodywork is beyond my skills, so I've turned to working on the suspension and brakes.

Planning on transplanting the calipers and brackets from a 1995 (parts car, also on jackstands next to the 1991) so I can use the slightly-larger 1.8 rotors. Not that I need them, but they're there, so why not? I suppose I could just transplane *everything* from the '95 (larger rear-end, etc.) but we'll see.

Trying to decide now whether to just go with nice upgrade standard shocks or to spend a bit more and get decent heigh-adjustable coilovers. It's mostly going to be a fun-driver, not an autocross or track car, so I'm not convinced that the extra dollars would be well-spent.

My next project is a top replacement. It’s sitting in the garage, but I don’t want to lose time driving it right now as the weather is too nice.

 

[Canes]

Millennials be asking, “what’s that brown wooden round thing below the radio?

Honestly what the f*** is that thing? I tried stealing a car like this once but I couldn't even get it to crank. Something about a clutch pedal needing to be engaged apparently. I just stole the neighbor's Suburban anyway but I am still flustered.

 

[raynman]

Honestly what the f*** is that thing? I tried stealing a car like this once but I couldn't even get it to crank. Something about a clutch pedal needing to be engaged apparently. I just stole the neighbor's Suburban anyway but I am still flustered.

It’s for the DIYers out there.

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

Currently building a Paulk table that will serve as my table saw outfeed/main assembly table. Got everything cut yesterday and started drilling the dog holes in the tabletop with the parf guide. It’s a really cool system and nice to be able to produce my own festool-style mft tabletops for a fraction of the price and in whatever size I want.

 

[MinJaBen]

Honestly what the f*** is that thing? I tried stealing a car like this once but I couldn't even get it to crank. Something about a clutch pedal needing to be engaged apparently. I just stole the neighbor's Suburban anyway but I am still flustered.

It’s for the DIYers out there.

 

[Sens1Canes2]

I hung a curtain rod last night.

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

My wife tried to hang a curtain rod at a friend's house a few weeks ago. While she was at it, she thought she'd spackle the holes from the old rods and touch up the paint. They didn't have the paint, but decided she'd just match it and get a new quart.

It doesn't work, kids. Touchups can be hit or miss even if you have the paint. If you don't, you'll never get a match. That whole room got two coats after work that night. Eight hours after she started, we finally hung that curtain rod.

 

[raynman]

My wife tried to hang a curtain rod at a friend's house a few weeks ago. While she was at it, she thought she'd spackle the holes from the old rods and touch up the paint. They didn't have the paint, but decided she'd just match it and get a new quart.

It doesn't work, kids. Touchups can be hit or miss even if you have the paint. If you don't, you'll never get a match. That whole room got two coats after work that night. Eight hours after she started, we finally hung that curtain rod.

So her friend is definitely happy with the outcome?

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

So her friend is definitely happy with the outcome?

She was. We weren't. We rushed and didn't have time to do trim or the ceiling, so it still looked like shit. She just didn't see all the flaws we saw. Whoever did it before us rushed as well (it was previously a rental), and we didn't have time to fix everything that was wrong.

It's her first house and she's a bit overwhelmed by it all. I don't think she sees everything she'll eventually see.

 

[raynman]

She was. We weren't. We rushed and didn't have time to do trim or the ceiling, so it still looked like shit. She just didn't see all the flaws we saw. Whoever did it before us rushed as well (it was previously a rental), and we didn't have time to fix everything that was wrong.

It's her first house and she's a bit overwhelmed by it all. I don't think she sees everything she'll eventually see.

Definitely understand getting overwhelmed by a first house. I bought a fixer upper and once I got the keys and inside the empty house I almost cried haha