What did you do today?

[Mark J]

This is certainly a project worth a journal. 

[JohnG]

Wtnhighlander, the king of alternate methods! 

[wtnhighlander]

 More of a 'make do with what ya got' situation!

I started hogging waste, using my little drill press.

This method throws a lot less dust, and is quieter than a router, but I'll finish up at the router table, most likely. As for journalling this, it is an experiment with a high likelyhood of failure, so I wouldn't want a newcomer thinking of it as a good project to reproduce. Even after 2 years of air drying, this chunk of 'cookie' was steaming out enough moisture as my bit heated up, that it condensed on the chuck and dripped back onto the wood. It was only about 40* in the shop.

[pkinneb]

More progress on the cribbage board. Now that I have the hole spacing figured out time to prep the boxes. I am making three just because they are a bit of work and making multiples doesn't add that much time but should I muck one up I will have a backup.

Got the tops and bottoms cut out and glued up I will do a final clean up at the shooting board

Then I cut the four sided grain matched box parts out

Next up was to glue the box ends together since they were end grain I actually glue them twice once letting the glue soak in a bit and then a second time as normal. How do you guys handle end grain glue ups? I have blue tape on the back side to hold them together until they are clamped and dried about 30 minutes

Tomorrow I will clean up all the parts with hand planes and then start cutting the 45s, top and bottom groves, etc

I'm also making a murphy desk for my SIL for Xmas. My daughter asked if one she found on Etsy was worth $145 I said I can probably help you out and save you $100+ so far $20 brackets, a 2x6 for $7, and about 45 minutes of time. Grain match doesn't look to bad for a HD 2x6 huh LOL

 

[wtnhighlander]

Nice explanation of tge cribbage boards / boxes, @pkinneb!

Now, can you explain cribbage? 

[treeslayer]

9 hours ago, pkinneb said:

How do you guys handle end grain glue ups? I

same process, push some glue into the end grain with my finger and let it dry for a few minutes then proceed as normal, you do awesome work, thanks for the ride

[pkinneb]

On 12/18/2022 at 9:33 PM, wtnhighlander said:

Nice explanation of tge cribbage boards / boxes, @pkinneb!

Now, can you explain cribbage? 

LOL not a clue! My family plays but I have never picked it up either. This is for my uncle for Xmas.

[legenddc]

Was busy this last week around the house. Had to replace our garbage disposal on Friday. Don’t know much about them but I do know water shouldn’t be leaking out of the bottom when the dishwasher is on!

Also installed a new outlet behind our TV. My 7 year old was home and showing interest so she did all the work. Stripped the wires, put the curve in them and tightened the screws. 
 

If you are like me and suck at drywall, this tool for cutting outlet openings is fantastic! 

[pkinneb]

On 12/19/2022 at 9:49 AM, legenddc said:

Was busy this last week around the house. Had to replace our garbage disposal on Friday. Don’t know much about them but I do know water shouldn’t be leaking out of the bottom when the dishwasher is on!

Also installed a new outlet behind our TV. My 7 year old was home and showing interest so she did all the work. Stripped the wires, put the curve in them and tightened the screws. 
 

If you are like me and suck at drywall, this tool for cutting outlet openings is fantastic! 

Wow that tool is pretty slick!!

Btw must have been the week for leaky garbage disposals I replaced my MIL's for the same exact reason LOL

[Tom King]

Had to fix the heat pump on the other end of that house today-the one I replaced the lineset on a short while back. I didn't know how the thermostat was powered, and thought maybe the batteries were old, but when I opened it up it was hardwired to get power, but there was nothing hot in it. 

Opened the airhandler, checked the fuse and it was good.  Checked the output on the 24V transformer and nothing.  Checked the input side and 240V.

Ordered transformer from Supplyhouse for $11.30.  If it doesn't get here Wednesday, I'll have to go to town to get one.  Renters coming Friday to stay through the 27th.

Explaining the problem to my BIL, I found a great video on HVAC low voltage wiring.   Skip to 11:50 to see how the thermostat power supply circuitry works.  It all seems so complicated when you look inside one, but once you understand how it works, it's not bad at all.

 

[Mark J]

On 12/19/2022 at 8:46 PM, Tom King said:

I didn't know how the thermostat was powered, and thought maybe the batteries were old,

Battery powered thermostats are certainly a weak point in an HVAC system.  I realized this recently when we came home to a surprisingly cold house.  The thermostat battery hadn't just died, it had leaked, corroding the contacts.  Fortunately, I was able to clean the contacts, but I'm glad this didn't happen while we were out of town.  I've put thermostats with smoke detectors on my annual 'need it or not' battery change list.

[Chestnut]

37 minutes ago, Mark J said:

Battery powered thermostats are certainly a week point in an HVAC system.  I realized this recently when we came home to a surprisingly cold house.  The thermostat battery hadn't just died, it had leaked, corroding the contacts.  Fortunately, I was able to clean the contacts, but I'm glad this didn't happen while we were out of town.  I've put thermostats with smoke detectors on my annual 'need it or not' battery change list.

I suppose there isn't much that you can do about a leaky battery. My one battery powere thermostat gave me weeks of notice before the batteries eventally died.

I now have a powered unit so I don't have to worry about batteries but that brings it's own issues in firmware updates and wifi security holes. Don't get me started on wifi devices and how they decimate any network security you think you may have had.

[Tom King]

Fortunately, we don't have any battery powered thermostats as the primary power source.  This is the last one I hadn't looked inside of, and thought that was the easiest possibility to check first.

[Chestnut]

23 hours ago, legenddc said:

If you are like me and suck at drywall, this tool for cutting outlet openings is fantastic! 

That is slick for old work. I watched the video and the youtuber makes it seem like 30 seconds is fast. When i was doing new work with a rotozip 30 seconds seems awfully slow. Though that tool probably makes a much smaller mess.

[wtnhighlander]

1 hour ago, Chestnut said:

 Don't get me started on wifi devices and how they decimate any network security you think you may have had.

I'm with Drew on this. Convenience and security are mutually exclusive.

[wtnhighlander]

The router table cleans up after the rough drill press work. Here, I use a pair of V blocks to guide the round as I rotate it. The moveable fence of my miter gauge serves as a stop to set the maximum distance from the bit. Start with the bit centered in the round, and move the fence back after each rotation.

This is the 'lid' for my box, and it needs another cleanup pass. The cracks provide one more challenge to the experiment. Most of them don't appear on the outside.

[Mark J]

14 minutes ago, wtnhighlander said:

The moveable fence of my miter gauge serves as a stop to set the maximum distance from the bit.

Not clear on how you're doing this.

[legenddc]

On 12/20/2022 at 10:06 AM, Chestnut said:

That is slick for old work. I watched the video and the youtuber makes it seem like 30 seconds is fast. When i was doing new work with a rotozip 30 seconds seems awfully slow. Though that tool probably makes a much smaller mess.

The mess as far as drywall goes wasn't bad. Using the tool you also get a perfect sized patch if you need it. 

[wtnhighlander]

@Mark J, my router is in the right-hand saw wing, and I use the same fence for both. The miter gauge has a fence that can move side to side, so I set the rip/router fence the maximum diameter of my circle, then slid the miter fence against it from the opposite side and locked it down. It seems safest to begin routing from the center and work outward, so this method lets me hit the max diameter correctly and repeatably.

[BonPacific]

On 12/20/2022 at 7:03 AM, Chestnut said:

I suppose there isn't much that you can do about a leaky battery. My one battery powere thermostat gave me weeks of notice before the batteries eventally died.

I now have a powered unit so I don't have to worry about batteries but that brings it's own issues in firmware updates and wifi security holes. Don't get me started on wifi devices and how they decimate any network security you think you may have had.

I had a combination smoke alarm/co2 detector, the kind that has a voice alert in addition to the siren, silently die once. You can be damn sure I never bought that type again.

 

My oven is technically wifi-capable. I will never, ever connect that thing to my network.

[legenddc]

I have a wifi thermostat because it was all that was in stock when ours died. Outside of that, a couple Belkin WeMo smart outlets/light switch for the outdoor lights. I guess when I finally hook up this new router I'll have to investigate how to keep them locked-down as best as possible.

[Chestnut]

41 minutes ago, legenddc said:

I have a wifi thermostat because it was all that was in stock when ours died. Outside of that, a couple Belkin WeMo smart outlets/light switch for the outdoor lights. I guess when I finally hook up this new router I'll have to investigate how to keep them locked-down as best as possible.

I've considered using the guest feature to seperate at least the wireless traffic. I'm not sure if that isolates from the wired networks. Ideally I'd install a bridge save fully isolate an iot network. Just haven't needed to yet. That's also imperfect as it can still be circumvented but is more difficult.

[JohnG]

On 12/20/2022 at 2:50 PM, Chestnut said:

I've considered using the guest feature to seperate at least the wireless traffic. I'm not sure if that isolates from the wired networks. Ideally I'd install a bridge save fully isolate an iot network. Just haven't needed to yet. That's also imperfect as it can still be circumvented but is more difficult.

Separate wifi network should be isolated from the wired traffic, but it might depend on the router. ISP provided modem/routers can be pretty restricted. Some also broadcast guest networks without giving you any control over them. It would be better to bring your data from the modem to a wired router/switch and then put a wireless router downstream of that. 

Some routers will also let you block traffic from specific IPs or ranges, so you could manually block any traffic from your IoT network from communicating with your LAN IPs. 

[wtnhighlander]

Unless you really want to allow 'guests' to acces the internet via your home wifi, I suggest disabling the guest wifi network, and use access control lists to limit wireless access to only devices for which you provide the MAC  (hardware) address. And always use a computer wired to your router for setup tasks.

[Coop]

On 12/20/2022 at 12:30 PM, BonPacific said:

My oven is technically wifi-capable. I will never, ever connect that thing to my network.

“Alert! Your biscuits are burnt! Head to IHOP! Reservations have been made.”