site banner
naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3336 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 20, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I invested a small chunk of my Christmas bonus into improvement my overly indulgent workshop. Got a thickness planer and a bunch of dust collection stuff, because rough lumber is so much cheaper, and I'm tired of my entire workshop getting covered in sawdust when I do even the slightest of projects.

Took forever for all the bits, pieces, adapters and brackets to finally show up. None of my local hardware stores really carried extensive dust collection accessories. But it was worth the wait. Did a few test cuts on the planer and not one single wood chip went outside the collection system that I could tell. Then I ripped 3 feet of MDF on the tablesaw, which is often a dust nightmare. I only noticed a very small amount on the surface of the table. Most of it seemed to be easily gather by the upper and lower dust collection ports. So success!

My local lumber yard has a dent and ding section. I grabbed about 16 board feet of red oak for $35, which is pretty damned good all things considered. About $2.20 a board foot versus the $3.75 it usually costs, or the almost $10 it would have been premilled at a hardware store. A hobby where the raw materials would have been prohibitively expensive just become much, much more affordable. Went from having to talk to the wife before every hardware purchase, to who really cares? Which is always a good quality of life improvement. That $35 worth of red oak that I can now mill myself would have been $160 easily. The system should easily "pay for itself" in only a few such purchases.

I've drafted up plans for a small bookshelf with hidden drawers for all my old game manuals. Should have enough room for all of them, and the hidden drawers will hold all the old paper or cloth maps that games used to have. That said, I may have bitten off more than I can chew with the hidden drawers. We shall see. At least I have ample wood to keep trying until I get it right.

What do you do with the collected dust? Are there any unusual uses for it like, say, mushroom cultivation, or boring uses like compost improver, or is it just bulky waste to dispose of?

Its supposed to be good for compost. But the wife is in charge of that and is nervous about using it. Can't blame her. I doubt MDF dust or treated lumber would be good, and its gonna get mixed in with the red oak dust in the collector.

Its supposed to be good for soaking up spills which may come in handy when I'm staining or finishing. You can mix it with glue to make your own filler too if you need to correct a mistake.

....would you consider writing DOS clients for simple games using networks (e.g. chess at lichess.com) or generals.io?

I've drafted up plans for a small bookshelf with hidden drawers

I am a huge fan of this sort of thing. Post pics when it's done.

I'll try to avoid eating a ban between now and then.

Seconded.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats