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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3332 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.

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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.

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