What home repairs are you working on?

edulis wrote: I am making some red oak hardwood flooring from scratch. My father-in-law owns a portable sawmill and has no shortage of lumber. So far I have planed the lumber and ran about 3/4 through the joiner. Next up is forming the tongue and grooves. I am in no way a handy guy, so I am learning a lot and getting a fair amount of disappointed head shakes from my father-in-law. You know the type, 'why did my daughter pick out this nerd, when she could have found a real man.' ... or maybe you don't, might just be me.

Anyway looking forward to replacing the real nasty carpet in the living room.

I have an uncle who was a machinist at Morton Thiokol. One time he was making us throwing tomahawks with a homemade vacuum cleaner forge. After what felt like hours of watching him pound away, I went inside and watched some PBS documentary on making apple head dolls. He came in and expressed his disappointment. My other uncle and his sons would often communicate a similar level of disgust with my brother and I because we didn't know as much about hunting and fishing and fixing cars. I always thought of them as my "country" cousins, but they actually lived in the suburbs in SLC, and now I realize that they were my redneck/working class cousins. Now my brother is constantly building crap, has a giant shed, raises rabbits, made his own canoe and does whatever else he can while he raises his late life son and avoids the anxieties of a low paying service job.

I thought of my father's nephews as being more "city" but they were really just a couple of notches higher in the middle class than we were. One cousin from that side overdosed (probably) in Wendover and the other left his steel mill job because of migraines and anxiety and got a job at Costco.

Recently I tried to smelt aluminum with my son, and it didn't quite work, but it was fun.

Screw toxic masculinity. And class differences.

We’re having a large BBQ in 2 weeks, so I am scrambling to finish all the nickel and dime stuff still not done from our recent remodel blitz, like all the interior trim, cut in painting, etc. Plus I have to get outside stuff done. In the past week I painted the exterior of our house, built a set of cornhole boards using reclaimed pallets (at my wife’s request), and setting posts in concrete to rebuild an 8’ wall of pallets that the wind tore down this winter. It’s basically a privacy screen between us and the next door neighbors. I also still have to sand and stain our deck. I hate summer.

edulis wrote: My father-in-law owns a portable sawmill and has no shortage of lumber. So far I have planed the lumber and ran about 3/4 through the joiner..

A small tip (apologies if I come off as a know-it-all), you are generally supposed to run the lumber through the jointer first, so you have two perfectly square sides at a 90 degree angle, then run the opposites sides through the planer to make them parallel with the jointed edges. If a piece of wood is cupped or bowed, the planer will just flatten it as it goes through and come out still cupped or bowed. The jointer is what removes that.

I really need to find some source for cheap/free hardwood, milled or not. I have so many things I want to make.

At some point I’m definitely going to start building electric guitars. I’ve found a lot of lumber places online but it seems like they all want an arm and a leg.

Pete, do you think it's cheating to buy a body and next and fill out the rest? It seems like the making of a neck is probably the hardest part. As long as you get the joining geometry right, a body is relatively simple.

stormseeker75 wrote: Pete, do you think it's cheating to buy a body and next and fill out the rest? It seems like the making of a neck is probably the hardest part. As long as you get the joining geometry right, a body is relatively simple.

It’s only as much of a cheat as buying a drill bit instead of forging your own from iron you dig up and refined yourself.

Making the neck is probably not hard if you buy roasted woods and have a planer. I think 90% of any job is having the right tools and jigs. I plan to make several hundred guitars as a retirement gig. If I decide to do Kickstarters for game designs I’ll start a company and use my Superfly Circus logo on the headstocks, keeping all of my side hustles under one umbrella.

I figure one good game will pay for most of the jigs, and the CAD software. I used to be a draftsman so I figure I’ll just design the jigs and have them made at local machine shops. The fret jig has to be the most important, and the tuner hole the second most. Radius isn’t hard to wing, and there’s a million cheap tools.

Honestly, if I could just get Sam Sixkiller necks I may do that because those are fucking gangster.

Related:
m.facebook.com/handcraftedcountry/

I’ve gotten to know this cat a bit and he’s doing really bad ass custom semi/hollows. If you want cool, not too expensive body blanks he might be a go to, Steve.

Someday when I have a house with a proper garage, I'd love to build guitars. It would be amazing to do, I think. My old man is a CNC guy so if you ever get serious, LMK.

Kentucky, Steve.

Hahahahahahahaha, good call. But what if you move to Colorado? Stoners don't make good carpenters.

Stoners are the best carpenters.

Colorado is out. We discussed it in depth and our 17 year old will not move with us so it’s a no-go

I ran across a guy on youtube from the rural Philippines making guitars with glued together scrap wood, a saw and a carving knife of some sort. I offered to buy him a jigsaw or something and was all, "I'm good, but thanks."

Sadly I can't locate that video now. It was kind of inspiring.

My parents moved 8 times in a 16-year time span. I managed to escape off to college just in time, but my younger sister ended up going to four different high schools. My dad gave up on running his own business after finally getting a college degree, but found it difficult to work for other people. So each of those 8 moves happened due to a change in employment. It could have been 9 moves, but he finally learned his lesson and just got an apartment for a while for the job in Oklahoma. When it didn't work out, he just moved back to the family home in Texas, where my mom was patiently waiting. After the first move, they didn't bother using a realtor anymore, but there were still closing costs every time, plus moving costs. Lot of wasted time and money. In all fairness, I moved 8 times during that same time span, but I was just a renter back then, and I only moved to a different state once.

I sledgehammered the basement shower tile. Now I'm not sure what to do next--tear out this mortar bed or just put down a membrane and new tile.

cranberries wrote: I sledgehammered the basement shower tile. Now I'm not sure what to do next--tear out this mortar bed or just put down a membrane and new tile.

I have no idea, but I bet Shellie does. I'll send her your way.

I'm tearing the whole thing out. There is rotting wood and crumbling drywall.