ThePog

Thats it, it has the belly contour as well, should be comfy. It is 1.5mm thinner than a standard strat though, due to some dumbshittery on my part. Shouldn't be a problem though. I have been looking at making a neck on the router as well, however it is a step up in complication in some ways. Although that body needed 15 different operations to get to that stage not including facing off the wood. But a neck needs a truss rod and frets etc, plus probably some specialised tools. I will probably give it a go though.

Also to complete a trifecta of side projects, I thought I'd have another go at a guitar body, which I just finished up tonight. This has been done with the benefit of some accuracy improvements to the router and now knowing a shitload more about hsmworks programming. Thats a single big slab of macrocarpa, it has come up real nice. Still a wee bit of misalignment from when it gets flipped over. But it is only about 0.1mm, that will buff out easy as.

We did the spark plugs on our 1zz recently, made all the difference.

Second I made another version of the stainless steel aeropress, this one should actually work when I try it out tomorrow morning. Its actually a bit taller than a standard one so I can make more coffee and spaz out just that bit more than I usually do.

I did a couple of side projects while waiting for stuff for the caravan build, the first being a guitar kit from an outfit in the states called Stewmac, they do a shitload of musical related bits of generally high quality; Tbh it was pretty piss easy to put together, I did it in 3 nights. I had been looking for a guitar of this type for a while and when i saw the kit and the price I thought I may as well go for it. It has clear briwax on it but probably needs another coat. I have not really set it up properly yet, but i need some better strings and a free evening. Still it actually plays pretty nice, although i may reshape the neck profile a bit. It was fun.

You would know a bit about rough trade eh

The Metabo grinder in my previous set is still sweet, but I go corded for anything serious for sure. Been using the red boys a bit this week, they go hard. 80mm hole saw into 3mm steel makes for a fun time lols.

I have not installed the turbo yet, i can measure it. I think i still have a spare housing from the currently installed turbo, i can measure.

Too many Milwaukee recommendations, here and elsewhere. There was mention of that, I normally wouldn't let a rep have my my number but an extra battery never goes amiss. Plus I imagine there is more to buy.

The thing is I have been 98% desk based for a while now, no time to even quote the workshop jobs, but I go down and do shit in the shed every night so still need the kit, and will need it for when the cad dries up and i can build stuff again. There was a discussion with the financial controller about whether I actually needed a drill, I said it would be exactly like having to live your normal life but without a bed.

They feel pretty chunky tbh. Apparently the rep has my number now, it is a downhill slope.

A bit more than a grand But it was on special. I couldnt bring myself to buy the other bits I wanted, maybe next month if the business is still cranking. I definitely couldnt have hidden the 3.5k for the full beans kit.

Should do the trick.

Altho i need that shit tomorrow and Mitre10 dont seem to sell Milwalkee.

Yea i give that shit a hard time, plenty of big drills into thick steel, good wrist breaking efforts. I have been leaning towards the Milwaukee.

Yea I have those boys for my wired grinders, I have one small one with a sanding disc and a big one with a cutting disc, they go hard etc. In fact the wee hikoki ran for 3 or 4 months with a cracked gearbox housing, just got a bit noisy...

Its all pretty slogged out, its all had 10 years of full on use, so probably need to start fresh. The grinder is still ok and with 3x batteries it should keep it going, plus I am kindof needing a wee circular saw and a power wrench thingy.

My nice Metabo drill has finally shat today, leaving me with only my dugga and grinder in that set and 3 average batteries. I paid proper money for it and am happy to do so again for a top quality set, has anyone got any recommendations?

Yea so that pile of stuff is extruded PVC, 35mm thick. The theory is that it is light and stiff, plus the air trapped inside will give reasonable insulation. There are cappings and corner joints etc to go with it... here is a bit I have left outside for a few months just to see how it copes. TBH I am not 100% sure this is the right material for a couple of reasons, the first is that is kind of brittle. It is not bad and no worse than other caravan materials but I would like it to be a wee bit more robust. The second is that it was supplied with many defects and dings from poor handling that I am having to work around. Again not a killer and it may be a case of getting the supplier to check the panels before sending out.... We may just have to rework the cover in something else if it ends up with too many patches. Anyway I have been cracking on with cutting the panels to size and seeing how it goes together. The windows and doors will get cut later, this is just a dry fit without glue. Altho first I stripped it down and finished all the welding. This meant tipping the whole thing over on its side to help with access, which was pretty fraught but doable with my forklift. Forgot to take pics that day. I also added some steps, as it is a bit of a hike up. These were kindof tight to fit in and needed a judicious trim on one internal leg to get them to sit in far enough. They seem to work pretty well though. Then just adding panels and checking the fit etc That last pic is the start of the lid proper, I reckon it looks pretty nice, with some clean lines. Obviously there will be windows and such but that is later. It is going to be a mission to assemble that lid and get it on, I will have to rig some lifting points. I also thought I should sort the lift control system which is what I have been up to today. Mostly translating this; Into this; Which surprisingly actually worked.. I may just bite the bullet and get a winch contactor unit as this will be much tidier, but I needed to get the wiring right in my head. So I at least need to get the lift limit switches in place before I can continue with the lid, that will be tomorrows job I imagine.

When I built my fatbike it had some difficult bends in the top tubes. I tried the sand bizzo but as I didnt want to apply heat it was shite. I ended up buying a very long spring the same diameter as the pipe ID, this kept the shape really nicely even though it could be difficult to remove afterwards.

Maybe not that friendly yet.... This one is way smaller, lighter and lower profile for towing, but should have about the same usable floor area.

Same same, they pay materials and I pay in time and design, we'll both use it...

Yea there are so many potential layouts that pack down. We very nearly did it with a kindof accordion type structure but the sealing was probably going to be difficult with so many hinged seams. There were a couple of really great ideas that were stymied by lack of manufacturing capability in nz, and reluctance to take a punt on a rando chinese factory to make what we wanted. I have not had a heap of time to carry on with this but there should be an update after the weekend...

So you want a lightweight, low drag caravan for yourself then....?

I towed it out to see how it looked in the light of day, looks about right to me; That was to make room in the shed for this stack of secret stuff, all will be revealed in a later episode.....