Crazy buggers over in the states with your 90k houses hahaha.... bit different over here. Houses start at 500k in Sydney for a run-down shack in the bad areas, and around the 200~250 mark in a countryish town of 20~30 thousand people for something decent.

But seriously, good on you guys! Always nice to step into a house thats now yours

On the 3-car garage, I'd simply partition one 'car' of it off to make it a 2-car. It'll feel like your own space once its partitioned, and unless you have a whole lotta vehicles you probably wont miss the space.

Cheers - boingk

boingk right on! I was gonna say? $230k? That was the minimum down the bank would take (1/3rd)... then again I am a 15 minute walk from getting my feet wet in the big pond to the West, and it's about 74 degrees F (22C) 300 out of 360 days of the year. $250 in SoCal buys you... well... nothing. It's all relative though as salaries are far different. And SoCal is by no means the worst.

Katie:
a few pages ago Steve mentioned using the hair as a filler for the epoxy
ya mean a machinist can get 20 bucks an hour down there?

I see. Hairy epoxy!

It'd be pretty hard to get $20 an hour around here. That's "standard", but nobody's paying what they ought to be paying.

Originally Posted by boingk

I remember somone pinging me once on my use of glue for my 32" balsa/covering flying wing... I responded that I used a tube and a half of CA which was stated as around 6g wet. Dry that turns into maybe half that, so 3g. I welcomed them to find a more thrifty use of glue for my application

On epoxy... do you thin yours at all? I only use 5 or 15min epoxy depending on application but have no experience with thinning at all.

Oh yeah, I also have a DJAeroTech Chrysalis HLG on its way - happy days!

Cheers - boingk

I'm a fan of Titebond II. Don't care a bit for Titebond III. In fact I decided I'll never use that stuff on balsa once I glued and sanded a test piece. Just not the same quality as Titebond II but I digress.

I've never really had any luck with thinned epoxy. I have much better results with laminating epoxy, even the BSI stuff that greens in about 12 minutes works pretty well. If you have a small part and can blot up the excess quickly with a bit of paper towel you can pull a surprising amount of epoxy out. I use epoxy for doublers and reinforcing materials but that's about it. Everything else is primarily Titebond with smaller places glued with CA. I learned that the aliphatic retains some flexibility when cured so it can withstand larger deflections without failure. Thinned aliphatic can be very fast to use. Added bonus, you can separate pieces with a covering iron if you need to. Try that with epoxy or CA, I dare you. Just keep a fire extinguisher handy when you do.

Originally Posted by schrederman

Cry me a river, Jeff... I just signed the contract for our new abode... $232,500--... OUCH! It has a 3-car garage but no real work space like the one in Amarillo had. My work area will be limited. And, though I swore I'd never buy another brand new house, it's... brand new... However, Dee Dee's happy... priceless...

As always, I'll be a prince for a few weeks, and then I'll be back to being the troll...

I am envious, though. I've always loved Arizona.

Underlined areas are priority 1!

We went down on land and up on house in the last deal. Housing prices are probably cheaper here than where you are Jack. If the market gets back up I'm selling the rental property and it's time for the big deck, outdoor kitchen, pool (I do NOT want one but......) and serious landscaping upgrade. I ain't movin' again!



Hurricane season is upon us and it looks like Isaac is going way East. Not worrying about that anymore either. Told the wife I am praying for two options if we ever get a major hit again:

1: Minimum damage, less than deductible

2: Total and complete devastation, nothing but the foundation left.

If this place got demo'ed I'm going to downgrade by about 700 square feet to maybe a max of 1600. More than enough for two people. That gives me 800 to live in and an equal amount for the wife's shoe collection. If that doesn't work I guess I can live in less area. Next generation green construction, minimalist architecture, totally setup for a hedonistic lifestyle. Picture Bora Bora on a budget. Open floor plan, tropical, casual and above all STRONG!

Oh, and a side benefit: Less square footage = no room for family to to come around and dig in like a tick.

If the shop goes away I really think I'd go with Quonset hut construction. There are quite a few shops and outbuildings around here built like that with zero damage after major storms. I have a buddy that actually lives in one and his was the only house on the beach that was liveable after Sept. 16, 2004.

Originally Posted by Lil Stinkpot

I see. Hairy epoxy!

It'd be pretty hard to get $20 an hour around here. That's "standard", but nobody's paying what they ought to be paying.

A few years back Google wanted to pay me $80k to move myself from Dallas to San Jose. A quick MLS search made it obvious that it was never going to happen. 10x the housing price and 2.5x the cost of living for less than a 10k raise? No thanks. They may be a great place to work if you're a bright 20-something straight out of college but if you have a family, forget it. California has nothing to offer me except a coastline. That said, I'll be in San Fran for a conference next week. I have several standing orders for sourdough.

Originally Posted by schrederman

Cry me a river, Jeff... I just signed the contract for our new abode... $232,500--... OUCH! It has a 3-car garage but no real work space like the one in Amarillo had. My work area will be limited. And, though I swore I'd never buy another brand new house, it's... brand new... However, Dee Dee's happy... priceless...

As always, I'll be a prince for a few weeks, and then I'll be back to being the troll...

I am envious, though. I've always loved Arizona.

Southern words of wisdom: "If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!"

Originally Posted by Lacquerhead

I'm a fan of Titebond II. Don't care a bit for Titebond III. In fact I decided I'll never use that stuff on balsa once I glued and sanded a test piece. Just not the same quality as Titebond II but I digress.

I've never really had any luck with thinned epoxy. I have much better results with laminating epoxy, even the BSI stuff that greens in about 12 minutes works pretty well. If you have a small part and can blot up the excess quickly with a bit of paper towel you can pull a surprising amount of epoxy out. I use epoxy for doublers and reinforcing materials but that's about it. Everything else is primarily Titebond with smaller places glued with CA. I learned that the aliphatic retains some flexibility when cured so it can withstand larger deflections without failure. Thinned aliphatic can be very fast to use. Added bonus, you can separate pieces with a covering iron if you need to. Try that with epoxy or CA, I dare you. Just keep a fire extinguisher handy when you do.

^^^^^This, 100%^^^^ AR for me in most situations. I HATE CA. I won't tell the stories again but I am convinced that it's superior on balsa joints to CA.

As to weight loss after cure with CA. You sure about that? I may be wrong (sure won't be the first time ) but I don't think CA really loses weight. AR on the other hand does. Last all woodie I built I used AR exclusively and she came out really really light and strong.

I used to have every variety of CA available in my shop. Nowadays I have one bottle for emergency repairs on grandkids stuff and to make temporary jigs. Otherwise it's AR, WBPU and epoxies.

I also no longer see any benefit in speed. AR, like Titebond, sets up as fast as you can reasonably build, set back, contemplate, drink a beer and cuss/discuss issues. Good enough for me. I plan my builds so that I can work on the wing, fuse and tail feathers all at once. I'm convinced I do not save one second with CA and the structures are stronger and lighter.

Of course, I no longer give a crap about deadlines so that may be a factor.

Originally Posted by boingk

Crazy buggers over in the states with your 90k houses hahaha.... bit different over here. Houses start at 500k in Sydney for a run-down shack in the bad areas, and around the 200~250 mark in a countryish town of 20~30 thousand people for something decent.

In some states, yes. Other states not so much. Houses are still crazy expensive in larger California cities. Compared to Texas which looks to be currently about 1/4 the cost even after the California real estate market crashed again. A quick look around San Jose seems to put the median of a 2,000 sq ft 4 bedroom on a 0.15-ish acre lot at about $600k. In Richardson, Texas (northern suburb of Dallas) that buys you some where around 4,800 sq ft. 5 bedroom on a 0.40 acre lot. This is an extreme spread but seems to be fairly typical between the two areas. A realtor would know better than a programmer (me) of course.

4,800 sq ft is a lot of room to build woodies!!!

Our salaries are different as well, minimum wage (assuming a 38 hour week) is something like $15.75 an hour. We're something like the second hardest working Western country though, with the first being North Korea! People obviously work hard and play hard, at least from what I've been able to see. Shrimp on the barbie? Hell yeah... and grabbus a beer whileya attit mate!

At the moment I'm on a reasonable wage as a bar manager, working nights to pay off flight tuition and buying my aeroplane. Can't do it forever but figure now is the best time to do it! Soon enough I'll either become a pilot (this close!) or use my degree to get into the justice system on a good salary.

Laquerhead - Thanks for the tip mate, I will look into it. To be honest though, I'm more a CA, 5+15min epoxy & PVA kinda guy.

Cheers - boingk

Ah, the mystical 38 hour work week. A standard week in the Western colony is 40 hours. I had to work with some remote hands in a Data Center in Amsterdam recently and at 17:00 they're gone. They refuse to answer their mobile unless it's their boss that's calling. Calling a Director or VP level exec in Amsterdam just to get a junior level DC tech to haul his butt back to the DC to finish the job he was supposed to have finished 8 hours ago is always fun. During that project I had a couple of marathon weeks where I put in over 200 hours in 20 consecutive days. I got one day off on Sunday so that reset the clock before the regular work week started.

Have a cold one on me Boingk. Enjoy your winter mate, it's been hot as can be in this hemisphere. If I make it to our DC in Sydney or Canberra I'll look you up.

Originally Posted by Lacquerhead

A few years back Google wanted to pay me $80k to move myself from Dallas to San Jose. A quick MLS search made it obvious that it was never going to happen. 10x the housing price and 2.5x the cost of living for less than a 10k raise? No thanks. They may be a great place to work if you're a bright 20-something straight out of college but if you have a family, forget it. California has nothing to offer me except a coastline. That said, I'll be in San Fran for a conference next week. I have several standing orders for sourdough.

Laquer, if you are anywhere near the South Bay before or after your conference, please come fly with us! We're having a TD contest in Hollister this weekend.

speaking of which, we'll be at a three day Masonic conference (or something like that) in a couple weeks. I had to go get some fancy clothes for it. The ladies are going out on the town when the boys are in their meetings.

Oh I know I've found the deal of the century Jack. Very few areas of this country where you can still get a 20 acre spread WITH a house for that 89K price. It has however been on the market for almost a year and a half so I may be able to work them down to an even lower price on it. The more I can get shaved off the purchase price, the more I'll have for improvements like a nice flying field and shop building

Originally Posted by Lil Stinkpot

Laquer, if you are anywhere near the South Bay before or after your conference, please come fly with us! We're having a TD contest in Hollister this weekend.

speaking of which, we'll be at a three day Masonic conference (or something like that) in a couple weeks. I had to go get some fancy clothes for it. The ladies are going out on the town when the boys are in their meetings.

Conference starts Sunday but I land Saturday at about 3:30p. PM the address (Google maps lat/lon is fine) and I'll see if I can make it out!