- Jun 12, 2014
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Cooter, Help! Zambo gets Betty too hot
- Thread starter bradgator2
- Start date
- Jun 11, 2014
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Nice drywall repair Brad. I just noticed you have unusually short fingers. Have others mentioned this to you?
- Jun 12, 2014
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Nice drywall repair Brad. I just noticed you have unusually short fingers. Have others mentioned this to you?
That's a 3 inch long bolt.
- Jun 12, 2014
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So this morning I went out to check on the wood Bondo, and I think I did pretty good. I cut open that little scrap piece that I put it on and it’s solid throughout I ran a screw through it and it’s hard as a rock going all the way through. I sanded down the entry door patches that I made yesterday and it took a shape pretty well. There’s a couple low spots that I’m not sure I need to address....I gotta wait for the new door to get here and then I’ll know but this stuff works pretty good. I’d say it’s easily as strong as the wood was originally.
- Jun 12, 2014
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- Jun 12, 2014
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Got a bit more done today. Finished framing in and installing the water hookup and the outdoor shower. The entry door arrived and after test fitting it I was able to finish framing in the door. Also I fired up the generator while it was out of the camper so I could look it all over....surprisingly after all this time sitting it coughed and sputtered but came to life. Got new spark plug, oil filter, fuel pump and filter, and air filter coming. Gonna run some Sea Foam through it to get all the old gas and varnish out of the carb and hopefully it'll be good without a carb teardown.
- Jun 12, 2014
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That is all crazy Zambo. You really deserve your own thread with this one.
- Jun 12, 2014
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Big day of making stuff today! Finally got to the point where I could start enclosing the generator compartment, which is also the pedestal for the second row bench seat. Been googling lots of table saw techniques. Haven't decided whether I'm gonna build the rear cabinets and countertops myself but the more I use the saw the more confident I get that I can do it myself and not have it come out like garbage. It was fun using the micrometer to measure precise cuts and making complex pieces that tie everything together.
- Jun 12, 2014
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Project within a project time. Got sick of using my crappy mitre gauge on the table saw and decided to make a sled instead. I got a piece of MDF, which is very flat compared to a board or piece of plywood, and used it for the base. I double up a piece of poplar hardwood, glued and screwed it together, and ripped a flat edge on one side for the fence. For the runners I used a piece of 3/4 square hardwood stock, ripped just a RCH off one side so it wouldn't bind in the channel, then ripped it to just a few thousandths of an inch shallower than the channel. I put a few dimes in the channel so the runners would protrude past the table, spread some glue on them and place the bed on top and waited for it to dry. Then I flipped it over and counter sunk a few screws in each runner to finish them up. I put some glue on the flat edge of the fence and lined it up as square as I could get with the back edge and put a screw in from underneath at one end. Then I ran it through the saw about halfway and stopped. I used a big square against the saw blade, making sure that it was hitting the edge of a tooth the same way on each side of the blade, and squared up the fence to the blade. Then I ran a screw into the other end of the fence to secure it, and put four more screws along the length, making sure everything was countersunk far enough so the bottom would still be perfectly flat. Last step was to put some paste wax on the bottom and the runners so it slides real smooth. This will make cutting a lot of this stuff quite a bit easier (I hope).
- Jul 15, 2014
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@Zambo
Off topic, but relevant... you're project demonstrates everything I have tried to do in creating/running my own business and what I have hammered into all three of my kids...
My goal in life at age 30 was to have "control of my time." People make the mistake of thinking this means you have to be "rich" and it's all about money. Utterly and completely false. I know lots of people that make obscene amounts of money, but have little to no control over their time. I also know lots of business owners who have no control over their time because they are effectively their business.
When I decided I was getting out of the Army, my wife and I had serious discussions about how to get "control of our time," and we saw only two paths: 1) start my own business and build it up, or 2) become a firefighter (pilot wasn't an option really, but same exact principle). Why firefighter or pilot? Because you work your "shift," and then you are OFF. You only do overtime if you want, and you aren't doing paperwork/emails off the clock. I know lots of VERY wealthy firefighters (and pilots) because they had control of their time off and what they did with that time. Firefighter is also probably in general a more "secure" option than pilot, but look at Zambo... he's got control of his time. Mission Accomplished.
Off topic, but relevant... you're project demonstrates everything I have tried to do in creating/running my own business and what I have hammered into all three of my kids...
My goal in life at age 30 was to have "control of my time." People make the mistake of thinking this means you have to be "rich" and it's all about money. Utterly and completely false. I know lots of people that make obscene amounts of money, but have little to no control over their time. I also know lots of business owners who have no control over their time because they are effectively their business.
When I decided I was getting out of the Army, my wife and I had serious discussions about how to get "control of our time," and we saw only two paths: 1) start my own business and build it up, or 2) become a firefighter (pilot wasn't an option really, but same exact principle). Why firefighter or pilot? Because you work your "shift," and then you are OFF. You only do overtime if you want, and you aren't doing paperwork/emails off the clock. I know lots of VERY wealthy firefighters (and pilots) because they had control of their time off and what they did with that time. Firefighter is also probably in general a more "secure" option than pilot, but look at Zambo... he's got control of his time. Mission Accomplished.
- Jun 12, 2014
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You nailed it, and its funny because I laugh at some of my pilot buddies who can't seem to figure out what to do in their off time so they wind up going into management or some other office job. You'd have to shoot me first. You can't put a price on having the time to do the fun things in life.
- Jul 15, 2014
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Yup... I am still very, very good friends with a big group of the guys that were in ROTC at UF when I was there. While they are 4 years younger than me (cuz of my enlisted time), I think of them as same age as me (and now that we are older, close enough!). Anyway, one of them did his 4 years, then went back to Boca to be a firefighter (his entire family is/was firefighters). He was, and is to this day, very, very smart about what he did in his time off and he resisted taking the Lieutenant test for decades (while maxing out all other skill sets for pay along the way) and has just now gone "corporate" to get max retirement pay. Any way, one of our other UF/ROTC friends married a smokin hot chick from Boca (they're divorced now) and she had a lot of smokin hot friends (some of whom were actually cool). I remember drinking with them one day in like 1995 and one of the smokin hot ones said, "I really like Mike, a lot, but I don't want the highlight of my year to be the annual fireman's ball." ... and the other girls laughed in agreement. I remember thinking what an idiot she was. Well, fast forward to 2020... Mike's near retirement at max pay, lives in a killer house on a canal in Boca, has two boats (one that he runs fishing charters from), and after slaying ass every night until 2015, finally settled down... with an age appropriate smokin hottie.
As for that other girl? Last I heard, she was a teacher... fuk that cv nt.
- Sep 8, 2014
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DG, that's funny you mention this. I'm a retired professional firefighter (18 years on the Jacksonville FD). I graduated UF, didn't want a "real" job so I went to EMT school then the fire academy. I was in the Navy reserves at the time (enlisted), then went OCS w/ the CG. I was on active duty for a while, while the city held my job (and all my military leave time counted towards retirement). Anyhow, I'm about to turn 50 and will be collecting two pensions starting in September.... But one of my issues is "what to do w/ my time off". It's why I'll keep working until at least 55. As to your friend making LT, my life began to suck once I made LT on JFRD - which led me to pursue active duty opportunities w/ the CG.
Zambo, awesome project! Looks like a lot of fun!
- Jul 15, 2014
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Yup, basically the same story as my buddy. His active duty time carried over as well, and yes, that's why he held off on the LT route until now. For side gigs, first thing he did on his old place in Boca was convert his garage into livable square footage and rented it out. Then ran his own lawn care service for years. Then got a rental property. Then, cuz he loved to fish, bought his fishing boat and ran charters during his time off... just kept maximizing his time off...
But here on gatorchatter, i've been informed by quad force that it is impossible for the little guy to get ahead. they educated me to this fact all day every day while posting here... all while my buddy was cutting grass...
- Jun 12, 2014
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Besides the time off, I also enjoy the simplicity of just operating my machine to the best of my ability rather than sitting behind a desk crunching numbers, going to meetings, answering emails, etc. And I don't mean just pushing buttons and manipulating controls, but making operational decisions in real time and seeing the effects of those decisions play out in real time.
- Jul 15, 2014
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So, as you know, for mental therapy and enjoyment, building my little models is my hobby... this morning, fukkin FATHER'S DAY!, my wife says, in a really nice way (seriously), "I get it, but I wish your hobby was gardening." I replied, "I wish your hobby was gardening." but in my head, I heard it as, "I wish your hobby was blow jobs"... in a really nice way of course.
- Sep 8, 2014
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Wow, your buddy is staying busy. There are a ton of guys on the job (firefighters) who own businesses, rental properties, contractors, painting, lawn maintenance, pool builders, etc. I really wish I had done something earlier, but between the CG & FD I've stayed busy (career wise). I'm investing in some low income housing projects w/ one of my retired FF buddies in Jacksonville. He's building 1200sf houses, selling them for around $150K. It's not a ton of profit, but around 20% per project.
- Sep 8, 2014
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I should have said, it's not a 'big payday' (when selling low income houses). We're hoping to do more projects, right now we're doing about two a year. We'd like to get it up to 6 to 10. So I'm making about $12k/project....this is only our second year. I'm happy w/ the %, but if we can get the prices up to $180K+ and keep costs down our profits will increase significantly. The issue is finding cheap lots - which is getting harder and harder to do.
