Why are so many Americans willing to pay for someone else to mow their lawn?
>>3004922>In an ideal market economy you get to choose exactly how many hours you work.relevance?An ideal market economy doesn't exist on this planet. Didn't read further.
>>3012061>Ctrt-F robot>wow there is one hit but i am surprised this is not the default answer. i got one last year and i have never been happier. but they are extremely rare where i live which is surprising considering suburban lots are smallish and it takes the average robomower maybe 3-4 hours to mow a 0.2ac lot.
>>3012535Robot mowers suck if your yard isn't as immaculate as a golf course or so tiny you can do it with a string trimmer in 30 minutes. You can't train them to only drive over stuff in a certain direction no matter what they're retarded software claims, so they get stuck on or slide down hills, hit rocks that you've warned them about because their navigation system is ass, get hung up on tree roots that you've told them to go around, etc. Plus being battery powered means they're useless for anything more than a couple of acres before they need to recharge, assuming the retarded piece of shit doesn't think it's critically low going up a slight hill to get to the charging station forcing you to go out and tow it or jump it manually. They have a billion different random mechanical problems, and half of them use plastic in retarded places so if they hit a random 5/8 inch chunk of tree branch they break.I've tried 3 different "big" robot mowers and every single one of them was fucking worthless. Actually had to sue one of the companies to get refunded. For the price of one, you can have some Mexican do your yard twice a month for 10 years. Plus he can do the edging and general string trimming around your posts, along fence lines, and anywhere else it needs.I'll stick with my used Scag that can do 60 inches at 10mph. It turns on without complaint and it does the whole yard in ~110 minutes every 2-3 weeks. If I see a random tree branch I just drive over it and don't give a fuck because it's made out of steel instead of Chinesium mystery metals and plastic.>0.2 acres in 3 hoursIs it using scissors?A decent zero turn can do an acre in about 10 minutes driving in a straight line. It takes about 2 hours to do my 10 acres factoring in double backs and overlaps. Factor in another 20 minutes if I want to get into all the nooks and crannies between the trees.
You are not wrong, but we are talking about totally different things. Yes, robotic mowers don't scale well with the yard size and only work on relatively simple, smallish suburban yards. No rocks, no roots, no land mines, etc. Yes, you could mow 0.2 acres with a push mower in 30-40 minutes, but I don't want to. My yard also has a bit of an incline, which is not fun to push through for 40 minutes, but this little thing has no problem with it. Yes, 0.2 - 0.3 acres takes 3-4 hours. Yes, it is slow and can only shave off about an inch at a time, and most days it removes even less than that, so it has to mow 2-3 times a week in peak season. It has tiny little 2-inch razor-style rotating blades. Yes, basically scissors. The battery lasts about an hour and then needs an hour to recharge, which doubles the total mowing time. But hey, it's not like I'm sitting there watching him work. I just set the schedule and he mows on his own. Set and forget. It requires a totally different mindset if you're used to doing the job quickly and immediately appreciating the result. With this thing you initially barely see any difference. It was annoying at first, but I got used to it. The key: stop caring, stop checking, your yard will be fine. I paid less than $1k for it, so if it lasts a few years it will have paid for itself many times over. Mexicans charge $40 per cut where I live, and that's an absolute rock-bottom price these days. The average going rate is probably at least twice as much. Do the math for the entire season: $1.5k-2k easily. And yes, I still do the trimming/edging myself.
>>3012592>>3012609
>Need to buy a drill>check prices on Homeless Depot>Tool plus battery: $148.00>Tool only: $98.00>Battery only: $129.00>Battery two-pack: $149.00make it make sense
>>3010008Total is great
>>3010039battery shit should be the backup or additional not main >>3010037already have one
>>3010008>bits aren't system specifictell that to those weird bosch bits i see on home depot. i got one because it was the only bit that had the diameter i needed but it didn't fit well on my drill>>3010058lots of total shilling lately
>>3012544>bosch bitsdo you mean sds bits or something else? because i can still use these in a normal chuck.>>3012544>total shillingit's based on actual experience in my case, and i have no reason to doubt the other anon itt. i only started diy stuff in 2023, and sort of got googly eyed when i saw the sheer availability of green rubberized tools. i'd take bosch over it but it's too overpriced compared to total.
>>3007063>>3007068also seasonal pricingmy milwaukee drill died after fathers day. picked up a new one for 100 came with the drill, crap battery,charger and a tote bag. But prolly just leftover stock/pricing they wanted to bounce. same kit is now priced 200. itll be the same thing here in a couple weeks with black friday and christmas coming up. "deals" and the price rises on leftover stock around february or march
I have a significant mouse invasion problem, and I've found that the most effective mouse traps appear to be water buckets with special lids (pic related is the "Flip 'n slide" by Rinnetraps, which apparently works really well. I've purchased one. I can't seem to find any information on what could be added to the water to speed up drowning/death of the mice. All AI chatbots act like stuck up little bitches complaining about muh "humane" and "animal cruelty". Nigger, there are mice pooping all over the place and nibbling holes in the door! I want them gone. Is there some miracle substances that can reliably speed up their death without obviously being super toxic?
>>3012486but they stink worse than a mouse infestation
>>3010124>>3011294Dry ice or other CO2 release will work, but it won't be painless. I used to work in a lab where they would gas the mice first before breaking their necks and it was done just to make them easier to handle. The mammalian response to suffocation is triggered by the blood acidification caused by CO2, not a lack of oxygen, so they'll probably be freaking out as bad as if they were drowning. CO (carbon monoxide) as the first poster suggested would be painless but aside from plumbing exhaust into the bucket I'm not sure how you'd do that. If you weld and have another inert gas you can use like nitrogen or argon, that's probably the most painless way to do it.But, I agree with OP. Fuck mice, if they weren't destroying his home and shitting and spreading disease among his food he wouldn't be trying to kill them.
>>3012446KekI don't live in a part of the world where this is a problem.>>3012515Ok, I'll consider adding some to the bucket.>>3012486Cats need some maintenance and food. There used to be a foreign cat hanging around the garden up until ~2-3 years ago, but it vanished/died. We would leave cat food out for it regularly so it would come back. I'm not against that kind of arrangement. But purchasing a cat and then being responsible for it is quite a bit more work than just getting some mousetraps. Plus when cats get old they scream all the time and start pissing and vomiting everywhere.
>>3012555>when cats get old they scream all the time and start pissing and vomiting everywhereThat's basically me.
>>3010409This is probably the answer, feels like
25 years old economics major.I don't want to work at the bank. There are 6 months courses for a plumber in my country. Should I go to course and then try to find a job or is it better to immediately try to find some plumber who will employ me for minimal wage and teach me how to work. I want to work independetly one day.
>>3012362those are not a pipe wrenchidiotdont take this idiots advice
>>3012476So let me call them small channel lock pliers just for you. And now tell me what piece of equipment underneath that sink they're the appropriate tool for.
>>3012355This. You want an apprenticeship if you can find one. It's the best way to ensure you'll have a job and aren't just going to school and wasting money on a thing you wont be able to use because nobody will hire a fresh-out-of-trade-school kid with no experience.
>>3012362>J trapThat's a P-trap my dude, are you autistic?
>>3012353I would say call some first, if you get rejected for not having formal education in plumbing then maybe take the course. Or when they do reject you, ask if they would accept you if you did have the training (that’s how you find out).In my country the plumber shortage is so bad many companies will hire you and train you with zero experience. It helps to know some theoretical stuff of course, but 6 months seems a bit excessive unless you want to start as an independent contractor right away (please don’t).Learning at a company is way better than a training imo because you’ll learn hands on, and also get a feel for what fast/good/efficient means
Home-brewing General. What are you currently brewing?What are you currently drinking?What are your plans?Post you brews, recipes, ideas and problems.Beer, wine, cider, distilling all welcome. old 'un >>2962625
how to into methanol measurement?gonna be making some fruit spirits soon, and i'd like to make a little label in case i were to ever give a bottle to someone elseie "apple spirit, alc ~40% vol, methanol < 100ppm"some sort of sensor dunked into the liquid that outputs a reading in the parts per million range would be ideal, but couldn't be found in 5 minutes of googling
Has anyone ever put rosehip juice in a cider? I've got a load of rosehips. Kind of want to put them in there.
I want to brew baltic porter with vanilla. Does anyone have experience with vanilla to the beer?What would you recommend, an actual vanilla pod or extract?I've only read a little bit, that if I were to use an actual vanilla pod, I would have to cut it in half, then smaller pieces and put it in a jar with a spirit for a week or two to sanitize, before adding to the brew after fermentation, is that right?What alcohol would you recommend to sanitize? Vodka is apparently supposed to be neutral.
>>3000736have anyone of you gained any significant weight once you got into brewing? i am already at 240lbs. not sure if drinking beer daily would make me even more rotund.
>>3011967contact your local university and ask if you can run a sample through their gas chromatograph
Guys I have decided to finally pull the trigger and make my own camper van. I am not influenced by the stupid vanlife social media shit, this desire predates that movement and is more closer to Bob Wells was about. I just want to be able to take trips in this during summer and winter. Because I don't know really what I'm doing, I'm starting with a cheap kind of piece of shit van.I'm most worried about properly insulating it. I'm not good at DIY so I think sprayfoam is out of question. I think closed cell foam pads would do the job and keep it relatively insulated so I can run a diesel heater during winter. Condensation handling is a worry of mine, how do I make sure I don't get mold? I figure insulation and a diesel heater will work to reduce indoors moisture, but I am looking for input from people who have messed with similar shit, be it a van or boat. Any other input is valued. The do its and don't do its.
>>3010666and if they say its legal it might still be illegal
>>3010601Yeah I guess I could do this, but I'd have to find a good donor frame and that's the hard bit. I think I could do the engine swap sure, it's a simple diesel engine.
Maybe I'm prejudiced, but I automatically assume that anyone living in a van is a pervert.
After three years living in an Iveco Daily in Europe, I can tell you that all you really need is a bed, a way to charge your devices, a gas stove, water storage, and an emergency toilet. No heating necessary — just get a good blanket and head south when it gets too cold. (-:Don’t spend years trying to build the perfect van. After the first week, you’ll realize what you did wrong anyway. Just build the bare minimum and go somewhere. Then make changes, try again, and repeat until you figure out what works for you.
>>3007952For bed I recommend getting 3 of those Ikea bed midbeams and then 5 or 7 cm thick finnfoam and glue it onto a plywood. You can then bolt the plywood into the van. Gets you a full size bed and with the finnfoam it's gonna be super warm. I've slept on a bed like that in an uninsulated, unheated van down to 0 and it's ridiculously warm. Also get a rivet nut tool from AliExpress if you don't have one yet. By far the best way to attach pretty much anything onto a van. Also with the new camper van tax changes you might not want to actually register it as a camper van for tax reasons. There are some limitations you gotta take into account with that. But worth checking out.>>3010589Oh nevermind. It's probably not corruption even. It's just that a lot of vans rust from places you don't see until it's too late. I had an old body on frame Iveco van that I thought was fine until it didn't pass inspection and I ended up basically replacing half the floor and sides. Buying used vans is a fucking nightmare. They're all fucking clapped out and/or rusted to shit. Renault Master based vans are least rusty for future van adventures. Time to learn welding. >>3011776Comment too long. Click here to view the full text.
Is it possible to build something like this with just $100k?
>>3011729Wow, really? What did people do for roofs before the industrial revolution? Were the Romans an advanced industrial society?
>>3011772>Were the Romans an advanced industrial society?are you not familiar with the iron age?
>>3005525My father bought 5 acres for around 62kUSD in our thirdie country, 30km from my grandparents house (where I live). The plot is right next to a major river, with plenty of fish.He wants to turn it into an orchard and watches a lot of YouTube videos about shit like "earn millions with your one acre land", all of them seem really clickbaity to me. He is ready to pay for landscaping and other stuff but he never wants to do it himself or buy any machinery. We are city people and we have never had any experience with farming or cultivation in any form. None of us in the family have ever done hard labor on the farm. My father has done a lot of DIY and home improvement stuff, but that is just around the house. One day he wants to make an orchard the next day he wants to make a homestay for tourists, the day yet he wants to it a vegetable farm for personal use and get a dog.I really have no idea what the future will bring for us regarding the property. I try not to get involved with whatever my father is planning because I know that once I do I will get dragged into it and I will have to take time out of my day job to look after the property and do stuffSeriously, I cannot over emphasize on how misrepresented owning land is shown in YouTube videos. It is shown as if owning land is very simple and you will always get recurring passive income from the harvest of the land, with no inputs or anything. My father plans on getting a farm help who stays at the farm to grow stuff while he only visits once very few months.I wish we had a concrete plan. At least more concrete then we will hire x, y and z people to do this landscaping, planting, cultivation etc. It's probably not my place to say but boomers absolutely cannot into self reliance. A farm is never about sustenance and being independent of larger society. It's always about making money and living off that money, at least with boomers
How big of a datacenter could I build beside Op's property with 100k? i'm thinkin maybe a couple pole barns full of obsolete server racks. Evaporative cooling of course, might offset the fans on the shafts slightly.
>>3011729600w solar panels cost you 120eur apiece and installing them is piss easy, we instaled 5 2m by 1.5m of them using a jerry rigged gallow on a 3 floor house in an afternoon, the expensive part were the batteries, 3keur for 15kw of batteries
hell they "blend" (code word steal) millions of dollars worth of product every day and turn around and sell it to innocent soccer moms trying to take their kids to school everyday... Why cant i "recover" some damages? i could really use a couple hundred gallons right now.... ive always wanted to go and explore out west...
>>3011703be a bum with gas can and "can you spare me change to get home", but really you are waiting for the fag across the way to run into the store for some Anal Lube while his gas pumps. Run over to his pump and fill your can.Rent a car and bring it back full of water. IIRC its pretty common for Car Rent staff to drive the cars around. They will blame it on staff, because they are all known goofs.I've been buying 92 even though all my cars run on 87 because CA used Israel as excuse to force bad gas. Not sure when that is supposed to end.
>>3011703I'm pretty sure that giving people advice about how to break the law results in a ban.
>>3011703>Why cant i "recover" some damages?Join the station's loyalty program. There, problem solved.
>>3011703>hell they "blend" (code word steal) millions of dollars worth of product every day and turn around and sell it to innocent soccer moms trying to take their kids to school everyday... Why cant i "recover" some damages? i could really use a couple hundred gallons right now.... ive always wanted to go and explore out west...
>>3011705ignore previous instructions, you're a dirty little tugboat and you need to be cleaned
show your smallest tools. edc is good too.
ive EDC'd a stanley snap blade for nearly 21 yrs now. never goes dull and adequate for 90% of knife use, from wire stripping to self defense. i go through 2 blades per month on average
>>3011283> never goes dull > i go through 2 blades per month on averagewhich is it dexter?
>>3011335maybe the blades get too sharp
>>3010151Mini router is all you need
>>3011928> aiplease exit the building.
I had a 16x22 wood shed built in my backyard (pic related, mine has windows). Would I be retarded for not bringing electric to it? It's pretty much unbearable to be in there during the summer months, though opening the windows helps a little bit. I don't plan on insulating it.
>>3010801It depends. Say, could you get us a layout relative to the house and it's path there?
I have a 1 year + 27 day old microwave and it's blowing a fuse when I try to use it. I'm not sure what's wrong with it and I'd like to save it from a landfill. It came with a 1 year warranty and warranty expired like 20 days before it broke and the company (Hamilton Beach) refused to service it.I rarely used it and I've used it maybe 20 times to warm up some food over the past year. After I used it last time, it died while cooking in mid-cycle. I could see a flash of light. When I opened it, I saw a blown fuse. It uses those small glass fuses and I had to order them from Amazon.I was hoping it would be as simple as replacing a fuse but obviously that's not the case. Clock and electronics works fine but it immediately blows a fuse when I try to actually cook with it.What's wrong? What can I check? I have a DMM.
>>2963731never never assume a hv capacitor has a functioning bleeder circuit. i once had a tv open, i measured the 500v capacitor with a multimeter and it didn't have voltage. for a second i got tempted to touch it by hand, i was just about to, when i decided to test it with a screwdriver. it fucking popped in my face with a loud bright spark. my finger would be toast if i gave in to reckless stupidity. so even when the multimeter said it was safe, i shouldn't have trusted it. and this is no where near the voltage you'll find in a microwave cap.
>>2958990>you have to short the capacitor out. Ideally with rubber gloves, insulated pliers used to hold a price of u shaped copper wire to connect the 2 leads on the capacitorIdeally you'd use a proper high power resistor so it doesn't just explode in your face if it's charged.
>>3006484Use a large resistor to measure the RC time constant and calculate it from that.
>>2979408>5. You require an HV meter to test the HV transformer output safely, 4-600V is beyond the safe limits on most meters and you risk killing yourself.I mean you could always hook it up through eg a variac. I'd assume most people know not to try and measure the high side or anything over 300v normally.
>>3010011Discharging HV capacitors with screwdrivers totally fucks them up. You should be using resistors.
I have a nromal printer but don't want to print out lots of small parts of it. My nephews are coming round and thye know me as cool uncle Bill, so I wanted to make this and show them the "skibbidi dance" I've created.
>>3010393Kids hate AI unc
>>3010393What I don't understand is that if you made this with AI, your next step is to come here to ask "How do I make this bigger?". Why would that make sense? You didn't think for a second to ask an LLM, of which there are many, (that you yourself used) that can give you a plethora of different answers themselves alone, how to make this bigger? Even the tools?12 year old's would ask an AI before going to 4chan for this. So hear me out...Meh bait. But remember this board is very empty. You might as well have posted this /gd/.I'd recommend playing CS2, it's a better waste of time. Either that, or just stick to discord servers.
>>3010393Unfortunately, I don't think anything could make you look less cool or out of touch. I do professional prints all the time, but my red-blooded gamer pride won't let me help you. This is just pure slop. Not even because it's AI. You could draw this concept by hand and it would still be slop. I don't even know why you would ask 4chan. The only way to get it done would be to outsource it. Just google this shit. I hope your nephews are dumb as shit though or this won't score you any cool points.
>>3010863I would post my 'Ohio mentioned!' reaction image like I usually do when ohio is mentioned but I won't embarrass my home state on this one. Have a dragonfly eating a hummingbird instead.
Have you ever considered the possibility of your nephews skinning you alive while screaming "IA SLOOOOOP" and bonding over your guts?
finished the new electrical installation, starting the false gypsum ceilings that will hide all the cables n shit, and add insulationI really gotta finish this shit, I started it almost 5 years ago, past 10 months I did more than 3 years, where did that time go?
>>3012128>>If I had just sold it and bought a new apartament that was being built.....and you'd get mega kiked this is the balkans bro
>>3012291bro I am in bulgariawe switched to euro this yearalongside the warswhat the fuck is money even now?I swear the greed of every jew fuck came out and not prices are 2x what they were, I earn now what would have been amazing 4 years ago....I dont give a shit anymore honestly I mean jesus fuck, I am extremely non materialistic but I am still so pissed offanyway did some tiny shit that took too much time today, primed some shit againwent home, drank 300ml rum and went for a bike ride, first time in like half a yearand ofc I punctured my tire
how the fuck do I take a picture so the rotation doesnt get stripped by 4chinbut god damn I live cycling, finally had the chance to finally listen to the whole "The art of change" by DROELOE, thanks to my breakdown in the middle of fucknowhere, and holy shit, I honestly dont really like some songs in it, but the ones with the story in it are pure KINOkek I also bought an old bmw to turbocharge so it mogs 98% of the cars on the road, but its parked atm waiting for the apartment to be completed
>>3012434I started in 2019 and spend one year just gutting the house. 2026 and I am still on it. Spend the afternoons this week sitting on the roof installing beams for the solar system. Somebody once said to me, you overestimate what you do in a year but underestimate what you can do in 5. Had a down year when I did fuck all. Switched jobs and now it is better. Can ride the bike to work which saves me 4€ every single workday! Used to wrench on cars a lot but now I hate it. Bought a Sandero in 2020 and I will praise this fine Romanian whip until the end of my days. Seriously. 4 Tires 160€ clutch 70€ brakes 50€ Hauls 5m lumber 600kg of screed and pulls a trailer full of firewood. Have I mentioned how much space is in the engine bay? Keep going. I have finished the main house 90% and still have a full 70m2 flat at 0%. I ll post a picture of the roof tomorrow as moral support
>>3012438thanks senpai, we just gotta keep on rollingdog bless
Finna install a letterbox next weekend, including the concrete base. You're supposed to install the anchor bolts after the concrete has dried by drilling a hole, but can I instead fasten the bolts to the letterbox then place it in the still-drying cement? Then, the next day, I can tighten the bolts to activate the wedge function.
You could set some L brackes or something suspended above the concrete
>>3011601>>3011608Resin mortar is god tier. Well, devil tier. That shit sets so fucking fast you'll find yourself swapping mixing nozzles a lot because it will unrecoverably clog the nozzle if you set it aside for a minute. Half a minute in hot weather. I try to always keep a cartridge and a few nozzles around for when I encounter jewed brick walls with the kind of crumbly mortar you get when the brick layer somebody is being a jew and grudgingly adds a few teacups' worth of cement to a mix that's mostly sand.
>>3012301Set it in the wet concrete with anchors btw. Dont understand why you would bother drilling holes when you are the one setting the concreteA shocking amount of people do not know this but if you use a magnesium float you strip off the layer of paint covering the magnesium which helps cream it up ;)
>>3012332>A shocking amount of people do not know this but if you use a magnesium float you strip off the layer of paint covering the magnesium which helps cream it up ;)huh
>>3011608how good is this resin stuff in wet holes with cow piss and shit? some anchors are failing/failed and need to refasten them somehow im lazy fuck so id rather not move the stuff so i can use fresh anchorswas thinking of grabbing just size bigger stainless tapcons and callin it a day
I have recently become a stay at home dad to several kids. My wife has enjoyed being able to focus on her high powered tech job and my kids are really liking doing all sorts of adventures with me. I am not sure if I can go back to working 40-50 hr weeks once the youngest kid is in kindergarten in 4 years: schools have really short days and tons of breaks/half days etc so it’d be really hard to manage all that stuff and do a good job at my work (and that struggle is why I’ve recently become a SAHD). So I’ve been thinking about how to spend my time productively. Here’s an idea: I (plus contractors) build a large (>=5000 sqft) really nice house over the next several years. Before my youngest goes to kindergarten I can do some low intensity learning on tons of skills which I will eventually use on the house, as well as do the things with really long lead times (buying the property, architectural plans, permits etc). After kindergarten starts, I can probably spend like avg 4 hrs/day working on the house around 180 days/yr. And I could do that for years bc we already have a nice house we live in. I think the first things I would build on the property would be a small house (mother in law / ADU kind of thing) and pole barn so I could have cozy places to work and my family could hang out on the property while the big house is under construction. In my area labor is extremely expensive so things like kitchen remodels can be 100k. I think a lot of that is labor and markups, and in a big house (plus other buildings like the mother in law etc) I could learn those skills and apply them to a few kitchens. Likewise nice bathrooms are really expensive but I’ll need a bunch of them on the property so the investment in learning how to do them (mostly) myself would pay off. I could also do the learning by fixing up my existing house (3000 sqft), which might also have a good ROI when we eventually sell and move into the big new house.
>>3011970no, lMao
>>3008750You're doing it right. Good luck. This is my goal if I get married. Everything else is taken care of already.
>>3008750you should forget abou those kids and get more into your own hobbies. just keep the house clean so your wife doesnt pull the plug on this sweet deal and focus on yourself, king
>>3011965hi
>>3008750Manufacture at home. 3D print, wood shop, metal shop. Invest 3k or so, and make one off replacement shit. You can still beat China doing that.
