Running Bear's July 2026 Coffee Shop

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kbkchooch said:
Working with OSB I don't envy you. The stuff is too tough to nail into, and dulls saw blades.

I hope Bob feels better!
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OSB is a piece of cake; easy to cut, screw and/or nail even though it is a tad heavier than Ply. Particle Board ( MDF ) and it's tougher denser brother Engineering Particle Board is the stuff that is a real PITA. I use either on tables/benches for power tools that need to be attached, computer desk, whatever over the top of Ply for the table top. Stout stuff.

As a note, the OSB is probably not for the bench work top. That is gonna be used for shelf bracket backing. In my case, the walls around the train cave are OSB over 2x2's that are NOT contiguous 16 centers because of being a pole building. That 7" strip on the outside will permit me to have 12" centers for the brackets without worrying about finding those studs that are not evenly spaced. IE. stud finders do not work on wood to find wood. I will be using power tools ( pnumatics ) for attaching with 1" 1/4 glue encapsulated crown staples; that length probably not needed, but have 1000's of them. Bench top will probably be 1/2 Ply over the top of 1x2's with cork underlay for roadbed.

What's with Bob? Didn't know he was down....

Oh, and the genealogy came through on Lil - she is now sucking water.

L8r
 


This just in: Took a bunch of electrical stuff (wire, conduit, boxes, etc) for an abandoned project in the basement. I thought I needed to run new outlets down in the basement. But a followup chat with the electricians that did my new breaker box asked why? what I'm running down here, even with the extendo-rails of power strips is good. The basement is split into two zones. I just have to keep the dehumidifiers (spring to summer) and the winter heaters split across the two breakers and don't load them onto the same circuit.

So, I returned the stuff to menards. Ended up with store credit of 199.29.

So I went and purchased an new cordless drill and battery, a roller arm stand for use with the table and chop saws, and filled in the rest with a bunch of Dove Chocolates. Bill came out to 199.33. The clerk looked at the $10 bill I held out and waved it off.

There is a benefit to not having pennies in the pocket. And I don't have any in car now.
 
Good Morning All. It's clear and 78°, headed for 100° again today. Barely made it yesterday. The usual heat advisory continues. Wind shift out of the north this weekend will bring cooler temperatures, just upper-90's. Rain??? Forget about that until October.

Another low-level day yesterday, with the highlight being that I replaced the clothesline. Yes, we still use a clothesline for some of our laundry! Why??? Clothes smell and feel fresher than when using the dryer. Plus, other than replacing the rope every 8-10 years, it's free! Years ago, the electric company did an audit on our appliances and said that every load of clothes in the dryer cost us about $1. While our newer dryer is more energy efficient than that old one, rates have gone up so it's still about the same. Still have to use the dryer for some things and on some winter days (not many), but we have saved a lot of $$$ over the years. Kids hated it though, once they got tall enough for it to work into their chore rotation. But kids complain about all chores anyway! Other than that, I got all of the bills done to put into the mail tomorrow. We do a couple online, but most get a traditional check and stamped envelope.
Today, I'll probably do a small bit of mowing, just to even out the erratic growth alongside the driveway.
Weber kettle grills. Used one for years and years. Wonderful pieces of equipment. I now use a combo smoker/grill but still am an absolute charcoal user.

Out in the train shed yesterday, it was another slow day. I did run a few trains and I attacked a leftover minor project from earlier in the month. Remember the Ashmore Hotel?
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Needed a little landscaping out front, so this is what I came up with.
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Other than that, I explored some more under-layout wiring. Happy to say that I can still get up off the floor unassisted!

Marco - A belated Happy Birthday to you.
Chad - I'm not sure that SPCX will ever drop down to $75.

Bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee of Rush is 73 today.

Everyone have a fine Wednesday.
 
Good morning folks. Nice and cool this morning at 75°F/63°F. The dewpoint fell like a stone overnight. It will still be warm today at 88°F, but it won't feel like 105°F.

Grass cutting the front of the back yard, and the front yard is scheduled for today. Then later, some bratwurst on the grill and throwing back a few Bitbugers. I'm going to enjoy these next three days outdoors before Hell returns.

Have a great hump day!

Servus!
 
Morning All! 69 in the Brew City, going to 83 today. The wife wants to clean out the basement. We have about 25 years of "Mount Crapmore" down there, and she wants to hire it out. Not a bad idea, but it required me to begin a rather large project. In order to prevent any "wrong stuff" from being hauled away, I have to clean up the workshop area and consolidate lots of haphazard accumulation that has happened over the last year or so while the house has been being updated. The workshop consists of almost half of the basement area, say about 1100 square feet. There is my workbench, storage racks, the paint booth which is large enough to handle G scale rolling stock (but never does), a sandblasting cabinet, with an ultrasonic cleaner next to it, an area for photography, storage of equipment, rolling stock, inventory and such left over from my days as a traveling Iwata dealer. It has started well. I'm still consolidating things prior to assigning storage space for tools and equipment as well as deciding what stays and what goes. NO photos as it looks like a moderately bad episode of "Hoarders" down there. This does not include the reloading bench or gun safe area, but safety requires those remain in relatively good order. Not near as much to do there! The trash man comes this morning, so I'll have room in the dumpsters at least. Good News: I've found several expensive things that were misplaced and gotten them where they belong. I've run across several things I bought, then set aside and later forgot about, so it's like a free trip to the LHS. It's a pretty big job, but you eat the elephant one bite at a time. I've actually got a clear spot started! Not sure how much modeling will get done as I'll have to fit it in between cleaning sessions, but this is ultimately a good thing. 😁
 


Good morning! 83 here and only gonna get to 90 today.
Happy belated Birthday Marco!
Willie the landscaping looks really nice.
Gonna go out and prime a building I built late last night. And LadyC is gonna have lunch with our G'niece Emma today. I will probably head to my [notso] LHS tomorrow.
 
Once again, something weird is happening to me only.
I clicked on an item I really didn’t want out of morbid curiosity. I did not save it in my watchlist. However, I have now gotten 9 emails from Fleabay telling me about all the competing offers on something I never wanted. There doesn’t seem to be a way to shut it off.
Am I the only one with this happening? It’s bizarre.
 
migalyto said:
Which one are you guys finding the best to use?
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I use Copilot, built by Microsoft, but I don't have it generate large amounts of text. I mostly use it for questions, but like any AI verification is a must. I think of it as a research tool.

Copilot uses an LLM as its engine; the part that understands your words and generates responses, but Copilot is more than just the model.

Copilot includes safety systems, reasoning layers, and useful tools like browsing, summarizing, and task assistance, along with guardrails, personality, and conversation, all backed by strong privacy protections.

An occasional bat-shit crazy answer and it is never wrong! Just ask, it will tell you.

The LLM is the motor, and Copilot is the whole car built around it.
 
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