Ep 27: Building spaces, and a few announcements

[00:00:03] Welcome to RC Plane Lab, a podcast for anyone interested in RC airplanes. We'll share tips and tricks on how to build models and talk about successful flights, epic crashes, and everything in between. Visit us at rcplanelab.com to sign up for our email list and ask us questions. You can also text us or leave us a voicemail at 818-351-9846. Please help us out by rating and reviewing us in your favorite podcast app. Thanks for spending time with us today. Now, here are your hosts, Ron and Tom.

[00:00:35] Hello, everyone, and welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I'm Ron, and I'm freezing. It's really cold down here.

I'm Tom, by the way.

[00:00:51] Okay, I get it. Yes, fine—it's comfortable. I've got the animal fat keeping me warm. I mean, I'm no Slim Pickens over here, but whatever.

[00:00:56] I don’t know, just maybe it’s the age. Well, first off, I want to start off with a few announcements right on, kind of get some stuff out of the way. So we’ve had a lot of people send us pictures. That’s great, I like it. I love airplane pictures, I do also. So what I think I would like to do? We talked about doing a page on the website of nothing but listener pics, so I’m not going to do it with the pictures that we’ve already. Well, we, of course, will choose what. What goes on if it’s.

[00:01:31] Inappropriate. It won’t make it, no, but anyway. So we’re not going to do it with any pictures that have been or that have been sent to us already. So, starting now, any pictures that you guys send to us, if you want to put on the website, let us know a caption or something like that. Like, tell us what it is, who built it, when it was built, how it flies just a little blurb to go under each picture. Yeah, and we will add that to our website. That way you can see. You can see.

[00:02:01] Your airplane and other listeners' airplanes. I think it’s a. I think it’s a great idea. Yeah, I do too. I’m glad I thought of it. It is. It was all your idea. You mentioned it. I was like, oh, that’s a great.

[00:02:10] Idea credit: where’s due. Yeah, like I said we, we aren’t going to be doing anything that we already have, right so from going on. So if you already sent us pictures and you want those pictures on the

[00:02:21] Website. Yeah, email them to us again. Either send them to us again or can they let us know? Hey, I sent you some pictures. Yeah, you can do that. You sent these, yeah, yeah, so, if you, anyway, yeah, just.

[00:02:31] Let us know one way or another. No, I’m sorry, just let us know if you want them on, yeah, otherwise, from now on, anything moving forward it’s free game. If he sent us a picture, we are putting it online.

[00:02:42] We’ll probably put it on there for everyone to see. So if it’s something you’re really proud of,

[00:02:46] Yeah, send it to us and we’ll we’ll stick it on the website. Yeah, next thing. So not the, not this next episode, but the episode after. That is going to be our first guest episode I’m so excited about.

[00:03:00] This episode, I cannot. I can’t even tell you how excited I am it’s. It’s one that we’ve been wanting.

[00:03:06] To do for quite a while. So our first guest is going to be a friend of ours. He started flying really the same time. I started just about yep, I mean within like a month. Yep, I mean it couldn’t have been too far off. He’s a character, so I think he’s going to add a lot to the episode. So that’s one. Like I said, I’m very excited for that one. I think it’s going to be fun. Yeah, there’s going to be a lot of stories. He has a lot of stories to tell. Yeah, he’s

[00:03:38] So, like you said, we’ve been flying with him for a while and, excuse me, he is the impetus, if you will, for a lot of the anecdotal type information that we’ve- we’ve put out there, so you may have caught references of certain individuals that we talk about occasionally: what not to do or what to do in certain situations, and a lot of those, a lot of those types of information that originated with him, and I’m really super excited to get him on here.

[00:04:08] And, yeah, I’m glad we are finally able to get it, get it nailed down and all of our schedules opened up enough to where we could do it, and yeah, so we’re going to make it happen. I think it’s.

[00:04:17] Going to be really entertaining. I can’t wait. I mean, it’s definitely going to be entertaining for me. Oh, and me just having him. Yeah, because he’s such a character if nobody else enjoys it at.

[00:04:27] Least. We are going to have a blast with it and he is really a lot of fun to be around. There’s going to be- there’s going to be- a lot of laughing, yes, a lot of stories. Yep, so that’s that the next thing is: we talked before about doing the duelist project. I think that’s come to the.

[00:04:41] Front of the line. Now, yeah, now that we’ve finished up a lot of the other stuff we were working on, I can finally say that my building table is ready to start on that, so we are going to.

[00:04:53] Be starting on that and we are going to call this the dueling duelists: yes, because I’m an electric guy and Tom is obviously a nitro guy. Yeah, he is going to be building his, according to the plans, pretty much, I think. Right, yes, exactly how the plans say to build. It’ll be, it’ll be.

[00:05:10] Retracts twin nitro engines. I’m going to put pipes on them. So yeah and it’ll, and mine will be built according to the plans. I’m not going to deviate for weight or anything. So

[00:05:22] I’m going to do a little bit different. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to scale it down- may or may not, I don’t know- but I’m going to. I’m not doing retracts first off, right, because I’m trying to make this one pretty much as light as I can get it. Yes, it’s going to be electric and it’s going to be stick built, as opposed to like the full sided fuselage, right. So it’s going to be interesting to see how these come together and how we build them and all that. So we

[00:05:47] Will, I think I think, with the, the plan that you’re gonna follow, I think, I think it’ll be a very good performing. It’ll perform better than the nitro version, because it’ll be lighter, for sure, yeah, and with the right electric setup it’ll be. I think it could be a screamer. Yeah it.

[00:06:03] Should be pretty fun. So that is going to be interesting projects. Yeah, that’s going to be something we’re starting soon. Yeah, and it’s it’s nothing that obviously we’re going to be able to delve into and get done in a week. So our goal, if everything goes according to plan, is to both have a maiden before a winner. That’s the goal. Is that? Yeah, so that’s fair to say. I think so. Yeah, I.

[00:06:26] Think, I think with as long as we don’t have any more of our distractions- buying people’s lots of airplanes or helping somebody move with head airplanes- as long as we don’t run into anything like that, I think, I think, I think that’s a realistic goal. There’s always going.

[00:06:42] To be stuff comes up. So we’re we’re going to have to just make this a priority and see how it goes. Yeah, so, so excited about that project. Yeah, so that’s the, that’s that’s what we’re going to be starting on soon. Other thing I wanted to say is we are also starting this episode, doing a tool of the week segment. Beforehand we talked about doing a tools episode, but the more Tom and I kind of talked about it, there are so many tools, oh man, that we really could not cover them in an episode, not without missing something, and we want to kind of give each one it’s, it’s.

[00:07:18] What’s what I’m looking for? We want to. You want to highlight it? Yeah, you want. You want to give it.

[00:07:21] Its credit. You want to make sure that it’s talked about the way it needs to be talked about? Yeah, so we’re going to start doing that weekly now. We’re just going to pick a tool.

[00:07:29] And talk about- and this was ryan’s idea as well, so I credit where it’s due. Oh yeah, okay, which I like.

[00:07:36] I like this idea. So, yeah, well, thanks. So what? What have you added to this podcast, tommy? So far, nothing. I’m joking. So far, I’m just sort of along for the ride. No, you do, you do great, I’ll pat your back for you so I don’t have to pick your own arms. Actually, the, the next announcement was completely your idea. We, we touched on it last week, but next episode will be the wives episode. Yeah, you will not hear our voices on the next episode. It is all going to be them.

[00:08:08] Yeah, kind of scary, good or bad, good or bad. Well, yeah, it’s something I thought was would be would be interesting and maybe our listeners would like to hear their perspective of our hobby and maybe they would have similar experiences and maybe they’d be able to relate. I don’t know. I mean, I thought it was something different to add to the palette of colors that we paint with.

[00:08:32] So to speak, your wife. Your wife is definitely a lot more excited than mine. Yeah, we’ll see how she has a lot to say. I guarantee my wife is not much of a talker, so it’s going to be interesting, yeah. So, yeah, good or bad, we’ll see how it goes, and that will be next week and then, like I said before, the, the episode after that will be our guest. Okay, so, which I’m excited about, did I mention- yeah, I know this is there’s a lot of stuff coming up that really is gonna be good. Yeah, so this

[00:09:05] Episode kind of talking about wives and keeping them happy. We’re going to kind of talk about our build spaces, yeah, where we build, what our setup kind of is, and like, biggest question is: how do you keep your wife happy without having stuff everywhere? Yeah, that’s a, that’s a good question and

[00:09:27] That’s a constant struggle or not. Not really a struggle, maybe a battle, maybe not a battle, but a challenge. How about we’ll just leave it at the challenge? Yeah, because I mean this hobby.

[00:09:37] Can be messy, right messy and, over overtaking, overwhelming. I don’t know what well we want to.

[00:09:45] Use. It can take up a lot of space. This hobby can our airplanes- some of our airplanes are not small, correct- they take up. They take up space to store. So we can talk about in this episode anyway, specifically our building spaces and some of the things: what, what makes up a good building space and what can you do with your building space to, to try to keep the other half from getting too angry at you. Well like so. What do you like? Okay for your?

[00:10:18] Billing area. Do you have a specific area to where you are kind of limited to or you try and keep it to?

[00:10:24] I do okay, so I’m fortunate enough. Although I don’t live in a huge house, my wife and I raised our three kids in 1400 square feet, which is not a big house, it’s a. It’s about 900 square feet upstairs and then the balance downstairs in the basement, which is where my shop is- not the whole basement, unfortunately, but I do have a. As the kids have gotten older and moved out, I’ve I’ve been able to acquire more space, but anyway, fortunately for me, my wife is very.

[00:10:57] Understanding, and she has given me a generous amount of space in the basement for the hobby, with the understanding that I’ll try to keep it picked up and not encroach further on the

[00:11:09] Living space that’s in the basement. Yeah, so I’m kind of the same way here. I don’t know how big our house is. I really don’t. It’s huge. It’s not huge compared to our house. It’s huge. It’s bigger than yours. I, I want to say it might be 1500 square feet on just upstairs. Oh yeah, maybe, probably. Yeah, but so roughly that now most of my basement is finished. We don’t use our basement really. I mean, like the amount of times we’re down here compared to the amount of times we’re upstairs.

[00:11:43] Is 99.8 And then 0.2 Downstairs. Really the only time we use the basement. A lot is christmas time. Sure, that’s where it’s. It’s a bigger open area so we can have more people out around the christmas tree and all that. Actually, I, looking around, I still have some christmas ornaments and stuff out because it’s easier to just not take them down, just leave them. So the basement is where I keep all of my stuff, right, build stuff and airplanes too. There are some airplanes that I store.

[00:12:15] In the garage now that I’m kind of encroaching more on the in the garage space because to me it’s going to be easier for me to get to the planes, to get them charged, to get them loaded in the car.

[00:12:26] Not having to bring them downstairs. I just want to caveat that, like normally, I would not be a proponent of storing airplanes, especially airplanes in a garage, especially if it’s not.

[00:12:39] Somewhat climate controlled. But luckily for you your garage is very well insulated, yeah, and you have the air conditioner out there that if it gets too hot you can go out there and kick it on and to help protect the airplanes. Because extreme heat and cool, like in the evenings, when it cools off in the extreme heat of the afternoon here and here where we live in the humidity, it wreaks havoc on covering and batteries. If you are naughty and store your batteries in your

[00:13:06] Airplanes. My batteries are stored in my airplanes during the summer. Mine are too, but my airplanes are.

[00:13:11] Inside down in my basement where it’s very, very cool. So I’m comfortable leaving them in the airplanes over the summertime when I’m flying them, and then I’ll take them out in the winter. Very cool, but not as cool as my, not as frigid as this basement. No, like if people could see me like I’m sitting here wrapped in a blanket. Second week in a row. Second week in a row. Yeah, I did the same thing last week because I, like, was freezing over here. I’m surprised you can’t hear my teeth chattering, I’m so cold, but anyway. Anyway, I didn’t interrupt, I just wanted to say, normally, I’m not a fan of storing them in the

[00:13:45] Garage, but your situation is different. Yeah, so our garage is attached. It doesn’t freeze, it doesn’t get hot, hot right it’s. It’s usually a good 10 to 15 degrees cooler when it’s hot out than ambient and it could be zero outside and we can store water out there. We can do all that and we don’t have to worry about anything freezing right. That’s why I kind of thought it would be worth trying to store some out there we I just did that a couple weeks ago and it is super.

[00:14:14] Convenient, like when you, when you’re ready to pull an airplane out and take it to the field. I mean

[00:14:17] It’s just right out the garage door and off you go. Yeah, and they’re stored a little bit higher too, yeah, so that way, getting out of the cars, car doors, all that kind of stuff, I’m not worried about.

[00:14:27] Them hitting it. You should take a picture of the racks and put those on the website. So maybe, if I

[00:14:31] Could convince my wife to let me okay. So here’s the thing. Yeah, okay. So, sorry, crystal, you get. Your. You’re saying next week, honey, no, but anyway. So I, I want to hang my rack directly on the wall and, by the way, if you guys hear somebody drinking, it’s going to be Tom, because he has ice and I don’t, so you’ll hear the, the jingle of the ice cubes, but anyway. So I really want to hang the rack system that I have on the wall, but she won’t. Let me put holes in the wall yet.

[00:15:03] Maybe she’ll talk about it next week, but it’s she’s- hopefully she does, because I know the backstory anyway. Okay, I’m all flustered now you got me, so I had to build racks out of two by fours, and I really don’t like doing it that way only because I’m concerned that they’ll get knocked down, that something will happen and I’ll have an airplane fall from eight feet in the air.

[00:15:32] I understand your concern, but the racks- I looked at the racks you built in there. Oh there’s. I think they’re quite solid and I don’t. I think your fears are. I’m more concerned.

[00:15:42] With somebody like walking by them and kicking a base or something like that. I don’t think it’s just going to fall over, because, yeah, I mean it’s, it’s two by fours, they’re. It’s built pretty well. So that’s where I am storing those. Like I said that, the beginning part of storing those. Now coming back into the basement, so on the other side of the unfinished part of the basement, I also have a few airplanes stored- not one, I guess that’s not true- some that are not in flying condition yet and some that are, and then in the finished part of the basement is where I have sprawled.

[00:16:22] Out. Let’s just say, let’s put it. I mean so like I’m looking around and, aside from the christmas decorations, it’s airplanes, airplanes and couches, and well, yeah, because you do have a really cool entertainment setup down here too with the, with the projector and stuff, but yeah, but the. So I have.

[00:16:42] Pretty much for the last several months, have taken over the kitchenette. Oh, the downstairs kitchen, yeah, the downstairs kitchen, the kitchenette that we have down here and I have not. I don’t want to say I haven’t cleaned up my mess, because I, I do, and then I make another, and then you make another.

[00:16:58] And I clean it up and I make another one, so it’s not just you I’m. I feel like I am a contributing.

[00:17:03] Factor to the messes down here sometimes. Definitely you are. Yeah, and that makes it easier on me because I can just say, well, that’s tommy’s, you’re welcome, and then she’s not as upset about it. Oh well, it’s tommy’s stuff, that’s fine. If it’s yours, you got to clean it up. But

[00:17:17] Although I don’t think there’s any of my stuff here now, shush my covering. There’s got to be.

[00:17:24] Something. Yeah, that’s, and that is. That’s in the way I mean that’s. That’s the biggest part of the mess here. It’s none. None of my stuff, yeah, but no. So like the, the big yak is being stored down.

[00:17:35] Here behind the couch. It’s. It’s. Why is the yak inside? I, I, I can’t remember that why? Because it’s.

[00:17:41] Going to get covered? Oh yeah, why does it need covered? Oh, because I never liked the coloring to begin with. The colors, just it didn’t do anything for me, but there’s something wrong with the covering on it now though. Oh, it’s old, it’s been in there because it might have gotten wet when it was out in the trailer that had a leak. Is that what you’re going for? Yeah, it took way longer than I thought. No, I, I could have played it off a little longer and just played dumb, but no, so I. I do have the yak down here. Like I said, it’s sitting on the floor. I have a couple other airplanes out and I will. I have to give my wife kudos for being forgiving, and not she.

[00:18:20] Doesn’t care that. I have the stuff out down here, so upstairs is clean. There’s only occasionally an airplane here and there upstairs, but if I recall there’s one mounted to the wall up there. A part of the tail- yeah, there’s. There is still the tail of the one I crashed in the in the trees out here.

[00:18:38] That’s a. That’s more of a decoration really. It absolutely is. It’s like art. Yes, it’s a like the.

[00:18:44] The, what’s it called the nouveau art project or whatever it is. Yeah, I might have just made that up too, I don’t know, but yeah, it’s, it’s. It’s definitely an art piece. Yeah, you’d see it like in a fine art gallery or something. Oh, definitely could probably sell it for like thousands of dollars, probably. It’s just it’s. But it’s a one-off and you don’t want to get part ways with it. I don’t.

[00:19:04] No, so it’s not for sale. So, like you, my basement is partially finished and the half that’s unfinished is mostly where I. It also happens to be our laundry room and our utility room, where the furnace is mounted, and washer, dryer and all that. But in the furnace is mounted, or it’s situated, mounted, well, I don’t know, installed, whatever it sits. When I hear mounting, I’m thinking like you mount a picture on a wall or oh well, yeah, I guess it’s kind of mounted to the floor.

[00:19:35] Right, okay, sort of perfect. I don’t know, I’m not a furnace expert, but anyway, that’s where the furnace is. But you’re getting new furnace, by the way. Oh, yeah, I am, congratulations, thank you very much. Yeah, I’m excited about that, should be, it’s. Yeah, just a side note, that the furnace that is in my, my house, was built in laurie will correct me, I’m sure, because next week when she’s on, yeah, 1970 or 71, something like that, is when our house was built. I think so because you’re in the same, the furnace that is in our house is original to the house. See, that’s impressive. That’s incredible because

[00:20:07] Ask me: my parents house was built at the same time yours was actually. Yours was built, I think, a year before theirs. Okay, and they moved in 1970, if I remember right. Maybe no, no, I’m sorry, it might have been 71, but anyway either way. So they are on their third set of air conditioning slash furnace.

[00:20:26] Whatever, we have the ac replaced sometime back. But yeah, the furnace that is in our basement is. It’s incredible, like the original installation sticker is on the inside of the door that you have to take off to replace the filter. Yeah, but yeah, 1970 or wow, whatever year it was. And so, yeah, what are you getting anything exciting or just normal? We’re gonna get a high efficiency cold star, something like that. You should go geothermal. Well, where we’re at, I’m not sure that.

[00:20:56] We have the space for it. Why? Because you have to have the whole field and all. No, no, no, no, no, we’re geothermal here. They dug down space, oh, but they dug down, though they didn’t do a horizontal, it’s a vertical. I get that, but you have to have like a field of that, right? No, we only have four, four wells. They dug 150 feet deep. Oh, so for each ton that you have for your heating and air is 150- I think it’s measured in SEER now I don’t have no idea tons anymore. We had ours put in 10 years ago, yeah, which is hard to believe. That’s hard to believe, but way off topic, sorry. Yeah, my, my bad.

[00:21:31] So, anyway, half of my basement is finished. The other half is not finished, and that’s where a majority of my workshop is, although now laurie has allowed me to kind of move out into the. Do you migrate part of the finished area? So same thing. We don’t use the basement a lot. That happens to be where our metal kid still lives in the basement. When are you gonna get rid of him?

[00:21:53] I think we’ve got at least two more years with him. I think he’s got two more years of school. I think.

[00:21:57] Okay, but yeah, once he’s gone, then we’ll- I’m not sure what the plan is. Empty nesters, yeah. Yeah, that’ll be awesome, but at any rate so that my basement is sort of set up like yours, just much smaller. So I’m, but instead of working mostly in the finished area, I’m working mostly in the unfinished area, which is fine, it works for me, but so that’s what my setup looks like. If I could,

[00:22:25] Convince my wife to get rid of the workout equipment that we never, ever use, like the, the.

[00:22:29] Treadmill and you use that. I’ve seen piper get on that thing and like: play on it. Well, I’ve, I’ve used it to set my airplanes on too. Yeah, there’s, I think there’s. Well, there was a wing setting on it last.

[00:22:39] Week. Yeah, that was the cavalier wing and I moved it. Yeah, so you could exercise. No, no, no, no, I just wanted to move the cavalier and hang it. Aha, okay, trying to clean up a little bit, oh yeah.

[00:22:52] So, whereas your building space sort of- I mean you mentioned the, the workout equipment there- your, your workspace is sort of kind of- for lack of a better explanation- sort of sprawling, it’s kind of, oh, absolutely yes, in my situation, because I, I have somewhat limited, somewhat more limited space than you do, my, I have to keep mine contained and sometimes that’s a challenge because I, I certainly don’t want to overset my, my bounds, because my wife has been generous enough to

[00:23:22] Give me what I have, space. Would you quit kick or kissing up to her? I mean, come on, if I want to.

[00:23:28] Continue on in the hobby. I have to keep her happy right, or get rid of her. Well, it’s cheaper to keep her, isn’t that what they say? I don’t know. Apparently you’ve looked into it, so what I’ll? I’ll kind of go over. I’m gonna ignore that comment. I’m gonna go over what my building space kind of looks like. So obviously a building space has to have a building table. Yeah, and for a building table, mine is about as simple as they come. I have a six foot banquet table, one of those folding plastic ones, and on top of that I have a hollow core luon door that I just recently bought, thanks to you.

[00:24:05] What do you mean? Thanks to me. So, yeah, so anyone, everybody, Ron promised me. He said, hey, I know you’re getting ready to go get a door, saves yourself some money. I’ve got doors out here that we pull down. When we put new doors in I’m like, oh awesome, that’ll save me 30, 40 bucks, whatever a door is. So I drive all the way out to Ron’s house 25 minutes. Pick up the door. Actually, no, somebody brought the door to me, right, didn’t laurie? No, I thought, oh, she might have, but still you had to come out and get. And then I, yeah, one of us. And then I had to unload it. And as I was unloading it at

[00:24:38] The house. I noticed, gosh, this. This door is not going to build straight wings. The door was warped, it was. It was a very visible bow to the door. You must have done something to it when you.

[00:24:51] Were taking it home. I’m sure that because it was not bowed when I was hanging up right, it couldn’t.

[00:24:56] Have been anything that I did. So I ended up buying a door anyway and then had to bring the door all the way back out to Ron so that he could dispose of it, because he lives out here in the sticks. So I

[00:25:05] Wouldn’t call it the sticks, I just call it the country. Wasn’t that sort of the same thing? Well, I don’t know, sticks, I think, has a negative connotation to it. Oh, I don’t think so. Oh, okay, I would love to live in the sticks. Well, I do love living in the sticks, I guess, if you will, but I just I can’t burn things like you can out here. Yeah, I just. I just burnt that, by the way last night. Oh really, yeah, worked out wonderful. I hope it did. I hope it did because there was a lot of work in.

[00:25:30] Getting that thing away from here and then back so that you could burn it. It’s amazing how quickly.

[00:25:35] It went up. Yeah, I’m sure I mean there’s like nothing to them. Yeah, it was warped nicely to where the fire just like stayed right underneath and it just burned. Great, yeah, still.

[00:25:45] Don’t think it was my fault, but anyway, you could have looked at the door before we came out. I’m just saying, hey, you don’t want this door. It’s warped, unless you plan on building you.

[00:25:56] Bow-shaped wings. Hey, I sent you pictures of it before you came. Pictures I did, you didn’t take.

[00:26:02] A picture of it edgewise so I could see if it was. You didn’t ask for one straight. Well, I guess I sort.

[00:26:08] Of assumed that you just set a door. That’s true. Maybe I thought you were putting dihedral in your wings and I just wanted to give you something that was already. You were trying to help.

[00:26:17] Pre-dihedralized. You were trying to help, I appreciate that, so anyway, back on topic here. I didn’t know we had a topic. Well, we do. We’re talking about our workspaces, so that’s what mine looks like. I’ve got a table with a luon holocore door sitting at a brand new one. By the way, mine happens to be 28 inches wide, because that’s how much room I have to work with, and then on top of that I have a inch and a half thick piece of the pink insulation foam that you can buy it like.

[00:26:47] Low as ours. It’s relatively expensive those foam sheets, but the it’s pretty important its purpose. I like to use pins when I build. I build right over top of plans, so I’ll pin my parts right to the plan with a sheet of either plastic or wax paper in between. So I’m not gluing my airplane to the plans, yeah, but those that foam really, really retains the push pins, yeah, and also allows you to pull them out. It’s almost impossible to stick those things in luon holocore doors. I wouldn’t even want.

[00:27:18] To try. I’ve, I used to build that way and it’s really, oh yeah, it’s not fun. Oh, that would be a.

[00:27:22] Pain. It was a pain, yeah, my thumbs. So that’s what my building table looks like. I try not to you look like you have a question. Well, go on. I try not to use my building table as a storage table also, like so when I’m not building, there’s stuff stored on it, but I fail miserably at that. What I was,

[00:27:42] Going to ask, since you went on a different tangent: what push pins do you use? Do you use the t pins?

[00:27:48] Or the, the like the red push pins. I actually use both and the reason for that is because I have a, a metric ton of t pins because I’ve you always buy. Oh, I’m at the hobby shop, I better get some t pins, because I’ve got glue on the old ones or they’re getting rusty or whatever, and I always end up just keeping them, oh and using them for different purposes. So I have a lot of t pins but I really, really am quite fond of the red handled I think. Midwest, I think, sells them push pins.

[00:28:20] Because they’re well. They have a nice red handle on them and they don’t hurt my thumps when I push.

[00:28:24] Them into balsa. Yeah, they’re so much easier to work with. Yeah, my only, my only problem with those is:

[00:28:29] They’re not quite long enough. It depends. Some of them are longer than others. I don’t know if you’ve

[00:28:35] Noticed that or not. I’ve got some that are very long and I’ve got some that are probably a quarter inch shorter. Out of the same package, out of the exact same package, really. Yeah, I’ve only bought one.

[00:28:45] Package of them. I have two. I think I bought two packages I. I had not noticed that. Yeah, that’s.

[00:28:52] Interesting. I have noticed that, so I use those first, and then obviously the t pins when I don’t have anything else, because I too have a ton of those. Yeah, the red handled pins are the go-to.

[00:29:05] Yeah, I’ll use those usually first as well. So, but anyway, that’s what my building table looks like and it and it also unfortunately happens to be a storage table, although not right now, because I’m ready for the dualist project, you are absolutely ready. So, but anyway, that sort of I. So I have that kind of up against the wall with a chair and then I use underneath it for storage for tools that I use a lot, or I use a cordless drill a lot for drilling holes and things like that. So

[00:29:37] I’ll use that storage underneath the table for things that I use frequently, and then I have a row of shelves to the left of my table where I also put more frequently used stuff and storage for parts and things like that. That’s also where I keep all my extra propellers and anyway. So that’s the table. And something else that’s really important is as good light, especially as you get older. Yeah, and you’re there and I’m there, right, I admit it. So I have a big used to have a fluorescent light.

[00:30:11] Above the table, but I’ve discovered these led lights that you can get at, like sam’s. I think costco probably has a similar, similar setup and there’s basically two tubes in them instead of four, like the big fluorescent lights, and they’re really, really, really bright- yeah, almost so bright that like, if you look up at it when it’s on, it’s like, wow, that’s really bright. Is that what it’s like? Almost like that it’s so bright, wow. I mean, I was trying to think of an analogy and I

[00:30:40] Couldn’t. It was like: oh yeah, it’s really bright. That description was poetic. I mean, wow, that was wow.

[00:30:47] So. But you have to be careful about hanging a light above your work table, because you’re usually working above your work table, so you don’t want that to cast shadows. So I have another light that I have. It’s just like a. It’s called an ot light, but it’s just a little flip open fluorescent thing that I can turn on to help get rid of shadows. Yeah, I, I have one of those.

[00:31:07] The like clip-on light. I don’t know what you call them, but it’s the round fluorescent light that has the, the magnifying glass, in the middle of that thing. Yeah, I know you use it a lot- I do- but I like to be able to position, yeah, the light where I need it. Yeah, you use it more to see things than I do.

[00:31:24] It’s true, but I use it more for light. Yeah, I’m gonna buy one of those, I think, eventually, and put it on my, on my building table, because that thing is super, super handy. I’ve had that for years, I don’t.

[00:31:34] Even know where it came from. To be honest, it’s been that long. Well, it’s awesome. It is definitely something to try and look for on amazon or something, probably. So another thing I keep, I keep in my

[00:31:43] Building area to try to keep the peace at home is I have a vacuum that I that I try to keep handy, that I use. I would say that I would try to use it only in my area and not use it for the rest of the household stuff. But I’d be lying because we actually have a really nice vacuum that I like using. That also gets used around the house. Sorry, Lori, but it does a good job at getting the balsa dust and stuff like that. So if she didn’t know before, she knows now. Well, she knows, she knows. I.

[00:32:16] Use our dyson in my hobby area because it sucks. Get it because it’s a vacuum. Oh my, it really sucks. Anyway, it does a good job, but I wouldn’t really recommend doing it that way. If you can dedicate a vacuum to your own workshop, even better. That way you’re not contaminating the rest of the house.

[00:32:34] With your hobby, buy another dyson. Well, dysons are not cheap, mr money bag. That was yeah, yeah, that’s.

[00:32:43] Me. Well, 1400 square feet over here, how, yeah, my house could fit inside your house times two. Maybe I don’t know, it doesn’t matter. So anyway, size doesn’t matter, size does not matter, size matters. So, in addition to the vacuum, various other. I have a, obviously a dust broom and a dust pan and to try to stay, to stay ahead of it, especially when I’m building, because balsa has a tendency to like waft, like as I, as I’m sanding, I’ll stop. And because of all that bright light I have in my, in my workspace when I stop sanding and I just kind of look up, it’s like you can just see.

[00:33:18] The balsa in the air, which is awesome. I love that really. I don’t like that balsa dust everywhere. I love it.

[00:33:25] I don’t like that at all. I’m being facetious. Oh good, because your face didn’t show like you were.

[00:33:29] Being facetious. No, I put on a good show, yeah, but yeah, balsa has a tendency to really waft and it gets everywhere. So if you can stay ahead of it with the cleaning, so much the better. Try not to contaminate the rest of the house. Keep the peace. Yeah, see a lot of times when

[00:33:47] I do a lot of sanding, like, if I know I’m going to be sanding a lot, I’ll go out to the garage.

[00:33:51] Handy because your garage is comfy. Yeah, my garage is detached and in the summertime it’s whatever the temperature is outside, plus about 40 degrees, and if it’s wintertime it’s whatever the temperature is outside, minus a few degrees. So I sand in the basement. Oh well, I probably would too then, yeah, but although if I’m building like in the spring or fall and it’s nice outside, I will- actually I’ve done it before I go outside- sand or paint. Well, I do all my painting outside regardless. But anyway, a good vacuum that is solely for your building area would be recommended. But

[00:34:26] At least have a vacuum handy and maybe a broom and a dustpan. I also keep a. You’re gonna chastise me, but I keep a radio handy in my workspace so I’ve got some tunes going while I’m. I’m sorry.

[00:34:41] What is that? -Huh, I know what you. I know is that am and FM like is it, does it do both and cassette.

[00:34:49] It has a cassette player as well. Is it in stereo? Well yeah, stereophonic high fidelity, whoa.

[00:34:55] Probably back from before I was born, maybe actually I don’t know when cassettes came out, maybe.

[00:35:01] Not cassettes came out in roughly, I want to say a two-ish. Yeah, see, I was one, so it may have been before that, I don’t know. It’s been a while, but yeah, so I keep a, I keep a radio.

[00:35:17] But ideally, yeah, I keep a computer and listen to podcasts and yeah, all that fun stuff.

[00:35:26] Which I- which I do also. I mean, I have my phone, I have this cool little bluetooth speaker that I’ll tune into a youtube channel or maybe a podcast and listen while I’m tinkering. Yeah, I, I will say.

[00:35:39] I’m not like vain and listen to us all the time, so that would be kind of weird. But we’ve had

[00:35:45] This conversation and who is it that tells me, yeah, you should listen to our podcast. Well, you should.

[00:35:50] Listen just to find out what you can do to improve.

[00:35:57] Oh, that was a very nice way of calling me out without calling me out. That was, that was.

[00:36:02] Perfectly played. I’m glad you can read between the lines for research purposes. It’s fine to listen to yourself, but it’s not like I’m like: oh, that’s a such a great episode, blah, blah, blah. No, but like when I see, I’m different. When I like to build or when I’m working on things, I like having the tv on, so I have a tv downstairs. When I’m working on stuff, I’ll have that on. I have a tv in the garage. That’s when I’m out in the garage if I’m working on stuff, I will watch tv out there. When I’m in the shop, I also have a tv out in the shop and that’s.

[00:36:37] Something you really haven’t talked about a lot is your shop, like. I don’t think our listeners understand what you’re talking about when you say the shop. Okay, I guess that’s true. So we

[00:36:47] Not to get too deep into it, but we built- it’s a 40 by 72 pull barn that we had put up maybe 12 years ago, something like that floor with concrete floor. Half of that- well, not quite half, I want to say it’s 40 by 30 ish 32- something in that area- is finished, so it’s. It’s got a heater in, it’s got an air conditioner in it. It’s not completely done yet because there’s always more you can do, but that’s like my shop area, to where I go out. That’s where I make the biggest amount of sawdust, if

[00:37:19] I have anything that’s going to be, because out there you also have what we’re going to be using- hopefully soon- to cut dualist parts. Yeah, the cnc machine is out there. Yeah, unfortunately that’s.

[00:37:29] It’s probably what three or four hundred feet from my house, so I don’t like walking that far. So I understand about the detached garage thing, like it’s the same way if I, if I don’t know, I’m going to be going out there to do anything. It’s hot or it’s cold, right, so it’s kind of the same as what you were talking about with your garage, but it does have the dust collector and all that. So when I’m making a lot of mess, that’s the place I like to go. Yeah, so that’s yeah. I guess I kind of have three areas where I kind of spend most of my time, either the base- well, I mean, to be fair, I mean

[00:38:02] You don’t just work on rc airplanes out there. I mean, you have a full-on shop out there where you could pull a car in to work on it. Or I mean, you’ve got it’s not just. No, it’s not, it’s, it’s, it’s.

[00:38:13] It’s pretty well stocked with tools. Yeah, I’m so. I’m happy with it, but at any rate, yeah. So that’s the. When we say shop, or I say shop, that’s what we’re talking about, right, and when I say shop, I’m talking.

[00:38:23] About my little corner of the basement. Hey, that’s. To each his own money bags. I’m not gonna go there by.

[00:38:31] Any means. So you have more airplanes, yeah, so that means you’re really winning, does it? That means you are winning in life, but I, I’m not. I’m not so sure about that. I mean, having a lot of airplanes is all.

[00:38:43] Fine, but when you’re running out of spaces to build new ones, I think that’s. I think that’s when you’ve sort of reached the, the natural equilibrium. Oh, I’m kind of out of space too, and your equilibrium is.

[00:38:54] Way higher than mine. No, I just expand more and don’t? She doesn’t yell at me as much.

[00:39:02] Okay, I mean right, I mean that’s yeah, fair enough. Like your, your basement set up, like your shop set up in your basement, is bigger than mine. Oh no, it’s not even close. No, I’m talking about my actual

[00:39:16] Hobby, my dedicated hobby part to the basement. No, don’t look around here. In the actual finished part- I’m talking about the unfinished part of the basement- I have a single two foot by eight foot table that’s built into the wall. Well, and then I have some storage, yes, and vinyl cutter right, big plotter, that kind of stuff back there. So your actual hobby space, your dedicated, is somewhat smaller than my dedicated space. Yes, I’ll give that. I just have a lot of tangential areas.

[00:39:45] All hold, that’s a nice word, I like that word. Yes, that hold all of my overflow. It just so happens that you, you are allowed, if you will, to expand beyond your agreed upon dedicated hobby space. I don’t know if we agreed upon that, if I just in that area honest, far out measures the space that I try to stay within at any rate. So, yes, I keep a radio getting back on topic here. Keep a radio, so I can.

[00:40:19] Listen to tunes or podcasts or what have you, or a bluetooth speaker so I can listen with my phone and I also have storage like so I kind of touched on the, the shelves next to the building table where I keep parts and stuff, but I also have shelving installed kind of behind me and around me for unassembled kits that I have or many engines. I haven’t seen your engine setup since you’ve got like: well, right now, they are right now. That’s allowed, by the way. Yeah, I’m gonna take that off.

[00:40:54] Right now they are. They happen to be dispersed in two places. One place is a shelf that is actually above my work table. I have some of the more valuable ones, for lack of a better categorizing algorithm, prettier ones, maybe. There you go on the shelf up there in little plastic bags with their after run oil in them, and then I have a- and I’m ashamed to admit it is pretty much just a cardboard box.

[00:41:25] With full of motors, full of engines, but the plan eventually is to- yeah, they’re engines.

[00:41:31] Sorry, motors engine. Well, no, they’re engines. No, fine, fine, I’ll, I’ll give it to you, thank you.

[00:41:38] But each engine is in its own little plastic bag and they’re packed carefully in the box. But yeah, they’re. It’s a cardboard, a large cardboard box full of engines. And how many are you up to now?

[00:41:50] I don’t know. I honestly have not counted them. And did you order your clarence? I always want to say clarence, thomas. Did you order your clarence, lee? I did not. Oh, however, okay, I am one step closer.

[00:42:02] Okay, I did get online and I wrote down because I asked. I think I asked you, you asked me last week and you didn’t. I forgot about it. To be honest, must not be that important to you- not to me, but it is to you. Well, no, it’s really important to you because you keep bringing it up. Well, I want you to be happy. I’m gonna be happy because, like I said, I took the first step and I copied down the information and I’m going to craft the letter soon, along with the what is this? 1942? You’re gonna craft a letter. Okay, I’m going to write a letter with my order and stuff a check in there and hopefully send.

[00:42:38] It off here in the next couple weeks. Okay, that’s the plan, but I remember, I know the deadline is one.

[00:42:44] January. -Huh, so I have 2021, yes, and then I get a plane a day, right, yes, I okay, not well, I’m just: it’s, it’s out there, so it’s in the ether, so we know it is, but it’s not going to come to that because, like I said, I took the first step. I’m going to steal your check when you, when you ship it. Really do you need more airplanes? Yes, don’t we all? What does your shirt say right now? N plus one.

[00:43:09] -Huh, I know right. So that’s the calculation. So storage I have in my, in my building area and then, like I said, since I prefer not to use my building table as storage space, I have storage space out in the, in the part that I’ve recently expanded into. Thank you, laurie. And that is, and that is storage for the airplanes that normally would sit on my building table when I’m not building something. So storage is important and whatever that works for you, it could be shelves.

[00:43:41] It could be sterilite containers, it could be whatever works for you. Whatever you have, the bulk of that you need to store whatever solution that looks like for you. For me it’s just shelves.

[00:43:51] With boxes? Yeah, pretty much. I think I’m about the same way, yeah, except instead of the boxes I use the, the sterilite containers that you’re talking about. I like being able to see into them a little bit and then have them labeled and then they all stack so nicely. Yeah, I do have like on the shelves.

[00:44:06] Next to my, to the left of my building table, I do have some smaller sterilite containers that have like the pull-out drawers and I use those for various other parts and pieces. But like the big,

[00:44:18] Stuff. Yes, it’s boxes on shelves. Yeah, the stuff I use is it’s not the pull-out drawers, but it’s like the shoebox kind of size thing. Oh yeah, take the whole top off and put it back on. Yeah, but you can.

[00:44:28] Kind of see through them. Yes, yeah, that’s clear. That is handy actually. And then, like I mentioned before, with the, with the climate controlled, preferably, your building space will be someplace that’s comfortable for you to work in, so that you want to go and work in it. You don’t want it to be in the garage. It’s not cooled in the summer or heated in the winter, because then you’re not going to be motivated to go out there and build anything and that’s really just not cool. Yeah, it’s very.

[00:44:55] Easy to tuck yourself out of something if you’re not going to be comfortable doing it exactly.

[00:44:58] So hopefully your building area is someplace that is comfortable and also has wi-fi, because I mean, how many times have I been working on something and I can’t remember either a conversion or what prop goes with this motor or engine or whatever? You’re right, props on motors too, you’re right, and so I’ll google that stuff. Right, gts. So having wi-fi in the shop is pretty handy because I can look that stuff up. Thanks, google. Oh, you don’t want to thank laurie for

[00:45:33] That one too. Well, she doesn’t provide the answers, so no, okay, it’s not laurie giving me what prop I put on this b-1705 electric motor. I feel as though you’re like, overly like- buttering her up.

[00:45:46] Before her episode comes out, you’re like, no, I’m really not so much today for everything, no really.

[00:45:51] The only thing, the only thing I’m really touching on here is the storage, and she has recently allowed me to expand, and for that I really am thankful, because I was really- I mean, I was- in a position.

[00:46:03] Where I was gonna have to get rid of airplanes. No, I think the first thing that goes is a LEGO.

[00:46:09] Well, that’s that is going actually. Oh, is it you’re getting rid of LEGO stuff? Well, no, I’m not getting.

[00:46:13] Rid of it. It’s going in the room that hannah vacated. No, no, I mean like get rid of the LEGO.

[00:46:18] Stuff so you have room for airplanes. I don’t need room for airplanes, I’ve got the LEGO stuff is leaving the basement and getting its own dedicated area. Well, that should be an airplane dedicated.

[00:46:26] Yeah, airplanes don’t go upstairs in the living space. Oh, that’s my rule. But LEGO do like it doesn’t make a mess. Okay, I don’t sand LEGO, no, but you step on LEGO and not the way I play with it. Oh boy.

[00:46:42] I’m slightly ocd, so there are no stray pieces on the floor, true, so no, I’m not getting rid of that either. So also something that’s handy, and you, Ron, you’ve mentioned this before about keeping your batteries in a cool place. The same sort of holds true for CA glues. They store better in a cold environment. So handy to have a refrigerator in your workspace. I did not know that. Yeah, it prolongs the shelf life, and on an opened container and I don’t

[00:47:16] Know if it has something to do with like the, the, the no frost type refrigerators that, like, either put humidity in or they take humidity out. Something has something to do with like, even an opened container of CA, even with a cap on it, they never seal perfectly. It they stay liquid longer. They don’t kick off like they can just sitting on a shelf, which is how I did it for many, many years. Yeah. So anyway, having a fridge handy is kind of beneficial to the.

[00:47:49] Workspace. That way, you can keep your LiPo batteries in it and your CA and also tasty beverages. So is

[00:47:55] That why you have the mini fridge down in your area, then do you have? So I don’t, I don’t have a mini fridge, or no? No, that’s right, you have a full-size fridge. What was I thinking? I’m sorry, yeah, so yeah.

[00:48:03] All my CAs are in there and right now, all my LiPo batteries in there, thanks to you. So I don’t think.

[00:48:08] You’ve ever opened your refrigerator. Look at it. So I’ll have to do. Well, it’s actually a newer.

[00:48:12] Refrigerator now, because Lori got a new refrigerator here recently, so we took the one that was upstairs and put it downstairs, and then the old, I forget what color- almond, no, it was. Yeah, it was pretty, pretty bad. Harvest green or something. No one green, it was like harvest yellow, I think, is what that was called that 70s. It was probably original to the house, probably, and still worked perfectly, by the way. So anyway, yeah, we got rid of that and so I. Yeah, I have a full-size fridge. It just costs.

[00:48:43] Four times more to run it than new ones. But it does, yeah, and that’s okay, but it kept on running the true. So a fridge is handy and you said you like to have a tv handy. I’m not much of a tv guy so I could, I can do without the tvs, I just I like having stuff on the background, just for.

[00:48:59] Background music- oh, I mean not music, I shouldn’t say, but for break or for background noise is what I use it. So why do you need the video? I think I like more of a story to listen to than music. Oh, okay, that’s why I, I’m not a big music guy, okay, so I migrate more towards podcasts or something like that to listen to, kind of get myself into it, I guess, if you will, yeah, so tv shows do that for me. I just usually just the brainless ones that you just have, like I said, playing in the background.

[00:49:32] Not something I would actually sit down and watch. Okay, like it’s never a show, like you’re kind of a real housewives of new jersey, would not be that? No, nothing like that at all, but something, something just innocent and in the background. Okay, all right, and that works for you, so that’s cool.

[00:49:51] So and that really kind of is what’s in my, my building space. I’d love to have an air compressor, or at least high pressure air piped into the workshop, but in the house I get back and forth on that. Besides that, I’m not ready to install something like that yet anyway, but it would be very handy to have compressed air available in the shop so or in the workspace. So

[00:50:15] Here’s the thing with compressed air. I have a big air compressor out in the shop. I’d like to put a smaller one in our garage. My wife is okay with that. However, I haven’t done it yet. I want to run lines into the house and she won’t let me do that. Yeah, see, and I’m that’s like, I know, I know.

[00:50:36] There’s no rational reason to be anti that. But I don’t know. Having high pressure shop air running into the house, I don’t know. There’s something weird about that for me, I don’t know for me, well, yeah, I don’t understand that at all, but it would be okay to have a compressor in the house. I know it’s.

[00:50:53] Irrational, but it is irrational. It makes no sense whatsoever. But here’s my reason, really, for wanting one in here. So my kid, the oldest, sorry, I just, I love this but I can’t do it because they won’t let me, but anyway. So what I want to do, my, my oldest kid, has a hard time getting up in the morning. Like, how old is he? He is 16 now, almost 17 and a couple months. Okay, so he’s at that age where mornings are terrible. Well, I have a couple extra pneumatic cylinders that they have, the, the four inch.

[00:51:27] Bore on them. So they’re big ones, big pneumatic cylinders, and what I want to do is hook it up to his bed so that in the morning, if he’s not up by a certain time, right, you see where I’m going, oh yeah.

[00:51:39] It literally dumps him out of bed. Yeah, and she won’t let me. She will not let me run air into the. She won’t let you do that. No, oh, I mean I had the design all designed up and everything I could cut.

[00:51:50] It and make it, but no, she won’t. Let me do it. I think that’s a great idea. I do too. Then you never have to deal with him in the morning. It’s just like dump him out of bed if you hear a thud. You

[00:51:59] Know. Well, he didn’t get up in time yet, so yeah, so would you set that up like as an automatic thing, like oh yeah, the alarm goes off and then it goes off a second time? Oh, I had it all like a weight on switch or something like if the weight doesn’t come off within a certain time, then it just dumps.

[00:52:15] The bed. Is that how that was gonna? No, so the way I was gonna have it set up was all through the arduino setup and all that, to where it would play the in the morning when you tell it to wake up, and we’d use the alexa for all this stuff too. I had it all figured out.

[00:52:32] Because that’s what I do with my spare time, okay, but anyway. So it would say: when you set the alarm, the alarm would go off and he would have- I think I had it figured out- for like five minutes to get out of bed, and then he would actually have to go out and push a button to turn it off. If he didn’t get up and push that button, then that’s when the bed would dump him out. Okay, huh, yeah, I had it all.

[00:52:55] Programmed, but then he could just get up, push the button and get back in bed. No, once he’s out of bed, he’s out.

[00:53:00] Of bed, like he will not like get up, like it’s actually getting up out of bed, like sets him okay for the morning, really, yeah, huh, okay. But so, yeah, I’m still salty about that one. Yeah, because I would have that done in a heartbeat. Oh, that’s a great idea, and he even wanted to do it too, I mean.

[00:53:18] Yeah, he was in for. It would probably be helpful for him, especially when school starts back.

[00:53:22] Up. If it starts back up, that is, yeah, who knows how that’s gonna be. But yeah, yeah, wouldn’t that be awesome, won’t let you do it? No, well, and then I could also have run some down here and then in the basement shop, air out here for cleaning up stuff, and it would be awesome, yeah.

[00:53:37] Anyway, that’s a fight for another day. Yeah, yeah, so that’s that’s sort of what the what the workspace looks like and where I keep all my tools. Speaking of tools, are you ready?

[00:53:48] For the tool of the week. I am okay, so we’re finished with that. So tool of the week: yes, first tool of the week I think we decided is going to be a balsa stripper. Yes, I actually was unfamiliar with this little tool until a couple weeks ago when we went up to a hobby shop and I was looking at all the balsa, like quarter inch by quarter inch, by 36 inch balsa strips, and when I was looking at them- I don’t remember if the guy we were or that owned the shop, or if it was you said something.

[00:54:18] About a balsa stripper and you said that, yeah, you, you’ve had one, you use it and you really like it and they’re easy to use and all that. So I went over and you had to explain to me how it worked. It’s very, very simple. Oh yeah, it’s a, a guide with a knife on it. Yeah, I mean really.

[00:54:37] That’s all. It’s like a miniature upside down table saw with a rip fence that doesn’t have a rotating.

[00:54:42] Blade, yeah, without the saw, yeah, and that’s the nice thing about it too, you’re not actually removing any material, not at all. So here’s the math. I like math, so this is where it. This is what sold you on the tool. Absolutely it was. I put all those little quarter inch by quarter inch and 316 square tube- or not tubes, but square pieces of balsa, and all that. I just threw them back in there and I said: I don’t want you anymore, I’m gonna get the wider sheets. So, quarter by quarter by 36 inch piece of balsa. He had him there for a dollar 99 a piece. Okay, nearly two dollars -huh, just say two dollars. Well,

[00:55:16] Okay, fine, then two dollars, I’ll give you two dollars on that one. So a quarter inch by three inch piece by 36 inch piece of balsa. So a sheet. 397, Yes, 397, okay, so say four dollars for that. Not only that, but if I bought the whole- which I did, the whole 10 pieces of it- 10 off discount, right, so that took it down to like 360 ish. We’ll just use that for weird math. Okay, so you can get 12 pieces of quarter by quarter sticks of balsa out of that one sheet, because you’re not removing any material with this.

[00:55:49] Tool. No, it uses a number 11 or a number 10, which is what I would recommend. Blade so it X-Acto blade so it doesn’t remove any material at all. You can cut a half inch wide piece of balsa.

[00:56:01] Into two quarter inch wide pieces of balsa. Absolutely, and it’s awesome. But hold on, here’s the best gets better, the mat, where this works out. So if I would have bought the same amount of balsa, same amount of sticks, and quarter by quarter, by 36 inch pieces, would have been 24. One sheet instead of 24. It yields me the exact same result. Yeah, four dollars. Yeah, actually 360, now it does.

[00:56:28] Exactly now it does. It is a little bit of work, not much, but I mean we did a few strips here just a little bit ago and it was. I mean you saw how easy it was. Yeah, and I’ll admit that I did try to convince you to buy the tool, because I have one also, but I, as I admitted earlier in our conversation before we sat down to do this, I’ve only used it once like my whole life. But now that we’re going to get more into plans, building and- and since you highlighted the cost-

[00:57:00] Of balsa and how much you can save. I really plan on using mine now way more than I, than I ever intended.

[00:57:06] To well, and the funny thing ever was when we started cutting that I told you cut one, and I’ll cut one and just see how it goes with it, because I hadn’t done the quarter inch stuff yet. I did some, I think, eighth inch strips just to test it out. You didn’t want to stop. I mean like you were having enough fun with it. You’re like: oh, I like doing this because I know how much money I was like.

[00:57:24] I could just hear cha-ching. Every time I cut a piece of this off, I was like, oh, there’s a free quarter by quarter piece of balsa, free pretty much. Oh, here’s another one free. What I’m saying: after you cut two, everything else that is essentially free, yeah. So big fan of the tool, X-Acto, it’s only ten dollars. So well, think of it that way, depending on where you buy it, yeah.

[00:57:44] I’m sure it may be. Yeah, okay, I think it was 9.99 Where I got it, but give or take 10 made by master airscrew- master airscrew- correct. So this one was yeah, but I think there’s other ones out there.

[00:57:53] Foremost, used to make one. I’m sure there has to make one, but yeah, but that’s what I got was master.

[00:57:58] I don’t know who still makes them or what, but a simple still makes them. Well, obviously, because that’s what I just bought. But I mean I don’t know what other companies still make them, still make them. Got it, but yeah, I mean it pays for itself in one sheet of balsa. Yeah, so literally did literally.

[00:58:14] When I, because I was going through my mind. Here’s another great thing about that, like, if so, sometimes when we’re building airplanes, we want consistent grade of balta, especially when you’re building two wing panels. You don’t want to put hard, a bunch of hard balsa in the right hand panel and then you’ve got the light balsa over, because then your wing is heavy on the right side and the hard bar when you’re when you’re cutting, in this case, a quarter inch strip, you’re cutting it from the same sheet of balsa, so the con, the grade of the balsa, is consistent with every single piece you cut off of that. So then you are assured of building equal weighted panels, in this case I mean.

[00:58:50] The benefits of the tool are many, yeah. So when I was pulling all the small pieces out, in my mind I was just like, oh my gosh, this is getting expensive. Oh, out of the rack, when you’re out of the rack, when I was just buying them, yeah. And then, like I said you, you said something about or he said something about I think it was actually the shop owner could have been. Yeah, and then my mind just went to like, hold on, hold on, is this math actually right? I mean, am I, am I missing something? Am I figuring something wrong? Yeah, because I mean, like I, I literally bought 10 sheets of

[00:59:21] Big balsa for nearly the same price of what I was going to be buying- 13 or 14 pieces of.

[00:59:28] The coordinate squares right now. Your, your, your mileage may vary depending on the cost of balsa in your area. I’m talking to a listener now, but yeah, in that particular case, and I think, like I know, Hobby Lobby sells balsa and their balsa is actually more expensive than the hobby shop that we were at, so you could potentially save even more by buying it there. Yeah, and I mean just

[00:59:52] Not a single use. So I mean, this is something you’re going to use over and over and over again, and it’s great too, because you don’t have to keep as much stock on hand, so and you can cut it off as you need it, right? So it’s easier to store, exactly so, and it will store better too, because really, depending on how this is, if you get the edges of the balsa that’s messed up, you’re not going to want to use maybe the first eighth inch on each side, and if so, you throw one quarter and you

[01:00:19] Know inch, stick away big or set the thing to. Cut up a one-eighth inch wide slice and take one eighth inch off each side. Now you got perfect ends on both sides. You can start. That’s yeah, that’s kind of what.

[01:00:31] I meant that you’re taking a quarter inch is what you’re losing by doing it that way, but it’s fine. But so if you need quarter by quarter or quarter by three eighths or quarter by half, you have them all in sheet form before you do it. Yeah, so you’re not stocking so much extra stuff. Right, right, that you might never need that. You might need a lot of it.

[01:00:51] It’s hard to say. So the only drawback is the capacity, like we were talking about earlier. I think the capacity on this you said was quarter, quarter inch thick. I think I think you might be able to fudge that up to three eighths, but even still, I mean there is a limit to the thickness that you can cut. So obviously you’re not going to get a one inch by one inch balsa block and cut a bunch of

[01:01:10] Quarter inch. Not with this tool, not with this tool. No, so we might have to figure out, so there may.

[01:01:14] Yeah, there may. There are limits, but for stick sizes out of quarter inch and smaller. Oh man.

[01:01:20] This thing is a gem, yep, so, so that’s the tool of the week. That is the first. The balsa stripper weekly tool of the week, yeah, so. So what’s next week? We haven’t decided yet. Actually, I’m sorry.

[01:01:33] We’re not going to have one next week. It’s the wives episode. Oh, that’s right, it’s the wives. Oh, we should find a tool for them to talk about. So this screwdriver looks like you can put it into the end of a screw. It’ll turn right, it’ll turn left. Lori could talk about X-Acto knives, and that would I mean. Everybody knows what an X-Acto knife is, but well, but maybe they don’t. Well, Lori does, because she’s used them.

[01:01:56] Before, for, well, she’s scrapbooked, so she’s, she’s familiar, but anyway, well, yeah, we’ll see. So

[01:02:03] First tool of the week with balsa stripper: great, a great tool to start off the series, I think, and one that can potentially save you a lot of money: thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[01:02:14] It can save you a retirement, retirement, retirement like. There you go. I can stop work right now, honey. Look, I have to spend a hundred dollars. It could have been a thousand, but look, I’m not exactly right. It’s all about how you present it exactly. So that’s all I’ve got. Yeah, I? I think that’s enough for me too. So until next week with, oh and by the way, yeah, sorry, don’t mind. Okay, you said you were.

[01:02:36] Finished, but you lied. Well, I just wanted to remind our listeners to, like you said at the beginning of the episode, if you’ve got airplane pictures you want to send us, send them to the RC Plane Lab, Ron and or Tom at rcplanelab.com, and we’ll we’ll get those posted up for you. Yep, email them to us and we will. I like airplane pictures, so send them if you got them.

[01:02:57] Yes, you do so, do I? All right, so then, until next time. Like I said, next time is the wives episode, so we will talk to you guys in two weeks, yep, with our special guests. So excited, looking forward to it, me too. Until then, I’m Ron and I’m Tom. Good night, good night. We hope you enjoyed this.

[01:03:15] Episode of the RC Plane Lab podcast for topic suggestions, to ask questions or to give any feedback, connect with us at rcplanelab.com or email us direct at either Ron at rcplanelab.com or Tom at rcplanelab.com. You can also text us or leave us a voicemail at 818-351-9846. Please subscribe, rate and review us on your favorite podcast app until next time. May your landings be gentle.