Glitter is evil, but the addition of fart spray was inspired.
So stealing $140K vehicle, loaded with another $200K worth of merchandise is OK, but $300 worth of hard drives is wrong? I fail to see your logic.
I didnāt say it was right or āOKā. I said I had almost no problem with it. And I wonāt sit here and hijack this thread any further by listing my reasons. But if you really want to discuss it, feel free to PM me.
Do you have a sign that says you have a camera? I think that works better than an actual camera. 
Itās not like the camera is hidden, but no. No sign. Itās not like these guys are smartā¦
I was looking at stuff that I might have delivered and measuring to make a lock box. The biggest problem is stuff for kendo. The bamboo swords that I use for that are about 4ā long, so I need a lock box at least big enough for those. Other stuff is about 22" to a side, which is much less of a problem. The next issue, of course is limited real estate on my front porch. It might need to go by the back door, but I figure that the likelihood of the yahoos that Amazon delivery seems to employ are going to be too lazy to walk the extra 40ā (Theyāre often too lazy to even come up 3 stairs, and have been known to just toss the package from the foot of the steps.) They certainly donāt seem to want to touch the doorbell or knock on the door 
Was talking with friends about the legalities of posting the guyās picture around the neighborhood. I donāt think that I can ask them to contact me, but I think that I can ask them to contact police with a file number.
2 Likes
Okayā¦ So as far as incentive to maybe kick a LR2 build into high(er) gearā¦
I was looking at the boxes for stuff Iāve had delivered, and one thing that I have delivered relatively often are shinai. These are the bamboo swords that we use for sparring and practice in kendo. These are about 4ā long as a regulated size. While practicing 3-4 times a week, the average lifespan of these things is about 3 months. Sometimes I can get them to last longer, and sometimes they crack on the very first practice. They donāt have a really long shelf life when not used either, so I need them on a regular basis.
This means the my porch lock box has to be able to accommodate packages up to about 50" in length. My Primo can cut pieces for the lock box up to 37" in length.
Naturally, I can (And will) cut pieces on the table saw (Or my not quite finished panel saw) for this.
The other problem is real-estate on the front porch. I donāt think I really have enough room. This probably means that Iāll have to put it by the back door. Well, I kind of need to re-build the back porch anyway, some of it has gotten kind of soft in spots.
1 Like
Can it hang from the ceiling of the porch?
I havenāt done it in a while, but amazon used to have the option to deliver to the robot boxes inside whole foods and other places. That may be an option for your large packages, or just risk the swords.
I have seen photos of porch pirates on nextdoor before. Can you ask your local police if that is allowed?
Well, the common packages (Kendo consumables) have to be delivered to my billing address, which is a bit of a problem. Amazon has a lot of decent options, though the ālocal pickupā involves leaving the house, which is kind of the point for many of my Amazon purchases ā I donāt have to.
Many other places (For example the V1 shop) pretty much has to ship to the billing address, or uses the post office which either doesnāt offer that kind of service, unless you pay extra for āsignature requiredā. I can tell you 100% that if thereās a signature required, I wonāt get the box, Iāll get a note telling me that I can pick up the item at the post office tomorrow. Iāve seen on the camera the post office worker walking up to the house with no box, and the āsorry you werenāt homeā card already filled out. Iāve even had them hand me the card with me sitting on the front step.
I really should just call it a front step, itās not much of a porch. The āceilingā is maybe 14" out from the door, and barely wide enough to cover the steps. If the wind is coming from any direction except due west, youāll probably get rained on while unlocking the door.
It might be a little more clear-cut if I had pictures of the guy with the boxes in-hand, but he seems to have booked it outta there during the cameraās ~3 second refresh between pictures. Anyway, seeing as I live on a dead end street, thereās not a lot of incidental traffic in the area. People donāt just happen to drive by. There are some bushes in front of my place so you have to be right in front to see the packages. I strongly suspect that the thief lives in the apartment building across the street, or at least in the neighborhood. I think Iām going to maybe try posting a picture on the neighborhood bulletin board with the police file number. Offer a cash reward.
1 Like
So I bought myself a little fatherās day giftā¦ Another Makita RT0701C. I hadnāt actually been planning to pick that up just yet, but after a visit to Home Despot, and seeing that stud-grade 2X4s are now more expensive than steel studs, which are also kind of stupid expensiveā¦ Iāve decided that Iāll change my plans for building the porch lock-box. I thought that stud-grade 2X4 would be fineā¦ but not at the price of furniture-grade hardwoodā¦ So itās going to end up being 2X2 .125 wall steel tube frame, because itās cheaper (?!) for me to do it that way, at least if itās going to fit my shinai boxesā¦ Looks like it is going to have to go at the back step though. Time to make a sign, too. (Might as well replace the crappy house number sign, too.) One step forward, and two steps back. Everything that Iām trying to get done seems to need 2 things to get done first. There are a couple of rotten boards on the back porch, so Iāll probably have to do something to replace those in order to put the lock box back there, too. Maybe Iāll do a steel frame for the back deck, too.
Anyway, now I have a twin for the router thatās in the Primo. The nice thing there is that the one in the Primo is kind of difficult to remove, but that means that Iāll have a spare base for the one in the LR2, so that I can just pop it out and have a trim router ready to go on short notice, provided that I make a reasonable provision for the power cord. This of course is basically incentive to make a good solution for the power cord, right? I think that I have an ideaā¦
I look in my garage and despair for space to put the LR2. I could put it in the basement, but not if Iām going to make it full sheet capable. Not that I canāt fit the machine, but if I do, I wonāt be able to get the full sheets into the room to put them on the work area, unless I make the LR2 ride really low. So Iāve been giving it some thought. Basically, I donāt have any projects on the go that really stretch the 25"X37" area of the Primo now. I do have some things for which 48" would be nice to have for the long axis, but not many, and I really canāt see needing more than 37"X49" where required precision will be greater than what I can get with other tools, and probably 25"X49" would give me everything that I need. Iāve got some playing with the calculator to do for work area vs. table area and my room dimensions.
Finally got around to cutting a second Y plate.
Iām a little concerned about my V1 package. Usually the tracking says that it gets in the country and āWill be presented for reviewā and then itās checked into customs within minutes. This entered the country at 6:21 AM on Saturday, andā¦ nothing. I would normally expect it to be in my hands 3 days after it enters the country, and thatās if I need to go to the post office and pick it up. (4 days if it comes in on the east coast, which this didnāt.)
Thatās doing a bit better than my Bart Dring pen/laser controller, which apparently hasnāt even reached an American post office, despite being marked as shipped a week ago.
Not that Iām obsessively tracking all of my parcels after that porch pirate incident, butā¦ Well, okay, I am.
I saw an article on my newsfeed about āNow that lumber prices have come back down to earthā¦ā today. Maybe in wholesale, but Home Despot still wants $11 for a stud-grade 2X4. Smh. Thatās a hard pass.
So Iāve been looking at other solutions, and finding lots, but none that combine inexpensive and practical, mostly because material costs are stupid.
1 Like
Mine is 24x48" now and I like it. I just canāt imagine myself ever needing to make too many 96" projects. Those will quickly fill any free space I have. When I revamp the LR I am sure I will need to make another full sheeter for testing but it will get cut back down to 24x48.
1 Like
I started trying to print these belt tensioners but while I have the AC on, Iām not sure that I can. Everything curls because itās stupid hot, and then gets a breath of cold air andā¦ Done.
No hurry anyway. Customs has apparently taken exception to something in my V1 box, and has been holding on to it for the past 10 days. Not sure what the problem is, maybe they donāt like the magnets. (I remember the purchase link used to be to United Nuclear, If thereās any labelling like that, I wonder if they freaked out thinking that I ordered fissile material. If so, thatās going to get my put on a list, for sureā¦) I can see some pencil pusher trying to figure out what kind of nuclear bomb Iām trying to build from some oddly shaped plastic pieces, bearings, nuts and bolts, PTFE lubricant, motors, pulleys, and in-line skate wheelsā¦
2 Likes
10 days, I have had no issues with that border. Are they waiting for an import tax?
Well, I donāt think thereās anything in there that I havenāt bought beforeā¦ Usually they tell me what I owe when they release it, but this time itās radio silence.
Seriously, Iām wondering if someone is freaked out about something, or if I got put on a listā¦
Well, not like I can make much progress with the price of lumber where it isā¦
Well, my Bart Dring laser/pen controller went through customs in less than 4 hours from entering the country. V1 package still radio silence.
I hit the Y plates with a coat of gloss white primer today. Not sure that I like it. I want to seal them so that they donāt warp or swell, but not sure that Iām sold on the colour. Itāll probably depend in part on the colours of the printed pieces that come with the V1 package, but I think that Iām going to paint them a matte silver/gray. Heck, I might even just use a spray can of automotive primer. I have some high build stuff that I can probably sand to a super smooth coat with some 4000 grit. If I do that though, I might be tempted to hit it with a coat of Toyota 3E5 Super Red II. Iām 95% sure that I still have a pint can of that, and the clear coat in the garageā¦ Well, that might be a little too showy for me.
I was thinking that the Bart Dring controller going though in a normal timeframe might mean that I havenāt been put on a list thoughā¦ Though thatās a completely different border crossing than the one the V1 package is in limbo at.
Frankly, Iām worried that the package was lost. 
There shouldnāt be anything in the box that should pose any sort of problem.
If it hit the 30 (or 35) day mark since I shipped it we can do a report but they will not let me do anything until that point. I do have another customer with a slow Canadian boarder package as well though.
Dang I just checked it got to customs in less than 3 days and they have had it for a while. I bet they opened it up and canāt get everything back in the box. 
4 Likes
Just as Iād decided on Toyota 3E5, I saw a can of paint out of the corner of my eyeā¦
It isnāt quite Makita blueā¦ But pretty close, and once thereās a layer of chips on the machine, nobody will ever know.
4 Likes
So, tracking says āstill in customsā but I got a notice to go pick it up. Customs apparently valued it at $679.80 CAD, which is a lot more than my bank did, and that included shipping, which theyāre not supposed to charge me tax on, but itās here.
Youād win that bet. Iām guessing that you didnāt ship the box looking like I received it. Looked like it had been used for a couple of rugby scrums too, but nothing seems to be broken.
Well, looks like Iāll be able to get some stuff assembled this weekend.
1 Like