You guys suck...

I hate turning on PBS to see "New Yankee Workshop", and the guy's like "here, with only ten bucks worth of wood, you can build this beautiful high-quality bedroom set. It's easy."

Sure, it's easy. Anything is easy when you have ten million dollars' worth of laser-guided planers, computer-controlled drill presses, and robotically-guided table saws. "Made possible by a grant from..." my ass. Can you say PRODUCT PLACEMENT advertising? Grrrrr...

He usually covers up the brand names on the products that don't sponsor his show.

But my favorite part is the fact that he's like: ``Go out to your wood pile and find this 24-inch wide plank of virgin pine. I got this one for free from an old house we tore down on This Old House, but, if you can even find one, which is unlikely, it'll cost you $1000 a board foot. I won't provide any alternative suggestions.''

I picked out several thousand dollars worth of furniture from the Ethan Allen catalog and my Dad's been helping me duplicate them exactly. So far I have a chest of drawers ($1500) and am getting ready to do nighttables ($500 each).

Oh, did I mention I have spent less then $500 on all three?

LOL @ Bitt.

Oh come on it's member supported like NPR right

Cool, I've moved up 2 places, not long now ;-)

Cris.

>Right now, shipping is being held up while I find suitable packaging
>to protect the units as they sail through the postal system and onto the floor.

Okay, I've got shipping containers: 100 thick cardboard boxes (kinda like the ones I used to buy punch cards in), a large roll of bubble wrap, the weekend newspaper, and a few rolls of packing tape and a gun (not the USA-ian variety, though..).

Just add some glue and solder, and more of these might actually ship soon!

An update on shipping costs:

Within the USA & Canada, I will be sending these out via regular mail (Canada Post, USPS), which takes 5-10 days for delivery. The cost for this appears to be about US$12 for the USA, less within Canada, more for overseas. Pretty reasonable on the whole, I think.

Cheers

Just out of interest, what will you be declaring the customs vallue as? and what will you mark it as?

South African customs are right b********s. I've had to pay vat and duty on someting marked as 5 UKP before.

I'm not sure what to write down for contents .. "stereo cabinet" ?

For value I will put C$40, which is about what the individual parts add up to -- very roughly speaking -- no accounting for labour or wear and tear on bits and blades and belts and whatnot.

EDIT: Actually, it's more like C$50, so let's call it US$30 or so.

Cheers

For orders to here in the UK, can you consider using FEDEX or UPS etc... I am more than willing to pay the extra shipping.

I have had some very bad experiences with heavy items going overseas via normal post. I have an PC Case that took 5 weeks to arrive once, with no tracking number. I wasn't best pleased.

Cheers

Cris.

Works for me :-)

Thanks. Just got to get the front of the queue now :-)

Mmm.. the amount extra for UPS or FedEx (from Canada) is rather astronomical.. For US$20 or so I can do "Express Post", which is usually very fast, with a tracking number.

But FedEx or UPS 2-day would be in excess of US$50 or so.. those Yanks don't treat us Cannucks nicely when it comes to using their express shipping services up here.. Even when going overseas.

DHL Express is probably much cheaper than UPS/FedEx, and just as fast outside of N.A., but requires an extra 30min round trip driving for me to use them.

Cheers

I'm not sure what to write down for contents .. "stereo cabinet" ?

How about "wooden box"?

OK, I never realised that your postal system gives you a tracking number. The only down side is that it will stop working when it gets into our wonderful postal system over here. Sometimes they still work but they are all a day behind.

I would have payed $50 to make sure it got here in one piece, but aslong as there is a tracking number I'm happy.

Thanks

Cris.

D'OH !!! Gone back up to position 10.

I noticed yesterday I also was up 2 places to number 12. Now also back down 2 places to 14. Oh well.

No, there's a lot more to it than just a "wooden box" -- all of the electrical bits and pieces would raise curiosity too much.

-ml

As I said, the numbers may bounce up and down slightly from time to time, as I fix bugs and/or group like shipments together.

Cheers

How about "Industrial sample" ??? There would be 0% vat for us in the UK then, if they ever opened the box it would look like a sample as the finish is down to us to do. Just an idea.
Another trick is to hand write the label and put a residential address down as the sender.

Cris.

Contents: "Project Kit Sample"
Customs Value: NCV (that stands for No Cusoms Value) or "Sample" will do it.

Then check-mark the "gift" box.

I've been sending and receiving stuff to/from a number of countries for enough years. The "NCV" bit came directly to me from a CanadaPost employee.

Also note, when sending smaller packages, like maybe the size or 1-4 DVD cases (sometimes a bit bigger), you can also get away with sending it "Standard" or "Surface" and it will in fact go by Air. It's cheaper for CanPost to just stuff a bunch of these items into a large shipping container. Again, info from two long-time postal employees.

BTW the last I checked, ExpressPost shipping to Europe could get pretty expensive. With MDF it's likely that the price will at least be based on actual weight and not Minimum Volume Density (light objects in big boxes incur surcharges to bring them in line with heavier pieces).

Bruno

I just jumped back one position in the queue ?

How did that happen ... bribary and dancing girls ?

Not exactly.

Okay, here's something to keep us all interested and busy while I go hack Linux for a living this week and next..

It's a "Guess exactly how many discrete pieces of wood/metal/whatever go into the construction of each dock I make.

Everyone gets two guesses, maximum, and the first person to get the EXACT number gets to jump to #1 in the queue. Not a free dock, but rather a free jump to the front of the list for shipments.

I expect to send out six docks sometime in the next seven days. Guess correctly, and the first shipment will be to you, upon regular payment etc..

Cheers

EDIT #1: Anything that I purchase that is pre-assembled counts as one piece, unless I have to take it apart to install it in the dock..

EDIT #2: This is for the "Works" version, fully tricked out with serial & fan. The serial port has only three pins wired up (RX,TX,GND).

EDIT #3: The answer will probably suprise you -- it certainly suprised me!

Guess:-

1) 23
2) 31

29 or 30 are my two guesses. Did I win?

My guesses would be 42 & 45.

Don't forget all the individual wires, connectors and screws. Counting the wood pieces from your workshop page is the easy bit...

My guesses :

1) 39
2) 40

Did I win ???

Using the print out loads of numbers, close your eyes and point approach, I guess....

1) 41
2) 52

Cris

17 or 23