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Danshell

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Jun 26, 2016
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206
Location
Tasmania Australia
Thanks Geoff

I managed to snag an old Peerless Drill Press on gumtree today. I wont be picking it up until the weekend but it comes with a metal stand that looks factory, it works fine and is all complete.

I am really keen to restore it back to its former glory.
 
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Danshell

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Jun 26, 2016
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Location
Tasmania Australia
With the Covid restrictions being lifted we went and picked up the old Peerless drill press. Its a 1970 model :bounce: The casting on these old things was not brilliant but I have to say the build quality in regards to engineering is way over engineered IMHO. The thing weighs a tonne...so to speak.

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I got it home and proceeded to pull it apart. It was all there, but it has been sitting around for a lot of years so everything needed cleaning and re-greasing.

There isnt a lot to a drill press so besides a few bearings there is nothing to wear out.

I cleaned, polished, greased and de-rusted the old girl and she works like the day it was made.

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The main bench/plate was really rusty so its still a little bit pitted in places which wont really bother me. I did contemplate taking it to work and giving it a slight skim with the mill but it came up good enough in the end.

I also snagged a decent quality bench grinder for a song and converted it to have a wire wheel one side and a buffing wheel the other side. I gave it a new coat of paint, wrong colour which annoys me a little but itll stop it corroding more.

I used it a lot restoring the old drill.

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And finally I now have a collection of old engineers vices. None of them do a lot for me to be honest, but Ill clean them up and paint them. They will most likely go on gumtree for pennies.

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Thats about it for now. Winter is well and truly hitting us down here so the shed heater is getting a work out. It works great by the way, tshirt temp inside the shed and zero outside. It was good to get some QST in.
 

Ralf99

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Messages
439
Location
S.W.Victoria, Australia
Yep, drill press has come up a treat.

As we are remembering 1/2Cup this week, here is what he did to his 8” grinder a couple of years ago.

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I’ve also got the 6” version of the same grinder, but with a bit more ‘patina’, and they are surprisingly good at running the Multitool linisher.

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Danshell

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Tasmania Australia
Thanks gents. Yeh the old Aussie made grinders are pretty common. They are generally bullet proof too.

I love the way Steve polished the sides. Hmmm maybe another QST project ;) The only problem is is that Id need the grinder to do the polishing!
 

cros13

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Sep 29, 2014
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496
Location
Sydney, Australia
Hey that bench grinder came up a treat. I have wanted to get my own too for a few years now, might need to pull my finger out. I have been relying on the one at work, which is fine, but waiting on weekends is a pain.

I was gonna get one from Hare and Forbes, i think i was around $500 with a belt sanding attachment, but maybe i need to look on gum tree or Facebook marketplace now!

Rudi.
 

Geoff289

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Location
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Hey that bench grinder came up a treat. I have wanted to get my own too for a few years now, might need to pull my finger out. I have been relying on the one at work, which is fine, but waiting on weekends is a pain.

I was gonna get one from Hare and Forbes, i think i was around $500 with a belt sanding attachment, but maybe i need to look on gum tree or Facebook marketplace now!

Rudi.

Hare and Forbes have an EOFY sale on at the moment.
 
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Danshell

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Tasmania Australia
A drizzly weekend here so it was another weekend of QST :)

I wanted to give the new Tig a run so I grabbed a sheet of 3mm alloy plate to practice on.

I was going to buy a charging station for my cordless gear but I figured Id make my own. But before I did that I needed to make a small metal folder.....see where this is going?

I popped into the scrap metal yard and grabbed enough steel to do what I needed. $20 is the total cost!

It is nothing special but it works perfect. 800mm is the max width. 3mm alloy or 1.6mm steel at the full width is its limit and then I needed a mate to put weight on the table so I didnt lift it as I was doing the bend.

I cut a section of my welding table out and welded the folder into the backside of the table.

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And a few test fold. You can slide the top hold down angle forward or backwards to increase or decrease the sharpness of the fold.

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I then cut out some of the alloy plate and folded it up into a charging station that works for us.
I didnt grab any pics of the folds but again they were more than acceptable.

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The Tig is really nice to use. It is far better than I am at this stage but in time I will get better at it. I need a lot more practice to not only learn how to be a lot steadier myself but to also get used to the this tigs settings.
But for a home hobbyist it is ok so far for what I will do. As I increase my skill Ill do projects that are nicer.

The very first weld I laid down when I go the tig home.

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Top edge of the charging station. There couldnt have been any really nice welds otherwise Im sure I would have taken a pic!

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Danshell

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Tasmania Australia
It appears as though we have lost quite a few posts in this thread which is disappointing!

Ill try and get them back up when I get a chance, not that it matters too much I suppose.
 

hewey

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Sep 5, 2014
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Blue Mountains, Australia
It appears as though we have lost quite a few posts in this thread which is disappointing!

Ill try and get them back up when I get a chance, not that it matters too much I suppose.

Hey mate, there was some kind of forum glitch and they had to revert to an earlier saved back up, and a few days of posts were lost in the process. I lost some posts and responses too. Frustrating, but after grumbling about it to myself, I realised if that's the worst thing that happens to me this week, life aint that bad :bounce:
 
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Danshell

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Tasmania Australia
Hey mate, there was some kind of forum glitch and they had to revert to an earlier saved back up, and a few days of posts were lost in the process. I lost some posts and responses too. Frustrating, but after grumbling about it to myself, I realised if that's the worst thing that happens to me this week, life aint that bad :bounce:


Yeh same mate. There’s far worse things to worry about ;)
 
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Danshell

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Tasmania Australia
I cant really remember what my lost posts were exactly but Ill do my best to put back some of what I have been up to.

I built a massive vice from scrap steel.

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The vice incidentally now has the anvil section polished so it can be used for its intended purpose, I just dont have a photo on hand.

I put a sheet of play up on the wall to tidy up a messy corner.

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And I got some presents for my 50th......

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Danshell

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Tasmania Australia
Something exciting happened on the weekend.

I accidentally bought a couple of lathes and a shaper!

I put an ad on gumtree 'wanted hobby lathe for home workshop under $1000, willing to repair or restore the right lathe'

An older gentleman messaged me saying he had two lathes. He was at the other end of the state so I took a trip down south and had a look at them.

One of them was a South Bend Heavy 10, complete with all the accessories including the metric gear box and a complete 'overhaul' kit. But it was missing the motor.
I instantly knew I wanted it.

The other was a Maximat V10. Has some slight damage on the cross feed wheel that I can easily fix, it is imperial only. However it is all there and works.

And low and behold he had an Atlas 7" shaper sitting on the floor that is fully functional. I asked if it was for sale in which he said yes it could be if we do a deal on a couple of the items.

We back and forth on the price a little bit and agreed on $3000 for the lot.

I have to go back down there with the trailer to pick them up and the wife is going to kill me but I am excited about the South bend and the Shaper.

I dont need any of it of course but Ill happily have them. The Maximat I will most likely repair and sell to help fund the other two.

I dont have any decent pictures at this stage but Ill get some when they are home.

I also managed to start repairing and painting an old tractor for Dad yesterday. Nothing too interesting but it is all QST.

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Ralf99

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Joined
Apr 14, 2011
Messages
439
Location
S.W.Victoria, Australia
Well done on the lathes! The motors are the easy part.

I think I might have some info on the Southbend kicking around the shed - I'll see if I can dig it up.
 
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Danshell

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Location
Tasmania Australia
I got the old Lathes home, took a weeks annual leave and tidied them up.

The Maximat V10 required quite a clean up before I could sell it.

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But after some degreaser and quick coat of paint it went back together pretty good.

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I even turned some chips on it. Not a bad Lathe actually. I put it on Gumtree and it sold in 1 hour to the first bloke that looked at it!! I could have sold it 5 times over and for more money as it turns out.

The Lathe that I want to keep needed a new motor. I ordered a 3ph motor and a VFD to control it.
Here it is the day I got it home.

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I pulled it down to clean it up.

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And put it back together keen to see if it run ok

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It runs beautifully. The VFD is the way to go because I can electronically control the speed and direction amongst other things.

However the carriage in forward direction in threading mode is a bit 'notchy' so I need to investigate that a little further. It is smooth in reverse so Id say the half nut is worn or perhaps I missed some crud when I was cleaning it.
 
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Danshell

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Messages
206
Location
Tasmania Australia
The lathes have come up a treat. There's just something special about working with vintage iron.

The soft start of the VFD is a bonus.


Thanks, yes I agree 100%. This old thing is so simple yet brilliantly engineered.

I guess the proof is in the pudding, it is at least 50-60 years old and still runs beautifully.

Did you find any of the documents you had mate? Mind you I have around 900 pages of south bend documents so Id say I have what you had anyway!
 
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Ralf99

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Apr 14, 2011
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I e-mailed a bunch the other day to your bigpond address - they would show up as Google drive links as there was 70 Mb or so. Maybe bigpond has considered them spam?
 
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Danshell

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Jun 26, 2016
Messages
206
Location
Tasmania Australia
I e-mailed a bunch the other day to your bigpond address - they would show up as Google drive links as there was 70 Mb or so. Maybe bigpond has considered them spam?

****** yeh I didnt see them. My wife may have deleted them out the spam folder?

Can you try again using the same name but instead of bigpond.com use gmail.com?
 

hewey

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Sep 5, 2014
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Location
Blue Mountains, Australia
That lathe looks beautiful, nice work. And those tractor pieces came out good too - but I think you might need to paint the rest of it to make it match.
 
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Danshell

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Tasmania Australia
Not a lot to show, still plugging away at my lathe project.

I did a bit more work on the bench for it and made some tooling. I ordered all the switches and buttons to make a remote control panel to operate the lathe. This will allow me to mount the VFD under the bench out of the way.
 

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Danshell

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Tasmania Australia
Soooo, have you got that new shaper sorted and tarted up yet? Just askin’...

Ive barely even looked at it yet mate. In fact its covered with an old sheet.

I have been slowly sorting out my old lathe, getting it dialed in and getting the remote switch panel all sorted out. Getting some stuff posted from China has held some of it up though.

The old shaper is next on the list though. I need a few weeks where I dont spend any money as I have been spending a small fortune on tooling etc for my lathe. Theres a lot to be said for putting value on tooling when buying old machinery.
 
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Danshell

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Tasmania Australia
Nothing major going on in the shed front around here although I had to remove all my 'toys' for the youngest daughters 18th party last weekend.

I moved what I could and the rest I covered up with old sheets from the salvos!

The party went well, typical bunch of kids who cant drink any more than 3 drinks with out making themselves sick.......but no casualties.

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And of course her first 'legal' drink ;) She isnt allowed to have a boyfriend until she is 30 so I dont have to worry about that :evil:
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I took the opportunity to clean up the messy corner (again). My sanding/grinding area is always messy, so I made a tray to go under my belt sander and I made a guard to catch the polish from my polishing wheel. I also set up a second grinder so I can have ready to sharpen my drills and lathe bits.

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And finally my latest project is nearly complete. I fitted up an independent 4 jaw chuck to my lathe and I finished wiring in the remote control panel so I now have the VFD hidden under the bench.

Ill get nice engraved placards for the switches one day but for now its just stick plastic things.

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Im now getting the Lathe to a point where everything works well and its dialed in enough to tell me I can do the final tuning after I rebuild it.
And by rebuild I mean just replacing all the felts, painting it with a decent urethane and I have nice new threading charts etc to replace the old ones.
 

Geoff289

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Nov 10, 2013
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Melbourne, Australia
Nice Dan. The lathe looks very schmick!

You're making me feel old though, my youngest are (there's two of them) 30 in a couple of months. I guess I'll have to deal with boyfriends then, will I?
 
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Ralf99

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My youngest has just turned 7...and I’m a few years older than Dan. 10+ more years until I can pack the last one off to university or at least independence. Ohh the joy...

Great work on the lathe setup and party too.
 
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Danshell

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Tasmania Australia
Nothing great happening in my world lately but I did learn how to make acid etch labels so I thought that was worthy of a few pics.

I wanted to put some label son my bench grinders and replace the one on my old drill stand amongst other things.

A few tries and failures but got it good enough in the end.

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For the old drill press I didn't acid etch it, I just used the stenciling material and clear coated it as that was how the original was.
It didn't work out perfect but I think the imperfections make it look authentic for a 1970's drill.

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And just for a bit of stir I made some of my own labels to stick on the odd items I make. Again they didn't turn out perfect but good enough for my needs ;)

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And of course here they are on the items I made them for!

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Danshell

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Tasmania Australia
It has been a very long time since an update so Ill try and summaries what's been happening around here over the last few months with some pictures.....we all love pictures.

Summer time is generally not Shed time for me, I like being in the shed with the fire going during winter but lots of other things have been happening.

I put the gear change and oiling plates etc on my old lathe

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It was right about this time (October) our youngest daughter got quite sick. The poor thing spent the best part of 10 weeks in and out of hospital. It was a difficult period for all concerned.

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I won't bore you with all the details of the several operations but long story short she has crohn's disease.

Her last operation they removed a large part of her intestines and bowel and so far she seems to be going ok since coming out of hospital. It is a terrible disease that can fear up at any time so we have a long road ahead of us.
She is a beautiful young lady and it is heart breaking seeing her go through this but she is now starting to put some weight back on so fingers crossed she is one of the lucky ones.

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Right about the same time our very old dog did an ACL! The poor old thing also has some stomach disease but unless our animals are suffering we keep them alive...so several vet dollars later she had her ACL operation and is still recovering.

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Now to some positive news!!

We havent done a massive amount of work here other than to continually plant tree's and shrubs. I did hire a little machine over the xmas new year break and big intentions of cleaning up some of the property but my ambitions and capabilities on these steep slopes around here got a little confused. So I ended up using the machine somewhere else, which ill get to in a minute.

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But I did finally put some top soil up the side of the house and grew some nice grass.

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Yeh I know, its like watching grass grow. ;)

Prior to Covid we were looking at buying some land on the coast to not only use for camping but as an investment and to possibly one day live there in retirement.

Covid hit and with the uncertainty that it brought we put it off until late last year.

We found a beautiful 4 acre property right on the coast amongst the gumtree's. It is surrounded by national park. It was really over grown with bracken when we bought it but we had to have it.

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There was a lot of dead tree's on the property that we are processing but it is in a really nice area right near some nice beaches.

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To be continued...
 
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Danshell

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Tasmania Australia
So after all the usual Xmas new year shenanigans with the family I spent most of my time at the new block cleaning it up. (I am the grinch of the family!)

First thing I did was to take the ride down there and mow all the bracken.

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We actually spent new years eve camping down there. Notice all the nice green grass etc is now brown, the Aussie summer is harsh unless you are watering.

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I took the little posit rack down there and proceeded to clean up some of the rubbish piles and pushed a several burn piles into place. Ill have to wait until after summer before I can burn them.

The little machine chopped the ground up quite a bit but you need to make a mess in order to clean it up.

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I then went back to work for a couple of weeks and wished I knew how to pay for these nice things without having to work!!

I took another weeks leave last week and spent a good 5 days down here camping, kayaking, working etc.

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I always set up down the back of the block so I can't really be seen from the road. Or when I say down the back, its more the middle. The back of the block has an acre or so of bush, which I love.

So the clean up continued, cutting down the dead tree's and stacking all the rubbish into burn piles.

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I even managed to paint the front entry fence.

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The place is now a mass of dead tree's laying on the ground. It looks so much better with only the healthy green tree's standing but Ill get some pics after all the dead stuff is processed and taken away.

Oh I nearly forgot. Here are few pics of some of the wildlife that visit us when we are camping.

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Lots of Blue tongue lizards on the property. I accidentally killed one when I was mowing the long scrub which didn't sit well with me but there was nothing I could do.

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Plenty of kookaburras of course.

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And this little ring tail possum comes back each time we are there.

So much so that he has no issue sitting on your lap and having a feed of fruit! We dont want to pamper him too much because its important he knows how to survive on his own.

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And that's is about it for now. So until the next update stay safe everyone.
 
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Danshell

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Jun 26, 2016
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Tasmania Australia
I should add one other thing if I havent already put you all to sleep!

Our youngest son as I may have mentioned in the past is a builder so if time permits we are going to put a small 2 bedroom unit/garage on the new property this year.

The plan is to Airbnb it during the times that we are not using it. It may take more than this year to build it though as our son is fully booked building houses and units etc and my annual leave is now non existent!

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In my mind when we retire and build a house down there Ill have a nice large 12m x 12m garage ready to go....but dont tell my wife this :D
 

hewey

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Blue Mountains, Australia
Sorry to hear about your daughter's health concerns, that sounds like a terrible condition to have from the bits I've heard about it. The new block looks pretty damn nice!
 
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Danshell

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Tasmania Australia
Thanks for the comments and well wishes for our daughter gents.

At the moment she is going great, the medication she has to take does lower her immune system so she seems to constantly have a cold or cough some ****** thing but at her age she isn't going to confine herself to home.
 
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