Ask HN: What company do you wish existed? What is a product or service that would save you time and/or money if it existed? It could be something you would work on, but don't have the time. Or it might be something you don't have the expertise to build. |
For instance, I need an 18-24" piece of 2x4 to prop up an air conditioner, and a couple 30" lengths of 1x10 to convert steam radiators into makeshift shelving. Oh, and four 36" lengths of 1/4" dowel to sew into the bottoms of curtains.
Obstacles to my acquiring these:
1) The small corner hardware stores I can get to on foot or by transit don't sell lumber, period.
2) I don't own a car, and hate driving (I do have a license, but many of my neighbors don't, and I can get about my daily life 99% of the time without one).
3) OK, let's say I take a cab to a big box store. They'll only sell me full 8' lengths of lumber.
4) Fine, I rent a car or get a cab home, or maybe Home Depot has finally worked out that New Yorkers will buy more if they provide delivery even for small sales.
5) At this point, I've already spent $100 on taxis or more on car rental just getting to and from the store.
6) I finally get the lumber home, and I can't cut it. I live in a New York apartment, with no outdoor space for projects like this. I own a screw gun because it's useful for assembling Ikea furniture and attaching stuff to walls, but for obvious reasons I don't own a hand saw let alone a circular saw or table saw. Neither do any of my neighbors. And even if I had a saw, no way it's getting anywhere near my apartment's hardwood floors (do you have any idea how much the security deposit was?)
7) By some miracle, I find someone to lend me a saw AND a space to cut the lumber in (where??) -- I have nowhere to put the scraps and no sensible way to get rid of them.
Buy a handsaw at the big box store when you buy your wood, cut it in the parking lot before loading it into a cab/uber/rental car. Only do rough cuts (e.g. a little longer than you need) unless you have 100% certain dimensions. Buy sandpaper and sand your way to perfect fit at home, if needed.
The 4 36" dowel rods should be purchase-able in that size. You could ask the big box store to cut larger boards, they do this in the lumber area for plywood.
If this is too much to take on - hire a handyman to do the prop for the AC and ask for them to get the other supplies.
Home depot lumber is super expensive to begin with, so it's kind of baked in to the cost.
It's a short walk from the R train (Northern Blvd stop) and longer but still easily walkable from the 7 (52nd Street) and longer yet but most reliable LIRR (61st Street). There is also a surprisingly good sausage and pepper stand out front of the Home Depot. Go in get your lumber cut, get a sausage and pepper hero and take a cab back in to the city. It's about 10 minutes from the 59th st bridge via Skillman Ave.
I live in a tiny apartment and bought a hand saw (like $10 maybe?), used a ceramic plant container as a workbench (cut over the hole in the middle so I didn't saw through my work surface, it also collects sawdust) and just hand sawed a bunch of stuff. Hand sawing sucks and takes forever but for your needs it's manageable tho may be 3hours or work or so :)
For a dowel in a curtain, not at all.
For an air conditioner prop, depends on its weather resistance properties and whether it's open at the ends (don't really want to make it a home for critters). In this case the plan was to use the aforementioned screw gun to attach the 2x4 to a piece of 2x6 that I already have -- which is a lot easier to do with wood than metal if you don't have specialized tools.
It will be using karalabe/xgo for building these static executables.
So it can build these for all operating systems
- web servers
- cli applications
1. https://www.viacharacter.org/www/Research/What-the-Research-...
1. http://www.viacharacter.org/blog/use-your-strengths-to-furth...
“Here’s this new middlemanapp project running scss through sprockets. Set it up to process scss through webpack, make sprite-based icons from images in this folder, compile es6 and vue modules or coffee script and cue modules, include lodash, set up the hot reload to work with middleman’s, and prep production and Dev environments.”
I’d pay for something like this.
If you want the laundry ironed as well then a dry cleaner will do it for you. Some of them pickup and drop off.
I don’t think the problem is solved yet in a way that’s satisfying.
https://www.amazon.com/lumber/b?node=13399291
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/136-5824533-098820...
https://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/poll/poll-buying-lumber-onl...
2) won't cut to custom size; mostly already-finished
3) ditto
4) discussion... mostly about buying in larger quantities, presumably from people who have full garage/basement/backyard carpentry facilities in which to cut it to size, etc.