Should I go ahead and open a 401K with my company or would a Roth IRA be better?
Does your company offer matching on one and not the other? In general, a 401k is better because it both puts money into savings and lowers your tax burden. Roth has fewer restrictions, but if you're borrowing against or raiding a retirement account, you're probably fucked anyway.
Not reason not to both, but 401k is better for the reasons Neito mentioned. It's usually a bad idea to borrow against your 401k, but you can do so to buy a primary residence. Any other reason is a really bad idea.
Neither is "better", they're just different options. The most surface level difference is that one is taxed as income when you deposit into it, the other is deferred until you withdraw. So depending on your situation one might align with you more than the other.
Neither is "better", they're just different options. The most surface level difference is that one is taxed as income when you deposit into it, the other is deferred until you withdraw. So depending on your situation one might align with you more than the other.
I believe if you're over 65, you get tax breaks when you withdraw the money, so you can avoid some taxes that way.
Motorola Surfboard is usually pretty good. Just find out from your provider what version of DOCSIS they're running. Should be 3, but check and buy the right kind.
Router-wise, the Archer C7 has been proving very good in my house.
When I play Netrunner I use these metal tokens I bought online. They look like this http://imgur.com/DjDxnXn
There are some problems with them. First of all, the 2s and 5s are very similarly colored. It doesn't help that a 2 is a backwards 5. The 1s and 3s used to be similar as well. But over time, all the tokens have faded and worn out.
What I would like to do is repaint all of them. I figure I can use really bright colors like red, green, blue, etc. to make them more easy to distinguish.
I did what I usually do and research on the Google for information about spray paint. Wow, is this hard to Google. The information available out there is so conflicting and irrelevant. Not to mention that spray paints are so poorly stocked on Amazon. It's very hard to find complete product lines in stock, well organized, at decent prices.
Here are the questions I can't seem to get answered:
1) I'm concerned about inhaling noxious fumes. What do I do about that? Obviously I'm doing this outside, but how far do I need to go to protect myself? If I get a respirator, how fancy do I need to go? Every place I read gives different advice.
2) These metal tokens have some fine details, especially on the honeycomb side. How do I know I'm not getting a paint that's too thick and will effectively erase those details?
3) Do I need primer? Is it beneficial even if I don't absolutely need it? Should I use white or gray?
4) What brand do I get? I've seen a lot of reviews online saying Krylon sucks, but also seen plenty of people using it just fine. It's the cheapest and easiest to get, so I'm tempted to get it anyway. I'm also interested in Tamiya TS since I can use the leftover on Gundam models, but that says it's only for plastic. The Tamiya primer says it's for metal. Can I use the Tamiya TS paint on the metal tokens if I prime them first? Can I use the Tamiya primer with Krylon paint?
5) How much do I need? I've got about 100 tokens, and they are double sided. That's about 225 square inches of surface to cover. Possibly with multiple coats. I shouldn't need more than one can of any color, right? The Tamiya comes in tiny cans, but is that still enough for a job this small? Rustoleum promises 2x coverage, will that be too much?
6) What kind of coat/sealant should I get, if any? I've heard that the paint will chip off if I don't put some kind of coat on there. For something that's handled so much, I'd like to protect it from the hand oils and such.
1. Huff the paint directly. Die historic on the fury road. 2. You don't. Fuck it up a few times to find out. 3. Yes. White. 4. What is cheapest? Get that. 5. Buy slightly too little and make 2 trips. 6. It doesn't matter, Rym is right.
The Three should should have been made with 2 cut and 2 uncut, and the Five with no cut corners. Then you would have been able to tell the value without looking at them. 5 - (1/per cut corner) = Value
My advice for painting is to ask someone who already has the supplies and paints minis to do it for you. You're going to rack up a bill getting the supplies you need to do this once. I'd ask or pay someone who does good paint jobs to do it for you.
1) I'm concerned about inhaling noxious fumes. What do I do about that? Obviously I'm doing this outside, but how far do I need to go to protect myself? If I get a respirator, how fancy do I need to go? Every place I read gives different advice.
In a well ventilated area(Like outside), you should be okay with a dust mask - your exposure will be short, and the hydrocarbons flash off pretty quick.
2) These metal tokens have some fine details, especially on the honeycomb side. How do I know I'm not getting a paint that's too thick and will effectively erase those details?
Non-building primer and thinner model paint. You can get stuff that's suitable for metal - use light coats, until you have full coverage. You shouldn't need much.
You'll want to also keep the can back from the workpeice, about 10-12 inches, kinda mist it on rather than hitting it full force. If you get too close, you'll get paint pooling in those little details. Also, don't do it when it's cold, trust me, it's awful.
3) Do I need primer? Is it beneficial even if I don't absolutely need it? Should I use white or gray?
Yes, if you don't want it chipping off real easy. You need a non-building metal primer - in fact, that Tamiya primer does a pretty decent job. Grey or white should be fine either way.
4) What brand do I get? I've seen a lot of reviews online saying Krylon sucks, but also seen plenty of people using it just fine. It's the cheapest and easiest to get, so I'm tempted to get it anyway. I'm also interested in Tamiya TS since I can use the leftover on Gundam models, but that says it's only for plastic. The Tamiya primer says it's for metal. Can I use the Tamiya TS paint on the metal tokens if I prime them first? Can I use the Tamiya primer with Krylon paint?
You can use the Tamiya on metal, though be careful you get the one that is appropriate for metal, IIRC they do have a plastic-only primer. Their paint should stick to the primer just fine. Krylon should also stick just fine, but I'd advise testing on a bit of scrap materiel to make sure, I've not used the two in combination.
5) How much do I need? I've got about 100 tokens, and they are double sided. That's about 225 square inches of surface to cover. Possibly with multiple coats. I shouldn't need more than one can of any color, right? The Tamiya comes in tiny cans, but is that still enough for a job this small? Rustoleum promises 2x coverage, will that be too much?
I can't actually answer that for you, since it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. According to Tamiya, "Each can contains 100ml of paint, which is enough to fully cover 2 or 3, 1/24 scale sized car bodies." I don't know how big that is either, sorry.
When spraying something like this, estimate your area + about 30-40% for the amount of paint you'll need, because you will have waste.
6) What kind of coat/sealant should I get, if any? I've heard that the paint will chip off if I don't put some kind of coat on there. For something that's handled so much, I'd like to protect it from the hand oils and such.
Testor's dullcote is a pretty good sealer. However, it's matte rather than shiny, so it will dull your metallic colours quite a bit, to the point where they won't look quite so metallic.
ALL THAT SAID - it's not the best course of action. I'd suggest electroplating or anodizing first, and getting someone who is experienced with painting minis second. You'll get better results, but if you want to do it yourself, it is possible.
Yeah, thinning paint is easy if you are using an airbrush. If you are using a spraycan, it's not like you can get the paint back in there after thinning it.
In my experience, spray paint is almost never the solution to any paint-related problem you have.
Clearly a normal bristly brush is wrong. Buying an air brush for a one-time deal is not wise either. As for anodizing, no. First of all, I don't even know what kind of metal these tokens are made of. And I'm not doing anything that involves sulfuric acid. If there's another reasonable solution besides spray paint, I've never heard of it. It's just a question of which ones, and how much.
They're probably pot metal so anno is going to suck if even possible.
Powder coat, ceracote, duracoat or electroplating would be ideal. I Look to the stuff firearms are treated with as a good standard for durability.
Duracoat comes in cans so look there maybe.
If you have to rattle-can it, I like self etch primers, and bake on paints, but by the time your priming and topcoating you're gonna risk losing fine detail.
Test it on the smallest amount of tokens first, presuming you can't get scrap to test on. At least then if you fuck them up, you'll only be fucking up the smallest amount to replace.
Doing freelance design consultancy on the side of my main job.
Taking tomorrow off from my regular job to kill two birds with one stone (plus some misc errands I have to do)
1 is prepare and participate in a status update conference call with the head of engineering and the 3 staffers on my project.
2 is a dental appointment to take care of a long standing but so far managable issue.
But now it appears they pushed my meeting back and it overlaps with the dental appt.
If I cancel the dentist it will likely be a month or two wait and a may get a penalty for changing within 24 hours if I wait
If I tell the guys at the company I need to push it again that affects at least 3-4 guys schedules for the day.
Think I should cancel the dentist? I get the feeling it happens all the time so they don't care, while rounding people for this call may be difficult. Meanwhile my tooth situation isn't going to get any better on its own.
Comments
Router-wise, the Archer C7 has been proving very good in my house.
There are some problems with them. First of all, the 2s and 5s are very similarly colored. It doesn't help that a 2 is a backwards 5. The 1s and 3s used to be similar as well. But over time, all the tokens have faded and worn out.
What I would like to do is repaint all of them. I figure I can use really bright colors like red, green, blue, etc. to make them more easy to distinguish.
I did what I usually do and research on the Google for information about spray paint. Wow, is this hard to Google. The information available out there is so conflicting and irrelevant. Not to mention that spray paints are so poorly stocked on Amazon. It's very hard to find complete product lines in stock, well organized, at decent prices.
Here are the questions I can't seem to get answered:
1) I'm concerned about inhaling noxious fumes. What do I do about that? Obviously I'm doing this outside, but how far do I need to go to protect myself? If I get a respirator, how fancy do I need to go? Every place I read gives different advice.
2) These metal tokens have some fine details, especially on the honeycomb side. How do I know I'm not getting a paint that's too thick and will effectively erase those details?
3) Do I need primer? Is it beneficial even if I don't absolutely need it? Should I use white or gray?
4) What brand do I get? I've seen a lot of reviews online saying Krylon sucks, but also seen plenty of people using it just fine. It's the cheapest and easiest to get, so I'm tempted to get it anyway. I'm also interested in Tamiya TS since I can use the leftover on Gundam models, but that says it's only for plastic. The Tamiya primer says it's for metal. Can I use the Tamiya TS paint on the metal tokens if I prime them first? Can I use the Tamiya
primer with Krylon paint?
5) How much do I need? I've got about 100 tokens, and they are double sided. That's about 225 square inches of surface to cover. Possibly with multiple coats. I shouldn't need more than one can of any color, right? The Tamiya comes in tiny cans, but is that still enough for a job this small? Rustoleum promises 2x coverage, will that be too much?
6) What kind of coat/sealant should I get, if any? I've heard that the paint will chip off if I don't put some kind of coat on there. For something that's handled so much, I'd like to protect it from the hand oils and such.
Spray paint in almost all its forms will just chip right off of those metal coins.
2. You don't. Fuck it up a few times to find out.
3. Yes. White.
4. What is cheapest? Get that.
5. Buy slightly too little and make 2 trips.
6. It doesn't matter, Rym is right.
Use alcohol inks sealed with resin.
My advice for painting is to ask someone who already has the supplies and paints minis to do it for you. You're going to rack up a bill getting the supplies you need to do this once. I'd ask or pay someone who does good paint jobs to do it for you.
You'll want to also keep the can back from the workpeice, about 10-12 inches, kinda mist it on rather than hitting it full force. If you get too close, you'll get paint pooling in those little details. Also, don't do it when it's cold, trust me, it's awful. Yes, if you don't want it chipping off real easy. You need a non-building metal primer - in fact, that Tamiya primer does a pretty decent job. Grey or white should be fine either way. You can use the Tamiya on metal, though be careful you get the one that is appropriate for metal, IIRC they do have a plastic-only primer. Their paint should stick to the primer just fine. Krylon should also stick just fine, but I'd advise testing on a bit of scrap materiel to make sure, I've not used the two in combination. I can't actually answer that for you, since it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. According to Tamiya, "Each can contains 100ml of paint, which is enough to fully cover 2 or 3, 1/24 scale sized car bodies." I don't know how big that is either, sorry.
When spraying something like this, estimate your area + about 30-40% for the amount of paint you'll need, because you will have waste. Testor's dullcote is a pretty good sealer. However, it's matte rather than shiny, so it will dull your metallic colours quite a bit, to the point where they won't look quite so metallic.
ALL THAT SAID - it's not the best course of action. I'd suggest electroplating or anodizing first, and getting someone who is experienced with painting minis second. You'll get better results, but if you want to do it yourself, it is possible.
Is there a manufacturer you can contact? They might have ideas.
Powder coat, ceracote, duracoat or electroplating would be ideal. I Look to the stuff firearms are treated with as a good standard for durability.
Duracoat comes in cans so look there maybe.
If you have to rattle-can it, I like self etch primers, and bake on paints, but by the time your priming and topcoating you're gonna risk losing fine detail.
Taking tomorrow off from my regular job to kill two birds with one stone (plus some misc errands I have to do)
1 is prepare and participate in a status update conference call with the head of engineering and the 3 staffers on my project.
2 is a dental appointment to take care of a long standing but so far managable issue.
But now it appears they pushed my meeting back and it overlaps with the dental appt.
If I cancel the dentist it will likely be a month or two wait and a may get a penalty for changing within 24 hours if I wait
If I tell the guys at the company I need to push it again that affects at least 3-4 guys schedules for the day.
Think I should cancel the dentist? I get the feeling it happens all the time so they don't care, while rounding people for this call may be difficult. Meanwhile my tooth situation isn't going to get any better on its own.