The Skool Classifieds is hosting a masterclass today on what makes a good course. If any of you are doing courseware or using your community classroom, it might be a good fit. I'll be attending for sure. Just thought I'd share in case any of you are interested.

With spring coming soon, we're getting everything in place to start content creation. There will be more useful stuff coming as soon as enough snow is gone for tool setup. I know it's been slow and kinda boring in here the last couple weeks. Being held hostage by the weather really does stink. I do have content planned as soon as weather permits. On another note things are moving along nicely with the other community, The Pennywise Pantry at https://www.skool.com/the-pennywise-pantry-5772/about Text version of the the course is almost done. As soon as it and the Affiliate guide are ready we'll be launching that large scale. Members there will be able to promote the community here on Skool and elsewhere and earn 40% commissions when we go live. Once that is active, time will be split between the two communities. More on the schedule in the near future.

As I mentioned a few days ago, some changes were coming. What has basically happened is that all the Kitchen, cooking, and saving on groceries content that was planned for this community has been moved to a new one, The Pennywise Pantry. I will be "grandfathering" in existing members from The Pinchpenny Diyer. All you need to do is DM me with your Skool email address and I will send you the Invite. The Pennywise Pantry will focus exclusively on Food affordability and low-cost meals. At the end of February, that community will be going pro. At that time, the affiliate program will be put in place and will be set to pay 40% commissions for referrals. Not only will The Pennywise Pantry help save you money on your grocery bill, learn smarter shopping skills and prepare low-cost meals, it could also even help cover your food expenses for your household. With that said, The Kitchen category will be locked and will no longer be taking posts. All content will be copied or moved over to The Pennywise Pantry located at this link: https://www.skool.com/the-pennywise-pantry-5772/about

Happy Tuesday all! Just wanted to give you all an update. My son will be joining me part time on Skool. In light of this change, I've decided that I will be making some changes to this community to accommodate his coming aboard. He's an avid foodie and loves to experiment in the kitchen. By the end of the day, all the Kitchen topics will be split off into their own community. This is being done to assist in directing topic focus for my son, who is a high-functioning adult with disabilities. Further details will be released as soon as the community is open. This "split" will also be part of a community refocusing here. Since the DIY space is quite broad, I'll be getting more Specific here and narrowing the topics to Gardening, Woodworking, Metal Fabrication, and some entry-level forging stuff. This will also assist in developing video content creation schedules come spring. With that said, I'll close this update and get to work. Have a great day and an amazing rest of your week! Roy - The Pinchpenny DIYer

What is predrilling, and how can it save you time and money? We're going to look at that today. I'll explain what predrilling is, what it's for, what it does, as well as when and how it should be used. So what is predrilling anyway? Short answer, it's drilling a small hole first before driving a fastener into your material. Long answer, predrilling is the act of drilling a hole, often called a pilot hole, the length of your fastener, before driving it into your material. This fastener can be a screw or lag bolt, and, in some cases even a nail, depending on the application and need. Now, if your wondering what predrilling is for, the answer is material stress relief. When you take a fastener and drive it into your material, you are in essence, pushing material out of the way. This causes internal stresses in your material in the form of outward pressure from your fastener. While these stresses don't cause much of an effect when you are working with thicker materials or a significant distance from the edge of your material, they can cause destructive results in thinner materials and at locations close to the edge of said material. This effect usually causes materials to split and lose structural strength. Soooo, how does predrilling help? In short, it removes excess material, which makes for less material needing to be pushed out of the way. Less material moved equals less stress and pressure. The best times to predrill are those when you have to work close to the edge of your materials, or you have to work with thin, potentially brittle materials. The task of predrilling is fairly straightforward; it's drilling a hole. The key is actually in selecting the right size of drill bit. My personal rule of thumb is to select a drill bit that is no more than 1/2 the thickness of my fastener if it's a nail, and no more than 1/2 the thickness of my fastener PLUS 1.5 mm which is close to 1/16th of an inch, if my fastener is a screw or lag bolt. By removing that amount of material from the path of your fastener, I find that it is enough to relieve the stresses and prevent damage, which in turn maintains material strength.