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This year, for Spring Break; we're planning on going to Washington DC. This has been on the docket for some time now and "come hell or high water", we're going! As it works out, with children 3 years apart, here in the state of Texas, both of them are taking some version of American History in school, so it's the most obvious time to go. We sure don't want to go in the summer. Nobody wants to be in DC during that time of year!
One of the obvious things about any trip there is that there'll be lots of pictures taken. I know what you're thinking! He's going to talk about replacing his camera..... ah..... no..... Doh! Let me go ahead and say that I evaluated this strategy long and hard.
The Olympus Pen-F has had me salivating for some time now. Just think about it: it's up-to-date current state-of-the-art, it's new and stunning. I could channel my long forgotten inner "range-finder" camera street photographer..... Besides, it's way smaller than the beast!!!
Let's cut to the chase. At the end of the day, my old Nikon D300 with the 18-200mm lens mounted can shoot virtually every photo I need to shoot. When I do my part, it can shoot them all well. I have pretty much all the lenses I need and I own it. Don't have to buy a thing!
Except this. What the D300 can't do is video, nor can it remake itself into something that can go anywhere inside a pocket. If those of you with long memories think this reminds you of my short affair with the Panasonic GF1, you'd be close.... but no cigar.
Here are the 2 cameras compared. You can easily put the LX5 in a jacket pocket or even some pants pockets, but certainly not the GF1. Even when it has the 20mm pancake lens on and the VF-1 viewfinder off. Where the GF1 can rightfully have "big camera" pretensions with it's Micro 4/3rds sensor, the LX5 is a compact from the ground up with a sensor a quarter of the size. However, with the resolution at 10 Megapixels, it does a nice job without a lot of noise... unless you get frisky with the ISO! It's main calling cards?
It can go anywhere and not call attention to itself, very unlike the huge D300!
It's lens starts at a 35mm equivalent of 24mm! With lots of inside (yet panoramic) photo opportunities such as above in DC, it's pretty much be with me the whole time.
Would I love to get a new camera? YES! Would I love the new Olympus? YESSSSS!!! Do I need it? Can I get done what needs to be done with what I have? Will switching systems fix the thing that the D300 can't do? Ahhh.... No...... Sometimes you just have to be satisfied with what you have and do the cheap fix. Yup; it was cheap. I picked up my slightly beat up LX5 off of Craigslist for $95. Yes, I had to jump through hoops, meaning that I had to get a former student who's going to school down in Waco to pick it up after giving the money to her brother to give to her mom to deposit in her account! But hey. Problem solved..... frugally.
Take a good look at this picture.... because it's a rare beast! It's a "bought new" machine. It doesn't matter whether it's photography, computing, audio/video, or wood-working. I rarely, and actually kinda hate buying new. This came about because of Christmas and my wife, demanding that I list something she could go out to a store and get me for a present!
Now.... this is more like it..... I'm about to drive across the metroplex to outside Weatherford (far opposite side of Dallas/Ft. Worth from me) to pick it up. Reason? It's free..... kind of....
Actually; I'm driving out there to buy the Bosch RA1181 router table and the Delta BS100 bandsaw for $125 and I'm getting the grinder thrown in for free. Let me explain what happened here. People who do a fair amount of woodworking use both the bandsaw as well as the router. One allows you to make cuts that are simply not possible on a table saw and pretty much look like crap when done with a jigsaw. And the other allows far greater precision when working with a router. Yes, I'm aware that, it's kind of a cheap little bandsaw, but that's kind of where I am right now, in my level of needs and ability to store it. The other one is a little more complex. I've been needing a router table ever since I started using this versitile tool, but I don't really have room for a "free-standing" one, nor do I have benchtop space for one like the Bosch above (it's the bigger of the 2 you can buy at Lowes). That doesn't make sense? Let me explain.
People like me are left with one of two ways to exercise another option...... that of attaching a table "extension" to one side (or wing) of our table saw. One way to do it is to pay several hundred $$$ to purchase a Peachtree (above) or Benchdog extension table made of cast iron to attach to your saw. You guys know that is obviously a no-go for me.
The other option to to cut wood (or MDF) to fit that space and make your own. This was what I was planing on doing until I ran into option 3 above. Typically, before I even start planning something, I watch as many Youtube videos as I can to see what others have done and what ideas are out there. One of the videos didn't involve any building. Quite the opposite. The guy took apart his table like the Bosch shown above and drilled holes in the side, then proceeded to bolt that to his table saw! I was a little stunned. I never thought of that! So I started looking around to see if there were any pre-made ones that was the correct width to span the 27" that I had. And sure enough, some of the bigger models were exactly that size. Unfortunately, they were about $175 new...... 😰 Back to self-building! Then, while I was scanning Craigslist, I saw that a guy out in Weatherford was selling an inexpensive Delta bandaw, the big Bosch router table I needed and some other things as well..... like a grinder. You may ask yourself, why would I try and buy another grinder? Apparently, a grinder isn't just for grinding. People often grind, then polish on them, or use a brass wire brush to scrub away stuff. If you only have one grinder, you end up having to take off your grinding stones to mount the other stuff. So people will often set up more than one so that can just move from machine to machine to get everything done saving lots of time and aggravation. So, if a guy from whom your trying to buy a router table and bandsaw from has a nice grinder listed for $25, why not bargain? He was asking $50 for the bandsaw and $75 for the router table. We settled on $125 total.
So yeah.... I'm going to jump in the car after school, and driving an hour and a half to pick up these tools!
Between, this stuff, the $325 I paid for the table saw currently selling for $600 at Lowes and the planar I got last week for $85. I've created a pretty decently equipped shop for not much over $500! I guess that's Frugal..... Carpentry?
There's a downside of working in/with technology..... No this isn't my office, but it does often takes on a similar look. When a machine goes down and/or is simply replaced, that doesn't mean that it isn't of use. There are many parts that can be quite valuable. Just last month, I took a screen out of a broken laptop to fix another, and a small plastic lever out of a printer to repair another. However, this stuff takes up room. Even keeping something temporarily before I get rid of it requires space. Even though, I have the office inside the house, it can't look like a warehouse! It's also the guest bedroom, so theirs a bed AND it's in the house and needs to look presentable..... I am married! So, how does this have to do with my "other" hobby?
You might remember, about a month ago, I picked up this Delta table saw, the 36-725. A fairly heavy duty 10" "hybrid" saw. This is the agent of change. With a fence accurate enough so that I can set a width on the scale and it'll cut to that measurement over and over again. It's also powerful enough to take my dado stack and therefore giving me the ability to do joinery. This is the "game-changer" in my garage. Over the holiday break, I made a couple of smaller, but important projects.
I started smallest, with a cabinet similar to this one, that holds my collection of cordless tools. This took care of two things. One; it helped me organize these important and often-used tools in a location for quick access. Two; it cleared space on the peg-board above and off the top of my workbench. It also offered me the opportunity to practice making joints. This is a skill that only comes through a lot of practice. It was also great because it only costs a couple of cans of spray paint since I had enough scrap wood to get it done.
Then I built something akin to this. If you'll imagine just the top part without the clamps below and mounted where the upper 12" of the pegboard above my workbench used to be. This came about because I realized that I couldn't reach anything on the last foot of my pegboard so there was nothing there but wasted space. However, I figured that if the tools up there were big and protruded, I could get them down. This plus the space on top of it cleared off two shelves of wire-shelf stack I have...... which brings me full-circle back to the computer parts that I need to keep, but also need to get out of my office.... TA-DA!!!
Of course, that's by no means the end of it. Two other necessities that will happen also is a "lumber cart" for the wood that taking up half the other wall in the garage and a cabinet that I can use to hold smaller "bench-top" tools for which I don't have a bench where they can permanently live!
But, very likely the next item to be built with be a small, but important addition to my office. These are variously called "tech-benches" or "test-benches", but are simply open-air test-beds that provide easy access for testing computer components. This will make my life lots easier in the office!
