Just ran across this today: The Shapeoko I have no idea what I'd do with it, but holy shit I want one. Bad. FOCUS: What cool gadgets do you lust after? ALT-FOCUS: Ever bought that "must-have" gadget only to find it got used once and has collected dust ever since?
Found it on this reddit post: http://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/2f ... boxes_for/ To start with this: And do this: To get to this: Never mind do this: Is pretty damn cool. Especially for under $1k.
With an infinite budget? I'd have a workshop with a 3d scanner, a 3d plastic printer and a 3d metal printer, a CNC jig and computer controlled plasma cutter, a forge and a crucible, a casting and moulding space with a vacuform, a rope machine with a 200' run or dynamic retensioning points,and programmable industrial sewing machines for heavy fabric and sails. Ideally with a couple of heavy lathes for metal and wood, a band saw and lumber yard grade saw table. My shed would need to be the size of a small warehouse... But worth it.
I want an industrial meat grinder, meat slicer, and sweet but totally impractical, a band saw for butchering. Scanning ebay and 2nd hand restaurant sites still yields shit way out of my price range for each. One of my friends got a Hobart slicer for free when the place he worked for was just going to toss it out. My grinder is way under powered and does collect dust most of the year. Still great when I do use it. Same goes with my vacuum sealer. I got one of those blend tech smoothie makers you see at smoothie king with the plexiglass cover for Christmas and Im trying to get into it more. I need one of those deep freezers for my basement. Id store all my deer in it and probably goes half on a side of bass fed beef from a local farmer with someone and butcher it all up myself.
Techshop opened a facility here in town this past spring. I like the business model, but the membership fees are higher than what I'm willing to pay to become a regular user. However I would sign up for a one month membership if I had a specific project in mind if I knew I could finish within a month.
I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to aquariums and fish, so I lust after all sorts of fancy and ambitious aquarium apparatus and design. I have a fairly simple 40 gallon freshwater tank in my apartment, but if cost and space weren't an issue, I'd have a room with a couple tanks including a few open top, multi-level tanks. ALT-FOCUS: There is an old adage in music production along the lines of "get good at producing good quality from shitty equipment before you upgrade to nice equipment". I disregarded that entirely. I have a decent amount of varying music gear, all above average in quality, that I don't use nearly enough for a variety of reasons. I'm competent with most of it, but a lot, not nearly enough to justify spending 50% more than a comparable piece.
Focus: In a perfect world, I'd have a 3D laser scanner and one of these bad boys in the garage: OR, more practically I'd still give my left nut for a nice old milling machine and lathe, 16" bandsaw, wide planer and jointers, vacuum bagging kit, welding and forging setup (and the education to use all of that)... which would allow me to fabricate pretty much anything I'd want to or the tools themselves necessary to take things even further.
When I was living in London I hung out at this place a bit: http://unlab.ca/ It's a very cool idea, and the "Maker Movement" is really helping to push them out in various cities. I've been looking for something like that locally, but no luck so far. Money-no-object? This is my wet dream:
I have one of these: http://www.shopsmith.com/markvsite/ I bought it from my wife's uncle about 5 years ago. I have used it precisely... not even once. Hopefully that will change one of these years.
It is such an amazing all-in-one device, and my dad has had one as well for as long as I can remember. I've never seen him use it. One came up for sale locally with ALL the attachments, for cheap, and I was really tempted to pick it up... until I realized that I, too, would never use it.
I assume "air conditioner" and "dishwasher" (prohibited by lease in the latter case) are a bit too mundane. ALT-FOCUS: My first espresso machine collected dust; I figured I just 'didn't like it' despite liking espresso from coffee shops. I had asked for it as a gift and hadn't researched what actually went into a real espresso setup so when I had a 'do-over' eight years later I got it right.
My husband built his own cnc router from scratch, that was a looooong project. To say he's big into gadgets would be an understatement. His latest one he's been playing with is an oculus rift vr headset. I'm a tightwad generally, so I rarely buy (brand new) any gadget unless I am confident that I will use it multiple times. Stuff from thrift stores are fair game and I've had plenty of things that collected dust. Then I have to play the game of deciding whether to get rid of it. Because what if I need it in the future omg?!?! A recent one - My husband wanted to fry a turkey one thanksgiving and didn't want to get one of the huge fryers that might be used once. So we got one of those indoor countertop models, figuring we'd use it for frying other stuff. And we did, a handful of times. But each time we'd realize what a pain in the ass it was for various reasons and eventually stopped using it altogether. My husband finally got rid of it just last week. Something that might be an alt-alt-focus, but a few years ago I got a handheld grater (the kind with the crank and has multiple pieces) from goodwill that I almost never used, and when we moved I almost tossed it. But I ended up keeping it because it didn't take up that much room at the time. Over the course of the next two years I've contemplated tossing it because it was taking up room in the gadget drawer than I initially thought. And then just in the past few months I have started using it much more frequently. I'd gotten fed up with either having to haul out the food processor or using the box grater and fear for my fingers. Now I love the thing and won't ever let it go.
Focus: If I ever find a fridge that makes ice like Sonic does - I will promise The Husband blow jobs for a year straight to buy it. Alt Focus: The Keurig. I hate that thing, and its coffee.
He can thank me later. http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com...rce=googleps&gclid=CIe6kOTrx8ACFZJr7AodU00Aqw
Close. That's an ice machine. And if our kitchen had space for one...I'd probably hit my knees right now. No, I need the fridge to do it so it's also a refrigerator.
You can make sno cones, too, to go with the blowjobs. http://www.searsoutlet.com/25-1-cu-ft-S ... onType=all
Pellet ice is one of those things that people love or hate. The people that hate it (like my husband) believe that it melts too quickly and waters down your drink. I have loved it ever since I was a kid and would order a Mr. Pibb at the skating rink snack bar and it had that kind of ice. Ahhhh It's funny this came up because I used the ice machine downstairs in our building for the first time this morning and it was the pellet ice.