Dammit, still find myself pondering gadgets…

any new suggestions?

How about one of these?
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aqAUmgE3WyM[/video]

Think I might build one out of Lego Mindstorms.

Buy a lathe. You can never go wrong buying machine tools. I just bought this:

New lathe… by Ben Cooper, on Flickr

I rather like that Sunnto Ambit… justifiable by lots of dog walking possibly?

Delivery man dropped off an Apple Trackpad the other day. Quite enjoying that at the moment. Also replaced my old NAS with a Lacie 2big NAS, nicely designed bit of kit even though it’s not quite as fiddleable with as my old QNAP…

Also got a Transcend Wifi SD card. Stick it in the camera and I can access photos from an app on the Pad or a web page on the PC. Pretty cool gadge. 32gb and class 10 too, better than the Sandisk ones.

Whole family’s had some good fun with this 😀

Aquascooter2 by Davesport62, on Flickr

Aquascooter1 by Davesport62, on Flickr

Transcend Wifi SD card

How’s that compare to an eye-fi? This intrigues me… Does it need to be on a access point to work, or will it do peer-2-peer on a phone/ipad?

Whole family’s had some good fun with this

More jealous of what appears to be a well equipped garage complete with an airline?

I need a Curta mechanical calculator.

Buying a lathe is also a great idea.

I need a Curta mechanical calculator.

Ever tried using one? You think you need one now, wait until you try cranking some numbers through it 😉

Mine cost more than that lathe, though…

Curta Dismantled by Ben Cooper, on Flickr

Ever tried using one?

No – but as a result of this thread I am watching two auctions on ebay…

You think you need one now, wait until you try cranking some numbers through it

Do you mean they are really hard to use? Or a pleasure to use? (I assume the latter.)

How’s that compare to an eye-fi? This intrigues me… Does it need to be on a access point to work, or will it do peer-2-peer on a phone/ipad?

Went for the Transcend as it was class 10 which is a lot better than the current Eye-fi. Use it by connecting to the access point it generates at the moment. You can configure it with up to 5 networks for it to join automatically but I’ve not given that a go yet. I would assume if the iPad/iPhone is on the same network as the card then the app would just connect, but I may be wrong!

Do you mean they are really hard to use? Or a pleasure to use? (I assume the latter.)

You know the feeling when you wind up a really, really good mechanical watch or clock? Like that, but much better.

It’s an astounding piece of engineering – I read somewhere that to make one nowadays would cost you millions, there’s so many tiny custom precision parts.

Slight hijack …

IA – Member

Some good suggestions here. Bit worried about Chewkw

As a kid I used to go into the jungle with a machete (sometimes with an axe) with my friends to chop trees etc for whatever reasons. Managed to convince my mum to buy me a bowie knife only for it to be stolen 😡

I then got interested in Jap Chef knives for normal cooking because I wanted traditional carbon steel blade for edge retention etc … most are big cleavers.

Now, I want to go camping in some remote “forest” so using a Chinese cleaver might be out of the question. I want a proper machete (traditional parang machete) but they expensive (my mate is making one for me using metal from car spring apparently) so I am looking around. Somehow I am turning into some sort of knife hoarder …

infidel – Member

Chewkw – I’ve got a strider folder which I’m toying with selling. Interested?

Which strider is that? GB or AR? They are expensive as far as I know …

How much do want to sell it for? 😀

I_Ache – Member

chewkw My old man has 2 hand me down Ghurka Kukri one ex service one ceremonial. He has said I can have the ex-service one, I cant wait to get my hands on it.

Go for the ex service one as the ceremonial one is merely for look. The ones I listed from Cold Steel seem fine but not very traditional in design. The cheaper of the Cold Steel Kukri should do the job if you are messing about as you don’t have to worry about damage to it. The expensive one from Cold Steel … that’s for the Zombies head chop. 😆 I was going to order from Nepal but just have to postpone that idea for now as I might get the cheaper Cold Steel Kukri first …

A laser has to be well up there on the list of gadgets – I just bought this one for doing frame alignment:

Is it a sign of my age that when offered a choice of colour I went for anodised red?

Depends if purple was an option you turned down or not?

Lasers are cool.

It was a toss-up between the red or blue – they do black or grey too, but no.

Just spent a happy half hour calibrating it…

Do you have to buy a calibrating laser?

And then another laser to calibrate the calibrating laser?

No – I put it on a big steel bar and drew lines on a cardboard box on the other side of the shop 😉

have you got a speedbump in your workshop?

I’m contemplating this little gadget. Andoid OS to plug into your TV, potential for running SNES etc emulators and using a PS/XBOX controller.

have you got a speedbump in your workshop?

Yes 🙂

I want a 3D mouse.

All mice are 3D. Apart from trackpads.

This one’s not: