SternWhats a hobby/craft that you wouldn't expect that has an incredibly high ceiling either monetarily or in sheer skill?
JesterRaiinWarhammer 40k
Comparably, Gunpla also goes hard on costs (though imo its more for associated materials like paint then the models themselves, which can be pricy but tend not to be.) and the quality of some of what folks put out there is staggering, as shown in the 10th Gunpla Builders World Cup
MajesticSlothI appreciate that link, thanks. I have built a few, haven’t even painted though. I just like building stuff I don’t need glue for.
Those builds remind me of a guy I worked with that back in the day would be a model builder for cars that the model companies hired to build the model for the box covers before they mostly started using photos of real cars. He was just so talented. Even bashed some kits so they could be molded to create new models for some companies. One of them was when they wanted an old woody station wagon so he basically took 10 different kits and created it for their mold.
guylacaptivitePlaying music has basically no skill ceiling.
trashcanAnd you can get by without a lot of equipment. Though a used audio interface and an old laptop is nice to have.
True. But also equally true if you do buy equipment and indulge in every temptation. There is absolutely egregiously expensive gear in all shapes and forms.
Oh you don’t need to tell me that 😔
The last synth on my “really really want” list is hovering around $15k right now. I’ll probably never get one :(
Ah yeah the gear goblins are real I swear. They keep telling me I absolutely need a 6-string fretless to get good and I think they might actually be right you know, it just makes so much sense. Why waste time limiting myself to 4-strings. But they also think I’m too dumb and will have to get a 5 string before, I really need to take baby steps after all… Ahh well, it’s not like I needed that 5k anyway.
Also no spending ceiling
MugmoorGear Acquisition Syndrome is very real.
Keyboards are generally known about, but the ergo part of it is a rabbit hole within the rabbit hole. Some people literally design, 3D print, wire up, solder and program one-off keyboards because they don’t like the ones made by other people.
Have run across a community for that a lot since coming on Lemmy. It is pretty crazy and I had no idea.
They were/are one of the largest enthusiast groups on Reddit, so it makes sense they have a large presence on Lemmy too.
demesisxIt’s infectious too. I REALLY want to get good with one! and don’t get me started on the absolute craziest style: chorded keyboards! Insane!
CharaChorder typing / chording demo ⌨️
Oh my gosh, I searched it and it looks hard to use but once you get good, you can type faster than the fastest typist using a regular keyboard.
Interesting!
Have you tried one? I’ve been pretty curious about them
Not yet but I am seriously considering building a badass ergo keyboard at some point once I see a good enough design to copy.
I wonder if someone could outperform a Stenographer with a chorded?
Stenographers usually use something pretty similar so I doubt it. The one’s I’ve seen (to be fair, live captioners, not stenographers) use something that’s closer to a piano than a normal keyboard, and it types full words rather than letters, but also has a regular typing functionality. Pretty cool to watch honestly.
Steno machines are also "chorded", and they type in a form of shorthand where sounds, words, and phrases can be represented by just a few characters. My guess is that given equal skill levels, a steno machine would still be faster.
No way. Stenographers can transcribe speech live. Some have been timed at close to 400 wpm. While the top chorded typing is closer to 250wpm. Good, but nowhere close to a stenotype. Both are pretty ridiculously fast though. A pretty fast typist can barely approach 100.
I switched to colemak-DH a while ago and it’s been great. Much more comfortable than QWERTY even on a standard keyboard.
Dactyl manuform user here. Can confirm
I wish there were keyboards with smaller keys. I feel like keyboards and pianos are made for people with huge hands. For some chords (in my beginner’s book) there’s just no way physically for me to execute them. I think if I had had a smaller keyboard I would have had a much easier time and would have stuck with it longer.
I would never program and build my own keyboard but I get it.
check out Drops Preonic. because it is ortho, all the keys are much closer together. I have one at home and at work.
There used to be smaller keyboards. Chyrosran22 reviewed one from the 80s, but I can’t find the video right now. Maybe someone else remembers the model.
The nice thing is that it’s possible to find your “endgame” where you are satisfied without spending a TON. I’m happy with my Drop ALT, stock key caps, and Zeal Zilent v2s. Mind you that was my 3rd or 4th board of varying “depth” in the scene. 🤣
synclair1I did exactly this! It was super fun! Ergodox keyboard is very expensive. I spent about $40 on my custom one. It works great too :)
How did you spend only $40 on a custom ergo? When I built mine, I 3d printed the cases myself, but it’s still $30 for cheap key switches, $20 for cheap keycaps, $20 for a pro micro, and at least $40 for PCBs,unless you handwire.
Or did you reuse existing switches and keycaps?
Sorry, forgot to mention, I handwired and reused key caps. I have a lot of extra sets from liking keyboards for a while lol.
I also used a pi pico which took some extra tlc but saved a good chunk of money (1 pico is 7 dollars and only one is necessary).
The DIY fallacy. “You can do this yourself for just $20. You only need some string, a bottle cap. And $5k of equipment and materials that have accumulated in your garage from around a decade of on and off hobbyist hoarding. Then you too can own a solar powered battery 3D printed fusion ferromagnetic screwdriver.”
I get it, but to be fair, the keycaps I already had were only about $20 on Amazon. So if you want to be pedantic I spent $60 total. Still beats the $300 plus for the ergodox. Also, if you really want to get into it, it took me around 25 hours to fully complete since I opted to hand wire. So factor in whatever your hourly rate is times 25 hours to get the opportunity cost of the diy job. Maybe you’re right and it just makes sense to buy the darn thing. At least I had fun though.
Most people don’t even own a soldering iron to wire it all. That’s another $20 right there. Just, it’s fine to say DIY is about the fun. And by all means, anyone who wants to have fun tinkering with some tech, go ahead, it’s a blast. But it’s never about the money. It’s disingenuous to tell people, “Oh I did this $300 at retail machine for $10”. No, you didn’t, you are just doing creative accounting and failing to report previous expenses. Because if it could be done for $10, big manufacturers would be doing it for $7, because they have the advantage of economics of scale.
Oh hey, you called?
imgur.com/a/INk7FzQ
O good lord, the way those wires are bundled is porn to me.
Love the wires (that are hidden) also fit the color scheme
that is a fantastic build. and the wax lacing! It’s such a lost art, but it works so damn well! Next PC build I do I’m lacing all of my cabling.
You’re very brave showing your wiring.
Just built a simple 3x3 macropad and I spent several hours trying to keep every last bit of the wiring clean and I still have a rats nest…
Gymnastics. The skill part is obvious but monetarily its more than i expected. I thought it would be like going to a regular gym but its usually much more expensive to use the gyms and thats if you can find a time slot where adult males can train.
zecgRandonneuring.
demesisxRandonneuring
long-distance unsupported endurance cycling. This style of riding is non-competitive in nature, and self-sufficiency is paramount. When riders participate in randonneuring events, they are part of a long tradition that goes back to the beginning of the sport of cycling in France and Italy.
Thank you for this
Lem JukesProbably more well known but with the whole ‘live edge’ fad from a couple years ago now, some people don’t realize you can spend upwards of 20-30k on a single piece of some types of raw lumber.
There’s a YouTube channel I saw a while back where the guy films the process of cutting slabs. When you take into consideration the sheer size of trees that have to be used to make a slab, and then the size of the equipment that has to be used, and the weight, it’s easy to see how the cost of even a clean grained slab can be through the roof, not to mention something that has artistic or desirable figuring in the grain.
I feel like woodworking is one of those traditional “this hobby is expensive” things, but I was shocked by just how hard it is to do some things (like hollow out a bowl-shaped divot in a piece of wood) without the proper tools. And the proper tool is sometimes a single hook knife that’s $89 dollars.
You can get 8 foot of pine from any hardware store for $10, but if you want to do anything other than cross cut that pine to different lengths, you’re going to need to drop some cash.
Of course, the skill ceiling for woodworking is enormous.
Woodworking can get crazy expensive, but like most hobbies, you can get into it gradually for relatively low cost. I started with a cordless drill and a circular saw, then gradually bought used tools and restored them. If I were to buy everything new in my shop, it would easily be $15-20k, but I’ve spent maybe $2k over 5 years. The most I’ve spent on any one tool was a $400 miter saw a few months ago on sale, almost everything else has been stuff that’s older than me or inexpensive tools that work just as well as pricier options.
Good hardwood is fucking expensive though. I found a local mill where I can get cherry for $4/bdft or walnut for $5.50/bdft (bdft = board foot, volumetric measurement equivalent to 12"x12"x1"). Somewhere like Woodcraft charges $15-18/bdft for walnut, which is $60+ for a 6" wide, 8ft long, 1" thick board.
I hear you on lumber prices. Woodcraft near me ended up having a sale on some exotics around the holidays and I bought as much of it as I could afford. I justified it by making basically everyone I knew salt boxes as gifts.
Otherwise, it’s hard to get ahold of gorgeous lumber without having a huge bankroll.
It’s hard man. I was living in Alaska when I really got into woodworking, and I had one overpriced option for a really limited selection of hardwood. I managed to get some old maple flooring from a guy that was contracted to replace a basketball court, and got some old redwood from a water tower that was taken down, but otherwise I just used pine for everything for the first few years.
Best advice I can offer is to find a local mill. Facebook groups are good for finding local people that just do it on the side and/or don’t have a website. Ideally, find someone with a kiln, or be prepared to wait for months to years for it to dry.
The only wood I buy at Woodcraft nowadays is for small lathe projects when they have blanks on sale
I’ve never gone to a mill or even a lumberyard (only some speciality stores from time to time), but I think I’m going to take your advice and look around.
I tend to use the ol’ pine and plywood for most of my projects, but I want to get more into making furniture and getting a source now ain’t a bad idea.
They’re generally a great experience. It’s way different than Lowe’s/HD, and generally better selection for cheaper than places like Woodcraft or Rockler. There’s typically a wide range in widths/thicknesses, so have a rough idea of what you need and be ready to mentally adapt your build if they don’t have as many wide boards as you need. Some places will have a minimum purchase requirement, but the few I’ve gone to don’t. Typically, I spend $200-400 for a trip, which covers a few projects for me.
Added bonus of going to a mill instead of a distributor, sometimes they’ll have waste you can take for free/really cheap! Great for small projects or lathe stuff
janus2aggressive style roller blades
high skill AND price barriers 💀
high skill AND price barriers 💀
AngrilyEatingMuffinsMy marathon in lines are stupid expensive, also. Heat molded carbon fiber baybeeee. They’re like stiff rocket socks or something
stiff rocket socks i nearly did a spit take
Model trains. Sure, you can have a lot of fun with a 100 dollar toy train, but those brass engines are very shiny and very expensive.
Seen a couple basement setups in my time though tbh never saw an especially impressive one. Most tend to just emulate rural routes and small towns. Always thought more fanastic scenery (Surely there has to be at least one person out there who does D&D figure stuff and trains.) would be great, but I suppose that it would detract from the star of the show.
Surpringly not, no model train manufacturer does fantasy stuff. Best you can get is custom stuff.
Amateur astronomy, especially astrophotography. Sure, budget setups can be had but nothing beats your own permanent observatory.
MagisterI wanted, but saw that you start with a simple dobsonian, then upgrade to a newton on a equatorial mount, then a schmit-cassegrain, then a bigger mount (thousands of $), then motor drive, then goto, then 48MP CCD, then a Meade 12", then then then and you spent a fortune on it, and you can use it only on some cloudless nights :-/m