Oh, I never thought of that -- a good idea. The home centers, Harbor Freight and Tractor Supply have tubing, but in "kits" that contain large diameters and odd colors if any.
I'm finding that with ordering some electronics/electrical components on Amazon. You get more than you need. But what the heck we always buy more then we need, then can't find the extras when we need them and order or buy more. It's how we roll, or most men do. Think about the number of screws you have cause you only needed a few, but all they had was bulk? And @Hardcoaler I am glad you are taking your time, color coding, tie wrapping, matching heat shrink, you are inspiring me to try and do better. Keep up the great work That goes for others as well. I get ideas from everyone here in some shape or form.
in2tech you sure are correct on that. I have worked on machines and houses. Now I have coffee cans full of mixed screws, nuts and bolts. It seemed I always had to buy by the box.
I have 35+ years of jars and coffee cans full of screws, but I've noticed that despite my wide "inventory", I rarely find what I need. As such, I soon plan to throw most of them away.
And then when we go to put up the extras from the latest order, somewhere where "next time I'll be able to find them", we find the extras from the previous order! At least that's how it usually works for me.
Made up a soldering jig yesterday to hold wires in place while I'm under the layout. A lot of my track feeders are around the perimeter of the table, so I can clamp this jig to the inside of the fascia and make my solder joints without having the wires moving around while I'm trying to solder them. Works pretty well and all it cost was two old alligator clips and .... yes, two screws from my coffee can that otherwise never yields what I need!
Great idea but this won't work for me in quite the same fashion. My layout is minimum 18" wide at all points, some areas are as wide as 36". I ran all my bus wires directly under the tracks, pulled through holes drilled in the benchwork cross supports. But it gives me an idea for something similar with an extended beam that I can clamp to the cross supports. The vast majority of my mainline wiring is complete, but I need to redo the yard feeders and replace the toggles. Thanks for the inspiration.
I don't see why not. Your tripod will most likely have a 1/4-20 threaded stud. Just get an equivalent 1/4-20 blind nut (T nut) and a piece of thin wood and you'll be all set. You can raise the tripod to meet the bottom of your bench work.
It would be easy to replace the screw with a longer one and using a strap to span the gap. I could clamp the adjustable soldering stand with two alligator clips right on there. And it could be adjust by angle as well. Getting closer all the time.
Seen on a sign at a store in Maine: "We buy junk and sell antiques." The sign was quite accurate. The price of an N Scale item there would have been a candidate for "More eBay Humor."
Last year at this time, I was handling the estate of my late mother. At the estate sale, a Buyer bought some of pieces of furniture. The next day, my wife and I were strolling down the Main Street of the town where my mother lived and we walked in to an antique furniture store just to kill some time. You guessed it -- there was the furniture! We couldn't control our laughter. The store owner was indeed the Buyer and when we told her who we were, she apologized for the high pricing. We didn't care about the pricing and told her it was fine. She said furniture resellers try for a 100% profit, so price it at 210% of what they paid for it. That way when a customer asks if they can cut the price a bit, they can say yes. The customer is happy that they negotiated a better price and the Seller is happy because they doubled their money.
