Last Call- Hobbyist Edition
These days, people may refer to those like us as ‘car nuts‘ or, more respectfully ‘enthusiasts,‘ as a way of describing how we spend much of our free time – or for some, every waking moment. But years ago, an individual who’s off-hours were spent noodling in the garage, either in grease monkey-dom, with those new-fangled electronics, or a melding of the two, was referred to as a hobbyist, and nothing is more emblematic of that honorific or the era than the build-it-yourself products from Heath, Knight Kit, and others.
Back when most cars offered little more than a speedometer and a bank of rightfully named idiot lights, not only could you add a tachometer to see how many hundreds of RPMs your OHV six was turning, but you could feel the pride of having built it yourself, and even the soldering iron burns to show for it. Considering the renascence of individual’s making things – exemplified by Make mag and Maker Faire I think it may be time to bring back the moniker of Hobbyist – even if we can’t bring back thirteen dollar vacuum tube radio broadcaster/amplifiers.
Image source: [knightkit fan page]
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I still have my Heathkit Dwell/Tach/Voltmeter (and use it to tune my '71 Monte Carlo).
Built a Heathkit digital clock for my 70 Porsche 914, which had no clock at all. Included trip timer, hard wired to 12V supply.
I picked up a probably-terrible Mastercraft multimeter at Canadian Tire a few months ago (75% off!). Now I need to have an irresistibly discounted soldering iron cross my path, and I will be ready to
let them collect dust together for a yearburn myself and wreck thingsbecome an accomplished hobbyist.I love the product descriptions! Makes me want to order up a kit and some tools, clear off the workbench in the basement (everyone DOES have a workbench, right?), and install a tachometer on the blender.
My car already has a tachometer, see, and I need to optimize my frozen margaritas.
I can't believe you've survive so long on sub-optimal margaritas. My hat is off to you, sir, in the face of such bravery.
Of course, they might also be super-optimal. I'll be right over to help with quality control.
With only six months to go until summer in New England, there's scant time available to take my frozen drinks from adequate to superlative.
We'll definitely need some well-structured experiments, a grad student population for results testing, and a few dump trucks full of grant money.
Standard double-blind protocol should suffice, or arise. And we can dispense with the grad students, unless she's pursuing advanced studies in beach volleyball.
Drinking the Bottom Shelf has identified a $13 pure agave tequilla that isn't distilled lighter fluid…