The Rediculous Costs of Basic Supplies

[Banditclone]

Have ever looked Into nail art... sounds kind of fruity i know. But they have every color known to man. If i buy touch up paint for a vehicle that's were i go. Make friends with the ol' lady's hair dresser she gets a crazy discount. I try to think outside the box. The crazy stuff that goes through my head...... well we won't go there. Thanks for your advice by the way. Got me thinking along all kinds different idea lines. Some time the simplest idea's are the best sometimes high tech is the way to go. Sometimes a happy medium. Sometimes an unhappy medium. I'm not saying get a crystal ball and commune with the dead. Read some of them dead people wrote books. I can surf the web like it was an Olympic event. Learn the best way to surf the web like a hacker. Narrow down your search criteria. Try to figure out the terminology. Big word for the day. Sometimes false positives will lead you in the right direction unless you are using you are searching on you tube. That's a rabbit hole I won't go down. Some people don't no how two spell. You tube nail art for example the tangents that are introduced into the equation are not calculated in my brain pan. Suffice it to say that some use air brushes some use paint brushes paint pens markers mask area's same stuff some %of us do. Some times incorrect spelling once you know correct incorrect. Paradoxical I no rite. Will lead you to mislabeled auctions. For the item you need auto correct is sometime your enima. The computer is your friend... trust the computer.

[Banditclone]

If I can figure out how add a picture I have some great examples for you. Superglue that you pay a premium price for one tube you get . Three for a doller at $tree. Same place and another place sells cheap used GOODs you can large bottle of paints that come with a free brush also 4 a $. Same
place sell super fine silicone tubing in two different diameters. I cant utilize it tho until I break my cheap earbuds tho. Pull out the wire and it will is real silicone tubing. Look at things a different way and you will see tetris blocks falling. Most of my builds use stuff most ppl would throw away. Have not been dumpster diving in a while. I can do it with hardly any splash. Mostly auctions barns and good WILL toward men. I have built robot's out of materials from scrap. Do a search on the word arduino. Lol,s builds within builds within builds. Feel like in a funhouse mirror room.

[Banditclone]

I will however always support my local hobby shop. I also will also support my local pet stores, Mechanics, scrap yards, machinists, Sign makers, craftsman, tradesmen..
. Those people are a dying breed. Trade out your work. I am better at some things than you are. That does not mean I am better than you. You are better than me at some things. Experience. The first maintenance job I worked... well I been in one maintenance field
Or another my whole life daily worked on stuff I have never seen before. You learn to ask for help. The person that runs that machine knows what it's supposed to do. They trouble shoot the machine for me. If I'm lucky I teach him a few things too. Earn trust. Then if I'm lucky I can walk around and that piece of that part in the scrap hopper that will needed for the next build or the next machine. Stash parts everywhere. If something breaks often note which part that is. If that component is part of a larger system and next time some thing else goes wrong..... yadda yadda.

[Banditclone]

My headphones broke. Anyone need any vacuum hose for that carbuater. No well hide it somewhere for me. Someone will prolly need some soon. You need a radiator hose. What color, silicone or rubber. I got all the flavors I'm a electrician today let me strip off the insulation off of that wire what gauge equals each scale... I dunno
Well better strip em all then. What color? Heck we are L8 4 break......

[MODEL A MODEL]

Your right, and given time, you might become buried in resources.

What I mean to say, is, I used to be the same way, constantly looking for useful bits, and thinking out of the box, it is actually my most sellable skill. -But, it can become too much! I have, on the cheap, spent thousands of dollars, and hours being clever and "big picture" -while others have been more focused and linear, (and I have to admit), productive.

I am a lateral thinker! But I work at not being one. This year more than any other, I have been finishing projects and liking it a lot.

Back on subject, recently, at a woodworking shop, I met someone who used to be a distant competitor, he was Jet Hanger Hobbies. A mostly radio control shop, but they too had all the basics. He is a woodworker now. "Making models is something old men remember, some still do" -but it is not what it used to be!

[Banditclone]

HOBBIESTS unite. I have different skillsets that you. You have different skillsets that me..... I am not above hollering LOUDLY at you for help. Ron LEANs on on M.A.M. for support and sighs dramatically. I could sculpt a super small lithium battery into a seat cushion for a SUPER small scale model car. No wires sleeper. Look MA no Hands. That was Why I was lookin for sum1 2 hide that sweet vacuum line the other DAYzed and confused. Where am I? 2 many MirrorZ. Don't 2bCome a hoarder. 2L8. Hackers Unite. But seriously tho, pauses respectfully for hobbiest has recently passed, moment of silence..................



Sometime the simplest solution is best it usually is. ..... loading reply..... loading

[Banditclone]

Locked up there had to reboot. It happens. Don't be a-feared to ask for help. HELP. No shame in my game..... very good thread by the way. It helps. Did yall hear in the rumor mill that all the new startreks are cancelled....

The skillsets I have achieved are like the differences between the stone age and starwars over my walkabout. Yall have forgot more than I know about modeling this I know for true true.

Keep up the good work... dismissed.


.

[Banditclone]

Good work on finishing projects. Are the ever really finished. Things that make you go hmm.

[Banditclone]

Examples........ I am currently looking for Christmas present for my brother. He big into mopar. I lookin at auctions. I found a cool body. Transcript of conversation. "
Yeah I will buy it at that price. I looks really cool. I am a pretty big ebay user. Except I have never sold anything yet. Lol. I usually just buy. You are not into nitro rc cars by any chance are you. I could sell it on craigslist. I have many nitro and I need to thin the herd so to speak. One complete rtr 1/8 kyosho restomod. High doller rig with all the bells and whistles. I can part with It real easy. It has all futaba electronics. Did that whet your whistle, i thought it might. Do you have friends that rc? I have an incomplete almost twin to her minus the electronics. New or used electronics depending on what you want. I have a 1/8 pontiac. My brother is the mopar man. Not that I would turn down a charger or challenger down if I came across one at the price. I also have new unused batteries old stock. That I could throw into a bundle. All flavors of 1/8 1/10 rc goodness. I have 1/10 rollers also. Lithium nicad nimh batteries of all shapes sizes all new unused stock. Build your own battery packs for those old. YADA YADA YADA.

[Banditclone]

It was too long the auction only let's you use 1000 character. But you get the idea.

I have never sold anything here either. Not opposed to it mind you. I am sure there would be a learning curve involved I that road but wheel burn that bridge wen we get over it. It's alright on the other side they say that the grass is greener there. Also not opposed to gifts and trades and such. Just holler. Don't be too nice about it though. That will put me right off..... Is that Model A coming around the corner.... get back to work everybody. Breaks in 5 minutes don't let me miss it.

[Banditclone]

If they catch me giving you these batteries for free I don't know what they will do... paranoid much. lol. A machine that uses flammable liquid as cutting fluid is running and making great parts. One day someone accidently chips a tool while rooting around inside it.... parts keep coming out, good parts. Meanwhile back at the.... life goes on....... some indeterminate time period later the machine catches fire and burns up destroying a large portion of it. True story by the way..... did they install some high tech alarm sys. Fire extinguishers control sys. Safety procedures out the ying yang. LOTO protocols... change the many programs. Data. Need more data. Must have more input. Stay tuned..... I gonna take a long lunch. If so and so comes around tell him I getting parts. He don't have a clue anyway.

[Banditclone]

Yeah I have done same met competitor who sold pets. The only pet I have today is a grasshopper. Found him on my recently recycled cloths hanger rack. I bought 15 stained wooden hangers at the bargain barn the other day. For 5 dollars. Very nice. Went home noticed an adjustable height cloths hanging rack of high quality standing right next to the dumpster. On the other side of the dumpster there is a stack of wooden 4×4's buy I was sure that they were meant for my neighbor. I have built a twenty for by 32 shop out on reclaimed material. I paid full price for the shingles. I paid someone to do the garage door and vynal siding on it. Even did the doghouse out the same with a big front porch insulated with a heat lamp for winter. Leather welding flaps to keep the wind and rain out. She wouldn't come in my my house if you asked her to. Not even if you begged her. If I told her to she would. Same with the truck or car. If you told her to get into your car she would look at you like you grew a third eye in the middle of your forehead and talk to you. Not a growl or a howl but something in between. I came outside once and my brother was on top of his car. They had not met at the time. She was about 4 months old at the time. She was a rottweiler mix half German half american. They pretty big. I had intentionally built the dog house big with a front porch so that the neighborhood kids could use it too. It had same roof as house and shop. Same vynal same details. The neighbor across the way had rottie too. He lived his whole life in a pen........... sad really. Yes we lived in a hood with kids.. but really. My dog roamed free no shock coller either. Occasionally toy that didn't belong to her would end up in the yard or she would drag up some deer leg some hunter had been kind enough too dump on side of the road. Never really had a shoe problem with her..... memories. Back to my grasshopper. He or she still dwell here. If I can catch it I will release it o coarse as I am not that hungry. Yes I have hurt a fly. The only time i hug my trees is during a climb.

[Banditclone]

I have a weird sense of humor. Some people can take me the wrong way...... I just looked at my post and I could be construed as me taking a poke at model a there...... that was not my intent.... wherever you work there is always "that guy" worried about what you are doing.... not talking back sir. I'm taking care of bidness.

[MODEL A MODEL]

Picked up the last issue of SCALE AUTO.

19 advertisers, and only 11 hobby shops listed!

The issue, the last issue of Scale Auto. Is sad.

Magazine publishing is a business, and financial considerations are foremost. But the opportunity to reprint bits of their 4 decades long history? Maybe just run some of the covers? A few of their "Best of" articles? -perhaps the plug had already been pulled, and the remainder of the staff were busy enough in closing the doors? -I know that once the decision has been made to close, time races past and your not always able to say your farewells as you might have wanted.

So?

I'd like to say "Thank you to any and all who contributed to that magazine! Your work was appreciated!"

-Don

[chepp]

The small ubiquitous bottles of paint. Back then PACTRA or TESTORS, we’re, for me originally 10 cents, then 15! When I was managing Paul Frieler’s Historical Models, those same bottles were last 45 cents.

Yesterday, one small bottle of TESTORS thinner , #1145, currently priced at $2.50!!!!

Why?

It's a different world today. Here's my unresearched theory: Back then manufacturers weren't required to pass the full cost of production on to the price of their goods. And, in turn, the raw materials they purchased cost less because the things that they bought didn't include the full cost of production either. Now, from the time the petrochemicals (for paint), sand (for glass bottles), trees (for paper labels), etc. are extracted everybody at every step has to meet regulations to minimize air and water pollution, maximize worker safety and include some reserve for much more legal expenses. Those costs apply to transportation at every stage, too.

So, in the old days, manufacturers had little to no costs to dispose of the unneeded byproducts since they just let the vapors into the air, the liquids into the nearest waterway and didn't need to invest in more efficient, but more expensive, processes for just about everything. Worker compensation and medical costs were much lower than today, too. So, now we have a better quality of life but it isn't free. We're just paying the full cost now in return for a cleaner environment and fewer pollution-related medical problems. Further, the cost to the hobbyist goes up more as prices increase because if the retailer had a 50% markup on a 15 cent bottle of paint it was only a nickel (10 cents wholesale + 5 cents markup = 15 cents retail). That same 50% markup on today's $2.50 bottle jumps up to 84 cents ($1.67 wholesale + 84 cents = $2.50 retail).

Here's my "secret" solution: To cut your hobby costs in half, spend twice as much time building each model. To cut them to a third, take three times as much time. An additional benefit to this is that by taking more time, the quality of model building should go up.