Years ago, I read a funny story about the cost of venison per pound from the eyes of a hunter's wife. She totalled up the entire cost of his gear ... new truck, new rifle, trip to the E.R. for some reason, etc, etc. Funny as heck. If I can find it, I will add it to this thread.
STinGa
Sarcasm is a dying art.
Eagle Scout September '85 Troop 339 Smyrna, TN
Heh, well, this begins to fall under the category of "there's a sucker born every minute". I.e. an audiophile spending $300 on a gold plated triple sheilded ultra-low-noise cable that's just going to carry a digital signal from one overpriced component to another. One can easily spend $100,000 just to acheive lower fidelity than a $30 used iPod playing back a 96Khz WAV file.Originally Posted by STinGa
That hunter could have driven his wife's Camry to the woods and used a $30 bow and arrow from Wal-Mart to kill the same deer. But he chose to invest in heavy equipment to do light work. It's the same as taking out a bank loan to buy a Bobcat to dig a grave for Old Yeller when any rusty shovel will do. Sure, you can call it DIY, but it's really just DI-dumb.
STinGA should have worn an orange vest
God let me be the man that my dog thinks I am
Haha. Sorry. Too much coffee I guess. The point is that it's possible (and, if you have the money or are spending someone else's, easy) to wildly overspend in any pursuit.STinGA should have worn an orange vest
Ownership and crossing the barriers of fear and ignorance are all great reasons to make your own stuff. I learn more from doing something, even poorly, much more than I get from explanation and diagram. Thankfully so many of these hangers have awesome YouTube videos which have piqued my interest enough for me to buy a thread injector and get started.
'I made it' is very powerful.
This is a good topic for me to reading and posting to, as I have run into this same delma.
I decided to make my own tarp as I didn't think that I could really afford the price of one that someone else has made and knows what they are doing.
I now realize that the tarp that I have made my self, even though it looks good so far is way to heavy and has some flaws that I cant fix very easily. Is it functional, to a point yes. Will it get the job done, yes. Do I really like it, NO...
I have now decided to buy one and see what I did wrong and then make a new DIY with other mods that I think would work useing the one I have here at home that I dont really like.
As for my Alchy stove, I have made my own (thanks shug and others on youtube) that I relay like and will get the job done for melting snow, and anything else that I would use it for (impressing friends). I have also decided that I will buy a good stove that someone else has made as the true full time use unit on the trail.
Altho I get tons of enjoyment out of my DIY projects, unless I have something that I can see how it works, I dont know if I did it correctly. I may have wasted hours working on things only to find out that I did it wrong and have to scrap the whole thing. That in turns equals $ down the drain.
Am I going to stop my DIY projects, heck no, I have lots of fun learning something new When doing them though, I will make sure that the cost of makeing it does not out way the cost of buying it. Besides some of the things that others make are relay cool and you just want to show them off.
Items on my list for future purchase are:
Warbonnet Big Mamajamba w/panel pulls and doors
Minibull Bongo Pro Kit
JRB Mt.Washington 3
TopQuilt ? (I'm still learning about them)
Hm interesting. Time is money. Do most people really consider this in both directions. Money is time. I wont even use the minimum wage for my example. Lets say you have a job that after taxes and insurance and any other deductions pays you $10 take home cash in your pocket. I have now assigned a value of 1 hr for every $10 you spend. A Bushbuddy will cost you 9.5 hrs of work for the basic unit. A Shenandoah top quilt (Reg) with 900 FP Down from JRB will cost you 20.5 hrs of hard labor. Ye ole Bear Mountain Bridge hammock will call for 19 hrs of work. In some of these examples the cost of what you are buying can add up to half a week of work. I often tell my kids when they want me to buy something expensive just how many hours I have to work to pay for something. My point is when you plunk down your cash you may have just as much time invested in your item as the DIYer does. It sort of puts things into perspective. Of course if you make less the the hr cost is more and if you make more the hr cost is less. YMMV.
Pete.
The opinions expressed by this user are not those of a competent individual. If they were that would mean I know what I am talking about.
Search got me here on another topic.
"Maybe when I am working less I will DIY more, for now, I can't beat the exchange. I view it as contributing to the economic well being of others, a redistribution of wealth"
If the OP is correct, then do it yourself wins on redistribution of wealth also. Like everyone else, my projects have their ups and downs on cost. We live in a world where the unifying issue is always cost, since most accept that measure at some level. It is odd that during the period in which the US was the world's richest society, they will largely have put up with low quality goods.
In my case DIY melds with a desire to explore custom options and to deal with my slight oversize, I am 6'1" and very wide in the shoulders. Pretty much a guarantee that stuff does not fit me well. If the person making the stuff does truly custom work, then either they aren't forcing me to redistribute enough of my wealth, or there is no doubt whatever that DIY will be a lot cheaper.
I disagree wholeheartedly.
I'm taking my three boys on a AT section hike next spring ..... And I'm making much of their gear ....
The youngest is 6'6", the oldest is 6'3 .... You get the idea
Three custom hammocks, three under quilts, three top quilts .... And by now I've sewn enough gear that I've become good at it ...
1 roll of manga fabrics camo $70
a couple of down pillows $75
some ratchet straps, some 1/8 inch Amsteel, misc. stuff ... $50 or so
Evenings spent having fun making gear and talking hiking with my boys instead of watching some mind numbing crap on TV .... Priceless
Oh .... And before you get too far down the gram weenie bashing parade, none of us will be carrying more than 25 lbs including food and water for 5 nights, 6 days on the trail .... Think about that while you're hauling your 50 lbss of crap up a day of 2500 ft of elevation gain .... And you spent a lot more to do it.
Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage
William Shakespeare
"Insert witty and intelligent statement here"
Excuse me... this seems a little virulent as a reply to a reasonably innocuous post. Perhaps you did not fully read the thread, or your previous experience and practice has made it possible to bridge the gap between prototypes, mistakes and failures and reduce the gap to realize a cost savings. In any event, the last paragraph seems unduly harsh.
I may be slow... But I sure am gimpy.
"Bless you child, when you set out to thread a needle don't hold the thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and poke the thread at it; that's the way a woman most always does, but a man always does t'other way."
Mrs. Loftus to Huck Finn
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