Sunday, August 15, 2010

Today's Booty!

Today's Harbor Freight haul (woohoo!):



Have I mentioned I love Harbor Freight? Yes, these tools are cheap, but in my experience, they're much higher-quality than you'd expect, and they get the job done. Same goes for the Menards brands, actually. They're for the hobbyist like myself who's working on a budget, not necessarily professional-grade (though they do have some higher-end stuff as well, for very good prices).

So, here's what I got, starting in the back: mini cutoff saw (main reason for the trip), heat gun (cheap, and may be handy when forming the plexi), smallish vise (cheap, and I still didn't have a vise at all until now), cheap tap/die set (mainly needed a tap for threading the motherboard standoffs), 1" painter's tape (already have some 2"), extra corner clamp, half-round file, mini bar clamps, and some extra epoxy (I already have some industrial-grade stuff, but it's kind of hard to work with in some situations).

And last, but certainly not least, back over on the right: a nibbler. I searched high and low around town and couldn't find one (besides a very expensive one at Ace); HF saved me from having to order and wait for one, and saved me a few bucks in the process! I have a feeling I'm going to wonder, "Why, having done at least 4 relatively major case mods, did I not take modders' advice and buy one of these a long time ago?" I'll find out tomorrow, when I get to play with most of this stuff. :-)

Also, a couple of goodies from Goodwill:



Yes, that's a potato masher. I think the design of it fits my theme, and it would make a pretty snazzy fan grill for the top. How snazzy? We'll see when I get the render updated; I figured for $0.88, I'd take a chance.

The tripod isn't strictly related to the mod, except in that I might start using my regular camera (instead of my phone) for the pics, and for about $5, I thought it would help. It's in reasonable shape, just needs a bit of screw-tweaking to tighten the leg hinges.

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