11 ms·

Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

166 points by FabienC 3y ago

kuchenbecker 3y ago
I appreciate the post. I last made a Throttle for a HOTAS setup. Key was I had a functional end to end prototype using Arduino, ultrasonic sensor, and drawer slide in 3 hours and started using it immediately. Every piece of the prototype was eventually replaced and my "final" version is a mess of wires and incomplete, but I got use out of the early versions as a proof of concept early and never bought the off the shelf alternative.
userinanother 3y ago
GAS can be very economical if you buy used high end gear. If like me you change hobbies every 2-3 years you can sell the high end gear for what you bought it for. GFS is much more expensive as your custom built stuff has very little resale value, even if acquisition costs originally were cheaper the resale is Usally a fraction of cost.
TomMasz 3y ago
I've built my own pedals, amp, and guitar. I managed to do all of them in a reasonable amount of time without neglecting the playing aspect. But I've got all the parts for Mu-Tron III clone that have been sitting in the boxes they came in for a year now and haven't had the time to start. I could have had a commercial one to play through in that amount of time.
_aavaa_ 3y ago
Is nobody going to talk about the I have no mouth, and I must scream looking Furby caged in their synth???
Tabular-Iceberg 3y ago
It’s all fun and games until you start applying this to commercial software projects.
- trevyn 3y ago
  It’s interesting how open source kind of short-circuits a lot of this; you can’t “acquire” it all because you already have it all. You can acquire experience in a lot of tools, but that’s actually acquiring practical knowledge, not just acquisition of things as things.
  - Tabular-Iceberg 3y ago
    Well, it short-circuits the licensing cost argument for rolling your own frameworks, but I don’t think that was ever the real reason why devs love reinventing the wheel. I think that building frameworks is just a lot more fun than doing what you’re supposed to be doing, which is usually a soul-sucking grind of boring enterprise tickets.
    - quickthrower2 3y ago
      I am the other way. I like others to make good frameworks and I like building the customer facing thing.
      - breckenedge 3y ago
        Have you worked with eager designers who love to reinvent everything?
        quickthrower2 3y ago
        Luckily no
      - Tabular-Iceberg 3y ago
        Maybe that’s exactly why they do it. Building frameworks is as customer facing as it gets, because the customers are your coworkers that you can just walk over to and speak directly with. If one is so insulated from the actual business problem by corporate bureaucracy it may be the only way for developers to do something that matters to someone, no matter how frivolous it is in the grand scheme.
tuatoru 3y ago
... and then you start wondering about the calibration of the gear you fabricated, so you buy some high-quality parts with NIST traceable calibrations, and make some test equipment using them, and then.... then you go down the metrology rabbit hole.
- BillyTheMage 3y ago
  You're telling me you don't already have a CMM in your garage?
ikekkdcjkfke 3y ago
It's kinda related to bikeshedding, do anything else than pushing features
- ungamedplayer 3y ago
  Like pushing fixes?
  - LoganDark 3y ago
    https://xkcd.com/583 https://xkcd.com/583
    - breckenedge 3y ago
      For once I am glad I scrolled to the bottom of the comments
kleiba 3y ago
So, you're not supposed to buy stuff for your hobby nor build stuff for your hobby? I think it depends on how you define "the hobby" - is it really just the part where you use your equipment? I find that too narrow. A good counter example could perhaps be table top wargaming, e.g. Warhammer and the likes. Surely, people who call that their hobby like to play the (various different) games. But a lot of people love building and painting their miniature armies just as much. And some people hate it. So what's the scoop? If you enjoy the building and painting of new minis more than actually playing the game they're made for, you're doing it wrong? Look, hobbies are for your enjoyment. If buying gear or trying to build it yourself gives you joy, more power to you. I for one like to buy power tools just as much as the next guy. And often times it's hard to justify falling for a good sales offer when you don't really have a specific need for that tool at that point in time. But on the flip side, there have been quite a few moments where I was tinkinering about with some home improvement projects and a tool I might have bought a long time ago and never really needed since came in handy just at that very moment. And so I was glad I had it. Especially since I don't live very close to the next DIY store. So, yeah, is that a good justification for spending money on power tools? Probably not - but it's what I like, and so I do it. The acquisition of gear (be it buying or building) is not a means to an end - it is part of the hobby.
- taffronaut 3y ago
  > So, you're not supposed to buy stuff for your hobby nor build stuff for your hobby? I'm not sure that anyone is proposing that. > A good counter example could perhaps be table top wargaming, e.g. Warhammer and the likes. Surely, people who call that their hobby like to play the (various different) games. But a lot of people love building and painting their miniature armies just as much. That sounds perfectly reasonable if the split between crafting and playing is somewhere near the middle. However, in the case that they hardly ever actually engage in a game, I'd maintain that their hobby is not 'wargaming' and is actually model making.
  - xsmasher 3y ago
    Worse if they keep buying paints and models but never even open them.
wodenokoto 3y ago
> Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS). A person’s insatiable urge to buy equipment for their art or hobby, distracting them from actually practicing said art or hobby. > It’s driven in part by the belief that new gear will improve one’s art or performance, e.g. I don’t sound like Jimi Hendrix because I don’t have the same effects pedal he used. Bit tangent, but I think one should just embrace it and say “my hobby is collecting guitar gear, and my niche is things that Jimi Hendrix used or things that make sounds like he did” There’s no shame in a hobby collecting and being honest with yourself might bring some clarity to your life.
- ano-ther 3y ago
  That’s a creative re-framing. Sadly, the realization that you are not going to be a rockstar but a gear collector is likely to trigger a midlife crisis.
- omnibrain 3y ago
  > but I think one should just embrace it and say “my hobby is collecting guitar gear That's something I noticed with a lot of people in my circle and 3d printers. They don't 3d print for their hobby. Most of them have 3d printing or even 3d printers as their hobby.
  - drewzero1 3y ago
    For a long time I was baffled by the seemingly unnecessary gizmos that are popular 3d print subjects, because to me 3d printing was just a means to an end. Eventually I realized that the printing itself is a hobby for a lot of printer people. Personally I like to use my printer to enable my other hobbies, but along the way I've picked up 3d design and printing as secondary hobbies.
    - drivers99 3y ago
      I designed a custom shape for something I needed for another hobby (holding a first-surface mirror at 45 degrees so I could try to learn to paint by copying) and that was really satisfying to learn 3d modeling and making a real object. I should probably do more things like that, such as making a robot or something.
LoganDark 3y ago
> A person’s insatiable urge to buy equipment for their art or hobby, distracting them from actually practicing said art or hobby. [insert a string of like 100 sobbing emojis.]
Brian_K_White 3y ago
All that design and fabrication work, and the pedals swing the wrong way? And has no rigid frame connection to a seat? If you're going to bother, then one of the biggest things is to rigidly attach the pedals to the seat so that they cannot move in relation to the seat even against the full power of legs. And of course car pedals swing on a pivot that is above the pedals not below, although the gas pedal has an extra linkage so that IT does pivot on the bottom. Clutch and brake (not break) require full leg power and knee bend, only gas is purely ankle bend, calf power. And if such details don't matter, then you're right back to the off the shelf one.
- TwiztidK 3y ago
  You're dead on about rigid mounts for the pedals. One of the first issues many sim racers run into with regular cheap pedals and a desk mounted wheel is that they pedals slide once you start braking hard. And with load cell pedals the expectation is that you'll be using even more force, so that problem will just get worse. As for pedal mounting location, many pedals can be top or bottom mounted if your racing chassis allows for it. However, floor mounted pedals offer the same performance as top mounted, match the majority of purpose built racing cars, and are simpler to mount in a sim racing chassis.
- Tabular-Iceberg 3y ago
  Is it really universally true that clutch and brake pedals have the pivot above? It is indeed what I’ve always seen on production road cars, but I don’t see why it’s necessarily true for all cars.
  - breckenedge 3y ago
    I believe some Honda clutch pedals are floor mounted, at least on the TSX I drove. I really didn’t like the feel.
- LastTrain 3y ago
  Ever heard of a Volkswagen Beetle, or a Porsche 911?
fellerts 3y ago
Very relevant article and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35670129 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35670129 "GFS" describes the hobby vs the gear, but hobbyists will also find themselves somewhere along the "doing" vs "discussing" axis as well.
Perz1val 3y ago
Until your GFS develops its own GAS...
- quickthrower2 3y ago
  Just building my own shed to house my 3d printer and injection mould studio so I can perfect these headphones so Jimmy Hendrix sounds great
hnbad 3y ago
To steal an old meme: Men will literally come up with new "syndromes" instead of going to therapy. GAS/GFS sounds like a regular Tuesday on ADHD. I want to play a racing sim. Better learn intricate details of electronics, physics and car mechanics so I can build my own brake pedal. Is the brake pedal working? No. Have I spent even a single minute playing a racing sim since starting this project? Also no. But I have taught myself how to build my own 3D printer from scratch and I also never will do that ever again.
- speeder 3y ago
  I have ADHD and it is bothering me to no end that when people ask me what my hobby is, I find out I have a huge list of half-finished stuff instead. For example I like blacksmithing. Built a simple sword just grinding the metal, then decided to study how to get a proper forge and whatnot. Studied a lot, learning the chemistry of steel, found where to buy the stuff. Never bought it, never made any forged item. Then I decided to go for armor making, using rings. Started making one, got stuck because the rings were too rigid and I wasn't strong enough... and that is it, it ended there. So music then? Spent years learning how to compose music with a teacher that actually taught famous musicians, made my own cables to attach a keyboard to my computer, bought software, learned how to use trackers, became "friends" (as in... I don't talk much to them, but when I do they actually listen and give me small favors) Siren (musician from Unreal series) and Virt (musician from a lot of newer indie games, like Shovel Knight). How much music I made? 0. People at the church asked me if I can play my keyboard in public while people sing hymns. I replied I actually, never tried that. Dumped a ton of money in magic the gathering cards. Made a point when moving country, of bringing them with me, half of my airplane baggage limit was MTG cards. Last time I played? Several months ago, almost a year I suppose. The list keeps going and it is driving me nuts, I feel like I am wasting my life. I am not studying hard enough to improve my job performance, I am not studying the bible as I should either, I keep promising myself I will do it and then I don't. And again keeping with the theme of GAS, I actually spent a lot of money buying access to theology online classes and seminars, and didn't watch any of it.
  - imtringued 3y ago
omnicognate 3y ago
"Syndrome", "guilt", "fear", "failed", "worse". It's a hobby. There's no wrong way to do it. Have a budget and do what makes you happy. If that's accumulating gadgets, accumulate with joy. It's not an illness. Another reason for what the article calls Gear Acquisition Syndrome, if not for Gear Fabrication Syndrome, is the nature of the learning curve for some things. For example, I'm learning electronics, slowly. Slowly because I have children and a stressful full-time job. A while ago I bought an oscilloscope. I don't really need an oscilloscope and it's possible I never will. I'm just hooking up 555 timers and trying to get my head round the mysteries of inductance at this stage. The machine is occasionally marginally useful, but mostly I get it out for the sake of fiddling with it. Does this mean I just bought it for the thrill of owning it? I certainly felt that thrill when it arrived, but I bought it to learn how to use it, as part of the larger project of "learning electronics". My slow progress means it may be a long time before I'm doing things that really require it, but if and when that time comes I'll be ready, with the device and the knowledge to use it correctly (and not blow it up! [1]). I don't know how far I'll get in learning and applying this stuff, but learning the tools is a major part of it, and rewarding in itself. [1] https://youtu.be/xaELqAo4kkQ?feature=shared https://youtu.be/xaELqAo4kkQ?feature=shared
- GuB-42 3y ago
  Gear Acquisition Syndrome is tied to compulsive buying and hording, both are recognized illnesses (in ICD-11). Of course, just buying an oscilloscope in the course of learning electronics is not getting you in psychiatry. I mean, it is part of the basic toolkit, plus, you are actually using it. But if you start buying 5 different soldering irons with 10 different types of solder, every kind of pliers known to man, some very specific tool for some obscure use case you don't have, etc... it can negatively impact your quality of life, for example because of the clutter.
  - bluescrn 3y ago
    > Gear Acquisition Syndrome is tied to compulsive buying and hording, both are recognized illnesses (in ICD-11). Which is a long way from 'throwing some disposable income at a hobby'. If your 'gear acquisition' is getting you in debt, or excessively cluttering your home, you may have a problem. But otherwise, if you can afford it, and it's giving you some satisfaction to collect and fiddle with it, then why not? Spending, say, $25k on hobby gear might seem excessive. But people don't get shamed for spending far more than that replacing/upgrading cars when they've got a perfectly decent one already. And if you're buying quality gear, whether it's tools or musical instruments/equipment, it's likely to have a lifetime of several decades, it's not like you're buying junk that'll end up on a mountain of e-waste in a couple of years time.
crtified 3y ago
looks guiltily at the ventilation system he's building, to ventilate the workroom he's made, to contain the jigs he's constructed, to make the guitars he only needed one of, but has now somehow ordered enough wood for about 7 D'oh!!
- nehal3m 3y ago
  All of that sounds super fun though.
- peschkaj 3y ago
  /me also waves from behind a CNC machine, pile of tools, jigs, etc
atoav 3y ago
As someone who designs analog and digital circuits and a live long musician I often find that building your own shit is the way™, because even if you are not 100% happy with the results it is A) often possible to adjust the result till you like it and more importantly B) it is often all about the friends you made along the way (aka learning). That being said traditional GAS, as in people that buy a ton of stuff in the hunt for the perfect tone falls often into two categories (or any mix of the two): 1. People whose motivation for the hobby is coupled to these purchases 2. People who don't completely understand all the contributing factors A good example is Hifi-Heads who will spend upwards of 400 Euros for a simple cable and tell you they can hear what the best measuring equipment known to humanity can't measure, yet they fail to do even the most basic acoustic treatment to their listening space. Guitar players can be similar, only there one big variable are the players themselves. Also they often fail to understand that every guitar tone they want to imitate is typically a recording of a guitar tone. That means the whole microfone/mixing desk/effects/recording media/mastering chain is part of that sound. So even if you you traveled back in time and had the possibility to sit with Hendrix in the studio, it probably wouldn't sound like it did on the record. And if he gave you the chance to play his guitar and his amp it would still not sound like him, because the magic (or the lack thereof) is in the fingers. That being said, it is good and useful to have goals for certain sounds, but the way to achive them rarely is a very specific set of (typically obscenely expensive) gear — the trick is to understand your instrument, yourself and the whole signal chain intricately, or on the recording side of things: To work with people who have both that understanding and an appreciation for the sound you are aiming for (just like Hendrix obviously did). On the Synth end of things I know people who are more into "collecting" these things than using them. These are the people who spend more time researching their next synth or module than they spend on actually learning how to use what they got. I don't want to judge, it is all about the dopamine in the end, but as someone who enjoys the act of making music — a hobby that arguably needs a ton of stuff, depending on what you do — I always think a too crazy focus on gear takes away from that. And I say that as someone who constructs some of these circuits.
wexomania 3y ago
I can relate, I view myself as a hobby game developer, but I never actually make any games, because I end up having way more fun making the tools to make the games, than making the actual games themselves.
ur-whale 3y ago
I have GFS, to a degree that's probably way worse than the article's author. I'm also old enough (40+ years experience as a dev) to actually objectively measure the impact this trait has had on my career. I'll summarize in one simple sentence: any negative feeling / worry /guilt you may have because you discover you have that "penchant": discard it with utmost prejudice. I have had an amazing career in tech. (not over yet). Most of it has been self-propelled by the things I've learnt because of GFS-type propensities.
- alpaca128 3y ago
  I don't have near as much experience but things like that indirectly got me my current job. I worried a ton in the past because I almost never finished a project, until the feedback I got from others made me realize how much I learned in the process. I could have done some things in a more time efficient manner but in the end I do it because it's fun, and ultimately "reinventing the wheel" (a phrase I could rant about all day) helped me overcome/replace bad habits.
perlgeek 3y ago
I misread the title, and thought he compulsively built gears (as in, gearing mechanism) :-)
- bad_alloc 3y ago
  Me too. This is somehow an interest many hobby machinists converge on as a far away goal. It is hard to do, needs extra equipment and is mostly avoidable. Still, the allure is there...
  - eternityforest 3y ago
    I want to do a 3DP project with a cool gearing mechanism but I don't know what it should do. I'm thinking some kind of PC input device.
krisoft 3y ago
I felt called out by the title since I spent all my hobby time in the last few weeks to fabricate brass gears for an orrery I’m working on. :) Luckily it is not about that kind of gear fabrication syndrome.
- imtringued 3y ago
  I am planning on building custom BLDC driven actuators and I need to manufacture my own gears for that...
- mauvehaus 3y ago
  At the risk of nerd sniping all of HN: please tell us more about this orrery you're building! Can we follow your progress online?
  - asalahli 3y ago
    Please also tell us about your gear fabrication process!
    - krisoft 3y ago
      Happy to! I use a woodworking CNC router (a stock xcarve) to cut the gears out of brass sheets. It is absolutely not the “right tool” for the job, but already had access to one and it seems to work. The gears are mod0.8. 40, 20, 12, 10 and 8 teeth. I cut the bevel gears and the pinions out of 3mm brass sheet stock while the larger wheels are cut out of 0.7mm brass stock. (Why this modulo? That was the smallest gear family my prusa 3d printer could print reliably, and i guess i just stuck with it as i transfered to cutting brass) (Why this stock thicknesses? That is what amazon had in next day delivery :)) I design the mechanism and create the cutting toolpaths in fusion 360. The paths are 2d profile cuts for the straight pinnions and wheels, and 3d profile cuts for the bevel gears. For the bevel gears I have a “roughing pass” with a 1.7mm bit followed by two passes with a 0.8mm bit. This seems to be needed otherwise as the tiny bit steps “down and out” it encounters too much depth on the “outside” of the cut. At least that is how I explain it. What is certain that when i tried to cut the bevel gears with a single pass the 0.8mm bit broke all the time, and with this strategy I can cut all four of my bevel gears with the same two cutters. :) The pinions and wheels with straight walls I cut with a single pass. I take 0.1mm deep cuts with 45mm/min feed, altough truth to be told I have tried 250mm/min feeds also and that seemed to be fine too. 350mm/min broke the bit too often. I run the spindle at a constant max speed, which I have measured to be 27000rpm unloaded. Haven’t measured during cutting but somehow I doubt the dewalt with all its 900W slows down at allwith these tiny bits and cuts. For work holding I use the following “sandwitch”: a 6mm thick aluminum plate is toe clamped to the bed of the CNC. There is blue painters masking tape glued on the aluminium waste board, super glue on that and the brass stock is held on by that super glue. I start the cuts 0.3mm above the stock and finish it 0.3mm bellow. I probe the stock’s surface, back the bit up until it breaks the contact and zero it there. The gears I cut are small enough that i don’t seem to benefit much from z-scanning the surface of the stock. I use Universal GCode Sender to send the gcode generated by fusion. Sorry for the lot of detail, just wrote what I wished have known a few months ago. Let me know if there is anything else you are currious about.
Zondartul 3y ago
A 3D printing hobby is basically GAS/GFS-as-a-hobby. You buy the cheapest printer, then print better parts for it, then you buy a second printer to print faster and with more quality, then you go on an ebay spree and buy a VORON kit to make your own, then you build a "mostly-printed CNC", lathe, plotter, laser cutter, and then you run out of room in your garage and start looking for a bigger house. It's a huge money drain, but fun even if it doesn't ultimately get you anywhere ;)
- eternityforest 3y ago
  I actually have less GAS/GFS with printing than anything else. I'd like a Klipper Pad and a camera... but it's not essential. I think it might be the fact that anything decorative or artistic needs post processing anyway, so a few layer lines aren't a big deal, and that I enjoy CAD design and trying to make functions parts work without relying on precision. I would like to quiet the fan and steppers a bit though!
- bluescrn 3y ago
  Buy a Prusa, Skip most of the setup/tweaking/upgrading. Print things. Learn to design things to print.
  - djmips 3y ago
    The speed of the Voron and Bambu are pretty enticing.
    - bluescrn 3y ago
      More speed generally means more noise, though.
  - JakeTehPwner 3y ago
    I just bought the prusa mk4 kit+enclosure, spent 20+ hours building it, and now I can’t stop printing upgrades for it(mostly the enclosure). I sealed the enclosure a bit, did the squash ball feet mod for the printer(it’s silent now), and I’m currently printing this: https://www.printables.com/model/588524-prusa-mk4-improved-fan-duct-and-hotend-fan-shroud- https://www.printables.com/model/588524-prusa-mk4-improved-f...
NKosmatos 3y ago
Nice one, and catchy/misleading title :-) Never heard of Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) or Gear Fabrication Syndrome (GFS), but I think it would be better to replace Gear with Gadget. From I saw with a quick search, GAS is heavily related to musicians, but I think this applies to all areas (photography, computing, astronomy...). A little bit off topic... Is it only me that finds the scrolling area of this page annoying? What's the point of having all this screen estate and allowing scrolling only if the mouse is over the middle section?
- jdub 3y ago
  Try calling a guitar a "gadget" to serious players or collectors. :-)
mordae 3y ago
I have pretty severe GFS and one part of it is that once you understand what you are building, you don't really wish to finish it and continue on a more stimulating tangent. On the other hand, teaching others stuff that doesn't (by itself) stimulate you anymore gives you an opportunity to check the quality of your understanding and is also fun in itself. Another way to finish is to build a birthday gift and thus impose a deadline on yourself.
- hellotheretoday 3y ago
  This is such a major problem! I have so many half finished projects because I got to the understanding portion and moved onto something more interesting. Or perhaps I’m just coping and telling myself that to deny that I have really bad attention and impulsivity issues
rubenv 3y ago
Not often you see simracing mentioned here! For sure there are gains to be made by having proper material as opposed to entry level, but those quickly become marginal. The biggest gains by far are usually found in working on your driving style. Have a look at telemetry of someone who's slightly faster and work out the differences methodologically. Shameless self-promotion: if you're racing in iRacing, have a look at https://garage61.net https://garage61.net, we have over 125 million laps of telemetry to learn from.
fho 3y ago
Came here to talk about my Gear Fabrication Syndrome: https://photos.app.goo.gl/wQ6mWkENAgBvWWuy7 https://photos.app.goo.gl/wQ6mWkENAgBvWWuy7 ... was disappointed :-)
toyg 3y ago
... and after two months the pedal is not usable, obviously. Because success is defined by https://xkcd.com/349/ https://xkcd.com/349/
MrDresden 3y ago
I guess I have something similar when it comes to productivity and my workstations. In the last two years I have completely moved my desktop configuration into Ansible making it near perfectly reproducible on another machine. My thinking was it would make me more productive in the long run. But rather then spending some of my free time working on some of the other actual software ideas I have accumulated over the years, instead that time goes into endless tinkering with the playbook and trying to add even more to it.
- ta988 3y ago
  I stopped doing that. I realized that in half a day to a day I can set everything up again manually from simple backups. And I spent more than that on Ansible and the maintenance costs are not negligible, plus the fact that the day you need it something broke and you need to fix it.
giantg2 3y ago
There's nothing wrong with GAS or GFS if done from the standpoint of learning. The joy of learning can itself be the product. Maybe your ok at working UHF/VHF with a handie baofeng and you just found a great deal on an IC-821 that could allow you to learn how to work satellites and other modes in the future... For GFS, making gear instead of music etc can still be the product. Additionally, if one understands how something works, it could make them better at applying that gear.
bluGill 3y ago
Everyone needs to have a list for for their hobby of useful things they will buy if cheap enough, and a budget to spend one it. Then when a deal comes they will know if they buy or not. Of course some people think nothing of dropping $150,000 on their hobby, while others only have $5 to spend. The important part is it keeps you from filling up space with good deals on things that don't actually apply or you already have one of (unless your hobby benefits from more than one)
xtiansimon 3y ago
GFS could lead to a better appreciation of the quality of consumer goods. I think you can compare most collections to fashion. Some people collect based on color or fabric. Others on quality of manufacture. Or on quality of fit. Then we have brands and finally pure hysteria—something you won’t wear, but only desire to own. This explains keb collectors and someone who owns Jimi’s actual fx pedal. The DIYer could just be an aficionado of manufacture or perfect fit. My2c
mikewarot 3y ago
When I was younger, I used to participate in the local radio club's "foxhunts" on 2 meters. Every month I'd be trying out some new cobbled together antenna, or home made doppler gear. It was a lot of fun. I never did settle on an optimum setup. The joy of just trying things out was the reward. --- As for actual gear fabrication, I used to make gears, mostly bevel gears, but also some spur and helical gears, as well as gear like objects. Since bouncing out of the field (due to long covid) it is only lack of budget that has kept me from trying to build/acquire gear to be able to make gears myself at home. I really want a pocketNC. I'm convinced I could find a way to Power Skiving[1] straight bevel gears, which should be impossible(because the pitch of the gear teeth varies continuously across the distance from the central axis), with sufficient budget and time. It's fun to tinker, and that's the reward in itself. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EefFxEGVbWo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EefFxEGVbWo
jelkand 3y ago
I play flight sim games and GFS is a major factor in my hobbies now. I’m over a year into converting a real F-16 throttle grip into a video game controller, and there’s no end in sight. I’ve become immersed in 3d printing, CAD and PCB design. I hear it’s also big in outdoor hobbies—backpackers often make their own tents and packs too.
hliyan 3y ago
I wonder if note taking apps qualify for Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I certainly used to have it where I tried every note taking app imaginable, and created a few of my own. In the end, I found that the best way to focus on actually taking notes is to rely on pen-and-paper or simple text files.
- soupfordummies 3y ago
  Ouch, I'm feeling attacked!
ConfusedDog 3y ago
That's true for many behavior patterns. For me, collecting physical books, ebooks, electronics, tools, etc., before I was so burnt out I also try to learn a lot of different languages. Goal-less life leads me astray. I'm still goal-less though, just not doing that anymore. I have collected too much and burnt out.

166 points by FabienC 3y ago

I appreciate the post. I last made a Throttle for a HOTAS setup. Key was I had a functional end to end prototype using Arduino, ultrasonic sensor, and drawer slide in 3 hours and started using it immediately. Every piece of the prototype was eventually replaced and my "final" version is a mess of wires and incomplete, but I got use out of the early versions as a proof of concept early and never bought the off the shelf alternative.

userinanother 3y ago

GAS can be very economical if you buy used high end gear. If like me you change hobbies every 2-3 years you can sell the high end gear for what you bought it for. GFS is much more expensive as your custom built stuff has very little resale value, even if acquisition costs originally were cheaper the resale is Usally a fraction of cost.

TomMasz 3y ago

I've built my own pedals, amp, and guitar. I managed to do all of them in a reasonable amount of time without neglecting the playing aspect. But I've got all the parts for Mu-Tron III clone that have been sitting in the boxes they came in for a year now and haven't had the time to start. I could have had a commercial one to play through in that amount of time.

_aavaa_ 3y ago

Is nobody going to talk about the I have no mouth, and I must scream looking Furby caged in their synth???

Tabular-Iceberg 3y ago

It’s all fun and games until you start applying this to commercial software projects.

trevyn 3y ago
It’s interesting how open source kind of short-circuits a lot of this; you can’t “acquire” it all because you already have it all. You can acquire experience in a lot of tools, but that’s actually acquiring practical knowledge, not just acquisition of things as things.
- Tabular-Iceberg 3y ago
  Well, it short-circuits the licensing cost argument for rolling your own frameworks, but I don’t think that was ever the real reason why devs love reinventing the wheel. I think that building frameworks is just a lot more fun than doing what you’re supposed to be doing, which is usually a soul-sucking grind of boring enterprise tickets.
  - quickthrower2 3y ago
    I am the other way. I like others to make good frameworks and I like building the customer facing thing.
    - breckenedge 3y ago
      Have you worked with eager designers who love to reinvent everything?
      - quickthrower2 3y ago
        Luckily no
    - Tabular-Iceberg 3y ago
      Maybe that’s exactly why they do it. Building frameworks is as customer facing as it gets, because the customers are your coworkers that you can just walk over to and speak directly with. If one is so insulated from the actual business problem by corporate bureaucracy it may be the only way for developers to do something that matters to someone, no matter how frivolous it is in the grand scheme.

tuatoru 3y ago

... and then you start wondering about the calibration of the gear you fabricated, so you buy some high-quality parts with NIST traceable calibrations, and make some test equipment using them, and then.... then you go down the metrology rabbit hole.

BillyTheMage 3y ago
You're telling me you don't already have a CMM in your garage?

ikekkdcjkfke 3y ago

It's kinda related to bikeshedding, do anything else than pushing features

ungamedplayer 3y ago
Like pushing fixes?
- LoganDark 3y ago
  https://xkcd.com/583 https://xkcd.com/583
  - breckenedge 3y ago
    For once I am glad I scrolled to the bottom of the comments

kleiba 3y ago

So, you're not supposed to buy stuff for your hobby nor build stuff for your hobby? I think it depends on how you define "the hobby" - is it really just the part where you use your equipment? I find that too narrow. A good counter example could perhaps be table top wargaming, e.g. Warhammer and the likes. Surely, people who call that their hobby like to play the (various different) games. But a lot of people love building and painting their miniature armies just as much. And some people hate it. So what's the scoop? If you enjoy the building and painting of new minis more than actually playing the game they're made for, you're doing it wrong? Look, hobbies are for your enjoyment. If buying gear or trying to build it yourself gives you joy, more power to you. I for one like to buy power tools just as much as the next guy. And often times it's hard to justify falling for a good sales offer when you don't really have a specific need for that tool at that point in time. But on the flip side, there have been quite a few moments where I was tinkinering about with some home improvement projects and a tool I might have bought a long time ago and never really needed since came in handy just at that very moment. And so I was glad I had it. Especially since I don't live very close to the next DIY store. So, yeah, is that a good justification for spending money on power tools? Probably not - but it's what I like, and so I do it. The acquisition of gear (be it buying or building) is not a means to an end - it is part of the hobby.

taffronaut 3y ago
> So, you're not supposed to buy stuff for your hobby nor build stuff for your hobby? I'm not sure that anyone is proposing that. > A good counter example could perhaps be table top wargaming, e.g. Warhammer and the likes. Surely, people who call that their hobby like to play the (various different) games. But a lot of people love building and painting their miniature armies just as much. That sounds perfectly reasonable if the split between crafting and playing is somewhere near the middle. However, in the case that they hardly ever actually engage in a game, I'd maintain that their hobby is not 'wargaming' and is actually model making.
- xsmasher 3y ago
  Worse if they keep buying paints and models but never even open them.

wodenokoto 3y ago

> Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS). A person’s insatiable urge to buy equipment for their art or hobby, distracting them from actually practicing said art or hobby. > It’s driven in part by the belief that new gear will improve one’s art or performance, e.g. I don’t sound like Jimi Hendrix because I don’t have the same effects pedal he used. Bit tangent, but I think one should just embrace it and say “my hobby is collecting guitar gear, and my niche is things that Jimi Hendrix used or things that make sounds like he did” There’s no shame in a hobby collecting and being honest with yourself might bring some clarity to your life.

ano-ther 3y ago
That’s a creative re-framing. Sadly, the realization that you are not going to be a rockstar but a gear collector is likely to trigger a midlife crisis.
omnibrain 3y ago
> but I think one should just embrace it and say “my hobby is collecting guitar gear That's something I noticed with a lot of people in my circle and 3d printers. They don't 3d print for their hobby. Most of them have 3d printing or even 3d printers as their hobby.
- drewzero1 3y ago
  For a long time I was baffled by the seemingly unnecessary gizmos that are popular 3d print subjects, because to me 3d printing was just a means to an end. Eventually I realized that the printing itself is a hobby for a lot of printer people. Personally I like to use my printer to enable my other hobbies, but along the way I've picked up 3d design and printing as secondary hobbies.
  - drivers99 3y ago
    I designed a custom shape for something I needed for another hobby (holding a first-surface mirror at 45 degrees so I could try to learn to paint by copying) and that was really satisfying to learn 3d modeling and making a real object. I should probably do more things like that, such as making a robot or something.

LoganDark 3y ago

> A person’s insatiable urge to buy equipment for their art or hobby, distracting them from actually practicing said art or hobby. [insert a string of like 100 sobbing emojis.]

Brian_K_White 3y ago

All that design and fabrication work, and the pedals swing the wrong way? And has no rigid frame connection to a seat? If you're going to bother, then one of the biggest things is to rigidly attach the pedals to the seat so that they cannot move in relation to the seat even against the full power of legs. And of course car pedals swing on a pivot that is above the pedals not below, although the gas pedal has an extra linkage so that IT does pivot on the bottom. Clutch and brake (not break) require full leg power and knee bend, only gas is purely ankle bend, calf power. And if such details don't matter, then you're right back to the off the shelf one.

TwiztidK 3y ago
You're dead on about rigid mounts for the pedals. One of the first issues many sim racers run into with regular cheap pedals and a desk mounted wheel is that they pedals slide once you start braking hard. And with load cell pedals the expectation is that you'll be using even more force, so that problem will just get worse. As for pedal mounting location, many pedals can be top or bottom mounted if your racing chassis allows for it. However, floor mounted pedals offer the same performance as top mounted, match the majority of purpose built racing cars, and are simpler to mount in a sim racing chassis.
Tabular-Iceberg 3y ago
Is it really universally true that clutch and brake pedals have the pivot above? It is indeed what I’ve always seen on production road cars, but I don’t see why it’s necessarily true for all cars.
- breckenedge 3y ago
  I believe some Honda clutch pedals are floor mounted, at least on the TSX I drove. I really didn’t like the feel.
LastTrain 3y ago
Ever heard of a Volkswagen Beetle, or a Porsche 911?

fellerts 3y ago

Very relevant article and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35670129 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35670129 "GFS" describes the hobby vs the gear, but hobbyists will also find themselves somewhere along the "doing" vs "discussing" axis as well.

Perz1val 3y ago

Until your GFS develops its own GAS...

quickthrower2 3y ago
Just building my own shed to house my 3d printer and injection mould studio so I can perfect these headphones so Jimmy Hendrix sounds great

hnbad 3y ago

To steal an old meme: Men will literally come up with new "syndromes" instead of going to therapy. GAS/GFS sounds like a regular Tuesday on ADHD. I want to play a racing sim. Better learn intricate details of electronics, physics and car mechanics so I can build my own brake pedal. Is the brake pedal working? No. Have I spent even a single minute playing a racing sim since starting this project? Also no. But I have taught myself how to build my own 3D printer from scratch and I also never will do that ever again.

speeder 3y ago
I have ADHD and it is bothering me to no end that when people ask me what my hobby is, I find out I have a huge list of half-finished stuff instead. For example I like blacksmithing. Built a simple sword just grinding the metal, then decided to study how to get a proper forge and whatnot. Studied a lot, learning the chemistry of steel, found where to buy the stuff. Never bought it, never made any forged item. Then I decided to go for armor making, using rings. Started making one, got stuck because the rings were too rigid and I wasn't strong enough... and that is it, it ended there. So music then? Spent years learning how to compose music with a teacher that actually taught famous musicians, made my own cables to attach a keyboard to my computer, bought software, learned how to use trackers, became "friends" (as in... I don't talk much to them, but when I do they actually listen and give me small favors) Siren (musician from Unreal series) and Virt (musician from a lot of newer indie games, like Shovel Knight). How much music I made? 0. People at the church asked me if I can play my keyboard in public while people sing hymns. I replied I actually, never tried that. Dumped a ton of money in magic the gathering cards. Made a point when moving country, of bringing them with me, half of my airplane baggage limit was MTG cards. Last time I played? Several months ago, almost a year I suppose. The list keeps going and it is driving me nuts, I feel like I am wasting my life. I am not studying hard enough to improve my job performance, I am not studying the bible as I should either, I keep promising myself I will do it and then I don't. And again keeping with the theme of GAS, I actually spent a lot of money buying access to theology online classes and seminars, and didn't watch any of it.
- imtringued 3y ago

omnicognate 3y ago

"Syndrome", "guilt", "fear", "failed", "worse". It's a hobby. There's no wrong way to do it. Have a budget and do what makes you happy. If that's accumulating gadgets, accumulate with joy. It's not an illness. Another reason for what the article calls Gear Acquisition Syndrome, if not for Gear Fabrication Syndrome, is the nature of the learning curve for some things. For example, I'm learning electronics, slowly. Slowly because I have children and a stressful full-time job. A while ago I bought an oscilloscope. I don't really need an oscilloscope and it's possible I never will. I'm just hooking up 555 timers and trying to get my head round the mysteries of inductance at this stage. The machine is occasionally marginally useful, but mostly I get it out for the sake of fiddling with it. Does this mean I just bought it for the thrill of owning it? I certainly felt that thrill when it arrived, but I bought it to learn how to use it, as part of the larger project of "learning electronics". My slow progress means it may be a long time before I'm doing things that really require it, but if and when that time comes I'll be ready, with the device and the knowledge to use it correctly (and not blow it up! [1]). I don't know how far I'll get in learning and applying this stuff, but learning the tools is a major part of it, and rewarding in itself. [1] https://youtu.be/xaELqAo4kkQ?feature=shared https://youtu.be/xaELqAo4kkQ?feature=shared

GuB-42 3y ago
Gear Acquisition Syndrome is tied to compulsive buying and hording, both are recognized illnesses (in ICD-11). Of course, just buying an oscilloscope in the course of learning electronics is not getting you in psychiatry. I mean, it is part of the basic toolkit, plus, you are actually using it. But if you start buying 5 different soldering irons with 10 different types of solder, every kind of pliers known to man, some very specific tool for some obscure use case you don't have, etc... it can negatively impact your quality of life, for example because of the clutter.
- bluescrn 3y ago
  > Gear Acquisition Syndrome is tied to compulsive buying and hording, both are recognized illnesses (in ICD-11). Which is a long way from 'throwing some disposable income at a hobby'. If your 'gear acquisition' is getting you in debt, or excessively cluttering your home, you may have a problem. But otherwise, if you can afford it, and it's giving you some satisfaction to collect and fiddle with it, then why not? Spending, say, $25k on hobby gear might seem excessive. But people don't get shamed for spending far more than that replacing/upgrading cars when they've got a perfectly decent one already. And if you're buying quality gear, whether it's tools or musical instruments/equipment, it's likely to have a lifetime of several decades, it's not like you're buying junk that'll end up on a mountain of e-waste in a couple of years time.

crtified 3y ago

looks guiltily at the ventilation system he's building, to ventilate the workroom he's made, to contain the jigs he's constructed, to make the guitars he only needed one of, but has now somehow ordered enough wood for about 7 D'oh!!

nehal3m 3y ago
All of that sounds super fun though.
peschkaj 3y ago
/me also waves from behind a CNC machine, pile of tools, jigs, etc

atoav 3y ago

As someone who designs analog and digital circuits and a live long musician I often find that building your own shit is the way™, because even if you are not 100% happy with the results it is A) often possible to adjust the result till you like it and more importantly B) it is often all about the friends you made along the way (aka learning). That being said traditional GAS, as in people that buy a ton of stuff in the hunt for the perfect tone falls often into two categories (or any mix of the two): 1. People whose motivation for the hobby is coupled to these purchases 2. People who don't completely understand all the contributing factors A good example is Hifi-Heads who will spend upwards of 400 Euros for a simple cable and tell you they can hear what the best measuring equipment known to humanity can't measure, yet they fail to do even the most basic acoustic treatment to their listening space. Guitar players can be similar, only there one big variable are the players themselves. Also they often fail to understand that every guitar tone they want to imitate is typically a recording of a guitar tone. That means the whole microfone/mixing desk/effects/recording media/mastering chain is part of that sound. So even if you you traveled back in time and had the possibility to sit with Hendrix in the studio, it probably wouldn't sound like it did on the record. And if he gave you the chance to play his guitar and his amp it would still not sound like him, because the magic (or the lack thereof) is in the fingers. That being said, it is good and useful to have goals for certain sounds, but the way to achive them rarely is a very specific set of (typically obscenely expensive) gear — the trick is to understand your instrument, yourself and the whole signal chain intricately, or on the recording side of things: To work with people who have both that understanding and an appreciation for the sound you are aiming for (just like Hendrix obviously did). On the Synth end of things I know people who are more into "collecting" these things than using them. These are the people who spend more time researching their next synth or module than they spend on actually learning how to use what they got. I don't want to judge, it is all about the dopamine in the end, but as someone who enjoys the act of making music — a hobby that arguably needs a ton of stuff, depending on what you do — I always think a too crazy focus on gear takes away from that. And I say that as someone who constructs some of these circuits.

wexomania 3y ago

I can relate, I view myself as a hobby game developer, but I never actually make any games, because I end up having way more fun making the tools to make the games, than making the actual games themselves.

ur-whale 3y ago

I have GFS, to a degree that's probably way worse than the article's author. I'm also old enough (40+ years experience as a dev) to actually objectively measure the impact this trait has had on my career. I'll summarize in one simple sentence: any negative feeling / worry /guilt you may have because you discover you have that "penchant": discard it with utmost prejudice. I have had an amazing career in tech. (not over yet). Most of it has been self-propelled by the things I've learnt because of GFS-type propensities.

alpaca128 3y ago
I don't have near as much experience but things like that indirectly got me my current job. I worried a ton in the past because I almost never finished a project, until the feedback I got from others made me realize how much I learned in the process. I could have done some things in a more time efficient manner but in the end I do it because it's fun, and ultimately "reinventing the wheel" (a phrase I could rant about all day) helped me overcome/replace bad habits.

perlgeek 3y ago

I misread the title, and thought he compulsively built gears (as in, gearing mechanism) :-)

bad_alloc 3y ago
Me too. This is somehow an interest many hobby machinists converge on as a far away goal. It is hard to do, needs extra equipment and is mostly avoidable. Still, the allure is there...
- eternityforest 3y ago
  I want to do a 3DP project with a cool gearing mechanism but I don't know what it should do. I'm thinking some kind of PC input device.

krisoft 3y ago

I felt called out by the title since I spent all my hobby time in the last few weeks to fabricate brass gears for an orrery I’m working on. :) Luckily it is not about that kind of gear fabrication syndrome.

imtringued 3y ago
I am planning on building custom BLDC driven actuators and I need to manufacture my own gears for that...
mauvehaus 3y ago
At the risk of nerd sniping all of HN: please tell us more about this orrery you're building! Can we follow your progress online?
- asalahli 3y ago
  Please also tell us about your gear fabrication process!
  - krisoft 3y ago
    Happy to! I use a woodworking CNC router (a stock xcarve) to cut the gears out of brass sheets. It is absolutely not the “right tool” for the job, but already had access to one and it seems to work. The gears are mod0.8. 40, 20, 12, 10 and 8 teeth. I cut the bevel gears and the pinions out of 3mm brass sheet stock while the larger wheels are cut out of 0.7mm brass stock. (Why this modulo? That was the smallest gear family my prusa 3d printer could print reliably, and i guess i just stuck with it as i transfered to cutting brass) (Why this stock thicknesses? That is what amazon had in next day delivery :)) I design the mechanism and create the cutting toolpaths in fusion 360. The paths are 2d profile cuts for the straight pinnions and wheels, and 3d profile cuts for the bevel gears. For the bevel gears I have a “roughing pass” with a 1.7mm bit followed by two passes with a 0.8mm bit. This seems to be needed otherwise as the tiny bit steps “down and out” it encounters too much depth on the “outside” of the cut. At least that is how I explain it. What is certain that when i tried to cut the bevel gears with a single pass the 0.8mm bit broke all the time, and with this strategy I can cut all four of my bevel gears with the same two cutters. :) The pinions and wheels with straight walls I cut with a single pass. I take 0.1mm deep cuts with 45mm/min feed, altough truth to be told I have tried 250mm/min feeds also and that seemed to be fine too. 350mm/min broke the bit too often. I run the spindle at a constant max speed, which I have measured to be 27000rpm unloaded. Haven’t measured during cutting but somehow I doubt the dewalt with all its 900W slows down at allwith these tiny bits and cuts. For work holding I use the following “sandwitch”: a 6mm thick aluminum plate is toe clamped to the bed of the CNC. There is blue painters masking tape glued on the aluminium waste board, super glue on that and the brass stock is held on by that super glue. I start the cuts 0.3mm above the stock and finish it 0.3mm bellow. I probe the stock’s surface, back the bit up until it breaks the contact and zero it there. The gears I cut are small enough that i don’t seem to benefit much from z-scanning the surface of the stock. I use Universal GCode Sender to send the gcode generated by fusion. Sorry for the lot of detail, just wrote what I wished have known a few months ago. Let me know if there is anything else you are currious about.

Zondartul 3y ago

A 3D printing hobby is basically GAS/GFS-as-a-hobby. You buy the cheapest printer, then print better parts for it, then you buy a second printer to print faster and with more quality, then you go on an ebay spree and buy a VORON kit to make your own, then you build a "mostly-printed CNC", lathe, plotter, laser cutter, and then you run out of room in your garage and start looking for a bigger house. It's a huge money drain, but fun even if it doesn't ultimately get you anywhere ;)

eternityforest 3y ago
I actually have less GAS/GFS with printing than anything else. I'd like a Klipper Pad and a camera... but it's not essential. I think it might be the fact that anything decorative or artistic needs post processing anyway, so a few layer lines aren't a big deal, and that I enjoy CAD design and trying to make functions parts work without relying on precision. I would like to quiet the fan and steppers a bit though!
bluescrn 3y ago
Buy a Prusa, Skip most of the setup/tweaking/upgrading. Print things. Learn to design things to print.
- djmips 3y ago
  The speed of the Voron and Bambu are pretty enticing.
  - bluescrn 3y ago
    More speed generally means more noise, though.
- JakeTehPwner 3y ago
  I just bought the prusa mk4 kit+enclosure, spent 20+ hours building it, and now I can’t stop printing upgrades for it(mostly the enclosure). I sealed the enclosure a bit, did the squash ball feet mod for the printer(it’s silent now), and I’m currently printing this: https://www.printables.com/model/588524-prusa-mk4-improved-fan-duct-and-hotend-fan-shroud- https://www.printables.com/model/588524-prusa-mk4-improved-f...

NKosmatos 3y ago

Nice one, and catchy/misleading title :-) Never heard of Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) or Gear Fabrication Syndrome (GFS), but I think it would be better to replace Gear with Gadget. From I saw with a quick search, GAS is heavily related to musicians, but I think this applies to all areas (photography, computing, astronomy...). A little bit off topic... Is it only me that finds the scrolling area of this page annoying? What's the point of having all this screen estate and allowing scrolling only if the mouse is over the middle section?

jdub 3y ago
Try calling a guitar a "gadget" to serious players or collectors. :-)

mordae 3y ago

I have pretty severe GFS and one part of it is that once you understand what you are building, you don't really wish to finish it and continue on a more stimulating tangent. On the other hand, teaching others stuff that doesn't (by itself) stimulate you anymore gives you an opportunity to check the quality of your understanding and is also fun in itself. Another way to finish is to build a birthday gift and thus impose a deadline on yourself.

hellotheretoday 3y ago
This is such a major problem! I have so many half finished projects because I got to the understanding portion and moved onto something more interesting. Or perhaps I’m just coping and telling myself that to deny that I have really bad attention and impulsivity issues

rubenv 3y ago

Not often you see simracing mentioned here! For sure there are gains to be made by having proper material as opposed to entry level, but those quickly become marginal. The biggest gains by far are usually found in working on your driving style. Have a look at telemetry of someone who's slightly faster and work out the differences methodologically. Shameless self-promotion: if you're racing in iRacing, have a look at https://garage61.net https://garage61.net, we have over 125 million laps of telemetry to learn from.

fho 3y ago

Came here to talk about my Gear Fabrication Syndrome: https://photos.app.goo.gl/wQ6mWkENAgBvWWuy7 https://photos.app.goo.gl/wQ6mWkENAgBvWWuy7 ... was disappointed :-)

toyg 3y ago

... and after two months the pedal is not usable, obviously. Because success is defined by https://xkcd.com/349/ https://xkcd.com/349/

MrDresden 3y ago

I guess I have something similar when it comes to productivity and my workstations. In the last two years I have completely moved my desktop configuration into Ansible making it near perfectly reproducible on another machine. My thinking was it would make me more productive in the long run. But rather then spending some of my free time working on some of the other actual software ideas I have accumulated over the years, instead that time goes into endless tinkering with the playbook and trying to add even more to it.

ta988 3y ago
I stopped doing that. I realized that in half a day to a day I can set everything up again manually from simple backups. And I spent more than that on Ansible and the maintenance costs are not negligible, plus the fact that the day you need it something broke and you need to fix it.

giantg2 3y ago

There's nothing wrong with GAS or GFS if done from the standpoint of learning. The joy of learning can itself be the product. Maybe your ok at working UHF/VHF with a handie baofeng and you just found a great deal on an IC-821 that could allow you to learn how to work satellites and other modes in the future... For GFS, making gear instead of music etc can still be the product. Additionally, if one understands how something works, it could make them better at applying that gear.

bluGill 3y ago

Everyone needs to have a list for for their hobby of useful things they will buy if cheap enough, and a budget to spend one it. Then when a deal comes they will know if they buy or not. Of course some people think nothing of dropping $150,000 on their hobby, while others only have $5 to spend. The important part is it keeps you from filling up space with good deals on things that don't actually apply or you already have one of (unless your hobby benefits from more than one)

xtiansimon 3y ago

GFS could lead to a better appreciation of the quality of consumer goods. I think you can compare most collections to fashion. Some people collect based on color or fabric. Others on quality of manufacture. Or on quality of fit. Then we have brands and finally pure hysteria—something you won’t wear, but only desire to own. This explains keb collectors and someone who owns Jimi’s actual fx pedal. The DIYer could just be an aficionado of manufacture or perfect fit. My2c

mikewarot 3y ago

When I was younger, I used to participate in the local radio club's "foxhunts" on 2 meters. Every month I'd be trying out some new cobbled together antenna, or home made doppler gear. It was a lot of fun. I never did settle on an optimum setup. The joy of just trying things out was the reward. --- As for actual gear fabrication, I used to make gears, mostly bevel gears, but also some spur and helical gears, as well as gear like objects. Since bouncing out of the field (due to long covid) it is only lack of budget that has kept me from trying to build/acquire gear to be able to make gears myself at home. I really want a pocketNC. I'm convinced I could find a way to Power Skiving[1] straight bevel gears, which should be impossible(because the pitch of the gear teeth varies continuously across the distance from the central axis), with sufficient budget and time. It's fun to tinker, and that's the reward in itself. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EefFxEGVbWo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EefFxEGVbWo

jelkand 3y ago

I play flight sim games and GFS is a major factor in my hobbies now. I’m over a year into converting a real F-16 throttle grip into a video game controller, and there’s no end in sight. I’ve become immersed in 3d printing, CAD and PCB design. I hear it’s also big in outdoor hobbies—backpackers often make their own tents and packs too.

hliyan 3y ago

I wonder if note taking apps qualify for Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I certainly used to have it where I tried every note taking app imaginable, and created a few of my own. In the end, I found that the best way to focus on actually taking notes is to rely on pen-and-paper or simple text files.

soupfordummies 3y ago
Ouch, I'm feeling attacked!

ConfusedDog 3y ago

That's true for many behavior patterns. For me, collecting physical books, ebooks, electronics, tools, etc., before I was so burnt out I also try to learn a lot of different languages. Goal-less life leads me astray. I'm still goal-less though, just not doing that anymore. I have collected too much and burnt out.