And what did we buy today?

A lovely Nikon SMZ645 stereo microscope, with boom stand and 0.7x objective for home.

I’ve always had one of these (or the newer SMZ745 equivalent) on a bench at work. I’m short-sighted, so don’t get a lot of benefit from normal maggy-lamp magnifiers. Down to 0805 and 0.05” pitch parts I don’t bother with magnification. When it gets smaller than that I go straight for the microscope.

Alas because of a promotion at work I’ll shortly be losing my access to this sort of gear at work. The solution of course is to set up my home lab same as what I’ve done at work :)
 
A lovely Nikon SMZ645 stereo microscope, with boom stand and 0.7x objective for home.

I’ve always had one of these (or the newer SMZ745 equivalent) on a bench at work. I’m short-sighted, so don’t get a lot of benefit from normal maggy-lamp magnifiers. Down to 0805 and 0.05” pitch parts I don’t bother with magnification. When it gets smaller than that I go straight for the microscope.

Alas because of a promotion at work I’ll shortly be losing my access to this sort of gear at work. The solution of course is to set up my home lab same as what I’ve done at work :)

I find I need x2 reading glasses for SMD work now.
Any close up work now needs glasses.
The 0402 parts are out of the question !

Even then I still work on a big clear bench as SMD parts fly everywhere out of the tweezers !
 
Well this wasn't exactly a purchase, but I got one new shock absorber today. :eek:) (The shop replaced it under warranty since it only had ~18,000 miles on it.)


I've had shocks wear out before, but always evenly, at approximately the same rate. This was the first time I've driven a vehicle with one good and one completely gone in the rear, and it was much worse than the usual scenario. On the highway, a good bump would send the tail end skittering sideways, then lurching back into line - a bit more excitement than I require these days.
 
I don't know about buying an F35, but if I won the lottery I'd seriously consider flying lessons and an L39.

Bought a small jug of 0W20 synthetic, maybe that will be enough to make my workshop compressor run in cool weather. Also bought a world map to put up in the kids' desk area if the wife blesses it.
 
...Thought it would be cool to line up all potentiometers to see how a tune would go ... sort of.

Thinking back on this, I remember now what prompted my random-access mod, way back when. I wanted my synthesizer to play this most excellent 14-step sequence from the classic (and aptly titled) Larry Fast / Synergy LP, Sequencer, but my PAIA sequencer was only 12 steps. Noticing that some of the notes repeat, the light bulb eventually came on, followed by the soldering iron. :)