I gotta get me some of that
It's a bit late, but I finally bought my dad something for father's day -- and his birthday (which was May 15th). I should have been timelier with my gifting. In my defense, it took me a long time to come up with an idea that I was happy with and then there was the internal debate of spending the money or getting something else that's more practical (something Dad needed that was a little easier on my pocket book).
This gift was a difficult one to decide on for various reasons. From a practical standpoint, other gift ideas may have been 'better'. Some Background: Mom and Dad are doing a major remodel on their house. They've doubled their living space - well, it will be double when it's done, right now it's been cut down to about 1/3 of what it was when I lived there. This is a project that started last summer. After a few set backs, like lazy contractors, incompetent contractors and then lazy and incompetent contractors, they ended up with kind of a mess on their hands. One part of the remodel that had to be done was to put a new roof on the house. This included new trusses and it really did need it. What it didn't need was a construction crew that didn't show up one day, only worked half a day the next before heading back to town to stick their thumbs up their asses and then 1.5 inches of rain that night while the roof was off -- ruining all the insulation in the ceiling and all the sheetrock underneath. Mom and Dad have given certain independent contractors in the West River region the proverbial finger and are finishing things up themselves at this point. They work full time so it's going slow. A lot of the family has been out to help them, myself included.
OK. Back to the gift. It would have been real easy to do what I was told to do and get a Menard's gift card or something similar and sent that off. My issue with that is it's like a cop out in this situation. It's like 'Hey, I hear you got a big goddamn mess on your hands. Here's a gift card so you can buy shit to fix your big goddamn mess. Now my obligation is done! Have fun with your big goddamn mess!' They've got to deal with this remodel every day until it's done and I know that to a certain extent they are tired of everything and everyone being focused on it.
I wanted to get Dad something that didn't have to do with the house. He really likes working with metal -- designing projects, welding, etc so I thought of getting him a milling machine or a metal lathe. I even talked to my uncle Gary (Dad's younger brother -- who is recovering nicely from his quadruple bypass now) and he thought that would be a very good idea -- a metal lathe or a milling maching. Dad has always been interested in that sort of thing and he's going to be retiring in a couple years. I thought something like that would give him something to do.
I tried pricing some of those bad boys -- not cheap -- which isn't the point but spending that kind of jack on something you're not sure anyone will use is a bit foolish. The full sized machines get up in the $4k to $7k range BEFORE you start talking about CNC. Yikes!
I was looking for alternatives when I remembered something I saw in one of my woodworking tool catalogs. It's The Taig Lathe. I've seen them in use at steam shows by people who make working scale replicas of tractors, steam engines and farm implements (oh, yes, they are out there -- breathing the same air as you). The initial price for the lathe is very good and they are a versitile and useful precision tool (accurate down to .0005 inch--which is probably smaller than a gnat's ass). They come with a ton of accessories. I decided to get him pretty much everything he needed to get started -- just set up and go, not set up then order more parts. Then I called him. I normally prefer my gifts to be a surprise but with the home improvements going on and the fact that I only vaguely remember him saying something about a metal lathe once about 20 years ago I thought I'd double check.
It turns out that Dad's wanted one of these lathes for years and years but was never able get one and had finally given up on the idea. Before we got off the phone, he was talking about where he might be able to set it up. I went ahead and ordered it. It should be here next week. Yay ME! I ordered one for me too. I just couldn't pass it up. I got them from Lee Valley & Veritas whose catalog I saw it in and whose prices, surprisingly enough, are lower than the manufacturer's. Go figure.
Now if only I can figure out what to get Mom for Mother's Day. It better be good, 'cause it's really late.