We are constantly surrounded by a jillion high-tech gadgets, gizmos, and solutions to every problem. I'm all for it. Really. So long as the solution offered is the best solution available.
Yet, sometimes the best solutions are the low-tech, homemade kind which end up outshining the slicker and shinier ones.
It was at the estate auction of a deceased ham radio operator that I picked up a parts organizer filled with bits and pieces of electrical components, coax antenna adapters, Zippo flints, and old stereo knobs. There was some helpful stuff, some boring stuff, and some downright useless stuff.
"Stuff." That's what we leave behind. Just...stuff.
But it was in a bottom drawer, resting beneath a neatly-folded square of felt, that I discovered this treasure, the one worth the entirety of whatever it was I had paid at the auction.
This chunk of lead with a humble clothespin anchored to it by two simple screws has been my best friend. (Yes, our personalities are similar...why do you ask?) This outperforms all of the "helping hands" and other soldering aids that I have. It holds just about anything I give it, has cavities which perfectly fit a variety of components, and the solid rock upon which it's built is dang near immovable.
I wish I had a dozen. I'd trade my cousin's kidney for two.
Low-tech, homemade. Sometimes, therein lies the treasure.