October 1st, 2006
Don’t Try This at Home
IN HIS OWN WORDS
Sportsman tells a cautionary tale of a do-it-yourself project gone bad
The Web site made it look easy. The customer testimonials stated that anyone could put it together. The parts came labeled and were accompanied by step-by-step instructions. But ultimately, it turned into one of the most frustrating experiences of my life.
Trying to save a little money, I bought the plans off the Internet for an underwater fish camera. What looked like an easy project turned into a nightmare that cost three times the amount the site said it would.
During the course of the project I fried six LED lights, blew two switches, burned six fingers with hot solder and, because I had to bore out the inside of a PVC pipe to accommodate a mini cam, probably inhaled enough plastic shavings and fumes to give a small community cancer. Not to mention the stress of trying to figure out the directions.
In the end, I asked my nuclear physicist neighbor, Paul Jennings, for help. Although he was testing his homemade Geiger counter at the time, he looked over the directions and drew a diagram he thought would be easier to follow. It wasn’t. Taking pity on me, Jennings completed the project.
What’s the moral of this story? If you want to watch fish, study nuclear physics. Or at least move next door to someone who did.
By: Young, Gayne C., Outdoor Life, Sep2006