[derekp7]

I've started upping my woodworking skills. For years I would cut and screw together boards cut from construction grade lumber (cheap 2x4 pine for example). I now work with at minimum Poplar (still a bit on the soft side, but works much like hardwood), Oak, Maple, basically what I can get in the premium lumber section at a big box store, and did some alignment on my compound miter saw. What a difference that makes, have cranked out a hand full of desks and other furniture that is getting better with each piece I made.

Also got into 3D printing, using OpenScad for creating the models. It is almost magical when you can think of something that you want, but they don't make, yet you can make it yourself (different brackets for holding accessories on a bicycle, clips that holds a plexiglass screen in front of the TV to protect it, etc, things like that).

These are a couple of ideas of things that a technical mind can work on (woodworking and 3d printing both require some amount of precision and design). Keeps things interesting.