Re-reading SRS… I think I’ve more dived on things I could love to have a play with in my previous post.

Looking at things a different way, My mini lathe (bought to do one particular task but I can’t remember what and figuring I might find other uses for it) would be my most likely candidate as a tool. I think one way I might have got into learning more on that would have been to try a Stirling engine project which could have led on to steam and might have got me started on learning a few techniques.

Things counting against me is that I think material (at least brass) costs are high for one thing and for another, I’m very poor at settling down just to learn things…

It doesn’t happen often (much less than once a year now) but what suits me is thinking of something that I figure I can do at least mostly with the tools and knowledge I have (maybe adding little bits of both) and seeing what I can can come up with out of my head.

My (modified/second build of) “windmill” is probably my best example. There are attempts at metal work, stepper motor control and other bits of programming (eg. you can get direction and speed of rotation and start/stop it using an Android app) in there.

Back to you router and it being unused, maybe you have a slight touch of me there? I mean maybe you need some idea to come along first and then think “I’ve got a router and that’s just what I would need for that”?