Perceive the opportunity

One of my gifts -- I suppose -- is seeing opportunities for "re-purposing" everyday items.  The downside, of course, is that I have stashes of plexiglass, lumber, and other things around my shop -- for "future projects".

To my credit, however, I actually have these items organized enough that I can access them when I need them; I do actually make use of them; and for the last year or two I no longer retrieve "junk" unless I have a specific intended use for them.

So:  today when my kids were at a birthday party at the trampoline place, I nipped over to the nearby shopping centre to get something to eat.  While there, I stopped by an oddball liquidator's place.  In the discount bin in the front, they had a bunch of the cable-tensioning devices (pictured). I saw them, pondered a moment, and went "Aha."

I bought all six.  I didn't write down the price, but I think it was $2 each -- which I checked later, and is substantially cheaper than what they cost at the hardware store.

What are they for?  Well -- at **some** point in the future, I've wanted to make a gigantic backyard stringed instrument -- maybe 6m (20 ft) long.  These will be the tuning devices, to raise each "string" (presumably a cable) to pitch.

(Technically, these will probably be the fine-tuners.  Probably a large turnbuckle for the bulk tuning.)



--GG