My two Insta360 One X cameras, however, were not. They saw significant action over the next five years. I often mounted a GoPro to my bike. Even with its wide-angle lens, however, I still had to point it at whatever I wanted to capture. That meant that it often missed things that would happen around me when I was riding. More often, I missed things because I simply wasn’t recording, so naturally, that’s when things happen. Bonnie and I joke that the best way to make sure nothing exciting happens is to hit record. 

The ability to record in all directions simultaneously made the Insta360 One X perfect for bike rides. The one thing I didn’t like about it, though, was that, mounted to my handlebar, it recorded me from a very low angle, which is never a good look. When used with the Insta360 selfie stick, however, it brought the camera up to the level of my face for a more natural image.

Mounting it to the bike was a challenge, though, or at least I made it a challenge. For some reason, I had the idea to weld a 1/4 – 20 screw to my bike frame. Then, I screwed the selfie stick straight onto it. It worked well enough until it didn’t. Without warning, the screw broke off, sending the Insa360 One X crashing to the ground. One lens was badly scratched on the hard concrete just a few months after I bought it.

There Were No DIY Insta360 One X Repairs Back in 2019

Back then, parts for Insta360 cameras were non-existent, so I had little choice but to send it out for repair. With shipping, it was about half the price of buying a new Insta360 One X to have the lens replaced. I wasn’t happy, but I learned a lesson. 

I’m An Insta360’s Worst Nightmare

Unfortunately, I still had other lessons to learn. I generally only used one camera at a time, and I liked to use it with a selfie stick. It doesn’t fit easily into a pocket, but I found a clever way to carry it when I wasn’t recording. My pants had hammer loops on each leg. I know a lot of people don’t like hammer loops, but I do. When I was a carpet cleaner, I found them invaluable. I always had a towel tucked into one of them, and they were great for hanging spray bottles.

They were also a great place to tuck an Insta360 One X on a selfie stick. Not all hammer loops are equal, though, and I discovered the hard way twice that some are bigger than others. I had one of my cameras tucked into my hammer loop as I walked with my family to the park. It was in its protective pouch, but it slipped right out of both the pouch and the loop.

The damage was far less significant than the last time, but one of the lenses was still scratched. Incredibly, I didn’t learn my lesson, and the same thing happened a short time later. I guess it took me two times to learn that lesson, but I still had one more lesson to learn.

The Big One

Bonnie and I were running to catch a bus. We were going to miss it if we didn’t hurry. My Insta360 One X was tucked into a pocket on the shoulder strap of my backpack because I had discovered that I could record from the forward-facing lens when I was out in public, and no one seemed to notice and, therefore, were not bothered by the camera.

It worked fine when I was walking, but running jostled it too much, and it was ejected onto the sidewalk, where it bounced, flipped, and skidded along the concrete driveway outside the QuikStop. This was by far the most violent and destructive drop yet. Now, both of my Insta360 One Xs were damaged. 

To Fix or Not To Fix?

In another time, I might have just bought a new 360º camera, but this was in the middle of the COVID pandemic, and nobody was coming out with new cameras. GoPro, DJI, Canon, Nikon, and Sony were all stuck in a pre-COVID freeze frame. The newest Insta360 camera I could buy was two years old. I figured new models would be released once all of this pandemic nonsense was over, but who knew when that was going to be? I saw a YouTube video that showed how to fix a crack in an Insta360 One X lens using epoxy, so I tried it, but it didn’t work.

Finally DIY Insta360 One X Repair Is Possible

So, I did some research and discovered that lenses were now available, and for significantly less than the last time I sent one of these out for repair and for a fraction of the cost of a new camera, so I ordered four new lenses from eBay for about $25 each.

I was hesitant to dive into this repair, but once I got the first camera open, it was much less daunting. Getting the camera open took some figuring out, but it wasn’t hard.

So, now I have one working camera and one non-working camera, and I’m okay with that… for now.

One day, I might replace the bad lens module, but I think I would rather spend that money on a camera made in this decade.

You can watch a video of the whole process here:

The post How To and NOT To Repair an Insta360 One X appeared first on Retro Active Lifestyle.

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie…

Sometimes a finished product isn’t quite so finished, and it’s up to the user to get it across the line. When I was a kid growing up in the 80s, unfinished furniture stores were big business. Evidently paint or stain was the bulk of the furniture cost back then, so it was worthwhile to buy your furniture unfinished and then take it home and finish it yourself.

These days, products are more likely to need a little help because of poor design or workmanship than someone deliberately dipping out before the job was done. Take for instance this wall-mount corkscrew I found at the Goodwill for $3. What a deal! The first time I used it, however, I got a face full of wine, and not in a conventional way. It was such a spectacular and unexpected mishap that I felt it was worthy of recreating for the world to see. Fortunately, the corkscrew sucked in a consistent and measurable way so that recreating the explosion was no trouble at all.

The problem was that the screw was pushing the cork into the bottle instead of threading itself into the cork. That was partly because the shaft needed to be lubed (that’s what she said) but mostly because there was nothing to set the bottle on. This meant that while the corkscrew was coming down, I had to push the bottle up with as much or more force than I was pushing down with the handle resulting in wine all over the kitchen and all over me.

The simple and obvious solution would have been to simply mount the corkscrew over the countertop. Fortunately for me, that isn’t possible in my kitchen because there is not enough room between the countertop and the cabinets, so I had no choice but to build a little shelf to go under the corkscrew. That’s where my Porter Cable 4216 Dovetail Jig comes in. I thought it would be cool to make the shelf with sliding dovetails on two axes.

I had never made a sliding dovetail before, and this just seemed like the perfect opportunity to try it out. Plus, if it didn’t come out, no one was ever going to see it. At first, I thought it might be a little overkill to overbuild such a little shelf, but it actually needs to be quite sturdy to handle the downward force being applied as the corkscrew winds its way into the cork, so I think the sliding dovetails were the way to go here.

It’s All In The Planning

As with any project, the prep work takes 80% of the time. In this case, it was laying out my cuts and then getting the Porter Cable 4216 Dovetail Jig dialed in to make them. Once you get it, though, making your cuts goes quickly. The Porter Cable 4216 Dovetail Jig can simultaneously do the mortises and tenons for dovetails. That saves time and ensures that your dovetails fit perfectly. Unfortunately, you must cut your mortises and tenons for sliding dovetails separately.

Since this was my first time, I went slowly, taking off just a little bit of wood with each pass. My joints fit a little looser than I would have liked, but I didn’t worry about it too much since I was gluing them anyway.

Every so often, one must remind oneself of things one already knows. On this project, I was reminded of the importance of marking my pieces of wood. I measured, marked, and drilled four screw holes to align with the studs in the wall. But then, I absent-mindedly glued the piece upside down. Had the screw holes been symmetrical on the piece of wood, it would not have mattered. The screw holes, however, were not symmetrical. Of course, I didn’t discover my mistake until the glue was completely dry, so I had to drill four more holes.

Rather than trying to fill the four extra holes, badly as they would have been, I simply used eight screws and colored the heads with a brown Sharpie. Not an elegant or skillful solution, but it worked. 

Was It Worthwhile to Use Porter Cable 4216 Dovetail Jig For Such a Simple Project?

Now I have a very sturdy little shelf mounted under my corkscrew. Between it and a little grease on the corkscrew shaft, I now have a functioning bottle opener. It cost $3, and I got the wood for free. Factoring in the cost of the router and the Porter Cable 4216 Dovetail Jig I’m deep in the hole. I would have been better off buying a brand-new corkscrew than going this route. Of course, the shelf’s cost will amortize as I make more dovetails, so I’m confident that in the near future, I’ll be back in the black again. I made a video of the whole project, including the reenactment of the wine explosion. You can see it at that link or at the end of this post. Happy making!

The post Porter Cable 4216 Dovetail Jig And A Needlessly Overbuilt Shelf appeared first on Retro Active Lifestyle.