For example, I’m sure the average joe doesn’t know just how expensive calligraphy pens can be, or how deep the rabbit hole goes on video game speedruns.
Keyboards are generally known about, but the ergo part of it is a rabbit hole within the rabbit hole. Some people literally design, 3D print, wire up, solder and program one-off keyboards because they don’t like the ones made by other people.
Hobby CNC
You can get a little table top router and some simple software for a couple hundred bucks. You can go deep into it. Building a custom machine, writing your own post processor, dialing in you CNC to insane levels of accuracy and precision, adding a 4th axis, engineering parts and projects, it goes on. It basically combines robotics, design engineering, and manufacturing engineering all in one hobby.
4th axis? X, Y, & Z with rotation along one of the axis?
Or are you milling time cubes?
5D milling is where it’s at. No, it’s not a joke.
3D printing! You can start out cheap but you can get STUPID expensive, and it’s the biggest most meandering rabbit hole I know of
3D printing really isn’t expensive, especially since you can create a lot of stuff for cents. I’m considering a new extruder for my Ender 3 (Looking at the LDO orbiter v2) and that’s €70, which sounds expensive for the printer, but compared to any other hobby that’s peanuts
Yeah, €70 is not much for an upgrade for a hobby. That’s the price of a mid-range chain for a mountain bike and chains are not upgrades, they’re consumables, which you buy at least once a year, lol.
3D printing can be expensive, but I disagree that it is stupid expensive.
Mountain biking.
Why would you not expect that to have a high ceiling either monetarily or in sheer skill? I mean bikes are expensive, and it’s a sport practiced on a professional level.
Because you can get a basic bike for like a couple of hundred quid and commute for years. It’s just a basic transport type. Yet it grew into quite an absurd, dangerous and expensive hobby.
The bike is one thing, but you also need a mountain.
That too.