I am amazed at your inventive, out-of-the-box thinking and fabrication of a good, solid photographic hobby accessory. Been thinking about your initial post and the info in the additional links you sent - Thank You!

Being an engineer I am driven to come up with my own version. My thinking is to first make a forehead brace. As soon as I finish this reply, a back harness will be ordered and then I plan to design and fabricate a plate of sorts with a socket for a short "monopod" to be placed across my chest just at the bottom of my ribcage. My thinking here is that this design will not restrict vertical (bending) movements of my body yet hold the camera steady too.

Might not be enough support to allow comfortable use of a large lens/DSLR combo but my first attempt at this project will be centered around an 8 lb, 70-200mm f2/8 IS/DSLR combo. I have been practicing handholding that setup and it is working great, anything else is gravy.

One thing here is using your suggested parts and complimenting them with other same sourced parts will not break the bank - even if starting over is necessary!

The more I read your posts the more I think this will be a major addition to my hobby. Gotta be careful and not get ahead of my ability; however, it is becoming apparent my big 12 lb lens plus DSLR body just might be able to be taken out on a walking tour of the parkland along the river down the block. Will start out with a smaller setup to work out the bugs though.

Oh Yeah, should have looked further. Thank you!

This seems to be a perpetual post, so glad to see it. Maybe it's somewhere in the previous posts and I missed it - I'm wondering if there is any suggestion on adding a shoulder harness (not neck strap) to aid in support of the heavy equipment instead of a very tight waist belt? Guessing a heavy duty set of suspenders could be adapted if not to elastic.

Yep, must have experienced that phenomenon myself just a couple years ago.

I enjoy playing a concert guitar and it took some time before an instrument that provided the whole experience for me - sound, beauty, handling (playing), etc. was found. I wasn't looking for that special guitar, it just happened to become part of my life.

When playing, the fretboard gets the vast majority of my attention as the strings are fretted. It is a very dark ebony color with a slightly discernible texture. Seeing that ebony board just 8 to 10 inches away from my eyes so often has caused me to look for other woods that are pleasing to look at.

About a year ago my spouse and I traveled quite a distance to look at and restore the more than 100 year old family grave site - guess we were the first there in dozens of years since all the family had moved to different parts of the country. First walking onto the site I noticed a tree that for some reason became a frequent focal point as we spent time working there. Several days later as we were preparing to leave I mentioned the curious tree to a local resident and was told it was a very old ebony tree.

Did I "feel energy" from that tree, must have.

Hadn't thought of that tree much again until your post above, thank you.

Only up until recently earwax did not matter - the sound was just blasted into the ear (I've had some back in the day that did that. Only wore them whenever it was absolutely necessary.)

Now hearing aids are so much more sophisticated and one feature they have is their ability to be adjusted to provide the proper processed sound at the ear drum according to the hearing test results. The different sound path for each ear is an important design criteria to be considered. Hence any earwax that becomes lodged along that path and that is where it always lodges will degrade the sound pattern reaching the eardrum.

My experience with wax buildup is it happens every two weeks or so and I don't want to run to the audiologist that often even though it is fine with him.

Off course the latest version can be set to just "blast the sound" but it's a shame to pay the current prices and not take advantage of the good they can do for hearing well when adjusted properly.

ANOTHER interesting post on this website!
I've had a couple parishioners over the years claiming to have the ability to see another's "aura" and to them it was real. I don't doubt it - these folks were as normal otherwise as the person sitting next to them and listening further to their thoughts and the subject's thoughts everything fit together to some level.
Many years of providing counseling to others has given me the permission to not ignore the process and/or results.
That part of the this post is a little off topic but it leads me to write even further off topic.
For some reason during the time I was studying at seminary I became enamored with Shamanism. This practice appears in the very earliest recorded societies discovered to date and translates all the way to our present day religious practices.
"Auras" are mentioned many times in these early studies.

This retired Chief has no problem with viewing the "downloads" and they are great! Thank you for posting.

It is amazing just what a person can learn from this site! (Having worn hearing aids for 40 years I've sometimes wanted to be able to visually inspect for wax build-up myself...)

Did a similar trip a few years ago and would like to go back, enjoy!

Good choice on camera equipment, this is one of those situations where less is more - you will be having to carry your belongings on some occasions.

Outstanding!

An assignment by my boss in the early '70s was to explore the use of the metric system in our field of work - engineering design. Seems there was a move afoot to change the U.S. to using that system of measure at that time. I never got past studying structural measurements (not volume) before the project was scrapped.
The minimal exposure to using the metric system seemed to me it would be an easy transition since we used the decimal system in our work already.
Always wondered why we decided to not catch up with the rest of the world...

Oh Yes, Trader Johns - thanks for the memory jog. Was out of "R" school and in Karamursel by the summer of '63.

Interesting, I could be sitting there. Maybe that's the way most bars look in Pensacola. Spent quite a bit of time in one or two during the time I went through a Navy school out at Corry Field.

Interesting set! For the first time I see how Sepia can make an image wholly dramatic. Thank You