I found a thread on NR about making/modifying gear:
http://nikonrumors.com/forum/topic.php?id=1220
and there's another thread where msmoto hacks a beautiful fisheye as I recall but I can't find it.
I won't link to it lest somebody gets mad, but the lead item on Petapixel at the moment is a breathtakingly simple piece by Juha Loukola about turning a kit lens into a macro lens by removing the front element... "and that's all".
Confession: I dropped out of second-year Optics twice.
Questions: Is it really that simple? Is it worth doing? Do I lose AF? Do I have any focusing flexibility left at all? Pluses? Minuses?
I'm pretty sure I can find a perfectly functional kit lens with cruddy front element pretty cheap.
I do love my 200mm f/4 Nikkor Micro, but I'd be very much interested in a "travel" macro lens that weighs less. The 200mm weighs 2.61 lbs. A decapitated 18-55mm kit lens would be less than 7 ounces.
Opinions?