hobbies

Are you familiar with the CarveWright wood carver? I have been looking at that for making wood signs and stuff.

The CarveWright cuts wood, engraves, carves, and can even route the edges. Its computerized, you design item on computer, then insert wood and after a few bit swaps..you get a great item.. so they say!

Sounds like that would take the fun out of it. I have a wood lathe, table saw, radial arm saw, etc. I made a table with adjustable hight casters to set behind the table saw for cutting 4×8 sheets of stuff. I built a router table into the top with removable fences, and jigs to mount a pantograph for making signs. Took a foot pedal and mounted it on one of the legs so I can push it with my knee while making the signs, works quite well. I really need to build a large shop as one garage was turned into a bedroom when the youngest was born. Now half my wood shop needs to be moved outside to have room to do anything

sounds like you need to use your wood tools to build a woodshop!

Right now it's simply a money issue, I simply don't have the money to build one!

The tractor shed (26×16) was built with free mobile home trusses, free used shed tin for the roof, mostly free used 2x4s, cheap reject wood siding, and 6x16x4″ cinder blocks donated for my greenhouse that never got used for that project. No doors on the front but the total for the project around $200.00

I hear you on the money issue. Those “free” items are always a plus. I was thinking of expanding my garage to better fit a boat, so I can put doors on it. I need to bump out the back wall, expand the roof line and also gain some storage area behind it. I think about it alot! Doing it is a whole other issue.

Since I am semi-retired I have been working hard getting those things done that I put off for years.  I am waiting on spring so I can put in a huge garden.  That's pretty much my hobby in summer.   

I hear ya Larry. I've been putting off remodeling the sun porch, thats a must do. The garden is 45×80 with a 8' fence to keep the deer out. I have a little time to start things, tomatoes don't go in the ground here 'till the 2nd week of June. I do need to get the brussel sprouts and onions started in the greenhouse pretty soon though. Hard to think about that right now, it was 1 degree this morning. Better than LaPine, 40 miles south, higher up and close to the Cascades, -21 with wind chill of -50

here in south tenn the trees look to me to be a month early the maples and elms are showing color my fruit trees too i am afraid they are ging to get frost bitten,but we shall see.For the last week I have also seen the sandhill cranes going north ,maybe they know something?

Last night me and my daughter got rid of a large branch from a snow storm a few weeks back while we waited for a battery to charge for the cordless sawzall. By the time the battery was charged it was getting a little dark but I wanted to splice a break in some 3/4 PVC pipe running to the greenhouse. I had new pipe but saw a 4' piece in a pile that looked just fine and installed it in record time Turned on the water to confirm success and s&%#, that piece had been used for a bean pole setup and had holes drilled through it for tying up strings 

Two-EDIT-Three lessons learned:

(1) When you think, “well it is getting dark, but…” , it's too dark.

(2) Don't go getting cheap trying to save 40 cents on pipe!

(3) When you're done with scrap, throw it away before some dummy like yourself goes and trys to use it.

Tinbender wrote:

(3) When you're done with scrap, throw it away before some dummy like yourself goes and trys to use it.

That counters my personal philosophy: “If it can be used it isn't scrap”.

And the cabin shows it too.

I've been a lifelong woodworker, I built a 16×32 shop just for woodworking. For the last few years I've been building Windsor chairs. Traditional WIndsors are made entirely by hand. I fell the tree ,split the log into quarters using wedges. Work the pieces down using a froe and drawknife. Some parts are steam bent in a steamer I built. The legs are turned on the lathe.  It is the most rewarding of all woodworking to sit on a chair you have made . The problem is it takes alot of time and energy neither of which I have a surplus of. It takes alot of time to learn to sharpen and use the tools. But it sure does feel good when you finish one. Hand tools are definintely tha way to go when woodworking for fun. No noise ,no dust ,not too dangerous. However at the rate I'm going it will take the rest of my life to finish a full set of chairs!    BG

BG, that sounds interesting!  A few photos showing the steps in making a chair would be good to see.  Pardon my ignorance, but what is a “froe”?

I have sometimes thought that I have been in management for most of my working career, and there is virtually nothing concrete to show for it.  I'm no Washington, Churchill, or Hitler either, whose leadership results do endure.  But the man who made a chair that sits in the Tower of London, for example, has evidence that he did something worthwhile, centuries ago.

As for my hobbies, I really do like repairing/restoring old autos, although I'm coming to it more completely late in life.  I'm trying to evolve from being an engineer to being a tradesman, with limited but satisfying success.  Other pursuits include teaching boating (traditional navigation).  And while it's not gardening, our property (56 acres, some cleared) does require significant TLC… and tractor time.

Mike

Mike, A froe is a narrow blade 1.5 inches wide  .25 inches thick  18 inches long with a handle attache on one end. You insert the blade into a split in the wood and pull the handle to force the wood to split apart. The process is called riving.  I've added three pixs to the photo album to show a tiny bit of the process of Windsor chair building. Thanks for your interest.

 I notice your interest in boating and navigation. I have done quite a bit of sailing in the past and always wanted to learn to use a sextant. I've  witnessed it's use first hand and it was  very impressive to see it used so accurately, just not by me! I still do a fair amount of trail hiking and am trying to teach myself the simple use of a compass. And i get a heck of alot of satisfaction out of keeping this chinese bucket a bolts running. What kind of trees do you have on your 56 acres?   BG

BG,

Wow, I looked at the photo album and those are very well made chairs. Good job my friend – everything done by hand, that is quite an achievement and I can surely see how you can feel good about yourself when you've completed assembling one of those chairs.

Bert, Thank You for your kind words.  I truly have no special skills it all comes down to how much energy do you want to expend to achieve your expected results? Can you afford to spend the time it takes to get the results you desire? I've know truly gifted mechanics, woodworkers, builders, musicians, artists, who burn out trying to make a living and just don't have the energy left to try stuff they want to do. such is life   BG      

I truly have no special skills

You sir… are underestimating yourself. Rather impressive. I agree with Bert. 

The best I can do is stab some wood together after altering it's structure with my Shopsmith. But I like attempting to do woodworking. I find it somewhat relaxing after working on things that require moving parts. Even making some simple birdhouses that aren't perfect allows me the satisfaction of knowing I gave a home to some critter.  

Jack