What other hobbys do you have

I enjoy restoring old vehicles and anything outdoors, one thing I probably enjoy the most is shooting. I reload all my ammo, I like the wildcats that I have to form my brass cases for from other cases. The 7-30 waters, 30 herret and 375 jdj are a few of the many I shoot. I played spring, summer and fall softball also this year. I sold my dirt bike this spring, at 55 I though It was time.

fasteddy said:

That is what the chap I'm talking about has. I found this when I was looking at them. He made it himself and the software but you'll like it I'm sure.

Steve.

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j...=lWpatap1oh58gsmRjq1MLg&bvm=bv.57752919,d.cGU

Click to expand...

What an amazing little aircraft, - made me dizzy watching it though.

Hmmm.... With hobbies, I have a tendancy to get to the point where I'm (somewhat past) competent, then put them aside in favour of something else that will keep my interest and/or challenge me.

Well written SciFi shows can sidetrack me. (Farscape, Firefly, even Andromeda wasn't bad... If someone speaks during Doctor Who they will be EX-TER-MIN-ATE-D.)

That said, I have built models, model rockets, rc cars.. I'm a (in the opinion of my wife, and many others) pretty good zymurgist.. I'm handy enough that small fix-its are usually doable, larger projects take some time.

My dad was a trades college grad and a career building maintenance man for General Motors, so I learned a lot at his elbow 'helping' in the basement or the garage. It's probably from him that I got my 'tinkering' genes (I know I got his 'smart hands'.. He and I don't need to see the component that needs attention, we can see it in our minds eye(s) from what our fingertips tell us - I could drop, strip, rebuild and reinstall a starter motor in about an hour, for a while).

So, now in addition to learning as I go how to do everything to a bicycle to get it roadoworthy, I've got motors to play with. This year some things came together in such a way that I was able to take advantage of 'Black Friday' in a couple of places so my little workshop now sports a MIG welder (and a 3' bottle of cougar 25 - 75% CO2, 25% Argon), so who knows where I'll be going next.. There's always the possibility of welding junk metal together and selling it as 'art' to those with too much money and too few brain cells, I s'pose.

I know what you mean about the 'smart hands' CT, I inherited those from my Dad too

Intrepid Wheelwoman said:

I know what you mean about the 'smart hands' CT, I inherited those from my Dad too

Click to expand...

Harley loves watching when my hands start to "do thier thing." Half the time I feel like a spectator to what they're doing, myself, when working with fasteners and such especially.

Smart hands,I like that. My hands are great,but my true ability is looking/seeing. My scooter to bicycle build is a prime example. I looked at the bare scooter frame and only bought the parts I needed. it should be capable of wheelies so now its gonna get wheelie bars. They are already planned,just waiting on Santa to send me $30 to paypal. Check it out. I will update that when the parts come in.


http://motorbicycling.com/showthread.php?t=46731

When I was restoring antique furniture I don't ever remember seeing the damage. I could see it restored to it's former glory and how to get it there just came naturally. The auctioneer that I worked for and I constantly had a contest as to whether he could bring back to the shop a piece of furniture that I couldn't repair.
He scared me a few times but I always managed to pull the hot potato out of the fire bare handed.

One time he said he had purchased a high wheel bicycle at another auction and I needed to pick it up. Seems it was mostly wood with a bit of black smithed iron for bracing and needed a couple of spokes replaced.
I get to the auction and looked around and there is no bike anywhere to be seen. When I asked where it was they started laughing and pointed to a pile of wooden bit's on the floor with a pair of handle bars sticking out of it and a big metal hoop on top.

It seems Mr Funny Guy neglected to tell me that the bike fell from a 12' high ceiling and had exploded into bits of what used to be a penny farthing bicycle. I wound up having to make 4 or 5 spokes that were steam bent and then shaped with a spoke shave when they were dry. They went together like a wagon wheel since the bike had a wooden hubs. Had to make rivets to match the old ones so the iron tire could held onto the wood rim. They had pulled through the tire and been lost except one.

He took it to a major antique show and someone bought it in the first five minutes for a lot of money after the buyer looked it over very carefully. The buyer was telling him how a bike similar to that had been destroyed beyond repair and how rare it was and he was surprised to see a second one. Jack handed the money back to him and said he wouldn't want the buyer to feel cheated since that was the bike that had been "destroyed beyond repair". He also saw a large bunch of guys listening to the story and was willing to bet that there was more than one buyer in the crowd. The buyer it seems looked over his shoulder and saw the gallery of listeners and may well have recognized some of them because he refused the money and went off to take his bike home.

Certainly not the toughest one I did but it sure was a fun one to do.

I miss the fun of doing things like that and Tom, your right when you say we have an eye for it. For some it's mechanical and others electrical and the rare few it's both.

Steve.

2door & fasteddy that's kinda what I meant. You both are talking about repair though. I'm talking about putting parts together that weren't ever intended for each other. Like fork support bars for springer forks being used for top tubes,seat stays,and wheelie bars. Or a go kart jackshaft/motor mount being drilled for a motor and a pedal brscket,with tensioners and chain etc. Or using reflector clamps to mount air horns from a wolo 12v car kit. Check out my build,give me link to something similar because I've yet to see one.



And those support bars are bolted on with rear bicycle axles and steel seat clamps.

I would say yes it does all day. But you're not the only person doing that. I will give you major props for the ability to build a car from the ground up though. My dad before he passed was a wizard under the hood of a car. Me,not so much. I'm surprised my 49cc engine hasn't blown up yet,honestly. But I haven't got inside it yet either........

d_gizzle,

I understand just what you mean but my argument always is that when you are repairing or restoring something you are being held to what it is or was and it is much harder to meet that requirement.

I used to make period furniture for people who wanted the piece to fit somewhere in the house and it had to be made to those sizes. Since I had to prepare the wood that often came from antique flooring or barns or required layers of paint to be removed before it could be used it was a challenge in that respect.

Usually it was something from the mid 1600's to the mid 1800's and most certainly a one off because the traveling carpenter would stay at your house until it was built to what you wanted and then he moved on to the next job. I had to make the hinges and other hardware as well that he would have had a local black smith make.
It was easier to do than say repair the high wheeler and less of a challenge since I had a free hand in doing what I wanted. There was nothing that I had to match other than the picture that was usually torn out of a copy of Good Housekeeping or Country living and the very exacting size that it had to be. No years of patina to match or wear and tear to follow and what I did for patina and wear was original to the piece.

The tricar I'm building would be a case in point for me. It's visually close but certainly not exact. Had someone brought in an Indian motorcycle and wanted a tricar front end built for it, now the game tightens because you need to be true to the original. For mine it was kind of close enough is good enough just so long as it looked right.

Restoration, exact copy or nobody has ever seen one of these before because it's locked away in someones fertile mind, how fortunate we are to be able to do what we do and be on this forum and see what others are doing.

Steve.

fasteddy said:

d_gizzle,

I understand just what you mean but my argument always is that when you are repairing or restoring something you are being held to what it is or was and it is much harder to meet that requirement.

I used to make period furniture for people who wanted the piece to fit somewhere in the house and it had to be made to those sizes. Since I had to prepare the wood that often came from antique flooring or barns or required layers of paint to be removed before it could be used it was a challenge in that respect.

Usually it was something from the mid 1600's to the mid 1800's and most certainly a one off because the traveling carpenter would stay at your house until it was built to what you wanted and then he moved on to the next job. I had to make the hinges and other hardware as well that he would have had a local black smith make.
It was easier to do than say repair the high wheeler and less of a challenge since I had a free hand in doing what I wanted. There was nothing that I had to match other than the picture that was usually torn out of a copy of Good Housekeeping or Country living and the very exacting size that it had to be. No years of patina to match or wear and tear to follow and what I did for patina and wear was original to the piece.

The tricar I'm building would be a case in point for me. It's visually close but certainly not exact. Had someone brought in an Indian motorcycle and wanted a tricar front end built for it, now the game tightens because you need to be true to the original. For mine it was kind of close enough is good enough just so long as it looked right.

Restoration, exact copy or nobody has ever seen one of these before because it's locked away in someones fertile mind, how fortunate we are to be able to do what we do and be on this forum and see what others are doing.

Steve.

Click to expand...

^^^ McGyver intermingled with Norm Abrams! ^^^

Tom,

A clock restorer said that he made his money doing just what you did. A good cleaning and an oiling and they worked like a champ.

I had a bunch of photos of the bike but they went up in the fire. It was handmade either by a black smith or a wagon maker since they would have every thing in house to do the build. The main frame was hickory as were the wheels. The main frame had forged metal on the sides that formed the neck and went down to form the rear of the bike that the rear wheel sat in.
This was formed in two halves and through riveted to the hickory frame. The wood frame went from the neck to the top of the metal where the rear wheel sat. The forks were steam bent as was the main frame of the bike. There was a forged U shaped metal covering over the forks to add strength I think and to supply a place for the steerer tube to attach. Through riveted again. It was in reality an iron post hammer welded to the forks. The handle bars were again forged iron rod with wooden handle grips that had been turned from hickory. The handle bars had a swept back shape much like the handle bars from the early motorcycles. It would have been interesting to ride since the handle bars would have smacked you in the ribs if you tried a sharp turn.

There were bands around the hubs as there were on wooden buggy and wagon hubs with the axle passing through the hubs and anchored by the hub hole being square as well as the center of the axle being square as well. The axle passed through a built up area on the end metal part of the forks that had been bored out to act as a bearing surface for the axle to turn on.

The crank arms were hammer welded to the axle and the pedals were shaped wooden blocks slid on to a shaft that had been hammer welded to the crank arms and then a washer was put on both sides of the pedals and then the pedal shaft peened over to hold the pedal in place. The pedals had metal in the middle that was bored out to keep them from wearing out.

The handle bars mounted to the steerer tube as it does today. The nut and bolt holding it in place were hand made.

The seat had a hammered pan with a thin wood layer shaped like seat of today on top of it with a leather covering and horse hair stuffing. Painful to ride to say the least.

The spokes were very lightly shaped to the point of being thin. They had a fairly pronounced bend in them unlike a buggy where they were straight. I think this was to allow them to flex when they went over a cobble stone or brick paved road. Like a shock absorber.

Judging the bike by the wear and tear on the metal tires I would guess it saw very little use because it must have been a brute to ride.

The workmanship was excellent and it was a honour to be able to resurrect it.

Steve.

Until I made up my mind that I would have nothing more to do with weapons anymore I was a reasonably skilled Tsukamaki. That is a person who remounts Japanese swords with a new wooden handle (tsuka) and all the associated metalwear and binding (ito) that goes to make up the hilt and handle of a Japanese sword.

I was studying the sword arts at the time and since there were plenty of practice and semi-sharp swords around that were poorly mounted I set myself to learn how to do it properly. Properly shaping the sword handle and fitting it to the sword tang is exacting work and I found it fascinating as well as a source of meditative spiritual discipline in making a tsuka. I was working up to 60 hours a week as a social worker at the time and I suppose this was my way of setting aside the stresses of the day. I used hickory by the way as it's important to use a hardwood that won't rust the sword tang.
I've still got the ito tying jig I made for myself and it's said that you know you've tied an ito binding properly when all the muscles in your arms and shoulders ache. The ito binding imparts great strength to the tsuka so it's not just there to look pretty. It also shouldn't come undone if it is cut so tying it properly is a very exacting skill.

I mounted Japanese swords for various folk who were learning martial arts and my customers always seemed to be very pleased with my workwomanship. People also tended to be a amazed that a woman was a Tsukamaki which amused me greatly.

I still have my own sharp sword that I had made for me. The tsuka and fittings are nothing special and I intended to remount the blade, but I'd turned my back on the use of deadly weapons before I got so far as doing that.

My youngest brother is only a few years younger than me, but we are poles apart about weaponry. He loves military museums, tanks, warplanes, guns, whereas I regard them as tools in the industry of making widow, orphans, cripples and corpses.

I suppose it takes all sorts.

Ludwig II said:

My youngest brother is only a few years younger than me, but we are poles apart about weaponry. He loves military museums, tanks, warplanes, guns, whereas I regard them as tools in the industry of making widow, orphans, cripples and corpses.

I suppose it takes all sorts.

Click to expand...

Ludwig, I still believe that guns are the weapon of a coward and tanks, bombs and warplanes even more so. Then on the other hand dead by the sword is just as dead as being bombed to death.

These days I much prefer my present ful view on life and the belief that no-one has the right to bring harm to anyone else. I am studying Tai Chi again, but not the sword form as I once did. My intention is to improve my balance and to obtain the meditative benefits of such a discipline.

Harley's heard it from me a few times, when I'm working on something and it's not quite going together right. I'll say "Stop looking and see," close my eyes and let the hands do what they need to. It's odd, but it almost always works for me.