Hobbies - what are yours?

[Boffin]

I have three hobbies, Photography, collecting and repairing old cameras and collecting and repairing pocket-watches.

 

I do not count motorcycling as a hobby, it is a passion.

 

My camera collection started by not discarding my old gear, but has since progressed through any camera, to any camera that does not need a battery, to Rangefinder and Plate cameras only. I have several of these. Well, lots really

 

My watch collection started more recently, I bought a mixed lot at auction that had two cameras and a non-working pocket watch in it. As camera repair tools have a lot in common with watch repair tools, I pulled the old watch apart, cleaned and oiled the movement in the same way I would a shutter and it worked - base-metal case and lousy time keeping but it worked and I was hooked.

 

I now have a dozen or so movements with no cases - detritus from gold-case destruction - in order to practice, and as a source of spares - oh, and about 9 watches. Three of them working, two with broken mainsprings, one with a broken balance wheel, one with too-short a hairspring and two that I think just need a clean and lube.

 

Most of my watches are English built, using Swiss movements and mostly English cases, though one has a US made 'Elgin' case.

 

Today I bought an American made watch, a Keystone Standard Watch Co full-hunter with a dustproof movement. The Keystone Watch co was set up in Lancaster, PA in 1886 and was forced into bankruptcy in 1891. Between those dates they made some 48,000 watches, including this one:

 

 

 

It runs and so-far, in the six-hours I have owned it, seems to keep good time.

 

I find these old mechanical devices, both cameras and watches, to be a delight to look at and therapeutic to bring back from the dead.

 

So, what hobbies do you folk have?

 

Andy

[TeSmSp]

Western Electric Model 500 phones from the mid fifties.

Automatic Electric Model AE-80 phones from the mid fifties also.

Nixie tubes, from which I made a clock plus weather station.

Auto mechanics and lately, bike mechanics.

 

[Bud]

Sailing, wood working, deer hunting, astronomy.

 

 

[Shiny Side Up]

Bird hunting with my Brittany, Fly Fishing, IDPA Competition, NRA High Power Rifle.

[Lynn]

Stained glass:

 

 

 

 

Jam-making:

 

 

And more generic cooking/grilling:

[upflying]

I'm a car guy, so I love anything automotive.

I restored two older cars to as new condition.

[philbytx]

- Cooking

- Travelling the U.S.

- Fishing

- Fixin' and Repairing anything for us, family and friends !

 

[Bud]

Nice glass work Lynn.

[ericfoerster]

 

[Whip]

 

 

Modeling for Columbia menswear looks like a great hobby?

 

 

 

[10ovr]

Building cars Heres my next project ,A 72 mini with a Honda Vtec,,,

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

First, a couple of tips for folks:

 

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When I was in grad school in the 90's, I tinkered with building and flying radio-controlled gliders. My first was in '94, with an entry-level radio-controlled sailplane, with a 2-meter wingspan:

 

 

Built from scratch with balsa-wood sheet and sticks, covered with Monokote. Simple to control, turns were done with only the rudder and lots of dihedral and polyhedral angle on the wing to force it to bank when you kicked the tail out with the rudder. Cheap, easy to build with a simple balsa-wood fuselage and spar/rib/Monokote wing construction. But with its simple flat-bottomed airfoil, the flight times weren't that spectacular. Late in the season I tinkered with the addition of a disposable panoramic camera, secured under one wing. With no room for an extra servo, I just added a push rod to trigger the shutter when I kicked the rudder to max deflection. The exposure was pretty long, so most of the shots came out blurry as hell, but one of them turned out pretty good:

 

 

You can just see the left wing at the top of the photo.

 

The next year I kicked it up a notch with a 3-meter plane:

 

 

More complicated, this had ailerons along with the rudder, flaps for low-speed flight, a pre-built fiberglass fuselage, and a balsa-over-foam wing that provided a more optimal airfoil shape.

 

I launched with a "high-start," basically a giant slingshot: 400 feet of heavy string, connected to 200 feet of surgical rubber tubing, connected to a screw-in dog-leash anchor in the ground on the far side of the field. Here my friend is attaching the line (you can see the blue parachute in his hand) to a hook on the bottom of the plane:

 

 

With the controller in one hand and the plane in the other, I walk back a couple hundred feet, stretching the bajeezus out of the rubber tubing, and then I let the plane go:

 

 

With the line pulling at the bottom of the plane, it pitches up steeply as soon as you let it go; with a good launch, you can get the plane a full 600 feet up, directly above the anchor point, before the line slides off the hook and frees the plane. The wind then takes the little blue parachute and lays the line out across the field for you again, and you go about your flight.

 

This plane was much better than the first. You could put in a bit of flaps to slow it down and linger in thermal updrafts. On quiet evenings with no thermal activity the plane would glide back down to earth in a couple of minutes; on a warm sunny afternoon with good thermal activity, I had flights up to an hour. A lot of fun.

 

For the past ten years or so I've enjoyed making a variety of things. In 2001 I made a subwoofer that can rattle the windows with really low frequency stuff. It's the granite-finished box in the bottom of this pic:

 

 

All the sound comes out of ports in the back:

 

 

 

 

In 2003 I made a a futon couch - which, unfortunately, I have yet to take pictures of.

 

 

 

In 2004 I made a platform bed with underslung drawers:

 

 

 

 

 

The Mojo has taken up quite a bit of my spare time since then, including the making of several of the tools I use for the job. A workbench:

 

 

 

 

An enclosure that renders my shop-vac nearly silent, thereby fostering domestic tranquility:

 

 

A powdercoat-curing oven with a lift-off lid:

 

 

 

 

In 2008 I decided to make a coffee table. But before I could do that, I needed a flat furniture assembly table on which to build it.

 

 

It's not that impressive to look at, but if you measure it, you find that it's flat to within 0.020" from one side to the other.

 

Once the FA table was done, I got to work on the coffee table itself. It's the lower of the two tables in this photo:

 

 

 

Tough enough to stand on, and light enough to slide around on the carpet with ease. I rounded the edge with an enormous rounderover bit, so it's comfortable to prop your bare feet on it. 3+ years after completion, it's holding up very well.

 

A couple of years ago I made a sandblasting cabinet. That's it on the left in this photo - in Wolverine maize-and-blue - next to my tiny, crappy old Harbor Freight unit:

 

 

The inside, which will never, ever again be as clean as in this photo:

 

What's next? Dunno. I'm sure I'll think of something...

[Bob Palin]

I almost always feel completely inadequate after looking at Mitch's work, I'm going back to bed now.

[Downs]

Riding of course. Thought that may be an obsession instead of a hobby

 

 

Racing

 

 

Competitive shooting and training

 

 

Camping (usually via motorcycle but sometimes backpacking)

 

 

Spinning Wrenches

 

 

 

I also enjoy flying but don't have any pics of that right now.

[Lynn]

Nice glass work Lynn.

 

Thanks! Despite the blood loss (every piece I make seems to have a very real piece of me in it), I sure have lots of fun with it.

[Rocer]

Mitch, excellent workmanship!

 

A while back you started a thread on whether or not you should take up flying. Did you ever consider glider lessons? Kath took them several years ago and I many years before that. Her tow plane pilot was an active Air Canada pilot with many years flying experience but he said that he never really appreciated the "art" of flying until he took up gliding.

 

Most glider clubs have intro packages that are an inexpensive and worthwhile way to help you determine if you might be interested. On both our parts the time commitment was too demanding because the club expected members to spend a full day at the field doing support work when not aloft and our summer busy jobs made that commitment a bit difficult for us. There are more commercial orientated glider businesses / clubs that don't require that sort of commitment. Perhaps there is one near you.

 

As for my hobby, I think my avatar explains it. I'm also dabbling in epowered rc planes but that hasn't developed to a hobby level yet.

[Lone_RT_rider]

One of my favorite hobbies....

 

 

 

 

 

[Hank in WV]

I spend my winters building flintlock longrifles. Sorry, no pix.

[RichEdwards]

I spend my winters playing golf and riding my motorcycles.

[tallman]

Last winter I changed the batteries in my remote control.

 

Right now doing some landscaping, building butterfly gardens.

Have seen our first hummingbirds in the backyard and numerous butterflies.

 

Hope to pick up the golf clubs and start riding soon.

[Matts_12GS]

Hey Downs,

 

Could you post some dimensions on your stand you are using with the jacks? That's a neat idea to us to keep the bike up while both wheels are off.

[Burt]

Besides riding, playing the guitar, photography, fishing, and HAM radio.

[Linz]

I keep and breed heritage chickens. I specialize in the Sussex breed.

 

I like chickens, they're very relaxing to be around.

 

Linz

[elkroeger]

I am humbled by you guys building all that neat stuff!

 

I've got a little collection of camp stoves and climbing books. One of my favorite stoves is the TAY-KIT stove. I am blessed to live in an area where an inventive person can ski all year long (backcountry). I try to spend my spare time skiing, hiking/climbing and cycling.

[Downs]

Hey Downs,

 

Could you post some dimensions on your stand you are using with the jacks? That's a neat idea to us to keep the bike up while both wheels are off.

 

http://www.fjr1300.info/howto/frontstand.html

 

Both wheels weren't off at the same time. I completed work on one end reassembled then moved to the other end.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

One of my favorite hobbies....

 

 

 

 

 

With all that tubing, collection jars, and strange substances, the uninformed might conclude you are involved in gruesome biological experiments; they probably ought to be told that you crank out some of the best homebrew to be had anywhere.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

Mitch, excellent workmanship!

 

Thanks. As I was putting together that post, I was kind of surprised at how many of those projects I had done over the last decade or so. Most of them have gone well.

 

A while back you started a thread on whether or not you should take up flying. Did you ever consider glider lessons?

 

Thought about it, but a friend used to be a glider pilot and he found that it was just too much of a time commitment, because gliding was an all-day thing. As you mentioned, being part of the club meant that he had to put in service hours, so when he went flying, he was at the airfield pretty much the entire day. There is a gliding club near here, and several years ago I took a short demo flight with them. It was an entertaining change of pace, but I think motorcycling is more interesting; there seems to be less prep and more action.

 

 

[Kathy R]

So, what hobbies do you folk have?

 

My primary hobby is volunteering my time to charity, so long as it involves interaction with people.

 

On Friday afternoons I drive a Tram at Sonnenberg Gardens

 

 

Today I noticed the pedals and got to chuckling...

 

 

I get a Fred Flintstone feeling every time I drive one.

 

 

[TeSmSp]

I see too many wheels.

 

[bayoubengal]

In addition to my RT and dirt bikes and ATVs:

 

- Watch collecting. I love most watches but prefer chronographs, and more specifically pilot chronos. My collection ranges from Timexes to Breitlings.

- Guns and target shooting. Not a big hunter but love to obliterate the bullseye. Prefer handguns to long guns but enjoy both. Built a range on my 12 acres.

- Unscratched itches: RC airplanes and home brewing. One day.

- Moved on from : Private aircraft ownership. As a major airline pilot just to much financial instability to feed that habit with reduced retirements and college tuitions X 3...