What's YOUR hobby?

Pauly-Walnuts · April 23, 2024, 5:31pm

This be the one I just finished. Around 4’ tall x 4’ long.

These are the 1st 4 models I’ve made since retirement:

This’ll go on the dry dock next. (Which is what I call my hobby room)

Note the long, thin sticks. They’re for planking the hull and deck.

Take a close look at the 3rd image of the first ships built, and note the shape/curve of the hull. Here’s a pic of my first planking job.

wrong

This pic shows stringers to help plan. I soon learned a proportional divider is a very good friend.

On the right of this image is a bad, bad, thing. The left show how to deal with the problem.

This is what takes so long, and is by far, the most challenging .They’re called deadeys. That’s a toothpick.

Also notice the steel wrapped around the lower deadeys, and attached to the hull. Do you think those could come pre-fabricated? NOOOO… You get to use a little steel rod, and your imagination. There are some specialized tools that help in some cases, but that’s seldom.

Hmmm. Would appear it’s time to get out the canned air…

deadeyes

This cannon is made up of 30 pcs, including the cleats on the inside of the hull and the rope.

And where would we be without the schematics?

Don’t worry, there are only 3 more.

But like any good man, it’s yet another excuse to buy tools!

Is this the biggest lathe you’ve ever seen? Often times part of the spars are squared, while the round part is tapered. (A spar is what the sail sheets are attached to.)

Then we have a jewelers drill press, which can hold a bit as small as .2mm.

Note the unit outlined. Something I found and Jerry rigged. I can take a piece of wood, (Many applications) and move it vertically and horizontally, in minuscule increments.

Then we have a table saw, so big it takes up almost all of the room. I can make a 1/4" x 1/4" Parallelogram.

Lastly we have a Serving machine. It starts off with step two because step one was assembly. His latest model allows you to make much longer ropes, and has a motor that will serve a rope in seconds. He’s in Russia. $100. Strange, I had to hold the Ctrl key when clicking, but that shouldn’t happen once published.

A Serving machine

hendersj · April 23, 2024, 5:42pm

Very cool - the level of detail in that is truly incredible.

My dad was a hobbyist woodworker (I played with it a little bit when I was a kid, but haven’t really since then). So many of these tools bring back lots of memories - he had a big ol’ table saw, drill press, a lathe, and a bunch of other stuff that he took out when he needed it (router, etc.)

Dad’s lathe was large enough to turn furniture posts - the box/bench he made for it was probably 5 or 6 feet long.

I think most of his tools ended up with my uncle, who is/was a professional furniture maker.

My hobbies tend to be more digital - I game, and play around with my systems. Music as well - we’re subscribers to the local symphony (this year is going to be a challenge, as I took a year off from working and now am looking for ‘the next thing’ - so the cashflow doesn’t put us in a great place for the 24-25 season). I used to play violin - need to get mine worked on, but as it’s a student instrument (with lots of good memories associated), finding someone to fix it up has been challenging. What I need to do is find someone who does work on instruments for schools rather than one of the larger shops that works on professional instruments.

I could get another, but the one I have is actually pretty nice for a student instrument.

hukka · April 23, 2024, 6:27pm

One of my hobbies is playing the bass and as my midlife-crisis project I designed a new medium scale fretless bass. It is being built right now and getting close to being completed (the photos are from the builder). It is my first fretless, but I hope to make it my only bass even if it takes me years. After all, it is a hobby…

My music is made in Bespoke, an unusual modular DAW, effects and software synth application. My intention is to use the advanced capabilities of Bespoke to fold the analogue sounds of the fretless in new ways into the otherwise digital fabric.

BTW, may I ask for the addition of Bespoke to the official repositories?

Pauly-Walnuts · April 23, 2024, 9:07pm

Thanks. I’ve developed a lot of patience over the years.

Can you ask a local school where they get their instruments fixed?

I played a 12-string guitar for many years but got involved in other things and had to sell it to it to support an, um… habit.

I couldn’t tell you how many plastic cars and planes I’ve built.

I think I was 7 years old or so, when my dad helped me build my first model. ‘Twas a visible V8. It had a little electric motor that would turn the flywheel, which in turn moved everything. The valves went up and down, the spark plugs lit up…

He and my uncle built and raced rail cars. I’m sure you’d be shocked to know my brother and I did too. Well, I never raced mine. Too many $$$ into it. It started out as a ’69 Pontiac Lemans…

And boy, did I make the big brother jealous! Installed a lift in the garage, took her completely apart, pulled what was left off the chassis, sent it out to be sand blasted and powder coated…

Dunno how much you know about engines, but I’m sure others will. Found a Pontiac rusted to crap 455 engine sitting in a field! Took it apart and had it cleaned in an acid bath, painted it the appropriate colors, got an Edlebrock performance plus, cam, intake, carb, an MSD ignition kit…

Swapped the rear bumper and front grill, and the hood and some emblems, and Voila! She’s a ’69 GTO Judge. Since it wasn’t authentic, I replaced the logo that said Judge, With Ate Liters. Plus a bunch of other parts that cost WAY too much.

ONE TIME, I took her out to the boonies to see how fast she’d go. I chickened out at 160.

And believe it or not, I hate typing.

hendersj · April 23, 2024, 9:15pm

That’s my plan, once I’m working again. It’s been a relaxing time off, but the work that has to be done on the instrument is going to cost hundreds of dollars at a minimum (the last place that worked on it slopped varnish inside one of the f holes, and it got on the sound post and stuck it to the front of the instrument - so the whole front has to come off to clean it up).

That sounds like fun. My wife’s family has been in cars for generations, FIL and BIL did body work, and FIL used to drag race (it’s where he and my wife’s mom met).

Always fun when we take a car in for service - they want to talk to me, but my wife’s the one who knows about cars. They quickly learn that.

Closest I get to driving anything really fast is in VR - but it is fun to take the faster cars out on the virtual track and see what I can do. Would be even better if I had a wheel for it, but I do like going fast.

Pauly-Walnuts · April 23, 2024, 9:15pm

Oh, man, that’ll be cool. Is that wood walnut? You’re going to use a clear coat, not stain, right? Right? I’m a retired hacker, I’ll find out where you live, you change the color!

Pauly-Walnuts · April 23, 2024, 9:19pm

Now THAT'S gonna be cool. Is that walnut? You're going to use a clear coat, right? RIGHT? I'm a retired hacker, I can find you. Don't make me come out there, you use a colored stain!

zypper addrepo [https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:bespokesynth/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/home:bespokesynth.repo](https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:bespokesynth/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/home:bespokesynth.repo)
zypper refresh
zypper install bespokesynth

?

Pauly-Walnuts · April 23, 2024, 9:21pm

Well, that’s not cool. Guess I’ve been outta the field too long, because I don’t see a way to quote you.

hukka · April 23, 2024, 9:42pm

It is oiled/waxed and will pretty much look like that. The body is alder and sycamore, the neck is limba with a morado fingerboard and sycamore-faced headstock.

I don’t worry about hackers. I bore people to death and leave no clues…

hukka · April 23, 2024, 9:45pm

Thanks anyway.

hendersj · April 23, 2024, 11:58pm

Just select the text you want to quote, and you’ll see a popup that lets you quote it.

hendersj · April 23, 2024, 11:59pm

Someone’s got to maintain it - you could volunteer to do so, and then ask that it be added. There’s been a series of YouTube videos recently in the openSUSE channel about contributing that covers some of this IIRC.

hukka · April 24, 2024, 11:23am

I will seriously consider it.

hukka · April 24, 2024, 4:10pm

Hopefully posting one last photo is OK? It’s the hobby that takes up most time right now – my main computer, the Radxa Rock 5B in a KKSB metal case with Intel AX200 m.2 card and antennas.

pavinjoseph · April 24, 2024, 8:01pm

Those antennas look larger than the device itself
I’ll never not be surprised by the compactness of the device.

Hope you iron out the firmware/driver issues. It would be nice to see it driving a 4K display at 60 fps while sipping under 20W.

hukka · April 24, 2024, 9:07pm

I’ve tried the panfork drivers and those are fast enough already. Besides, the even better panthor drivers are upon us (in mainline) within a couple of months…

But to be honest, one display at 1920×1080px is enough for me. The EVO4 audio unit for stereo out and input for my bass was auto-detected by the computer and now supplies the signals for a 2×7 watt class-D amplifier by Adafruit that feeds two 10 liter audiophile speakers by Ino Audio. The system plays loud enough to chase the younger generation out of the room, if I want to, and still does so with crystal clarity down to 30 Hz.

Every watt I can shave off means better margins for my future photovoltaic system. The Radxa Rock 5B was a substantial step in that direction. …and it doesn’t force me to sacrifice anything.

It’s a bit like dancing Limbo.

Pauly-Walnuts · April 25, 2024, 2:21am

What the heck is that?

Pauly-Walnuts · April 25, 2024, 2:31am

Many (MANY) moons ago, we had a car that I don’t even remember the make or model of, but I asked wife version 1 to take it to a shop to have it checked out, because we wanted to go to Texas and back from Michigan to see my oldest boy graduate from boot camp.

My dad recommended a shop and said they had ethics. They told wife V1.ZERO, that it needed the valves replaced. She asked what the cost would be and was told it depended on if the heads needed to be removed.

I went to the shop and told the mechanic that I’d do him a, um… Let’s just say favor, if he could show me any vehicle from the model T on, that you could pull the valves without pulling the heads.

Told my old man, too. Said he’d never go back and we told everyone we knew!

hukka · April 25, 2024, 3:05pm

A modestly asked (although grammatically quite questionable) request, I reckon?
:

Pauly-Walnuts · April 25, 2024, 4:31pm

Holy Crap! Just watched a video, on that. Less than $200, and it hauls ass!