FULLER Tapered Drills Boxed Set at Woodcraft.com

Japanese Hand Saws And Accessories at Woodcraft.com

Hobbies DeJour....

I tend to be easily distracted, and pretty much go down whatever path tickles my fancy. For several years I did do the home brew beer thing. My Dad loved it - reminded him of his college years... The down side of home brewing is that I put on 20lbs drinking my own product. I finally gave up HB when I finally figured out that my two sons were drinking the beer as fast as I could make it.

Ham Radio. Can't say enough good about it. You think woodworkers are a congenial bunch, try a unch of hams... I am more into designing and building my own stuff using microprocessors and creating custom printed cicuit boards. Now days with the micro-sized surface mount components that is a challenge to its self...

Off Road 4 wheel drive. The Jeep was only the start of it. A well equipt Jeep has custom bumpers, brush guards and armour on the bottom. Why buy it if your wife will let you buy a MIG welder and plasma cutter...

Stamps and foreign currency anybody? When a number of my co-workers shipped off to Iraq during the Gulf Wars I took a fancy to the history of Iraq and the very interesting (and obsolete) currency or Iraq. In addition to dinar from the 1920's up through the mid 1990's I also have a pretty good collection of propoganda psy-ops type stuff that got thrown out of airplanes as well.

Woodworking.. Even within woodworking there is a lot of variety in my household. I mostly build wood toys for kids. My bride teaches english as a second language at a local international outreach center for refugees, and kids come to the States with their parents with nothing but the clothing on their backs...

Bent wood shaker boxes anybody? You need really thin wood for that and the bandsaw needed tuning. Onced you cut the wood, it needs to be sanded (oops - had to build a drum sander). A jointer sure would be nice. Need to spruce up Uncle Ernies 1939 Craftsman...

Christmas coming. Better get Grandpa's 1935 Delta 700 jigsaw going again. Yes - vintage machine repair in in there too. Some of the parts you can find from very helpful guys on Old Woodworking machines... And if you can't scrounge a part - cast it out of epoxy...

Gosh there is also fishing, camping and canoeing in the Ozarks. And did I say that Missouri if >>full< of caves? Yes, I like crawling through dark muddy holes doing wildlife surveys and helping others do mapping and conservation related stuff.

All this, and I manage to hold down a job & raise a family. At least my life isn't boring...

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CarpenterPermalink Reply by Arlin Eastman on November 4, 2011 at 5:35pm

Tom

You do not have time to get bored, just hope your bride is invited to alot of it too.

It would be nice to have an active life again.

Get with Dan he does alot of the Old machine rebuilding stuff.

Arlin

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Site HostPermalink Reply by Charles Nicholls on November 4, 2011 at 5:36pm

I have been down many of these same hobby paths, but at least I can say that the wood working hobby actually brings in money from time to time instead of just continually forking it out. Instead of Ham radio which i could not afford, i was into CB radio's. It's amazing just how far those will reach on a good "AIR" day :)

Charles

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Master CarpenterPermalink Reply by Mike Dillen on November 4, 2011 at 6:01pm

I've got too many hobbies as well. I used to hunt and fish a lot but not since we left Alaska. I still build fly rods, play golf, build computers, brew beer but my mainstay is wood working. The number of hobbies I have drives the wife crazy, so I guess there's an up side after all...

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Forum HostPermalink Reply by Larry Buskirk on November 4, 2011 at 9:32pm

Tom,

Sounds like you fit right in here.

Take a look at the member list, there are quite a few people that came from the OWWM here also.

It's a very diverse group, with all kinds of interests. Check out the different forums I'm sure you'll find a few that interest you.

Every 1st, and 3rd Thursday there is a forum chat, with a different topic for each chat session. The members vote for the topic of choice. ( The Patriot Woodworker Poll tab at bottom of screen).

I don't do HB, but make my own syrup, redo old woodworking machines, heat with woodburners, and have an ongoing restoration of a 140+ year old farmhouse in the works (Hence my owwm's). Plus a few other things to keep me occupied.

I'm retired now due to a plant closing, but have to wonder with everything I'm doing, when did I have time to go to work.

So welcome aboard,

Larry

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Site AdminPermalink Reply by John Morris on November 5, 2011 at 7:07am

I don't know where to start Tom. All I can say is how the heck do you do it! I thought I was busy. Guess not!

I had a really good laugh about your first paragraph, because I was the kid who guzzled down my dad's home brew when I was in my teens. Dad did homemade wine! He had about 4 or 5 Sparklett's (5gallon) water bottles full of the stuff fermenting and finished at any given time stashed under the workbench in his one car garage. He called it wine, but I would wager the alcohol content approached a back woods experimentation with double X on the jugs. One particular summer our little beach town will never forget, it was the summer the Morris boy and his friends caused a lot of trouble all summer long, and yep, Dad's wine was at the root of it! I look back at it now with a big smile, but at the time, it was some pretty serious mischief. Nobody got hurt, but damn near killed us!

I also take interest in your wife's career. My wife was an ESL learner, she is from Panama and her ESL teachers had the patience of Job. It takes a special person to teach ESL.

Ham radio, I had no idea the enthusiast's were building there own stuff. That is way cool, and very interesting indeed.

Thanks for sharing your hobbies Tom, that was some good stuff.

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker