I Have a Hobby

Del the cat is widely recognised in CR4 as having an interest in amateur archery equipment construction, and has also blogged on the topic of home-brew solar heating systems.

Several other contributors have blogged on their home machining projects, their electronic projects, their home alteration projects, etc., etc.

Some might suggest that contributing to CR4 is as much of a hobby as anything else...

So it really is up to the individual as to how much of a contribution to make.

I enjoy woodworking. I'm currently making a small table at my mother's request. Not a big project, but it keeps my hands busy.

In the past I've made bookshelves, kitchen islands, decorative coat hangers, cutting boards (always a hit with the ladies), a porch glider, dressers, headboards and well you get the idea.

My hobby is makig violins . . . it is one of the most rewarding hobbies I can imagine. Take a bunch of what looks like stove wood, carve, shape, glue, . . . add all the learning about music . . . wood characteristics . . . precision measurement . . . the engineering of sound . . . it is a hobby that is much more than anyone would think. The final reward is that the instruments are loved, cherished and will make beautiful music for hundreds of years.

For the beginner . . . need not be a fiddle . . . a simple dulcimer . . . wood of almost any type can be used . . . there is a tremendous resource of information on the web . . .

I play guitar. Nothing like playing a good guitar....

Making violins sound challenging and I am sure you do not just take some wood and start making violins.

Tell us some of the secrets, the choice of wood, the process, the assembly to give the right sound and such.

I would love to read this.

Johan.

Here is a link on making dulcimers . . .

http://www.bearmeadow.com/build/index.html

Hello Johan,

You have a great idea there about us presenting a blog about each of our hobbies and then having you present them to school kids! Are you teacher?

I have several hobbies that I'm almost nearly involved in on a daily basis:

1). Designing and fabrication of a DIY Solar Thermal System to heat my house and provide Domestic hot water. This type of project really should be the realm of a Mechanical Engineer, but alas, I'm a Civil Engineer. It's been a long steep learning curve that's taken me several years to get where I've gotten so far.

2). Designing and fabrication of a DIY Solar PV attic exhaust fan. Sort of a mini-project of mine to reduce the thermal loading on the house and thus reduce my air conditioning use.

3). Going Green in other ways is a huge hobby of mine! Installation of a 7.56 Kw Solar PV system on our house roof to help us get nearly off the electric grid.....it'll be installed sometime this next month by the Solar PV Contractor. We're also installing Radiant Insulating Foil in the attic as well as the underside of the first floor joists to help reduce thermal transmission by a substantial amount. We're also painting all of the "exterior cold walls and Ceilings" with a thermal insulating paint additive!

4). Designing and fabricating the steel structural members for my 2-story tool shed and storage building. Nearly all of the structural members will consist of built-up light gauge steel wall studs that have been salvaged. Ultimately, the southern roof of the shed will be supporting the solar thermal collectors that I'm building. This project involved a lot of reverse engineering, especially when it came to designing the very unique roof trusses. Use of Finite Elements structural software was invaluable in the design!

5). Building historically accurate museum quality scale plastic military aircraft models. This has been a passion of mine since I received my first plastic model kit from my dad when I 6 years old. I usually only build models in 1/32 scale now days. Many of the kits that I do build require installing aftermarket correction pieces for accuracy, or I scratch build the parts myself. I am a long time member of the International Plastic Modelers Society (IPMS) - USA and belong to the Hudson Valley Historical Miniatures Guild (HMHMG) / IPMS Mid-Hudson Valley Chapter.

6). Film photography is another passion of mine since I was 16. I'm only getting back into it in a huge way after the digital craze wore off. I'm currently in the process of building and outfitting my darkroom down in the basement.

7). Amateur Astronomer since I was 14 or 15 years old. I've build many of my own Newtonian Reflector telescopes over the years, including the grinding, polishing and testing of parabolic primary mirrors. The largest one I've completed was an 18-inch diameter mirror which I no longer have.

Take your pick for a blog topic. I'm open to accepting the voting of a blog!!!

====have a great sunny day!!

Hi captMoosie, You wrote,

3). Going Green in other ways is a huge hobby of mine! Installation of a 7.56 Kw Solar PV system on our house roof to help us get nearly off the electric grid.....it'll be installed sometime this next month by the Solar PV Contractor.

I am curious how long will it be before you pay back your systems costs ? Could you give some indications?

Hello Garth,

It's been a while since I looked at the pay back period that was prepared for us, but I somehow remember it was in the vicinity of 6.5 to 7 years for us based on a number of variable factors and assumptions. Our loan is for 10 years, but the PBP will drop dramatically if I accelerate the monthly payments. I want to finish making all the loan payments for the system by the end of the fifth year. Of course we received generous Federal and New York State Tax Credits as well as a huge Rebate from NYSERDA that goes a long way towards reducing the principal costs!!!! Now, if I can get everyone here trained properly to turn off lights and other stuff during the day when we're making lots of juice, then we'll reap more benefits due to the Reverse Meter credits we'll receive from our power company......conservation is a huge factor here, but properly training the Mrs. and her two teenage brats is another thing all-together!!!! LOL

My but you are a busy guy.

Your museum sounds thrilling, that would make a great project.

You see what I postulate is that inquisitiveness (if that is the word) is the mother of knowledge. In your case to set up these battlefields you will have to read up on the historic facts and that is what I want to instill in the minds of the kids.

I am not a teacher, I am a mechanical engineer and have retired at 65.

Like yourself I have many hobbies of which photography used to be a big interest. When I started in 1958 colour photography was still out of my reach and I had to be content with black and white. I still have my equipment but I havent used it for more than 20 years since black and white became more expensive than colour.

I did some 8mm cine and that was most thrilling untill it was replaced by videotapes.

Presently I am building some workshops where I hope to continue with my hobbies and to invite the young people to come and share it with me.

Thanks for your response,

Johan.

I once did an instructional hobby project on conic sections. Some of the items:

Wave tank with parabolic, hyperbolic, elliptical reflecting barriers.

Rotating water jug to generate a paraboloid of revolution.

String sculpture for one-sheet hyperboloid ruled surface (like some cooling towers).

Paper tablet flip-movie of wave front from one elliptical focus to the other.

Cross-slide Trammel of Archimedes (= Oldham coupling) to generate ellipse. (Also known as "bullshit grinder".)

Miniature elliptical pool table, sized for shooter marbles.

Variable ratio elliptical gear set, jigsawed out of Plexiglas.

Light source and circular ring tilted various ways to cast shadows.

Turned wood cone sliced suitably.

Hyperbolic paraboloid roof model (another ruled surface, saddle-like).

A nautical chart with Loran curves.

This demo was a big hit, and better yet would be suitable for a collaborative show-and-tell for the students themselves to do.

Sounds great, how about some figures, drawings and pictures?

Johan.

When I figure out how to export AutoCAD drawings on this old computer as .jpg files or whatever can be inserted into CR4 posts, I will try to do this. Some of these materials are in boxes in my former house. This project is from quite some time ago, and I had largely forgotten about it until you posted your topic. Then I got this blast of a memory!--for which thanks.

I may retire in about 5-10 years, depending on the suctional economy. Your project inspires me to resurrect these models. I could then offer this to the local high school, or maybe even think of producing an instructional kit.... No time right now, but something to think about.

Wow! You guys have some interesting hobbies. Del has about talked me into trying to make a longbow, so that's a project to come. On my own, I do a little woodwork (I just did a nice mahogany porch bench I'll take a picture of and send along), some stained glass (I'm stuck in hummingbirds), and I build physics demo equipment (My hero is the great Eric Rogers of Princeton).

I'm a mechanical designer by profession and use advanced 3D design software appropriate to my clients needs: SolidWorks, Pro Engineer and Catia.

When I am not designing professionally, I design and build telescope assemblies (OTA's). Like Dr Moosie, I have ground and polished my own mirrors (up to 15" F-4) but have not mastered that activity nor the requisite patience needed to do it well and quicky. As a result I am dependent on the coaching of those who are better at making mirrors.

The rest of the scope and the mount are my playground however. My love for design is insatiable.

When I am not involved with telescopes I can be found at the local airport working on a homebuilt, all composite airplane I built myself from a design developed by Burt Rutan.

L.J.

Johan,

Thank you for coming up with this idea. I think it will be very interesting and thought provoking. I myself like to pretend that I am an amatuer metallurgist. For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated and curious about metals of all types. I do my own (mainly welding and fabrication) experiments with whatever materials and testing equipment I can get my hands on. If I was financially able to, I would be scooping up metals testing equipment from many of the bussinesses that are folding. I would like to hear more about your hydraulic press. Sounds very interesting...........thanks again,

Pat.

Hi Johan,

Can you tell me what specifically you have as a 'Hobby' please?

I think your request may be too difficult to achieve with people for the post part spread round the world. How can we get together and try something out?

You must have ideas or you would not have started your Thread?

From what I know of some of the members here their Hobbies are many and varied. One makes archery stuff. Another makes very large scale electrical Train, as used in the old 'wild west?................. And it goes on................... Sort of how long is a stick, you know?

Take care and I now have you on my 'Radar' and will pop back from time to time, OK?

I have had several hobbies like photography, model flying (radio control, started with freeflite and string control), model building, machine design and buildind etc. but I would like to concentrate on development.

I have some projects that I am working on of which one is an alternative energy source for vehicles, another is extruding bent plastic sections and so on.

My passion is to get young people to do hobbies.

I will inform you more about my projects as they progress but I am still building my work shops now.

Johan.

Here are some hobby sites

http://www.hobbything.com/

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/list-of-hobbies-interests.html

I guess you could say that instrumentation is my hobby. I have made power supplies, an AC voltmeter, an L-C meter, a Q meter, and several standards including a DC reference, standard resistors, capacitors, precision dividers, and thermal converters.

At one time CB radio could have been called a hobby. I never quite became a Ham, but enjoyed experimenting with antennas.

Now my youngest son has bought a book called The boy scientist, and wants some help building some of the projects. He wants to build a Tesla Coil, so we are about to become "Coilers". Have any of you built one? I have seen lots of them on the web (mostly of the same design). I am interested in alternatives.

My hobby is design.

Currently designing, researching and building a proof of concept gas turbine engine.

Happy new year everyone.

I saw a few people mentioning homebrew this and homebrew that, but nobody mentioned my hobby - home brewing! Not as much time as I'd like for it these days, and big pots of boiling liquids not so great to have around with two little people toddling about, but I managed to tap two beers of my own creation this holiday season - an ESB and a scottish style ale.

My hobby is trains. There are millions of people around the globe that have an interest in trains, but my interest tends to be somewhat unique among modelers. There are small gauge trains varying in scale from Z (1:220) up to O (1:48). These scales are usually found in home layouts. We then progress to the "garden railway" scales with ratios of 1:32 up to 1:24 and a few other miscellaneous scales before reaching the "large scale trains. These vary from ¾" to the foot up to the common scale of 1 ½" to the foot and beyond. These are almost all live steam, gas powered or electric powered. They are designed to operate outdoors and are made from metal. They are full operating replicas of steam, diesel and electric locomotives and can weigh many tons. They are pretty expensive and require lots of room to operate, so they are usually communal affairs or clubs.

I model in 1 ½" to the foot scale, but that's where I differ from the "live steamers". A live steam engine can cost many thousands to build and several years of time; a diesel or electric; a little less costly in both money and time. I build my large scale engines from a combination of metals and much wood. They are powered by small electric motors and storage batteries. I try to keep the cost to build to less than $100. Like Walt Disney, I use imagination or " imagineering" to create my models. I adapt various materials in building. Electric motors for example come from electric scooters, children's sidewalk cars and old cordless electric tools. Due to the large scale used, I can find many common items that I can adapt; something that is not so easy to do in the small scales. My models will operate on club trackage used for steam engines, but mine operate on battery power. Since I'm not made of money, I find that I can participate in the large scales without a large investment of money. I would like to get more people interested in my hobby as I practice it as it would allow more people to get into the large scale hobby without going broke. I use everyday tools, most people already have. I also do woodworking and metalworking so those skills lend themselves very well in my hobby.

Here is a picture of a model of a Swedish electric engine. It is about 90% complete. The model is over 5' long, 12" wide and 13" high. It is powered by an electric motor from an electric scooter and storage batteries from a garden tractor. The drivers are quartered and operate like the prototype through a jackshaft. Although I've built a steam locomotive that runs on an electric motor, I find an all electric engine is much more realistic.

Cool stuff. The Virginia Zoo (Norfolk) just put in a scaled down train - it's two adult butts wide (1/3 scale, maybe 1/5 scale?). What I found to be pretty cool was the track laying gadgets they brought in during the construction. One day, my kids and I stopped and watched as a skid steer filled this hopper car contraption up to fill between the ties - they'd roll to where they were working, dump, and come back for more.

My hobby is just creating stuff. Welding, fabricating, electrical and electronics. I scuba dive and I work on renewable energy and alternative fuels stuff as well.

I don't find that there is much of anything I cant build or reverse engineer if given enough justification for it.

I designed my own multi fuel boiler system for heating my house some years ago and have reduced my heating costs by at least 90% annually since its creation.

I am presently working on getting all the parts and systems together to build a large 15+ KW wind generator and grid tie inverter system, all of which I have designed and built myself, for next summer and I am expecting to be able to cut my electrical power purchases by around 90% or better with that.

I run my pickup on propane and I have plans to convert my car to propane as well next summer. I also would like to find a good used diesel pickup that I can then experiment with on converting it to run on mostly used oil next!

I have been reading the posts with great enthusiasm and I am thrilled at what I read. You certainly enjoy life.

It's true what they say that the difference between men and boys is the size of their toys.

Where are the women folk, haven't heard anything from you yet?

My definition of a hobby is something that you enjoy doing in your free time and it has a product as a result. Now what better product can one think of than one that is potable. I like the brewing idea sounds very satisfying.

Thanks to all of you participating, keep them rolling in.

Johan.

Good Hobby!

Here's my latest woodworking project that I've actually finished. It's Honduran Mahogany from a scrapped church pew, with 3 coats of spar varnish. So far, it resists the weather very nicely.