I haven't, at this point, because materials and labour would make the price more than most would be willing to pay, in this "everything is made in the Third World" economy.
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Hobbies? What keeps you sane?
- Thread starter Rob MacLennan
- Start date
I'm spending the excess time making what I call creative necessities.
If I need a box to keep paperclips in I could slap one together in a few minutes using plywood and a brad nailer. Instead I'll take hours to make one with matching grain quality lumber with no exposed fasteners. Right now I've got a few pieces of olivewood set out for final designs.
A previous project, a battery powered LED reading lamp with a delay shut off by means of a vintage fuel shut off from a model airplane.
If I need a box to keep paperclips in I could slap one together in a few minutes using plywood and a brad nailer. Instead I'll take hours to make one with matching grain quality lumber with no exposed fasteners. Right now I've got a few pieces of olivewood set out for final designs.
A previous project, a battery powered LED reading lamp with a delay shut off by means of a vintage fuel shut off from a model airplane.
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Nikola Tesla
Well-known member
Yup, and most people nowadays can’t even discriminate quality and good material...
As a bald man...a good hat is a good hat!
A friend built my last computer and made $50 on the job, including a tutorial. I asked him why so little and he said he liked building them so much he would pay to do it. Making a few dollars was a bonus.
My wife does beautiful sewing and a dress for a little girl can take two days. Add in for materials and minimum wage the dress would be over $300.00. Made in the Pacific rim is probably $10.
Most hobbyists are in the the same boat, making a few dollars above material cost is about as good as it gets. The problem is transitioning from hobby to business.
As a hobby your talents, if appreciated, allow you to give nice gifts with little cash outlay. Few people realize that you could have made a couple of hundred dollars flipping burgers in the same time.
As an aside I looked at some chain mail videos. I was thinking that if a piece could be made in stainless steel about the size of a pie plate it could be the ultimate pie weight.
A friend keeps trying to get me to turn my hobbies into side jobs. He's got friends who do HEMA (Historical European martial Arts) who he says would pay for chain shirts. The one in the picture I posted took a little over a year to make, a little at a time. It's stainless steel and all of the links are welded closed. No one is going to pay me the $400.00 in materials I put into it, let alone the thousands in labour. So, while I have sold a few smaller pieces over the years and have made the odd piece for friends, it stays a hobby.
I don’t have the skills / imagination to do stuff like that by hand. And I absolutely am in awe of people like @Rob MacLennan and @nobbie48 and anyone else that can literally make something from nothing.
My dad is phenomenal at making things out of wood. I’ve learned a lot, but just don’t have that ‘knack’ / ‘vision’ to just start building. Hell even LEGO....I read the instructions.
kudos
My dad is phenomenal at making things out of wood. I’ve learned a lot, but just don’t have that ‘knack’ / ‘vision’ to just start building. Hell even LEGO....I read the instructions.
kudos
Would the HEMA guys pay five figures for a shirt and if yes, do you want to burn out your eyeballs making them when you could get someone in the Pacific rim to do it for 1/10th the cost?
Are the links welded or silver soldered? If I decided to make a pie weight I would use food grade silver solder but there are some tricks to the metallurgy that might not work with food grade materials. It's not an issue right now as I have enough on my plate.
I also bake my own bread and share with neighbours at my pleasure. Minimum wage plus material would be $50 a loaf. In quantity I could get it down to $20 a loaf which would net me $120 a day. If I don't like the job I don't get out of bed for less than twice that.
I could get down to $10-12 a loaf and up the daily income to a grand or more but that would mean phenomenal capital outlay, a reduction in quality due to additives needed for production and suddenly I'm just another struggling baker, one bad month away from bankruptcy.
There's no way that anyone would pay four figures, let alone 5, and I'd need that sort of income to replace the day job, in order to devote the time necessary to that sort of thing.
The welds are done with a resistance welder that's purpose made for chainmail. I got one of the last three that were ever made, from my wire and ring supplier. As far as I can tell it was based on a modified dental welder from Taiwan. The welds can be a bit on the brittle side, because I don't have a gas shield, but that still makes for a shirt that's 4-5X stronger than just butted rings. I also do costume grade stuff in bright aluminum, which I can coil and cut myself with a couple of rigs I scratch built. A few actor/CosPlayer friends have some of my pieces.
Why weld/solder the links for a pie weight? Open links would be plenty strong and a lot less work (still a lot of work, but less than weld/solder).
My mom likes to knit clothes for children as they are faster and cheaper (relatively). She has made four sweaters for adults. The adult sweaters cost her over $100 in wool and about 100 hours. Selling them would not be viable.
You might be surprised what you can do, if you put your mind to is. As I was coming up on 50, I decided it was time to pick up some skills. I first made a butted aluminum ring chaimmail shirt, that weighed maybe 30 pounds. It used 12 gauge, 3/8" rings and was huge overkill, for a costume grade shirt. In making it, though, I figured out how to coil and cut my own rings, how to design a piece, and what gauge of wire would work/look best for costuming.
While doing that I started messing around with some basic jewellery weaves, because that was quick gratification. Ended up donating a couple of dozen pieces to the WROAR Ride, over a couple of years. That ended up netting me a couple of paid custom piece requests. That, in turn, spiralled into sales of maybe $1000.00 over a couple of years, which I turned back into the armour welder, a jewellery pulse arc welder, and some wire stock.
Some very minor woodworking came out of the need to build a coiler and cutter rig, for the aluminum rings I was using. Leather working goes along with making stuff to complement my armour making. For the hell of it I dove into trying to make archery bows out of PVC plumbing pipe (it's a thing that people actually do), because if you're in armour then you obviously need weapons too.
As a result a couple of people have told me that they'll be heading to my house, first thing after the Zombie Apocalypse hits
I can understand why welding would be desirable. The spaces between the rings woould be a place for bacteria to grow and it would be tough to keep that area clean. On the other hand a weld could also result on a rough area that would have much the same effect, unless the piece was tumbled afterwards to buff off the rough spots.
new infant daughter takes up most of my free time but with the tiny amount not riding:
-tinkering/maintenance on bike and cars
-home improvement
-amateur woodworking and welding - lots of things to make for the little one (some I question if they're for me or for her)
-tinkering/maintenance on bike and cars
-home improvement
-amateur woodworking and welding - lots of things to make for the little one (some I question if they're for me or for her)
I got a cheapo 3D printer and instead of buying toys they’ll be bored of in a few hours, I just print something for a few cents and they still get bored of it....but it’s cheap.
malamute62
Well-known member
The last few months have been consumed with selling our house and buying a place in Nova Scotia. 16 years in a house leads to a tonne of crap to be sorted, sold, disposed or packed. Spare time has been spent
- Binge watching foreign shows on Netflix
- Using Spotify to discover new music and then searching record stores to purchase new vinyl
Once the move is completed then plan to pick up a dual sport and a side by side to be able to explore all the trails that are around.
- Binge watching foreign shows on Netflix
- Using Spotify to discover new music and then searching record stores to purchase new vinyl
Once the move is completed then plan to pick up a dual sport and a side by side to be able to explore all the trails that are around.
Fitness to temper mental and physical weakness. Really good outlet for rage or frustration. Also massive sense of pride and endorphins when I pause and look at how far (and how many are weaker/slower lol) I've gone.
Singing or instruments to express emotions, mostly sorrow and despair, rage doesn't translate well for me. Some musicians/vocalists (Linkin Park) do rage really well though so there's a goal!
Video games/computers to temper the mind. There's a never ending quest for "finding the next game that requires brain use." This translates to the same skillset used in software dev, but **** that I don't do that for fun lol
All the hobbies have heavy roots in competition. Guess I like conflict lol
Singing or instruments to express emotions, mostly sorrow and despair, rage doesn't translate well for me. Some musicians/vocalists (Linkin Park) do rage really well though so there's a goal!
Video games/computers to temper the mind. There's a never ending quest for "finding the next game that requires brain use." This translates to the same skillset used in software dev, but **** that I don't do that for fun lol
All the hobbies have heavy roots in competition. Guess I like conflict lol
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I keep thinking about a DLP printer, desktop CNC, or both. They would be handy for those times that I want to make a one-off component, or produce something in small quantities, but I keep coming up against the fact that I just wouldn't use them enough to justify the expense.
Well if you’re interested in my printer I’m willing to let it go cheap. I print a few things here or there, but it’s primarily taking up space.
Yeah, there's another thing that keeps e from getting one; space
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