What is the most fun metalworking?

I have made tools, tables, contraptions, and other things for personal use, sometimes for a one time application. It is satisfying when the thing works, and educational when it doesn't. But, when you get it right, and it is better and waaaaaaaaay cheaper than what you could have bought, NOW THAT'S FUN!

Steve

Greetings Pete, That part about people looking at something you made and admiring it is surely the funnest part about metalworking. Sometimes, after I finish a job, I will look at the parts and marvel that I made 'em. It seems almost impossible sometimes that I had the skill to make the parts. I'm not bragging. It just amazes me what people can do. Like the folks who make tiny radial engines that look fantastic and run great. And when somebody admires my work it sure feels good. ERS

I really enjoy in using 'this' for that - that is needed now and none to be found. Re-design or simply use the other item.

Today as an example - old curtain rod brackets - years of different ones it seems - ended up in a sorting box - and BAM - these are strong L brackets - three screws in one side, and a slot down the length of the other side of the L. These will attach the several dozen or so book shelves I'll build for this house.

With my CNC plasma now, I'll be able to generate more and more custom parts for attaching stuff. Simply a dxf or a picture scanned in - touched up - or just drawn in the CAM software itself.

Martin

Are we all so removed from our teenage years that we have forgotten the thrill of manipulating that first bra hook. In the dark no less!!

Last year SWMBO broke her arm right at the shoulder joint so guess what yours truly had to develop as a new skill. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

I'm to the stage now that I could handle the hook part of the job, but I'd have to go back to the manual for the next stage of operations!

Boy, most of the women I know drop it down and then pull it around so the hook's on the front ..

GWE

That begs the question: "Grant, how many women do you watch while they take off their bra?"

Lane

:-)

Harold

What's real fun is making something that cannot be bought at any price.

That must be the stuff made of "unobtanium". :-)

Yes, it is great to make something just the way YOU like it! Nowadays if you have someone else make it for you it is 5 to 10 times the price of doing it yourself. I don't know about you but I can't afford to make stuff that way.

Bart D. Hull snipped-for-privacy@inficad.com Tempe, Arizona

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"Bart D. Hull" wrote

I just measured for some standoffs to put up some shade cloth around my patio. We went last evening to the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, and we dined on the outside patio. The view was fantastic, with the Bellagio fountains going off every 5-15 minutes.

I got some ideas, some like the legs to their Eiffel tower as how to make these spindly legs just to stick out and support a few pounds of shade cloth to add shade from the afternoon sun.

Could you imagine what it would cost to have a metalworker come out here ...... measure .......... design ......... fabricate ............ paint ............ and install said standoffs? I am going to end up with something custom designed and installed.

Now, think of what it is going to cost me to do it out of square tubing, some round stock, and some decorative castings. I am guessing I can make them for about $25 per, and I figure that is high. (I need three.)

I love my welding area. Wifey calls it "The Sanford Yard", but she doesn't realize that I have everything categorized and in a special place. Now, if I could just find that darn mandrel to the bender .............. and my 30' tape ........... and .........

Steve ;-)

MOST of my "projects" and/or "hobbies" are the result of that - the rest are the result of a need to "restore"/"recreate" a unique and/or obsolete tool that does the job *I* want done the way that *I* want it done.

I *do* get a lot of satisfaction from "refurbishing" tools (often from yard sales) to "like new" (or, sometimes, better) condition.

I also enjoy "recycling" metal into working knives. [I'll leave "presentation" knives to those interested in them.]

Yeah, but with only the left arm available, even that method doesn't help. Since the break was right at the joint, she spent 6+ weeks wearing a "collar & cuff" sling. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

My best record was 4 hooks, one handed, aprox 3 seconds.

Damn I was good...sigh...the good old days...once upon a time in a galaxy far far far away.

Sniff.....

Gunner

"Considering the events of recent years, the world has a long way to go to regain its credibility and reputation with the US." unknown

LOL.......I can still manage a 'two hooker' in under 1 second! Ticks SWMBI off no end when I casually brush past her and she's suddenly 'swinging low' ;-).

But the damned things aren't as easy as they used to be. It used to be that the hooks were lined up, so you could use two fingers and your thumb, slid along in parallel to the two rows, and pop both or all three of them at one time. Now you can't.

Either that, or I'm rusty. Scratch that...

-- Ed Huntress

Correct answer: "as many as possible..."

Jim