What does everyone do? (or did, if retired)

Home Model Engine Machinist Forum

Help Support Home Model Engine Machinist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Hello,

I have been a family physician, and part time ER Physician for 36 years. Former hobby furniture making, photography, flying. Now metalworking is the tour de force, but not enough room in the garage for all the tools +
wife pis....d because she has never been able to get the car in the two car garage.

Well a man does have to have his priorities straight... doesn't he...

Best Wishes to group for new year

Chuck M
 
Retirement, now there's a nice thought. No work to get in the way of my new hobby. ;D
Only another 25 years to wait. :(

Electrician
Electronics tech
Flight instructor and charter pilot -bug smashers only.
Married - no more bug smashing - get a real job back in Perth.
Postie (Australian commonwealth communications specialist) you know, ride around on the CT110 and stuff letters in the box.
Back to electronics tech at a university.
If I can wrangle a shift to machinist here, I'll be as happy as a pig in mud ;D

Oh well, there goes my lurking status.
Phil
 
Welcome to HMEM Phil!

There isn't a lot of difference between bug smashing and machining. ;)

Rick
 
Phil,

Welcome to our forum.
icon_welcome.gif


Best Regards
Bob
 
Im retired. I no longer have to sell anything, write anything,report to anyone, read reports of others, raise capital, make payroll, hire people or fire people. Most of the work I've done has been enjoyable and the biggest fear I had was retirement. I sold my business in 1968 and kept working for 4 years so I could keep my hand in.

Man, was I confused? My wife suggested that we buy a sailboat so we could have some fun on weekends aqnd that was the end of my working life. Within a year I retired, sold the house, stored the furniture, bought a bigger boat and we left the Chesapeake Bay for the Bahamas. That was 8 years ago and even though I've not sailed further south than the Bahamas, you can see The Southern Cross from the lower end of the Ragged Islands. I'll be there in April. Nothing to do but fish, dive, beach comb and a little maintenance.

Oh yeah, the maintenance. Two diesel engines (auxillary propulsion and genset), one outboard engine , two refrigeration systems, water maker, 8 pumps, 2 heads, communications, navigation and rigging. There's not much in the way of services in the out Islands and we avoid Nassau and Freeport like the plague so if something breaks I get the call. There's other sailors of course and we help each other out but there is plenty of work for everyone.

I don't know how many years I can keep this up. Some small pieces of me don't make the trip anymore. I turned them over to the surgeons as a result of encounters with melanoma and prostate cancer, but they were relatively small pieces that I don't really need anymore.

This thing we do with lathes and mills and brass and steel, may give me something to do full time when I retire from cruising. Maybe I'll get some real machines and build a real shop but for now I is great to know that there is a group of good people with good ideas that share the same interest.

Jerry
 
Retired from the printing trade after 38 years as a cameraman, stripper, plate maker, proof maker, part time pressman. Took up metal working about 2+ years ago and found myself a part-time job in a manual machine shop to help fund my new found hobby.

Jack.
 
Hi,
We came back to Portugal, after 16 years in Mozambique and South Africa. Never worked for anyone else but myself. I have a small shop doing electric motor and generator repair and industrial electrical maintenance and repair. I do some special automation retrofitting, involving some VFD the biggest to date a 90Kw constant pressure irrigation pump control. I have some "machinist tools" that include a lathe and a small mill that I use to make some parts needed for my work. Since the shop is quite far from home, I'm now creating a new little space at home, next to my electronics lab, to do a little machining at home. I like to tinker a little with microcontrollers and have a project of my own that controls some diesel irrigation pumps, by monitoring the engine's "health" and varying the speed of the engine to keep the pressure constant. The actuator and pressure sensor is custom fabricated in my shop. I also like to do some woodworking and have some basic tools for the job. I read all I can on machining techniques and have some friends/costumers with some serious CNC machine tools, including wire EDM. When I need some special parts that's where I go.

Keep up the good work with this site, since it's an inspiration to many "shy machinists"

Pardon my English, I don't get much practice here in Portugal.
 
I may as well jump in here. I’ve been in the training business for the past 20 plus years as a Corporate Training Manager/Director or as a independent Training Development Consultant. I am currently Training Manager for a large wireless phone company. Actually I’m waiting on the next 6 years to pass so I can play in the shop full time.

Although, I been a hobby machinist for 25 years, I consider myself as only an advanced beginner. Some of projects I see on this board astound me with the level of craftsmanship demonstrated.

As for current projects, I’m currently just started (actually started this weekend) the A3 Switcher in 3/4 gauge. This will be my second attempt to start a live steam locomotive. I’ve got a Falk #1 almost complete but waiting on the cylinder castings to come up on eBay since they are not available commercially anymore. Of course, like any true home machinist, I’ve got several projects of in various stages of completion scattered around. Some may even get finished! ;D

---TinkerJohn---
www.TinkerJohn.com
 
I am retarded chief bos'ns mate USCG. (That's Uncle Sams' confused group and our motto was simple apparatus or something that sounded like that.)
I have been a soldier,Steel mill laborer, ran a liquid oxagen plant, Been a cat skinner, logger, the aforementioned chief bos'ns mate, commercial fisherman, homesteader, a sailboat bum, and self taught machinest along the way. I am now a disabled retarded old wreck who builds wierd things just because.

Phelonius
 
Phelonius said:
I am now a disabled retarded old wreck who builds wierd things just because.

I knew I liked you!
We won't hold your having been a Coastie against you. Much. :big: :big: :big:

By the way, when I was in the Navy, I was an RD (Retarded Dimwit - aka: Scope Dope & Squirrel) in OI (Operations' Idiots) Division and worked in a place called CIC (Confusion Into Chaos). Sometimes they would let us mingle with real people ... but not usually. ;D

Anyway, welcome aboard. Enjoy the insanity; it only gets better.

BEst regards,

Kludge ... USS HORNET, CVS-12, '64-'65
 
Kludge
The Scope Dope thing explains much. Those guys seemed to get weirder each day.:big: I was a Radar tech myself in my USAF days.

Steve
 
Cedge said:
The Scope Dope thing explains much. Those guys seemed to get weirder each day.:big: I was a Radar tech myself in my USAF days.

Oh, yeah, Steve. We had one eye going in circles watching the PPI, another doing a fan dance with the RHI, another blipping with the A-scope and another watching a fade chart. The fourth one had it easiest since the chart didn't do a lot except sometimes move around on the bulkhead to which it was firmly attached.

On the other hand, I can now write backwards quite well due to time spent on a target board and do all sorts of other useful things. ;D

Best regards,

Kludge
 
as for me i just repair riveting machines for a living, semi-tubular rivets and solid rivets.
just a boring job but..........i have the keys to a fully equipped shop and my boss supplies
all the cutters and material (except brass) and all i have to do is make sure i clean up my mess when i'm done.

it's the best job i have ever had. ;D

chuck


 
Well I am a Mechanical Engineer at a material handling company. We design and build custom material handling conveyors and bucket elevators mostly, but will do almost anything. We have Engineering, Machining, Fabricating, and Assembly in one warehouse, I love not having to be at a computer all day. Also every once in a while I can get some small drops, our next job has brass so I will be eye balling that job closely.
 
Back
Top