That takes me back.
In my youth I used to rebuild cars, everything from bodywork/panel beating/welding to boring out blocks, skimming heads, polishing valve seats, rebuilding gearboxes, fabricating exhausts, etc.
Your talents/hobbies other than computers....
- Thread starter Dixie McCall
- Start date
In my youth I used to rebuild cars, everything from bodywork/panel beating/welding to boring out blocks, skimming heads, polishing valve seats, rebuilding gearboxes, fabricating exhausts, etc.
Wildcat Media
Well-known member
I haven't gotten that involved yet, but have had to do a cylinder head replacement, then pulled it off again a year or so later to pop out the pistons, replace the rings and hone the cylinders, which reduced oil consumption slightly. (Went from about one quart per tankful of gas to going 7,500 miles on an oil change without needing to top it off at all.) On that car, I am down to four hours to change a timing belt and water pump.
I used to do more with installing audio systems in cars I owned but in recent years, it frustrates me more than anything, digging around inside a cramped car. Yet I have to dig in tomorrow and pull out the head unit to find out why the mic isn't working. And if I can't find the issue, I have the same head unit in the spare car, and have to swap between the two vehicles. (I'm leaving Monday to Wyoming for a Lemons Rally which starts early Thursday morning, so I need the mic working.)
What wears on me the most isn't the wrenching. It's not having a lift (getting up and down constantly), and having to work in the driveway since we have to use our garage for storage.
I took part in three Lemons Rallies last year. I have two planned for this year, maybe three if I decide to do the east coast (Fall Failiage). It's a great way to get out on the road and see the country, without the $500K hypercars, lobster dinners, speeding tickets and five-digit entry fees. With Lemons, you show up in whatever you can drive that might make it to the end of the rally--it's more like a scavenger hunt, locating checkpoints. (It's a spinoff of 24 Hours of LeMons.)
My other pastime was this past weekend, meeting up with friends and colleagues at AXPONA, the high-end audio show in Chicago.
TPerry
Well-known member
Being a country bumpkin in Texas, back in high school our Ag program (FFA) taught welding, using an oxy-acetylene torch and we used those skills regularly throughout the year in class.
Has come in handy several times from fixing trailer issues to actually building some small trailers used to haul behind ATV's. I love a nice stick rig, but for handiness you can't beat a good mig rig. I recently got rid of my MillerMatic 252 as I hardly ever used it (usually use the Lincoln tombstone as I'm more familiar with it).
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Wildcat Media
Well-known member
3D printing is a rabbit hole I probably should avoid.
Although in the automotive world, sometimes replacement parts which are otherwise unobtainium can be recreated on a 3D printer if they are not too convoluted.
True. My main problem right now is that I don't have enough capacity at the garage to run any welder and, if we need to move later in the year, no sense in running heavy-gauge 220 to the garage. (I'm planning on a temporary outlet near the meter, past the main fuse for the house.)
The other is the space to work on stuff, as the garage is packed full--much of it is in boxes as we'd planned to only stay here a couple of years (we've been here over twelve years now), and the built-in workbench is buried. (That's on top of lawn equipment, bikes, tools, and car parts.) I also have no metalworking tools other than a Milwaukee cutoff tool/angle grinder, not even a vise yet as I have nowhere to mount it. (I have one....in one of those boxes.)
BTW, those mobile stick welders I've seen on recovery rigs are interesting. Not as pretty as doing it with a proper welder at home, but if it gets a broken rig off the trail and back to a trailer or repair shop, that's plenty good enough.
TPerry
Well-known member
Being a country boy, and having seen MANY a beautiful pipe fence built, one can do some fantastic work with something like a Lincoln classic 300 series. I've seen some VERY professional work done that would put shop welders to shame.
GW2
Well-known member
I'm a homebrewer. This is my computer controlled 10-gallon batch system.
The black device below is a heated & cooled insulated fermentor to maintain proper yeast fermentation temperatures. The white freezer in the background is temperature controlled for lagering kegs. Lager beers need about 3 to 6 months at 35° F. I lived in Germany for 6 years, so I like to make German style lagers.
Temperature controlled Kegerator for serving. The red hoses are CO2
Prost!
The black device below is a heated & cooled insulated fermentor to maintain proper yeast fermentation temperatures. The white freezer in the background is temperature controlled for lagering kegs. Lager beers need about 3 to 6 months at 35° F. I lived in Germany for 6 years, so I like to make German style lagers.
Temperature controlled Kegerator for serving. The red hoses are CO2
Prost!
Taylor J
Well-known member
Makes me regret not taking AG in high school while growing up in Stephenville.
GW2
Well-known member
Interested what the setup cost you and/or if theres any cost recovery/profitability or do you just drink it yourself??
In round numbers the cost is about $6K (US) for the brew system, $2K for the fermentor, $1K for the two freezers, and probably another $1K in accessories (co2 bottles, oxygen equipment, temperature controllers, stir plate, hydrometers, refractometer, Erlenmeter flasks, grain mill, etc., etc.) which I have accumulated over time. You don't need my type of equipment to get started in home brewing. I have been brewing for about 15 years, but I started with about $100 worth of equipment. It wasn't until after several years of brewing that I felt I had enough experience to move to a system so that I had precise control over temperatures during brewing & fermentation. And, the system is mostly automated which makes the entire brewing process easier and faster.
I brew mostly for myself (I do not make any profit from the hobby). I give beer away to my two sons, the neighbors, and have donated quite a few gallons to charity for fundraising events.
Wildcat Media
Well-known member
I agree. It has as much to do with the person doing the welding as it does the equipment.
I learned the hard way how (not to) solder copper pipe. That was back when times were tough and no way I could afford a plumber. I've soldered thousands of electronic components and wires in my lifetime, so I understood the basics along with the differences between the two types of soldering...but I never did get a clean solder joint. It just didn't flow as I had expected it to. It was ugly, but it held water. Given the luxury of time, I could have welded up a few test pieces beforehand to practice and learned how to do it vs. what I ended up doing.
I should have taken a welding course at the community college over the winter. Totally slipped my mind...
GW2
Well-known member
The advantage of a brew system like mine is that whether winter or summer, I can brew, ferment, and lager my beers without regard to ambient temperatures. There are very specific temperatures required for the mash, mash-out, fermentation (temp. depends on whether the beer is an ale or lager), diacetyl rest following fermentation, and for aging ("lagern" auf Deutsch). Being able to precisely control these temperatures at specific times allows you to repeatedly brew the same recipe with a reasonable degree of achieving the same result each time. There are other variables of course... such as water chemistry, which I control by using 100% reverse osmosis water (which removes all mineral content), then I add specific minerals including phosphoric acid & calcium depending on the recipe.
Obtaining consistently good results from homebrewing is about the same as obtaining consistently good results from XF....once you have figured out the details of how the process works and changes needed to your set-up, you can expect good results.
