Other craft skills

[sunnybob]

I do that too Bob.

next week I'll be skimming the spare room and ready for the 4 year old to move in to it.
between that I'll be laying a new floor in the conservatory, rebuilding the motorcycle (ongoing project), making a swingarm pivot stand for said bike, removing the paint from the lower third of the outside walls of the house, replacing a few bricks and repointing, fixing the decking at the bottom of the garden and a whole host of other tasks and repairs that are sat on the healing bench at the moment.

bit better for you?

Well, that covers everything except the rocket scientist.

What bike? I was 51 years a biker till my arthritic thumbs laid me low.

 

[novocaine]

Well, that covers everything except the rocket scientist.

What bike? I was 51 years a biker till my arthritic thumbs laid me low.

rocket science isn't a hobby or a craft, it's something I do occasionally for work though. (ok, not quite, more ballistic trajectory after chemical reaction, but it's all the same stuff under a different name).

these days, because I needed to slow down apparently, an SV650s that needs a general tart up after being ridden hard and put away wet by me a bit to often. I wanted 2 cylinders after having screaming 4s for to long. once thats done I think it'll get moved on and I'll start thinking about something old, British and fun.

 

[sunnybob]

we have similar interests, I was 25 years a shooter reloading my own ammo. i know all about ballistics.

I had all those "old british" twins when they werent all that old. Never owned a bike with more than two cylinders.
Smallest was a honda 225 benly, largest was a kawasaki 1500 nomad. Lots of BSA 500 and 650 in there as well.

 

[gasman]

Upholstery which I really love doing - I've re-upholstered and recovered most of the furniture in our house at some stage
Sewing - the rest of my family always put their stuff on 'Daddy's desk' to be fixed
Re-building bicycles - I made pocket money doing that from the age of 12
Does giving anaesthetics count? Thats my day job!
Mark

 

[Phil Pascoe]

From about the age of thirteen I used to put zips in my Levis on my mother's sewing machine as she refused to do it. Once the zip went or they needed patching she'd throw them away. I always put wet suit zips in them as they were stronger and we wore the jeans in the sea so often the original zips corroded. That was before I discovered 501s. This was the '60s and they ended up more patches than jeans.

 

[Droogs]

Well, that covers everything except the rocket scientist.

What bike? I was 51 years a biker till my arthritic thumbs laid me low.

rocket science isn't a hobby or a craft, it's something I do occasionally for work though. (ok, not quite, more ballistic trajectory after chemical reaction, but it's all the same stuff under a different name).

Oh my novocaine appears to be a dropshort, I bet he listens to very loud music

 

[heimlaga]

Well...skill set..... I tend to pick up a new skill now and then......

I have a Batchelor's degree in construction engineering
I have worked as a carpenter
I have made doors and windows and other types of joinery part time
I have made a few pieces of furniture
I have worked as a log house carpenter shifting rotten logs in old scribe fitted log buildings
I have done some bricklaying now and then and even tested a little stonemasonry when there was nobody else who could do it.
I have shifted a few frames and taken part in shifting the keel and most of the bottom planking on traditional clinker built boats. I suppose I could build one if I had to.
I have repaired the hull of a fiberglass boat so I know how to work with fiberglass and resin.
I can make a traditional shingle roof though I don't want to do it because I am scared of the shingle cutter.
I usually repair my own car and my own tractor.
When my health allows I do some logging for household needs. Now there has been a break due to health reasons but normally I hail one or two tractor trailer loads of logs to the local sawmill every year and then stack the timber to dry at home.
I know basic blacksmithing and forge stuff at home for my own needs.
I know basic stick welding and metal fabrication and have made and repaired quite a few machines and implements.
I have rebuilt a number of old woodworking machines so I can file and scrape parts to fit and I have poured and scraped my own white metal bearings.
I harvest my own rushes and make my own rush soles to put in my wellington boots to keep my feet dry
I make my own brooms from birch twigs. I have also learned to make finer brooms from crowberry twigs.
I know how to use a sicle and bind grain the old way.
I have made traditional wooden fences from round poles tied together with withies the Scandinavian way.

Well..... essentially I am not skilled in any trade at all but somehow I get a wide variety of jobs done with decent result......
The next big project will be an attempt to rewind an electric motor.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Yeah ... Ok ... :lol: =D>

 

[monkeybiter]

And you try to tell the young people today that and they won't believe you ..... :wink:

 

[heimlaga]

And you try to tell the young people today that and they won't believe you ..... :wink:

I am only 35 so I have a lot more to learn....and already now people in my generation don't believe me until they have seen the proofs 8)

I just happened to grow up around elderly craftsmen and -women who were happy to teach and some of their skills stuck.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Lucky man. My 16 y.o. boy isn't remotely interested in anything practical. Actually he's not remotely interested in anything at all, not girls ... or boys ... booze, dope, or anything without a screen. Brain the size of a planet and the intellect of a $%%^&* shrew.

 

[novocaine]

we have similar interests, I was 25 years a shooter reloading my own ammo. i know all about ballistics.

I had all those "old british" twins when they werent all that old. Never owned a bike with more than two cylinders.
Smallest was a honda 225 benly, largest was a kawasaki 1500 nomad. Lots of BSA 500 and 650 in there as well.

sorry for not responding Bob, weekends are for family, computer doesn't get turned on if I don't have too.

haven't reloaded my own ammo for 16 years (which is pretty good going for a 36 year old), I grew up shooting with my dad, eventually I found that I preferred 100 yard .22 stuff and reloading those rounds is pointless, stepped that down again 6 years ago and now only plink with air out to 40 yards on a good day but mainly 10m stuff. I can use this stuff in my own back yard if I so desire so thats a winner, no more trips to the range after a tune up, no more having to sit listening to some bullpoop story from some charlie about how he could light a match at 500 yards and he once lost a comp because they all went through the same hole, oh and no more being rangey for a bunch of folks chucking lead at paper with borrowed 1022's. bliss (not to mention no hearing protection needed).

bikes, again I grew up with old and british, cut my teeth on a goodstar scrambler, a collection of trumpets and have a vague recollection of a enfield at some point. fell for fast Japanese bikes, couldn't afford them though, so a stolen recovered xl250 was my first dive in to Japanese motors, not looked back since, they got faster, I got slower, had a KH250 that damn near killed me everytime I got on it, moved along to a very boring but good for commuting er5 that lasted a while with a few other things beside it, then got an RF600 and tuned the hell out of it. got together with my now wife, realised I actually didn't have a deathwish anymore so sold it (now in pieces because the new owner couldn't care for it) and bought the sv. does everything I want it to without a fuss and jolly enjoyable.

 

[sunnybob]

Phil, if he can programme, he should be able to keep you in comfort in your old age. if he's just a gamer, then he has to be world class get any money.
Put an electric meter in his room and make him earn the money to pay for the machinery to run. That might stir him.
Novocaine, if you still had that goldie scrambler, youd be a wealthy man.
I started riding on a 350 velocette before I left school, progressed through the entire range of BSA twins ('54 to '63 models), at one stage had 5 in pieces, mostly in my bedroom. had 2 rocket gold stars.

Shot handguns from 22 right up to 45 winchester magnum, and oh yes, I know all about the "I coulda been a contender" types that are too bust boasting to actually do anything helpful (my claim to fame... UK champion 1993, marksman class 1500 competition).

Once BB (bas%£%d Blair) took away everybodys fun in 97, i went back to big bikes and discovered the vulcan range of kawasaki. wonderful bikes, 15 years with them untill the thumbs gave out.

Getting back to the original plot. I was a gas fitter, then catering engineer and service install of commercial machinery, even a milkman when the kids were tiny and I could earn more delivering pints than as a skilled motorcycle mechanic.

I can fault find and repair anything to do with pipes, electric, and machinery. Absolutely useless with computer software. If I cant see it and hold it, it doesnt exist.

 

[dzj]

I distill brandy at home.
Electrician by trade, i can weld and do metalwork, bricklaying, plumbing and heating, fly airplanes, intermediate car repair, fix a PC...

 

[Phil Pascoe]

KH250s? I did 16,000 miles on it 1978 - 80. Six back tyres, six chains and five sets of sprockets. Never let it out of the red.

 

[novocaine]

Bob,
old man had a .357 magnum (smith and wesson highway patrol) that I learned to shoot handguns with, was given 50 quid for it in 97 was a few years after that when I stopped reloading, along with my dad. The big stuff was really only for fun shoots, he was very much in to smallbore target, had enough medals to start a shop for it, I did well in under 16s and not to bad under 20's but being a leftie with him being right handed meant having 2 rifles which gets expensive. he managed to get me a model 54 in leftie (rare beast) to match his for a sensible price, wish I still had it to be honest, but no license and not willing to put one on the last house (bad area, didn't want it in the house and no way I was leaving it at the range) and the folks had moved some 100 miles away so couldn't leave it on his ticket. once I'd stopped he pretty much packed up too, he said he wasn't enjoying it but think he was struggling with a few issues that meant he couldn't keep up anymore, really a shame. He sold mine first which funded a new webley raider (now mine), then sold his a year later along with the 1022 and the 303 (that was fun at air cadets, they got a surprise the day I rocked up at the range with my own) , kept his shottie (now with my god father) and a few air rifles. when he passed away I took two of his air rifles (a very good condition BSA airsporter and the wobbly rider), my sister has his falcon and air pistol but doesn't use them, the pistol was only good for plinking though and I'd had to remake the action a few times before that. so I have those 2, some silly C02 rifle that was really for playing with, an air arms s200 (which is really my wifes) and an hw40 for offhand target pistol (not really suitable but I did alright with it). I've resigned from the club because I didn't like the politics or the charlies, I occasionally go down and pay a small fee to use it but it's rare as I don't have the time.

wow, sorry for the off topic there, back to it, I'll happily try anything, some things aren't for me others I find a passion for and stick to it, I'm not a craftsman, I'm a happy amateur.

 

[novocaine]

phil, 3 cylinders of quick to seize rocket ship. had it nip up on me a few times, which was fun.

 

[Paul200]

Turn my hand to most things - plumbing, electrics, dry stone walls, fencing, renovating old clocks, cultivating a herd of bonsai trees etc but possibly the most off the wall 'skill' I had/have was poking little tiny sailing ships into miniature whisky bottles. Haven't made one for years though and don't have any pics - but I enjoyed it at the time

Paul

 

[Phil Pascoe]

phil, 3 cylinders of quick to seize rocket ship. had it nip up on me a few times, which was fun.

I didn't ever have a problem. I polished the piston crowns which all but stopped it coking up and prolonged the life of a set of plugs from 400 miles to about 3000, - the worst petrol consumption I got was 42mpg and I beat the crepe out of it. Even the dealer wouldn't believe the petrol consumption.

 

[novocaine]

Phil
ah you see there in lies the problem, it may have been fiddled with .
polished and ported, new exhaust system with suitable expansion chambers and tuned stinger/can length (fairly simply calculations), pods so it could breath along with jets, needles and adjustments to the slides and clips which meant I was running on the edge of lean in low range and if the mix was wrong (whoops) it would lean out. get it on song and it would richen up again as it changed circuits and all was good, but sat at the lights and you could hear it surging as it leaned out again.

seem to remember it got to the point of fiddling with plug gap to eak out a few more ponies. eventually pulled the engine (the rest of the bike fell apart) and stuck it in a F3 hovercraft for a session, till it holed a piston a few to many times.

it wasn't built for mileage lets just say that.