What do you DIY? : A hobby thread

[Blerv]

I recently became interested in making things out of copper and aging them with ammonia and liver of sulfur. Hand tools only, not for sake of "purity" but just as a cheap route :p. Clearly, I'm limited to pretty basic things but I've given a number of cuffs to family members.

What do you DIY?

[Evil D]

Oh let's see...some of these are hobbies for sure, others are skills learned out of necessity and being a cheapskate and/or broke. Some of those cheapskate things have even turned into hobbies once I learned to do them...

I fix my own cars when they break down, including all other routine maintenance.

I do any work around the house that I'm capable of doing like plumbing/HVAC/etc or at least I research and try to do it myself before paying someone else (I can't screw it up much worse if it's already broken).

I build and service my own computers.

I cut my son's hair as well as my own (I shave my head so it's pretty easy lol). Aside from I think 2-3 times, I'm the only one who's ever cut my son's hair and he's 11.

As far as other hobbies go that I don't think fall into the "DIY" category, I also paint/draw/do various styles of art, I love to cook and pretty much do all the cooking at my house since my gal works 2nd shift and I'm home every night with my 2 kids. I used to be into collecting vintage toys, mostly from the '80s and I still have a big collection of Stompers, a few mint GIJOES, a bunch of Spawn figures, and I don't collect Hotwheels but I tend to buy most Mustang hotwheels that I come across especially of the '79-93 generation. I play a few PC games on a fairly regular basis (Elder Scrolls, Grand Theft Auto series, Battlefield series, Diabo 2/3, Fallout 3/NV), I listen to a lot of music and have in the neighborhood of 20k MP3's. I ride bicycles and grew up a certified BMX fanatic, and I still have about 12 various bicycles in my garage. I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting..lol.

[colu41]

Anything that's in my capabilities (equipment, money, etc.) I will do, (or at least try) to do myself. Im a big gun guy, so I make my own holsters from Kydex. I am currently working on making knife scales. And hopefully want to take a stab :cool: at making my first knife. But that may not be until later next year.
Also as a previous poster said, house work, minor plumbing, and electrical.

I'm also into collecting and saving silver coins and bars. So at one point in time I was buying scrap silver, as in jewelry, old sterling spoons etc, and melting them into small 1 to 5 oz bars. Sold some, kept some. But was just fun to do.

[bearfacedkiller]

I love vegetable gardening, fishing and raising chickens. I love to produce my own food which is DIY I guess. I also love to cook and bake my own bread and make my own cheese and anything else food related I can do myself.

I work on vehicles for fun and do all my own routine maintenance. I have a few project vehicles.

I also enjoy doing all my own work around the house. I enjoy carpentry, landscaping and anything else I can do myself. I painted my own house this summer.

I have what I call "chronic do-it-yourselfers disease". I can't bring myself to pay anyone to do anything that I think I can do myself.

[colu41]

I love vegetable gardening, fishing and raising chickens. I love to produce my own food which is DIY I guess. I also love to cook and bake my own bread and make my own cheese and anything else food related I can do myself.

I work on vehicles for fun and do all my own routine maintenance. I have a few project vehicles.

I also enjoy doing all my own work around the house. I enjoy carpentry, landscaping and anything else I can do myself. I painted my own house this summer.

I have what I call "chronic do-it-yourselfers disease". I can't bring myself to pay anyone to do anything that I think I can do myself.

Exactly.... the average person would call someone immediately if they had problems with their home furnace. I simply pop it open, read some instructions, maybe a couple youtube videos, and have ALWAYS fix it myself. I bet I've saved $1000s on that alone. Work done on my car I'm the same way. I get a little help from my brother his was a mechanic but, regardless.

[Blerv]

Cool stuff, thx for sharing! :D

Now I know who to call when my car breaks and the furnace doesn't work. jk :p

[remnar]

I like to dabble in the garage with whatever tools that I have. I few years ago I acquired a small milling machine and made a few things with that. Unfortunately, I've moved twice in the last two years and I haven't been able to set up most of my tools. Here are a couple of things that I made before becoming a nomad.

Aluminum and brass triggers for my Buck Marks.


That's also a homemade mag release and semi-custom grips that I still need to finish. :rolleyes:

Sight rail for my Challenger II.


I don't really have the space right now, but I plan to get a power source soon so that I can start experimenting with electro-anodizing Ti.

[OldSarSwmr]

I have my degree in general tinkering. Same as many of you, I like to try and fix stuff myself, like Evil said, "I can't screw it up much worse if it's already broken".

I have torn apart and rebuilt my clothes dryer, redone my deck, painted my house (inside and out), tile floors, built my kitchen countertops etc...Ohhh and I can sew, don't laugh, it has come in handy and saved me a lot of money over the years. Right now I'm rebuilding a Chevy smallblock frankenengine for my oldest son's '86 Chevy C10.

It may not be professional but it feels good to do things for yourself and it helps show my boys that you can do more than you think.

[bearfacedkiller]

I can sew too. I was a boy scout and took home economics and my mother had a sewing machine and I learned how to sew when younger and it has always come in handy.

[bdblue]

Home repairs, working on computers and some programming, photography, working on cars.

[phillipsted]

I've gotten the woodworking bug pretty seriously over the past few years. I'm not a power tool nut or hand tool purist - more of a hybrid woodworker. I do have a real weakness for quality hand tools, though.

I just bought my first Lie-Nielsen hand plane this year (a #62 low angle jack). For those of you who don't know them, Lie Nielsen is the woodworking community's version of Spyderco. It is a small U.S.-based family-owned business started in 1981. Their mission is to make heirloom quality hand tools - their planes, saws and chisels are things of pure beauty.





I've also got a thing for hand-carving dovetail joints for boxes and other joinery projects. This requires a good set of quality steel chisels, and I've begun building my set of hand-made Japanese chisels - mostly out of white and blue steel. I've been eyeing a beautiful mokume bench chisel - but it is hard to justify the price of such tools (some go upwards of $500) when the regular laminated, hand hammered chisels perform just as well for a quarter of the price...

[GoldenSpydie]

Mostly knives, photography, and outdoors-type stuff.

Knife making is something that I am trying to get better at:



Photography and the outdoors are my biggest passions. It's great when I can combine them. :D





RC cars, planes, boats, rockets, etc. are smaller hobbies. Rocketry is getting bigger since I just got my Jr. High Power cert. from the NAR.

This car is a very modified Traxxas Rustler that can run 80mph+. My newest rocket that I am building (not in the picture) is 4 inch diameter, 54mm motor mount, 85 inches tall, and should fly over a mile with a CTI I100RL.

[Jazz]

Lately, just a whole lot of paracording...





...but I do occasionally carve metal, rock, wood, and bone or antler...






















I also have been known to mod a few knives.

[WMR]

Wow, interesting post. Like EvilD, I used to fix my own cars. Now, I lift the hood and don't recognize a thing. Also, did all the plumbing on our recently remodeled kitchen. Pretty well acquainted with HVAC having my own set of gauges and tools and having worked in the frozen food industry for almost 50 years. I have built over 30 computers and serviced many friends' computers but don't do house calls much any more. No way I would try to cut anyone's hair.

Leaving EvilD and seeing colu41 is a big gun guy; I used to have a mess of guns but am down to one 1911 .45 which I enjoy cleaning from time to time. Electrical work is easy for me as I have done my own additions to houses as the owner/builder. I have also built several transceivers and hold an Amateur Extra ham license.

My wife does all the sewing and my photography sucks. I have many tools left to me by my grandfather who was a cabinet maker. But, I never managed to master a wood plane. I always grab the belt sander and can do fairly well with it. When I moved to a condominium (because I am an old guy who has grown to hate yard work) I downsized most of my shop tools, created a mini-shop in the previous breakfast nook, and made wooden ball point pens for a few years on a home made lathe.

Now, arthritis has hit my hands a bit but I still enjoy knife mods and home made scales for Spyderco mules. I ghuess that is a lot of DIY with no pictures but as I said already... my photography sucks.

[Nate]

Nice thread.

I do a lot of things that have been mentioned. General handyman tinkering, cooking, gardening, landscaping. I am also into planted freshwater aquaria with native temperate fishes. Starting to get more into knife mods and some very DIY regrinds on cheaper stuff.

One thing I did for a couple of years that I've been meaning to get back into is coffee roasting. I roasted for a while in convection ovens and then moved on to using an older hot air popcorn popper that I made some minor modifications to. There is literally no comparison to a hot cup of coffee made with beans that were roasted the day before and ground by hand just a minute or two before pouring the water into the press-pot. The freshly roasted beans smell incredible, then you grind them and it gets even better, then you get to brew it and it's just so far from what comes out of the Keurig or that can of Folgers you just can't believe they're all called "coffee."

[remnar]

Nate,

I love coffee and have had the opportunity to buy from some micro roasters, but where do you buy green coffee? I have seen some online retailers. Do you have any suggestions for a bean source? I would love to try roasting my own.

[noseoil]

Started with this earlier this year.


Working on this now & will post when finished (if ever at this pace).

[Nate]

Nate,

Do you have any suggestions for a bean source? I would love to try roasting my own.

Sweet Maria's (.com) is a great source for beans and info. You could ask around at local coffee shops as well.

[SpyderNut]

Started with this earlier this year.


Working on this now & will post when finished (if ever at this pace).

That's a pretty cool idea. Are you going to use aluminum sheeting for the sides/roof?

[remnar]

Nate,

Do you have any suggestions for a bean source? I would love to try roasting my own.

Sweet Maria's (.com) is a great source for beans and info. You could ask around at local coffee shops as well.

Thanks for the link. It looks like they have a good selection. Do you have a favorite coffee that you order from them? I live in the sticks and don't have any coffee shops near me, so looking for help there isn't really feasible.