34 replies to this topic

[rptraut]

Hello Everyone;

 

Throughout my life I've had many hobbies, my daughters would tell you I become obsessed and sometimes overwhelmed by them.     Woodworking has been a lifelong hobby of mine since I built my first book holder and turned my first bowl on a lathe.     Now I have all the tools I could ever need to make anything I want out of wood.   Below are just a couple of examples of projects I've completed.   

 

 

 

 

Here's some examples of saltshakers, salt grinders and pepper grinders that I've turned on my lathe.    I save a lot of wood from my firewood pile that has nice grain like tiger striped maple.   

 

 

 

 

 

I repair and refinish vintage pieces of furniture like this roll top desk that was in fifty-two pieces when I received it.   It was like a giant puzzle, figuring out where everything went, assembling and refinishing was an enjoyable challenge.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

At present I'm working on a topper or hutch for the desk like in the above photo.    Ant keeping has been my latest hobby (obsession) but once they're in winter storage, I'm going to finish it, this winter, for sure.....

 

 

 

 

 

Our house was built in 1852 and it's probably been the biggest woodworking project of my life.   It was in bad shape when we purchased it and probably would've been torn down if we hadn't bought it.  I've spent over 30 years renovating and updating it.   I've brought things like electrical, plumbing and insulation up to the standards of today.   Every room's been renovated and redecorated, kitchen rebuilt, new on-suite bathroom, almost everything's been replaced except for the brick on the outside and the wide wood mouldings on the inside.   I tore up years of "improvements" that well-meaning people had done, right back to original floors, and refinished them just in time for wood floors to be popular.   I did all the renovations while still trying to maintain the "antique" interior and exterior of the house, definitely my biggest woodworking project!

 

Next time: Have you ever built a ship in a bottle?

RPT

 

 

 

 

[ANTdrew]

You could school the Foranto guy, no doubt.

[AntsGodzilla]

rptraut always sends a post in a topic that is 10 times better than everyone else's 

Edited by AntsGodzilla, October 26 2024 - 2:22 PM.

[rptraut]

Hello ANTdrew, AntsGodzilla and Everyone;

 

Thanks for your kind words and thanks to all those of you who "like" my posts.     I suspect I'm one of the oldest members on this forum, I've had a lifetime to indulge my interests and hobbies.   I'm really pleased to be able to pass along the things I've learned and even more pleased to hear that you enjoy reading about them.    I hope my posts encourage everyone to pursue their interests, no matter what age they might be.   I've got a lot more lessons from my life to tell you about - like the time I got run over by my truck - but that's another story....

RPT

[rptraut]

Ships in Bottles - Another Hobby

 

I've always loved ships, there's just something about the wood, the sails, the rigging and ropes that invokes the feeling of the wind and the sea.   I've also been fascinated by the process of building a model of a ship designed to fit through the neck of a bottle and then unfolding it into a full sail model.   When I was a kid I made a couple of attempts and sort of cheated by putting them in jars with a little wider mouth to fit things through.   About thirty years ago I took up the challenge again.   Each of these models was built to fit through the neck of the whiskey bottle I used.   To give you an idea, I can't fit my first knuckle on my pointer finger into the neck of the bottle.   I must apologize for my choice of bottle, after some time they seem to have developed a haze on the inside.   There's also some distortion caused by differences in the glass.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are all scale models of actual ships.   I don't want to give all the secrets of this hobby away, but I can tell you that the model is built in slices that were inserted and glued together inside the bottle.   The final slice, including the sails, is the trickiest as everything is rolled up and fits very snugly through the neck. Unfolding the model inside the bottle is most challenging as it all has to be done through the neck as well, many of the tools I used I had to construct myself.   Once the slices are glued together, pull strings are used to pull everything up into place, one model had 32 pull strings for everything from sails to deck structures.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pull strings are an integral part of the design of the model.   I used microdrills to drill holes through masts for the strings to pull through and hinge knots were used to join spars to masts, as they had to be folded and unfolded as well.   Each pull string had to be pulled in sequence to raise the masts, correct the sails and pull the deck structures into place.   Each string was glued in its' final position and then cut.   Each ship model I built became more and more complicated; the last one took me about 120 hours to complete from start to finish.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charles W. Morgan, a whaling ship, in full sail.   The whaling rowboats are mounted on the sides and the rendering area and deck structures can also be seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I built all of these while our family sat and watched television.   I had a TV table with my model and supplies and built them all while sitting through commercials.   There was some machine shop work, but most of the time is spent with very fiddly cutting, gluing and knotting.  Making replicas of anchors, whaling boats and davits required quite a bit of research and a lot of the planning and design had to be done beforehand.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each ship was designed to take up the maximum amount of space inside the bottle to add to the mystique of the whole thing.    People always ask, how did you get that in there?

RPT

 

 

 

[ANTdrew]

Amazing!

[1tsm3jack]

That's really cool, thanks for the read

[AntsGodzilla]

rptraut, your ships are truly amazing! I've never seen such amazing craftsmanship!

Edited by AntsGodzilla, November 2 2024 - 8:48 AM.

[ExponentMars]

Gym and FPV Quadcopters for me. I'm a student tho and antkeeping is probably my main hobby - haven't been able to get out and fly as much now that school's started up. 

[M_Ants]

Any like super serious gym goers here?

[Ants_Dakota]

RPT, your patience never ceases to amaze me. Not only that, but working on something during commercials is a great use of that time. I think the dust adds even more to the mystique surrounding the ship, not subtracts from it (although it does make it hard to photograph).

[rptraut]

Hello Ants_Dakota;

 

Thanks a lot for your positive comments.    My mother once commented that I could always entertain myself.   That was probably because I was always trying to make something.   I also find it amazing how much one can accomplish by spending a little time on a project every day.   I try to accomplish one thing every day on my current project, especially during otherwise wasted time, like commercials.   Sometimes it's something as simple as watering and tending to plants.   

 

 

 

I have another hobby that requires infinite patience.   Fixing and restoring antique pendulum clocks, especially cuckoo clocks.   Restoring mechanisms that reward me every half hour with birdsong or music, chimes and even dancers makes it all worthwhile.   But, as important as patience and persistence are, good hand/eye coordination is a must. 

RPT

[dspdrew]

Not a hobby now, but this is what I used to do 30 years ago.

 

[ANTdrew]

Sick footage!

[1tsm3jack]

Sick footage!

Agreed