Hobby Thread - July 5, 2025 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) a spin and it came up with woodworking.

This is a Hobby thread, not a professional or commercial platform. Having said that, many people have turned their hobbies into a business. Often professionals are also enthusiasts. We all had to start somewhere.

We've done a woodcarving and whittling theme, but never a pure woodworking theme or a focus on working with a lathe. Fortunately for all of us, lurker watchin' sent some goodies to the official Hobby Thread emailbox that will provide excellent content for such a theme. As you'll see below, his work with a lathe is stunning. His wood comes from downed trees or reclaimed sources.

This story also helps illustrate the secondary theme - a hobby that works its way towards something that earn a little bit of income and offset the cost of hobbying.

Here's the background: watchin' was a carpenter at one point, so he was familiar with wood. However, his calling as a Pastor took him into the ministry for over two decades. He and his wife moved to Peru for a volunteer project helping abused, abandoned and neglected kids for over a decade before returning to the states in 2022.

When he returned, he essentially started over. It took over a year to get resettled and regrouped, but he started to accumulate woodworking tools during that year. Some were gifts and some were cheap bargain finds.

The family finally found a house. It came with an unfinished "guest house." Yep, you can see where this is going. The guest house turned into a shop.

He had never used a lathe before, but added one to the shop and set to teaching himself how to turn wood. A year later, here he is. After you see his work below, I think you'll agree that he's learned well.

At some point, you can only have so many bowls and vases sitting around the house and you've given your creations to everyone in your friend and family orbit as gifts. Those same friends and family start asking whether others would be interested. Is there a market to recoup some of the hobbying costs? Watchin' is thinking through that now. He has a website to reserve a piece of cyberspace but it isn't a online store (at least not yet). If you click, you'll see that he has no plans for large scale operations but instead will stick to making individual pieces as the wood and inspiration permit.

Hoping watchin' will de-lurk and do more postin' on today's thread.

Surely there are other members of the Horde that work with wood, especially turning wood on lathes. Similarly, there are members of the Horde that have tinkered with turning their hobby into some form of commercial enterprise. Similarly, there are very talented members of the Horde that have explicitly decided against turning something fun into something that resembles work.

Come forth with your stories and wisdom.

Made from recovered wood from Hurricane Helene and old oak pallet wood:

How did it come together? Here is the work in progress:

Made from Florida mahogany:

Made from olive wood:

This is a bowl carved from an oak burl and sealed in resin:

At some point, I want to learn how to work with resin. No particular reason other than seeing it used in interesting applications. Seems like a good skill to have in the toolbelt. How hard can it be? (Ha!)

Red cedar with some marvelous wood grain:

Last one - this comes from an oak branch:

Two more pieces from pecan wood:

There are a bazillion videos on youtube involving turning wood. Many show the process of transforming a piece of plain wood or an ugly stump into something beautiful. ("You won't believe what I carved from this horribly ugly piece of trash wood!")

Some create a starting block such as building a cube of different colored woods or pouring resin around colored pencils. The end result shows off the stripes or colors when carved into a bowl or lamp. ("Everyone thought I was crazy to attempt carving such a wild piece!!")

Some just go for size, showing a project that starts with an enormous tree trunk. ("This huge piece of wood maxxed out my lathe!!!")

I'm not enamored of click-bait youtube titles, but I appreciate that lathe youtubers typically show without explaining verbally. They just show the process without talking their way through the video with words. I tried to pick a few that looked entertaining and educational and lower on the clickbait spectrum. Enjoy.

This video shows of an amazing display of skills, techniques, and homemade jigs en route to making a lamp on a lathe. If you're not inclined to watch the whole thing, at least watch from 5:50 to 11:43 to watch him make the spiral body of the lamp. Amazing.

Pallet wood isn't the highest quality wood, but creative people have found a million uses for reclaimed pallets and pallet wood. Have you?

This started as a wood project but evolved into a 3D printing project for reasons:

Hey look! A wooden lock from fd!

Are you a lurker? Do you enjoy reading Ace of Spades content, but have been reluctant to post and participate in the comments? Have you been waiting for a good opportunity to jump in and say hello? This could be your day. Come on in. The water's fine. We don't bite (usually).

In hobby related space news, the Big Beautiful Bill includes a provision to move the Space Shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport to a new display in Houston. The move of space shuttle Discovery must be completed by Jan. 4, 2027.

From H.R. 1.:

``(F) $85,000,000 shall be obligated to carry out subsection (b), of which not less than $5,000,000 shall be obligated for the transportation of the space vehicle described in that subsection, with the remainder transferred not later than the date that is 18 months after the date of the enactment of this section to the entity designated under that subsection, for the purpose of construction of a facility to house the space vehicle referred to in that subsection.

``(b) Space Vehicle Transfer.-- ``(1) In general.--Not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this section, the Administrator shall identify a space vehicle described in paragraph (2) to be-- ``(A) transferred to a field center of the Administration that is involved in the administration of the Commercial Crew Program (as described in section 302 of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017 (51 U.S.C. 50111 note; Public Law 115-10)); and ``(B) placed on public exhibition at an entity within the Metropolitan Statistical Area where such center is located. ``(2) Space vehicle described.--A space vehicle described in this paragraph is a vessel that-- ``(A) has flown into space; ``(B) has carried astronauts; and ``(C) is selected with the concurrence of an entity designated by the Administrator. ``(3) Transfer.--Not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this section, the space vehicle identified under paragraph (1) shall be transferred to an entity designated by the Administrator.

Have you been hobbying over the holiday? Was it it July 4th themed? Share.

Bonus Horde Hobbying from polynikes. TRex regrets not including a polynikes piece in support of the lighthouse theme. Posted previously in a Hobby Thread (August 2024) but good enough to make an encore appearance. Bodie Island Lighthouse:

As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. Your participation does not need to limited to the theme. All hobbying is welcome. However, politics, current events and religious debates can live in threads elsewhere. Play nice. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls. Pants, as always, are optional.

Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We talked lighthouses. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.

Notable comments from last week:

Honorable mention:

Words of wisdom:

"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).

If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, hijack the thread for your hobbying as you see fit. We will feature a different theme next time. What are you hobbying? We love showing off Horde hobbying. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.

posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM

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