Old Man Emu has left

[Bruce Tuncks]

I don't know OME except on here, but I too am sorry to hear that he has left. I completely agree with onetrack, and I too enjoyed OME's stuff.

Please add me to the list of OME well-wishers

[Jerry_Atrick]

On 21/07/2021 at 1:29 AM, Old Koreelah said:

From your contact with OME, is he traveling okey?

Oops.. missed this post...

 

Happy to report OME is doing OK.. Taking time out to tend to pursue other interests... Let's hope he returns...

 

 

[ClintonB]

Hi Mark, 

I too am sorry to see you leaving, I try to ignore poor sportsmanship on the forums. It is hard,  it I consider your input informative and entertaining when tounge in cheek. It would be great to have you stay. If you don’t I wish you well and will miss your input. I tolerated a lot of bullying at school, since it didn’t turn me into a mass school murderer I believe it made me stronger for adult life. I can ignore d!£kneads and still get on with life in a proactive way. I hope you can find a path like this and continue to engage with your online friends who will miss you.

clinton

Edited August 2, 2021 by ClintonB
Autocorrect error

[old man emu]

G'day all!

Just sticking my head in the door to let you know I'm upright and breathing. The main reason that I haven't been around is that I was spending hours here, and when I put a lot of effort into researching a topic and creating a post, there was no reasonable discussion, simply personal attack. At the same time the early restrictions due to COVID in Sydney and the frustrations of dealing with a GP who thought that the piece of paper on the wall proved that she knew more than everyone else, were impacting on me.

 

So what did I do? Well, the wife's condition got worse and worse, and it was only when the pain reached 9.5 on a scale of 0 to 10 that I got her into hospital and found out that she had a massive cancer on her lady bits. That was about three weeks ago. She came home after a pain control programme was developed, but that didn't work. We got her back into hospital last Saturday where the current cause of the pain  was determine (the cancer doesn't cause the pain). She'll remain in hospital until 11th August when she will be operated upon, then spend a further fortnight there recovering. Due to COVID, no visitors are allowed, so she's isolated from family. It's hard, but I look on the bright side in that while in hospital she is getting the social contact with women that her being confined at home has prevented. 

 

And what about me? Well I've turned my hand to woodwork. I found a supply of good hardwood from a demolished house and turned this:

into this     

 

I'm also making the tools and accessories to go with it. I follow this bloke: https://www.youtube.com/c/RexKrueger/channels That takes care of my daytime activities - along with the housework. At night, I watch a bit on the History channel, then retire to the office to study Calculus under the tutelage of this wonderful Young Australian of the Year https://www.youtube.com/c/misterwootube/channels I still do some surfing of aviation-related videos. Joining the woodworking and aviation bits together is where I found the video on making a propeller that Jerry Attrick poste on the other site.

 

So I'll say "hooroo!", and go off to make wood shavings, or dig some compost into the garden to get ready for Spring planting.

 

Keep you masks on!

 

Old Man Emu

 

 

[Dax]

Agree with your comments, always wonder why people can't discuss without being abusive derogatory or belittling. Seems if their viewpoints aren't accepted, or the comments interfere with their ideological programming, they get angry and go on the attack. Which means they learn nothing new, or gain an understanding of how others think and operate.

 

Love your woodwork, mines sloppy and lazy. Hope you're ladies operation is a great success and you have many more years together.

[red750]

Hi, O.M.E., I hope you are checking in to see our best wishes.

 

I have a bit of an idea  of what you are going through. I hope they resolve the pain problem for your wife. As for the cancer, has she had chemo or radiation therapy? My wife had both, and hardly has any hair left on her head. Has to wear a beanie when she's out, which is basically just to go to the hospital.

 

All the best to you and your wife.

[spacesailor]

I would like to.

APOLOGIZE. 

If l have done anything to cause you a problem,

My only excuse is my bad mindset,

I know l proberbly caused a few bad statments that l regret. 

The last one was about ' intellect ', so thats another,

APOLOGY.

From me to all of the formulates. 

spacesailor

[old man emu]

5 hours ago, spacesailor said:

I would like to.

APOLOGIZE. 

If l have done anything to cause you a problem,

spacesailor

Spacey,

You've never done anything like that. You're one of the Good Guys.

 

Red750,

Fortunately the wife's cancer is not internal, although she has had radiotherapy in the past.  Think of it as a skin cancer, and that's the closest to it. It's not one of the horrid, hidden internal ones. 

 

With COVID, elective surgery has been dropped, so she has moved up the list. Maybe this week and not next.

 

Dax,

The standard of my woodwork has has improved since watching the Rex Krueger videos. He's not one of those types who requires you to have a million dollar workshop. In fact, his beginner's videos start with a hatchet and mallet to make stuff. Then he progresses to making various hand tools for shaping. All as cheap as chips and you are learning techniques as you go. Apart from getting the timber cheaply, I only had to buy some coach screws to hold the top down. The legs and frame are held together with 1/2" dowel pegs. I must admit to already owning a bit of a better-than-beginner's tool kit. 

 

I recommend working wood by hand as a means to relieve stress and give some pride and satisfaction in what you have done. It might be as rough as guts to a Master Cabinetmaker, but it's your starting point.

[spacesailor]

Thank you for that reply,.

I think l needed a little something, . LoL

A friend of mine, ( Dubbo SES & SCOUTS  )  is making pens by hand, also those ' scouts '    round wooden scarf dongles.

They, r for sale on facebook, with the proceeds going to the scouts.

hope l don,t get busted for this blatant advert. 

spacesailor

 

[onetrack]

OME - Good to see you back, and indulging in your creative side with the resultant neat handiwork. 

 

Back in the late 1990's when I was going through a particularly low point in my life, I picked up some huge old timber trusses (10M span) from an old military depot shed.

The shed (one of many on the former military base) had been demolished due to termites chewing up one of the sheds support posts, and nibbling on the end of a truss.

The trusses were a mixture of Karri and Jarrah timber, and the shed had been built in the mid-1930's with some very good quality structural timber - such as was deemed the requirement for Govt projects, in those days.

 

The A-shaped trusses were doubled timbers (side by side, about 3" apart), and comprised 8" x 2" beams, and 4" x 3" supports throughout.

They were timber sizes and lengths that were in short supply by the 1990's, and very expensive when/if you could get them. I got 5 trusses for $200 from the site manager, and took them apart (they were all bolted and plated construction).

 

I teamed up with a BIL, who was also going through a tough time with a loss of direction and unemployment, and we set to and turned all the timber in these trusses into some very nice outdoor tables, with benches for seating.

We took the tables and benches down to the local markets and made some good money out of them, getting around $1300 to $1500 per set.

It was an extremely satisfying venture for us, and the exercise helped us through a tough period, for both of us.

I couldn't do it again today, that time is past, and the markets are long closed and gone - but at the time, it was good for the mental health and creativity of both of us.

[Dax]

16 hours ago, old man emu said:

I recommend working wood by hand as a means to relieve stress and give some pride and satisfaction in what you have done. It might be as rough as guts to a Master Cabinetmaker, but it's your starting point.

I'm a builder by trade, have a reasonable workshop and do most of my work at home with hand tools, using wood from my farm and waste wood from the waste transfer station near me.  But I'm a musician by choice and profession, so that takes precedent and my house with is over 25 years old, is still not finished. All my own homes I've built over the years, are all dowelled and jointed together, not a fan of modern matchbox chemically saturated humpy's that burn instantly.

 

But I'm really slack and after a day turning dowels of various sizes from tree branches, tend to lose interest so once they have been put in and the structure is workable, that's it. Really admire those who have the patience and tenacity to persevere to produce such nice work. It's always nice to produce good items from scrap, my neighbour is always dropping off scrap metal she thinks I can turn into something cool for my place or hers. Been using dulux epoxy anti rust paint lately for finishing and it's excellent, presently making a metal wood holder to sit each side of my wood stove/heater with a rack above it for drying things and have some lovely wrought iron to work with.

Edited August 4, 2021 by Dax

[old man emu]

I'm picking up a motor scooter this afternoon. I've been promising the owner for over a year that I would get it ready for rego for him. This morning I'm making a pair of levers to push down the retracting wheels on the bench.

 I couldn't get the clips to work like this bloke, so I'm using some old toy scooter wheels as sort of cams. I'll post some photos when I've got it right.

 

 

 

[old man emu]

This is the position of the wheel when the lifting wheels are retracted and the bench is on its legs

 

 

and this is with the lifting wheels locked down to roll the bench.

 

The lever is the prototype, made from pine. Pine is too weak for the loads involved, so I'll make the final levers out of merbau.

[Dax]

Very ingenious indeed, like the idea. Yep pine is weak, hate working with it and always avoid using it when strength and durability is involved

 

Like your brick floor, laid a few if those way back in another life, along with paths and driveways. Was a bit of a trend, used them on a display home and everyone wanted brick paths and drives for awhile.  Then burnt orange took over homes and concrete pebble paths were in. 😄

[old man emu]

On 04/08/2021 at 6:56 PM, Dax said:

Like your brick floor,

Fooled you! That's a stencilled pattern. Very much the "in" thing twenty-five or so years ago when the house was built.

[gareth lacey]

Welcome back Mark , we all missed you 

 

[onetrack]

That stencilled brick pattern technique became quite popular with Councils here on the Left Coast, for big concreted areas such as median strips. It was a cheap way of getting a "laid brick" appearance.

I watched the blokes putting it down one time, it was amazing to watch them doing it so fast. Lay down the stencil, spray the coating, whip up the stencil, and all done!

[old man emu]

On 17/08/2021 at 10:59 AM, gareth lacey said:

Welcome back Mark , we all missed you 

 

Thanks. Most of the time I'm just going to stick my head in the door.

[Marty_d]

4 hours ago, old man emu said:

Thanks. Most of the time I'm just going to stick my head in the door.

Just make sure it's not an oven door!

[Bruce Tuncks]

I too made a workbench. I sure envy your vice OME. Mine was just a pair of threaded rods through a bit of hardwood, and it lacks the parallel motion you need from a vice. The "jaw" rotates if you grip a bit just with the top of my vice, as you often want to do.

Anyway, best wishes and we hope to hear more from you.