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  1. #1
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    Default hand and machine work + Arthritis etc ????

    I wasn’t sure whatto call this topic. Not even sure what I’m trying to say/asking.
    Maybe its all justthinking out loud. Apologies in advance for the somewhat disjointedramblings that follow.
    I re-read the threadon depressionthat Michael G started back in 2019 this arvo, and that got methinking more about the following.


    Anyway, I turned 63a few months ago and I have a family history of Arthritis (bothparents, all 4 grandees and probably further back than that) so I’vealways known I will have it.


    So, I’ve got it inmy feet and hands (no where near a bad as other people at thispoint). I’m grateful that I can still walk (even if its not a greatdistance in one go) and I can still use my hands, even though thatcan get painful at times (most the time)

    Luckily(maybe) I’m not on the tools at work anymore and spend most of myworking time using a computer so I’m not using my hands asintensely as I used to when I did real work.


    This brings mecloser to the point of this rambling. Like a lot of the members hereI have a small lathe and a BP clone mill, welder, bench grinder etc.However as I am a Fitter and Machinist by trade all this equipment isultimately only a means to an end for me. By that I mean, if I amworking on something that needs machining I have the equipment to domost of what I need, but I don’t actively look for jobs so that Ican use the machines. (eg I haven’t used the mill or lathe foraround 3 months now)
    I know with someother people using the machines is the hobby, and I get that entirely(nothing wrong with that either) but its not me.


    Back in another lifeI was into cars and I restored a Bolwell Mk7 and was working on aBolwell Nagari when my first wife bolted. Having the equipment wasuseful when I had a hobby but now, 13 years further along, I nolonger have any interest in working on cars. I don’t have any otherhobbies as such either. Building a steam engine/loco etc doesn’thold any interest for me, plus I don’t have the required patienceand level of machining skills to complete one anyway.


    So I have thisequipment and the usual shelves and cupboards full of “stuff”(that’s a great word in this context) but I don’t use it much.
    The Arthritis alsomakes me less inclined to want to do anything as well. I have donesome modifications to make things easier to use. Eg extended andlarger diameter chuck key handles. A jack to lift and lower the drillpress table etc.
    Over the last coupleof years I have also done a fair bit of work to both the mill and thelathe to make them easier /better to use. I’ve fitted them bothwith VFD’s and DRO’s plus a few other things. However I don’treally want to spend all my time improving the machines or makingattachments for them like a lot of the old hands I used to read aboutin the Model Engineer magazine years ago.


    But wait there’smore.
    Like some othermembers I also have bouts of depression and anxiety, so when that ishappening, especially in conjunction with Arthritis flare ups, Iquite often feel like just selling everything as it all seems a bitpointless.
    I haven’t madethat decision yet as I don’t want to be hasty and possibly make adecision that, because of my frame of mind at that point, I come toregret later.
    Unfortunately (forme) both my boys have absolutely no interest in doing anythingsimilar in regard to “shed work” so there’s no point in mehoping to pass my stuff down to them.


    Having said that, ifwe decide to move from here once I retire, not having to move theequipment, especially the mill, will make moving a lot easier andless painfull.


    I don’t know how Iwould fill my time in though if I didn’t have a shed to “potteraround” in and some gear to do that with. I’m not into watchingsport, let alone participating and as I’ve always been a bit of aloner, I can’t see myself getting involved with a men’s shedeither. (I’ve heard that the politics in some of these places canbe intense as well).


    I occasionally get alittle job that needs some machining which is good.
    Eg A few months agoa mate of mine asked me if I could turn an adaptor to fit a specialthermo fan switch to the radiator header tank of his old V8 Sunbird(I know there was never a V8 Sunbird made by Holden but he fitted a308 + 5 speed to his years ago)
    I had a ball making this littleadaptor. First time I had single pointed an internal thread in yearsand I was really happy to get it on the first attempt.


    So, as I said at thestart, I’m not really sure what I am asking here. Maybe justwanting to start a conversation on getting older, hobbies etc, whatever. Maybe I’m just having a seniors, late life moment.


    Thoughts?
    Peter

  2. #2
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    Default

    I think like a lot of people you are looking for a way to spend your time creatively. There is a lot of satisfaction to be had in making things purely to express yourself. I would try doing some drawing, or use you shed to make yourself something you like looking at.

    I like just fitting random chunks from the scrap bin together and making things I like for no real purpose, having a purpose is overrated.

    Usually I foist the things I make off on others but some stick around, I generally don't follow a plan or anything just a vague idea to keep it easy

    This thing was a candle holder I made a couple of weeks back. I find if I dont do something amorphous and creative every couple of months I start getting frustrated and grumpy.

    All the best of finding your groove

    Ralph

    Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

  3. #3
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    I know exactly how you feel Peter, I'm more or less in the same boat, have the tools and the ideas of what to make but nothing ever seems to come to fruition, and it's FRUSTRATING.
    My hands/fingers lock up and I have to force them to move, sometimes it's 10 minutes before they're pliable again, my knees are starting to wear out, and like a lot of others on here, also suffer from depression, have been for 21 years. Also I suffer anxiety, to the point that going into shops, large groups etc. is practically impossible.
    That's why I still work, to keep my mind OFF the depression, I don't get paid for the work I do, as I'm on a pension, but I get by on what I get, and enjoy the company of like minded people.
    There are a few Members on here that LIVE nearby, maybe get a small group together and talk BS, it's the talking that matters, impart some of that wealth of knowledge that you have, it'll brighten someone's life also.
    There's no real answer to your situation, just enjoy doing little things, like just sitting in the shed listening to some good music. Remember music soothes the savage beast, and it is RELAXING.
    I'm here anytime you need to chat.
    Kryn
    To grow old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

  4. #4
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    I've got a few health conditions (diabeties, only one [not working properly] kidney, sarcoidosis [fortunately seems to be on the decline], plus i'm about 30kg overweight!) so the mild arthritis in my right hand and lower legs seems less significant than it otherwise would be but lately I have noticed a distinct lack of strength in the two middle fingers of my right hand plus a bit of pain when I go to use them.

    My GP reckons one of the best things older codgers like me can do is to keep moving. I try to take the dogs for a walk every day and lately I have been spending a couple of mornings a week on a bandsaw mill about 30km away in a tree loppers yard where there's endless walking back and forth from the mill to the shed and over to the car to get tools etc. We have plenty of crane-age and fork lift-age but there's always a bit of lifting needed which if kept moderate is supposed to be good for me. There's also a lot of climbing up and down from trucks and forklifts which is surprisingly tiring. On the mornings I work, that night I'm quite sore so I take a couple of Advils and sleep way better than I would otherwise - usually I get up every 90-120 to pee (another health problem) which ruins my sleep.

    Anyway I hope things can pick up for you and others can chip in with their 2c worth.

  5. #5
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    moonbi nsw Aus
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    Oh Peter.....if you rubbed your name off this Post and inserted mine the story is just about the same. Your Arthritis is a lot worse than mine though. I have a long list of things I could do including restoring a WW II Jeep. I tried yesterday to tidy up a little in the shed, I lasted maybe an hour then back to the house for lunch and TV and stayed there the rest of the day. It was a hot day and that is another reason for going inside. I feel guilty not "working" on my list but I just can't stay out there. The Depression stops me from "doing". I can hear a lot of you fellas saying "just get into it" but unless you have Depression you will never understand just how hard it is!!
    Just do it!

    Kind regards Rod

  6. #6
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    Glad to confirm there are others who feel similar.

    Funnily enough after I typed a that out last night and posted it, I woke up during the night feeling quite calm and relaxed and keen to get stuck into something. So obviously just talking (even though its via this forum) has helped me. I hope others also get something from just talking.

    So I've just spend 2 hours (hourly rate of say $25) and used about $5k worth of equipment to repair a $15 watering gun thing that my wife uses to water her seedlings. Can't see problem with that, lol. The amount of wifely brownie points gained is almost priceless though.

    I've got another little project that will require a bit of shed time as well. Some time ago I obtained an old, very early electronic theodolite from work that was heading for the skip. Once the electronics go all you have left is a nice little telescope.
    So a few months ago I pulled the telescope out of the rest and made an adapter to mount it on a camera tripod.
    Its only got a narrow field of view but it does have 30X magnification and the whole thing is only about 180mm long. So now I'm thinking of trying to make an adaptor to hold a phone camera up the eye piece.

    Anyway, thanks everyone and keep talking. I'm looking forward to hearing more from you all.
    Peter

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by bollie7 View Post
    Funnily enough after I typed a that out last night and posted it, I woke up during the night feeling quite calm and relaxed and keen to get stuck into something. So obviously just talking (even though its via this forum) has helped me. I hope others also get something from just talking. Peter
    Hi Peter,
    Glad to hear that you've managed to calm and relax yourself, as I stated before "it's the talking that matters", whether it be in person, on the phone or online chatting.
    If anyone wants to chat about depression, (I'm not a professional, but a sufferer), I'm here, drop me a PM, and I'll reply with my email address, so's I don't fill up the PM box.
    HTH someone.
    Kryn.
    To grow old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

  8. #8
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    Mate i'm getting old too , can i suggest a few things that may help , its helped me anyway with those issues you talking about ;

    1/ Start walking everyday , start off slow and build up to 1.5hrs a day.

    2/ Eat good fresh food , 3 times a day , and stay away from booze and garbage takeaway. Force yourself to eat even if your not hungry.

    3/ When the anxiety and depression gets bad , if you can go to the bush and just sit and listen for 20 min and enjoy mother nature, preferably somewhere with water.

    4/ Lift heavy as you can weights every 2nd or 3rd day even its it just for 5 min. This is important. Build up your strength , takes time but it will come. The byproduct of lifting heavy is your body will make endolpins and testosterone and make you feel super good for like 5-10 seconds when you stop. If you cannot afford weights , just push your car up and down the driveway.

    5/ Take supplements like protein , fish oil. creatine , and drink lots of water and milk.

    6/ Eat 3-4 eggs before bedtime , i guarantee you'll wake up with a hardwood during the night, works a treat.

    7/ Get a pet , dogs are good company. I got 2 , lol

    The other thing i did but i'm not recommending was buy a Harley and went riding and hung out with a few like minded guys on weekends. I've put the Harley away now but i start it up every now and then and make me feel good , lol. An old mate of mine once said to me ...'' just because your alive doesn't mean your living..''

  9. #9
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Good ideas IT , the only one I will disagree with is supplements, not necessary if you eat a balanced low processed food diet.
    Amongst the healthiest long lived people in the world with a high life quality are those on a Mediterranean type diet, same in places like Okinawa - no supplements needed.

    My main problem is my favourite food is "LOTS"

  10. #10
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    Here are my thoughts on the subject. Anxiety is much more common than you may think but a lot of people don't talk about it. I nearly PM'd you but thought I should continue to overcome my reluctance to talk about anxiety. As you may have guessed I too experience this. There is a thing called schemas or Schema. I recommend doing some reading on the subject as it may help you to understand why you have anxiety as it may not be what you think. So if you are scientifically minded you will know that for ever action there is a reaction. With the human mind for every action there is a reaction. The problem is the action is your perception of a situation. So depending on your schema you may perceive an action one one and react. What I still struggle with is believing that some people who appear to have it made suffer from anxiety.

    This leads to the next question. What do you want out of your life. If it is still to be creative you may take on a similar hobby, say 3d printing or casting from 3d printing. You could convert to CNC.

    I would like to give you a challenge. Over the next 24 hours decide on 5 headings of what you want your life to revolve around. Don't share the answers as they are personal. You must come up with 5 headings that everything you want in your life to fit under. I am going to through a heap of headings that are just to give you an idea. Family, religion, money, travel, metal work, art, writing, sex, rock and roll, self sufficiency, education, fame, cooking, food, public life, bush walking. The list is endless. If you take the travel let me know and I will give you the next step.

    Essentially to move forward you need to know who your are and what is important for you in your life.

    That will do for tonight. Trust me the list will be a challenge for most. The next step will be to verify the list and I will explain how.
    I have tried to keep this short.

    Steve

  11. #11
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    I've watched SWMBO go through 20 years with an anxiety condition exacerbated by a lifetime of dealing with an overbearing mother a raft of medication conditions, and bullying at work. She's ended up taking IMHO way too much medication and now cannot go off it although she has been able to reduce it by about 50% since she retired. I can tell she's calmer when she's in the middle of a craft task so I cut her some slack by trying to do more of the usual house chores.

  12. #12
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    I do not want to clutter up this forum with advice I am not qualified to give so if not interested please skip.

    Last time I wrote about choosing the 5 important things in your life. Tonight I will cover the validation process.
    The technique I am going to suggest comes from accident investigations. It is called 5 WHY'S and in short the theory is you often have to ask WHY 5 times to get to the root cause.

    As a quick example you may have had Job or Career as one of you 5 things.

    1. This works by asking WHY is my job one of my important things? For the purpose of this exercise I will answer so I can earn good money. A perfectly valid answer.

    2. Now ask WHY you want to earn good money? For this exercise I will answer so I can buy a huge shed and fill it with the best quality metalwork equipment I can get. Again a good answer and there is nothing wrong with this.

    3. Now ask WHY you want a huge shed and lots of metalwork equipment? You may answer you want to build a very fast Indian motorcycle.

    4. Now ask WHY you want to build this bike? You may answer you want to go to Bonneville and try and set a land speed record.

    5. Now ask WHY you want to go to Bonneville and try set a world speed record. You answer because you feel more alive in that five minutes than most people feel in a lifetime.

    If you have seen the movie you don't need a good job with lots of money, a big shed and such to achieve this. If these were your answers one of your important 5 things probably be Land Speed Racing. You would then try the 5 WHY'S on that and you will know if it is correct for you.

    Of course this could have gone a different way and you ended up with an answer that your Job gives you a sense of purpose, makes you feel good and immense satisfaction on what you are achieving. If that is the case, leave Job as one of your 5 things.

    Try this with your 5 things and see what the new list looks like.

    There is more to this and if it is of value I will keep going.

    Keep well

    Steve

  13. #13
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    G'day Peter. Late to the party, but it's a tough non-question you are posing.

    One thing that did stand out for me was your statement about if you moved, not moving your machinery would make things easier, followed in the next paragraph about a list of activities that you don't do. I don't do that stuff either, so I have no quarms with that, but my late FIL was a great reader then in old age he could not do that anymore. End result is that he was just sitting in a chair getting bored because he had 'nothing to do'. In hindsight, we think that was the beginning of the end.

    I find with my depression (glad to see I'm not the only one who reads these old threads), I need things to keep me occupied. I would suggest that while you have the time, you need to cast around for something that will keep you happily entertained and occupied otherwise your medical state will drag you further down.

    Michael

  14. #14
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    Bollie - you mentioned making/repairing the water gun for your wife's seedlings.

    Although its completely non-related to the workshop and I'm not a gardener as such, I actually find it quite therapeutic to have a couple of plants around the place that are "mine". My wife has a inherited a large garden with the place we've got now. Thats her's (although I get roped in a bit to help with heavier work) but I generally have a tomato plant going over the summer, the lemon tree is inherited but I consider it mine too. Its next to the workshop so gets regular watering in the evenings

    The tomatoes in particular respond quickly to regular care, and when they are growing flat out need a few minutes every couple of days or so to keep the new shoots under control and tying up etc. Its not onerous, and those days where you get to the back door and just don't feel like stepping out, its a reason to do so (mine is in a pot so I can see it from there).
    There's something positive about watching something grow at your own hand.

    You mention that your boys aren't interested in workshop stuff. Any grandkids or nieces/nephews on the scene that either might be interested or could benefit from your experience/skills or something you can make?

    Steve

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by OxxAndBert View Post

    You mention that your boys aren't interested in workshop stuff.
    One of my sons would probably be interested if I started growing a particular type of plant for him. lol. Probably a good thing that they are both up in Qld.

    Quote Originally Posted by OxxAndBert View Post
    Any grandkids or nieces/nephews on the scene that either might be interested or could benefit from your experience/skills or something you can make?
    No not really- 2 yo G/son up Qld . Probably wont see much of him as he grows up.

    There is a selection Ringtail Possums who camp up in the roof of my shed pretty regularly. I always say hello whenever I go in as they know the sound of my voice and they don't get startled. We used to also have some Brushtails who also camped in the roof on occasion but some low life in the area shot all them all with a high powered slug gun a couple of years ago. We had 5 that were shot over a couple of months that came back to my shed to die. These were all wild Possums who had grown up in and around our back yard. They were all pretty tame with me.
    That was pretty devastating for both my wife and I. Others have also gone as well. We had our suspicions as to who it was but were not able to prove anything.
    We are both hanging out for the weather to cool down a bit so we can get away in the camper again.

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