Secret second hobbies

gzig5 said

You and I have very similar paths, past and present. My dad was a machinist and I learned to run a South Bend lathe when I was 11. Before I got my Cuda I had five lathes and three mills in the garage. I rebuild them and restore them including having taught myself to scrape the way surfaces. Regarding time, I decided to retire last month at 55 so that I have time to enjoy my family and hobbies. My Dad passed when he was 58 and never had a chance to truly enjoy everything he had worked so hard for and I'm hoping to avoid that.

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Retiring at 55 would be great. No bueno for me with two teens at home still. That said, I'm thinking about how to set up for retirement and keep busy. A southbend and a bridgeport would be welcome additions to my shop. Until then I'm compromising by building a CNC router that will cut aluminum and even steel if I'm careful. For that though I'll opt to put a small mill-head on it instead of the 24k rpm spindle when steel would be cut. Simple swap and tram.

Scraping ways is some awesome old school skill. Hat's off to you on that.