I have always been one to tinker with things and find excuses to build things. Last year I got pretty lucky and was able to take my hobby to the next level since it started paying for itself and then some. Most what I do now revolves around a wood lathe and just last week I purchased a new lathe (Nova DVR 2024). I have been wanting a CNC machine for 6+ months because I think i can do some neat things with wood turning and CNC.
So my other hobby is wood turning… Yours?
I got into photography a bit. Drones are an interesting extension of that since a cool use case is aerial photography.
Also baseball but my body told me to retire even though my mind said keep going.
General Maker type stuff, bit of carpentry, DIY electronics, coding.
I’ve a home studio for music making.
I also have a dog and have taken up cycling to work
and tracking my workouts with Fitbit & Strava, so I can work out exactly
how lazy I’ve been and how obese I can expect to become.
Making beer and wine.
CNC is not a hobby for me. It is a tool for model engineering. building steam and IC engines. Rc model tug boats.
Dave
My primary hobby is woodworking. I started small, but quickly expanded into designing and building most of the furniture in our home. I’ve done everything from designing and building a king size platform bed down to turning thimbles on my lathe.
Secondary hobby is photography. I don’t do near as much as in past years but I grab my camera occasionally for this and that.
CNC has held an interest for many years and I started researching a bit more seriously about a year ago when I started learning about the Shapeoko machines. I bought an SO2 a few weeks before Inventables introduced the X-Carve. If I had waited, I’d probably have an X-Carve now, but I’m not disappointed with my SO2. I’ve done some updates from the original - wider belts, Acme Z-axis, etc. I didn’t get it to make money but wouldn’t turn down a handful if someone offered it!
Golf… Not sure which is more frustrating watching a ball sink to the bottom of a water trap or watching a bit slam into material after 6 hours of cutting…
wood working, I tend to like the challenge of smaller jewelry boxes, tale top hutches and scrollsaw fret work.
with the “X” I plan on incorporating 3D relief into the doors box tops and who knows what else.
I have too many and not enough time! I love woodworking in general but that’s pretty closely related to the X-Carve.
I got into photography a while back (always going for the expensive hobbies!), which as I’m setting up my X-Carve I’m taking a timelapse which I hope to upload here once I’m complete!
I also love electronics and automation (Arduino, etc.) and actually to create my timelapse I “had” to build myself an intervalometer out of a ATTiny, which works great!
And finally (but not even close to being last) I got into iOS development and have been hammering away at my first app for the last couple months. Although between building my deck and setting up the X-Carve, my app has kind of taken a back seat.
I was just thinking the other day that the Inventables forum needed an off topic category so we can discuss other project/topics!
+1 on the off topic catagory!
Cant wait for the machine to arrive I think once I figure out all the ins and outs I will try to turn a larger bowl with a flat thick rim and see if I can add details all the way around. Have you tried anything like that with the lathe?
Woodworking is the replacement for my life long Bass Fishing. All I new about Woods was to be careful for the splinters.
I’m Electro-Mechanical Engineer who Supervise NC/SC/GA and AL for the Company I work.
Until I ordered one Dewalt Cordless Drill combo online. That was great deal and came with DW611 Router. We just look at each other with the router for a while. He doesn’t know me, I don’t know him either. As soon as I learned how and why to use this Router, I fall in love with woods.
And Splinters stop hurting my fingers. Now I have Hobby Shop with all modern basic equipment and tools like table saw/Miter Saw/Planer/couple of Circular Saws/Porter Dovetail Jig/Router Table/Dust Collection system and most importantly X-Carve Equipment.
Well I’m 59 Years young, became Basement Hobbyist. And… glad to be part of this society.
It’s kinda funny how that woodworking grows on you like a fungus ain’t it?
First it’s a drill, then a router and table saw then the miter saw, planer, dust collection and other “must haves”. Before you know it you decide to go digital and get a cnc machine!
Yup,been dere dun dat. Just wait until you go to the big woodworking show/sale and realize that you really dont need anything that is there! (but it’s still fun to go…)
At the end I believe I have to build those Small Houses for myself. (After my wife kicks me out)
I know what you mean, I think it really all started for me when i bought a lathe on CL for a hundred bucks, then i needed a band saw to rip wood, then a table saw, router/table, bigger band saw, bigger lathe, drill press… now X carve and i am sure i will not stop here.
It’s like I told my wife when she found out i wanted a shark piranha cnc, which i promptly put up for sale when the x-carve was announced, " some folks restore old cars, some watch football, some are avid outdoorsmen/women, some hang out at the bar and drink their hobby, and some folks do woodworking and build their shops. And my hobby has the potential to produce something that can make someone happy"
She liked it and lets me do what I want. As long as I don’t complain about her quilting.
This is almost exactly my story. One small lathe, then of course tools and grinder, then bandsaw, then more tools, bigger lathe, bigger bandsaw, table saw, sander drill press, dust collection, on it goes. And I just ordered my X-Carve a few days ago, and I don’t even have a place figured out for it. Woodturning, and woodworking in general, is a great way to spend all your money, for sure.
I’m not even sure I’d call woodworking my hobby, Not really work either. For me it is a way to actualize the ideas I am constantly coming up with. Didn’t hurt that my Dad bought me a router when I was 16 or so, even though he didn’t own any tools other than a few screwdrivers and a wrench or two. Next came a cheap folding shop table that I could hang the router in. It had a fence, and suddenly I had a tool I could do just about everything (I imagined) with. It could rip and crosscut using a straight bit making a hellish mess and noise, but the instructions for the table showed I could optionally mount a skil saw under it. Saved up and bought one of those, but now I was so dependant on my router I had to make a dedicated table for it, and buy another one to use free-hand. Figure two tools a year and 40 years later, and now I have one or two of any tool you could probably name, and a few tools no one has a name for.
I love that I can walk out to my shop and build anything I may have conceived a few minutes before.
4D
