What Do You Guys Do When Not Detecting?

[Oklahomabill]

Retired, Wife, Horse, Dog, Miata. The last four shift around depending on the day.

[GotAU?]

On 4/17/2025 at 6:23 PM, MikMak said:

Family, flying, hunting and anything in the outdoors. I rebuilt a little tube and fabric Piper Pa-14 and love to explore new places with it. 

I love the look of the Piper Cubs, and the Pa-14 looks like a great little plane also.  I’m impressed you rebuilt it yourself, are you a certified airframe mechanic or did you have to get someone to look it over as you went along? I’m not familiar with that process.

[GotAU?]

On 4/17/2025 at 3:18 AM, grumpy said:

Blacksmithing, but due to a change with work commitments last year 

the blacksmithing is now mainly a hobby 

working with gem stones and rocks ,mainly agates and geodes ,cutting and grinding and polishing

I bought my wife a lap (a multi-use lapidary saw, grinder and polisher tool for those who don’t know what that means), and she enjoys doing that as well. It’s something I was always interested in also. We go rock hounding together when I’m not out Prospecting.

[MikMak]

I have a friend who retired from aircraft maintenance and was looking for a project. He had a stroke and lost the use of his arm, so I asked him if he would help me with the project. It was a great time working together as I had the hands and patience, and he the knowledge and experience but not the physical ability. 
 

[Artman60]

I putter around in my small workshop/woodshop in the basement.

[GotAU?]

On 4/20/2025 at 8:50 PM, MikMak said:

I have a friend who retired from aircraft maintenance and was looking for a project. He had a stroke and lost the use of his arm, so I asked him if he would help me with the project. It was a great time working together as I had the hands and patience, and he the knowledge and experience but not the physical ability. 
 

Sorry I missed your reply earlier, that’s great that you’re helping him out with staying active as well. I am really impressed with the look of that type of plane, sounds like you did a good job restoring it! Do you have any before and after photos perhaps?

[geof_junk]

That last fortnight I was walking the pavement keeping fit at 77years Because  there no gold here where I live.

 

[davsgold]

I took a few day off from detecting, and I spent the last 3 days doing a Mosaic Damascus steel making course in Kalgoorlie Western Australia, it was a great course.

The stack of 30 steel plates 1084 and 15n20 weight was 6kg to begin with and now the billet is under 1kg, the weight reduction occurs when the ends are cut off after each of the 12 step processes to see how the billet looks and make sure no cracks or delamination's 

This is the before and after result of the Mosaic Damascus course and the billet is about 250mm x 65mm x 6mm ready to make a blade from.

this is the before stack of 30 plates

The finished billet surface ground to a course grit and etched in Ferric Chloride, and now ready to shape into a blade

 

close up of the same piece

cheers dave

[Wild Bill]

Retired aircraft, dragster, heavy equipment mechanic and miner.  Hobbies have included astronomy and photography.  Had two huge telescopes at one time.  A 20” aperture F-5 and a 6” aperture F-12 refractor.  Ever since I was a kid I was fascinated by the properties of light, lenses and cameras.  It’s shocking what you can see with large good optics.  Got back and hooked up with old drag racing buddies awhile back but didn’t want to turn wrenches or drive so they asked “hey can you cover races, write and shoot photos?”  So I did that for awhile.  Right now I got side tracked with some home maintenance repairs and upgrades as well as 4x4 and UTV repairs/maintenance.  Took a beating!  More work than I expected.  Anyway all through the years I’ve been detecting on the side, it’s so enjoyable that it’s still with me.  Here’s some race photography.