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Terraforming.
Violin. Gotta torture my ears in style. 😁
Metalworking. It’s not so much beyond my ability so much as it’s out of my price range to get into it. I just don’t have any of the necessary tools nor an appropriate workspace, and I’d basically have to build a workshop and start from the literal ground up.
I have a halfway decent woodworking setup, plus a 3D printer and a cheap laser, but metalworking is just not really an option. The space dedication, plus the oils and the fire hazards and the scraps/shavings/slivers/chaff/god-knows-what-else all being completely incompatible with sharing a space with the rest of it. Sigh, just not likely to happen until and unless I can get in with the makerspace mafia. I am thinking of trying to figure out designing for mills and using metal-bending workbenches in CAD, though, and sending more designs off to be fabbed.
Yeah, I may have to settle for woodworking. I could set that up in my basement safely enough but definitely can’t be welding or have other fire hazards.
Only limitation with woodworking in insufficient ventilation if I want to paint or varnish or something.
Woodworker with a small, badly ventilated shop here. I’ve been known to apply oil-based urethane outdoors. Some lower fume options for finishes:
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Latex paint. Water based, emits less toxic fumes than you do.
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Drying oils. Synthetics exist but go with linseed or tung oil, or if you’re extremely bougie, walnut oil. No solvents here; it’s a plant oil that soaks into the wood and then reacts with the oxygen in the air to polymerize.
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Shellac. Old fashioned, not the most durable. Functions like a lacquer but it dissolves in denatured alcohol, one of the easier ones to tolerate. You can get stunning results though it’s not the most durable available, most notably if you spill booze on it it’ll dissolve the finish. Easy to repair though.
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Acrylic. If you need a built up film finish, acrylic is perhaps a way to go. Dries crystal clear, doesn’t amber the wood like an oil-based poly does and isn’t quite as durable, but it’s water based.
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Epoxy. Or some other catalyzing finish, usually fumeless, for when you need your projects entombed like a Reddit hot dog.
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UV curing finishes. These can be a little pricey as they’re kind of new, but you paint it on the surface, and then shine a UV light on that surface for 2 minutes and it’s set and ready to install and use. Because there is zero solvent or carrier, no evaporation, you get more coverage per unit volume of product than a urethane or lacquer.
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For a “basic smithy setup” all you really need is a roof and a dirt floor. Sand would be better than dirt, but dirt can get you started. All my forges have started as a patch of bare dirt in my backyard with a simple pole and tin roof frame around the patch. I eventually dig it up to a depth of two feet and fill it with sand. I’ve only done this twice. Once you have the sand, cover the sand when you don’t need it (to spill molten metal into) with 1/4 inch thick iron plates or steel plates. That keeps the sand where you want it.
Whittling? Even lower equipment requiremets. Could be interesting to add a bit of wood burning in there too.
Basic metalworking needs a stick welder (£50-150), angle grinder (£30-80), mask (£20-100), other safety gear (£20-100), assorted hand tools (£20-200) and a dry workspace with light, power and ventilation.
You can setup a simple workspace in any room with some basic protection for your fixtures and fittings. Or you can get popup workshop tents you can put in your garden.
You can get all your metal precut and drilled, even folded in a brake when you order it and get it delivered to save costs on drills and saws.
There’s always lots of cheap tools and things around if you look at online listings locally especially since it skews older as a hobby so lots of house clearances selling good quality tools.
This is exactly how I started!
Also, if you want to do blacksmithing you can get started with a 12" long piece of railroad rail as the anvil, and you can make a gad forge for under $100
Whenever I have a garage I plan to pick up a welder and try my hand at it. No idea what I’d make, but it looks fun and I’ll find a use
Building PCs.
I’m perfectly capable of it, I built the PC I’m typing this on. It’s just…the world’s gone to hell in a Depends Adult Diaper.
I so wanna get back to making gamejam games but with a full time job in programming my body can’t bear more screentime
Artisinal napping
Bespoke meandering
Daydream stylist
I LOVE counting money
Unca Scrooge?
Singing, it’s not a matter of money or time but talent and I don’t have it
Woodworking. I want to refinish my dining set and build a Murphy bed in the basement. These things seem well within my theoretical abilities but the tools are expensive and I’m afraid those items will look bad. I put some chair rail up and there’s one spot I joined poorly and I can never unsee it.
Look up Paul Sellers on YouTube. You’ll have to pull up his backlog, cause he’s pretty old and doesn’t do as many project videos anymore. There’s also a ton more “hand tool only” woodworkers on youtube, but I found that he’s an easy one to watch.
He shows you how to bootstrap a workshop from nothing with just hand tools that you can ebay for not much.
You can start with smaller projects that you can not worry about much, and then work your way up to “dining table for life”
Just build a small box with a couple drawers out of the hobby boards at your local hardware store. Try to stick with harder woods like poplar, oak, walnut, etc. They’re a little more expensive, but they’re easier to work with cause they don’t smoosh so much when you try to cut them, and building small things doesn’t take a lot of wood.
You’d be surprised just how accessible woodworking is. You just have to be ok that it’s going to take a lot longer if you don’t have a giant workshop full of high end, expensive machines.
Mood. I’d love to do some woodworking but I don’t have the space
I wish I could afford the really good RC aircraft. Not even, like, modern quadcooter drones, but a nice gas powered replica of a plane.
Or maybe just have a gnarly sim center for space and flight sims. Like one of those big gyroscopes with your chair and all the controls in it, and the controls are like real aircraft shit.
Depends on your budget, but… discovery flight lesson doesn’t cost a whole lot for an actual aircraft. I live in a somewhat expensive region, and it’s around 100 USD equivalent for an hour.
And if you know someone with a 3D printer, an RC aircraft can be built relatively cheaply (working on this myself, but I already had the radio and receiver)
You can get some pretty cheap (around $200) styrofoam models. Most expensive part is the remote control itself, if you want a good one at least.
I have a A-10, F-15 and F-16. Though, the A-10 has seen better day (survived quite a few crashes).
Honestly I just wish i had the energy to take up learning another instrument. Like I could start taking violin lessons again, or I could seriously devote some more time to the guitar, and that would be really awesome. As is I barely have the energy to drum daily and I average only 1-2 sessions a week at best. Music is hella rewarding though, so the more ways I have of making it the better in my book.
Probably be a recreational pilot, like one of my friends did training for. Like sure, I love my deep interests in tech, psychology and gaming, but damn I wanna fly a light aircraft.
It’s not as hard to get into as you’d expect. Right now** is a great time to get into it. There are a lot of instructors right now trying to build hours waiting for the airlines to hire again. You can find higher quality instructors for cheaper than normal
My instructor works for free. He’s just glad to be getting free flight hours. I wouldn’t recommend doing a formal flight school unless you have money to burn. If you’re good at self-study, get Sporty’s or another online course. Few hundred dollars for the ground school. Then rent a plane to do your hours in
**Huge asterisk here due to gas prices being elevated. It’s not too hard to find cheap 100LL/UL, but that window is closing. As long as the war in Iran is ongoing, higher fuel prices will be a concern. That being said, my Cherokee gets 16-20 MPG equivalent
Good info!!!
The new sport pilot rules may be for you then. There’s also Ultralight aviation or powered paragliding.
Not go to work and not die.
I’ve dabbled in so many that I wish I could choose a couple and ditch the rest. Just don’t know which ones to pick.
Don’t you have a recurrent one? For me was origami, I tried dozens of hobbies over the years but origami was one that got my attention every few years and never disappeared entirely.
Now that I think about it, origami for me, too. Sometimes, I’ll have a cough candy and then I’m left with a wrapper. I stick it in my pocket when there’s no bin nearby, and it always somehow ends up as a crane, turtle, or fortune teller.
Play guitar, or sew. Guitar because I play woodwinds, so when I’m sick, I’m pretty useless. At least with a guitar, I can cough my lungs out and still somewhat play guitar if I’m not heaving for air. Or someone else can sing for me.
Sewing because then I wouldn’t have to resort to a single needle and thread and have no idea what I’m doing when patching something up. If I could remember how to use a sewing machine from home economics class in highschool, then I could start a little hobby business on the side, and I wouldn’t have to give up my favourite pair of jeans. :(
sewing is a fun hobby. I started when the world was shut down. watched a bunch of youtube to learn how. Sewing machines are intimidating but really not that hard once you get into it.
I do remember using a pedal, and I don’t remember it being too hard. I do recall, however, one of the troublemakers in class would put the pedal to the metal and the teacher would give him an earful.
What are some of the things that you’ve sewn? I need a little inspiration, maybe it’s time I pick it up as a hobby and not just for school.
as I lost weight, I tailored all of my clothes. I do some wood working too so I’ve made bags, tool rolls, etc… I just bought a pattern for a blue jean jacket and I’m going to use my old fat pants to make a jacket. Blue jean jackets are very expensive right now for some reason, even used. The pattern was $15 on ebay, and the material I already have.
That’s awesome. I’m going to have to look in to this more seriously. Thank you for adding more fuel to a tiny little flame. 😊
As ridiculous as it sounds: Hunting.
But it gets expensive fast, I would need a lot of rifle practice, and most hunters I know are pretty rough people.The combination of all that makes entering the hobby fairly undesirable.
In the UK you also need permission from the wealthy to do it on their land.
Same in the US unfortunately. The few public lands that you’re allowed to hunt in are overhunted
We have so many deer they cause problem, grey squirrels resulted in the native reds being almost driven to extinction. But normal people can’t just go and eat them.
If it was a safety concern with guns, what about how hunting? No that is universally illegal because that is for poors.
My dad picked up bow and arrow hunting for a few years. He never snagged a deer, but I’m sure he spent a lot of pleasant time smoking weed in the woods with his buddies.
Obviously a lot of location factors are at play, but a crossbow is relatively inexpensive, has plenty of ability to humanely kill a deer (if that’s your intended target), and the bolts and broadheads are recoverable.
Smaller game can be taken with a .22 or .25 cal air gun, which can be far more cost effective than a standard firearm, depending on if it is a spring, piston, or pre-charged pneumatic model. Side note, Lewis and Clark brought air rifles on their famous expedition.
Check your local hunting regs for legal options!
I had envisioned hunting deer but smaller game would be much more reasonable and easier to get into. I think I should look into that.
Awesome, hope you enjoy it!
You can get in the american army if you like killing so much
