Official Luthiers Forum!

I try to keep some of the other interests I have out of the main discussion area because it doesnt relate. However, there are sometimes things that I think will be of interest.... at least to some.

Recently, One of my nephews asked me to teach him some woodworking skills. He is young and newly married with little furniture, so I decided on a project to build him and the new bride a dining room table. I had a blast spending time with him on this project, and I think he not only learned alot about the process, but also learned alot about me he didnt know.

Here are a few pictures of the finished table:

 

By the way, the wood this table is made out of is from a maple tree I cut down at a friend's house a couple of years ago. I own several portable sawmills and prior to throwing my back out this was one of the "part time" businesses I had. I still own the saw mills, but sawing has slowed down dramatically lately.

 Here are a few pics of the saw mills. First is a picture of a home made hydraullic band mill. It will saw logs up to 29" in diameter and up to 16' long. This is the mill I used to cut up the Sycamore that I am now making guitars out of as well as some of the oak wood I am using in the builds:

I also have a Peterson 10" swing mill that was made in New Zealand. It will saw logs up to 6 feet in diameter:

 

One of my other passions is deep sea fishing. Here is a picture of the main vessle I use for that:

 

And one last passion is my '57 Chevy.... still restoring this one:

Ok, now that you know me a little better, what are your other passions?

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Reguards,

Ken H

Cool guys. I'll bite

Speaking of biting, some of you know that I love to fish, both lake fishing for rainbow trout as well as river fishing for 4 different types of salmon here in the one of the most beautiful places in the world (Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada)

Doesn't that look relaxing (had this lake all to myself)



And the reward (this was a 6 fish landed day, released them all)



Than there's my truck. I'm a landcruiser lover, have owned two over the past 7 years. The latest one is named Ruby, she recently got a new suspension (which I installed) and shoes (tires) and it's considerably better in the bush now (I also love 4x4ing with my little girl)

Before the lift


And After


And a little exploring (you can see my little girl through the front window)



I have two kids (and a third on the way) and they are a real joy, we just got back from a week long vacation on a large lake where they spent most of the day on the beach playing with sand.

Mackenna 4.5 years


Kaidan 1.5 years


I love to build things. Anything I think I can build to save a buck I will give it a try. I built a 12' flat bottom fishing boat so I could take my kids out fishing and it works great (fits up on the truck just great). Built my own shop mostly for guitar making, tons of around the house projects for my better half. I love to go camping and enjoying the great outdoors.

The boat


Hooked on fishing (not really )


built in wall organizer for the master bedroom


The shop


These are most of the fun things I enjoy in life. With all this I hardly have time for building guitars and with the schooling I'm taking to advance my career, I need to figure out a way to get 32 hours in a day (don't we all).

I think I could add more (what there's more ) but I think this should do for now.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Way cool hobbies guys!

Hesh,

I used to collect old vinyl also and I even bought out a lot of old 78rpm records from a radio station that closed down back in the 40's. I have a load of old big band stuff including Peewee King, Doris Day, and a bunch of other well known names from that era. After one of my moves I lost the Dual turntable and just never set things up to play them any more. I also have a boat load of old vinyl from my teen years including the beatles, mama's and papa's, etc.

There was a time when I was into gaming also. Mainly Diablo II.

Rod,

I love the land cruisers too!! Almost bought one back in the 70's but it was $9/month more than the pickup that I bought instead... a lot of money back then

It is awesome to see that you devote so much time toward your children also. It seems like an eternity now, but when they reach 20 and move away from home, it will seem like a nano-second that you had them at home. Enjoy them while you can!

Great posts guys!

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Reguards,

Ken H

OMG, Rod your kids are adorable....!!

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Since we're dagging out the fish pics heres mine. 46lbs of fresh king.

 

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Wisdom is justified by her children

[QUOTE=Don Williams] OMG, Rod your kids are adorable....!![/QUOTE]

That's because they have such a beautiful mother Don

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

[QUOTE=Hesh1956] Rod there is no doubt that your kid's mom is a beautiful woman but I think that their dad is a pretty special guy too. You are multi-talented and the organizer in your home clearly is a very good example who who the neat freak is in your family and your shop is a great example of who the slob is..... [/QUOTE]

Perfect, exacting analysis there Hesh    She is much more tiddy and neat than I am.

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Rock climbing and mountaineering has been my other passion since I was 13 years old.

A trip report of one of my adventures can be found here:

http://www.blanchardguitars.com/bugs1.html

Mark

Rod, the general consensus from here is that the kids are adorable and you are so hosed. Yup you are. Mackenna looks like a girl who is going to be sure of herself and enjoy life, much to your consternation. And Kaidan has imp written all over him. You are going to have so much fun. I'm so glad to hear that you are the kind of dad that likes to go make memories with your kids. Thanks for sharing.

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Aoibeann

Lillian, I know I'm hosed

I don't know what imp is though, help me out.

Mark, took a look at your mountaineering pics man. Awesome stuff man. The bugaboo's look great.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Great photography, Mark!  Hard to beat scenery like that to peak your Karma.  Thanks for letting us see too, if only through the lens.  I almost broke a sweat, just looking. 

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Great thread, everyone!!

Hesh, do you think the MacBook could handle AutoCAD's Civil 3D?

Rod, an imp is mythological creature what was usually up to no good. More mischievous than intentionally bad.

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Aoibeann

HA! He certainly has his mischievous moments that's for sure. Mostly his big sister giving him "ideas" though

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Geesh Hesh! That's a creepy looking machine you have there! Do you ever find yourself telling it to "open the pod bay doors"!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Ryan's looks similar, except that the yellow drive cables look like huge glowing worms when the lights are low. Kinda cool. We didn't expect that when we picked out the components.

Thanks for the run down Hesh. Civil 3-D is really cool for the designers, they forgot about the surveyors. 2008 is supposed to fix that oversight. It will run on my machine without any problems. I was toying with the idea of something more mobile.

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Aoibeann

This is a great bunch of guys. That's me playing the reso.
This is most of my family. I spend a lot of timee with them.

Between the odd spot of guitarbuilding I manage to squeeze in, and the long hours of med internshipping, and the translation work on the side (which pays for the guitarbuilding, vacations, and a reasonable savings account not in the form of zoot) there's the odd spot of sailing (less than I'd like) and even rarer spot of writing reviews for online and print SF/Fantasy zines. Although again, that's been a while.

But, y'know, busy.

..and lest we forget another big passion: food. Italian's the baseline (and ice-cream the recent obsession, since the ice-cream maker showed up), with forays into asian cuisines (Thai and Indian being favourites) as well as the occasional chili, texmex-ish concoction, and good 'ol steak.

[QUOTE=Blanchard] Rock climbing and mountaineering has been my other passion since I was 13 years old.A trip report of one of my adventures can be found here:http://www.blanchardguitars.com/bugs1.htmlMark
[/QUOTE]

Good grief Mark. That's some serious climbing, not to mention some amazing photography. I've done a little bit of climbing, but nothing compared to that. Very impressive, and thanks for sharing.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.