Lots of broken stuff at the moment… society, the way we live, most of the opinions on the internet… I can’t fix any of those, I can only watch as those things play out.
What I can fix is some of the stuff that’s been chucked away by others, old hand tools, bikes, scooters… that sort of stuff, and in a way that helps fix me a little, too.
Finding a little space where you can pull something apart, get your hands dirty, put a little effort in and make it clean and working again… I really enjoy a quiet moment these days, avoiding the sensory overload for half hour, sitting on the verandah in the morning sun to have a coffee… that sort of thing - yeah, it’s called getting older, Simon.
I’ve made a little workbench in our house, when I can’t get to my shed (It’s outside my 5km ring of allowed adventure..) where I’ve got simple stuff like WD40, Degreaser, Wire Brushes, old rags, a couple of files, screwdrivers, a drill and a few different grits of sandpaper…
Restoring an old Mambo Kids Scooter to give to some kid that needs it
I don’t have a metal lathe or a sand blaster and I’m a bit envious of those that do, but also I’m an ‘office worker’ and not a fabrication shop owner, so it’s ok! it’s just for fun and the whole point of it is just to make some room in my head for not-screen-internet-social related stuff.
It’s good to get offline from time to time.
Restoring old worn Stanley hand planes
Just making old stuff ‘new’ again is a good pass-time passtime? however it’s written. I have a couple of hand planes in the wings, waiting to get their turn on the bench and then I’m not sure what will come next… Need to build out the tools required for this stuff, but slowly slowly.
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