Positive posts

Spent less on general living, spent a bit on tools and bits for the shop. Found time for doing a few jobs and projects I've been meaning to for ages:

Make a taper attachment for my lathe

Tear into the Bridgeport head, fix the timing belt squeal (new step pulley bearings required), clean and fix and the auto downfeed gubbins, generally check everything over. Found the spindle lube wick to be lacking. Machined up a few replacements for broken parts.

Designed and machined a quick change tool holder for the lathe.

Eaten well, enjoyed the garden, made a snazzy auto watering setup for the veg patch, loved seeing so much wildlife making the best of the lack of human activity.

Messed about making spheres on the mill.

Binge watched a YouTube series of a guy making a live steam loco model. Found much inspiration with creative setups.

Really got to grips with using my rotary table.

Found that I really enjoy working tool steel.

Discovered the joys of Dykem and marking out. So relaxing making nice crisp lines in that gorgeous blue with a scale, dividers, scribe, square and protractor.

Re-machined bits of my machine vise. Being a Kurt knockoff, it wasn't bad, but needed a few bits finishing. The fixed jaw post wasn't flat! Much better now.

Caught up with a lot of old friends.

Enjoyed the views with clearer air and less smog.

Hoping life doesn't quite go back to how it was. Lots of people enjoying the slower pace, even in business. Many customers questioning why they have and pay for a large office and why most of their staff don't mostly work from home. There's a glimmer that this might actually change the world for the better.

I'm also feeling very thankful that this little pause is going to give concrete, irrefutable, iron clad data on pollution and climate that simply cannot be ignored. There's good grounds for hope that clean energy production can spring sorely needed life into industry, employment and economies that brings benefit to everyone.

Many, many positives.

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.
 
Retired November 2018 and my wife retired about 3 years prior and we both enjoy staying home enjoying our life together along with our animal companions (3 doge, 1 cat, 2 betta fish and 1 Senegal parrot), so not much of a change for us. My wife has asthma and I'm in my early 70's so we are limiting getting out (which I do) to a once a week grocery run. The first thing I did after walking out of the work door was to move our retirement into CD's as we did not want to be in stock market. I thoroughly enjoy my various hobbies especially cleaning up a Logan 820 lathe that I purchased as a retirement hobby and getting a list of missing parts together. Once that is done I will start on my Burke #4 milling machine and then on to another Logan lathe (a basket case 200 with missing parts) which I will be using along with my Burke to make some new gears for my Logan 820 gear box which is pretty much trashed. So life is good through these horrific times although the stress of others not so fortunate greatly sadness both of us.
 
My dad was basically locked in his room since March 18 until today. He can now move around and the dining room is open, but still no in or out for their protection. At 89 years old he is very much at risk. Fortunately the site locked down quickly and no one in or out and the staff can only work at his site. No moving around from site to site.
I have not stopped working but have avoided places where people gather. Went grocery only twice in the last 4 weeks other than corner store for milk. Ordered stuff online which I had already decided upon instead of getting it myself.
Maybe another few weeks to go. I hope!
 
I live on a ranch 15 miles from town, so my life really hasn't changed. My wife's office is closed and she's been working from home. She said she wouldn't care if she never had to go to the office again; she likes working from home. My only problem is I had planned on selling calves this month. Cattle market has tanked, so I'll have to sit on them a few weeks and hope the prices come back. On the good side, I should get the concrete poured to finish my shop this coming week. I'm stoked about that!
 
I've been cut back to a 30 hour workweek... last year I was working 64 hours every week.

The bottom line is that I have taken a monthly reduction in pay of about $8500.00 between the loss of my overtime and the 25% cut in my regular hours.

I have not complained a single time... I finally have time to catch up on needed projects around the house.

I just hope it doesn't last more than a few more months...

-Bear
 
matthewsx said:
We took money out of the market last year to buy my sister out of our dad's house in California. With only 5-10 years until retirement that's looking like the smartest move ever now:grin:

John
Click to expand...

Thanks to getting sick of dealing with an incompetent mortgage company we pulled my retirement savings out of a market based account in January. I was mad at the time because we had a low interest rate mortgage and I had been making great interest on that account but come February and a 30% drop in the market I wasn't mad anymore. :) Super lucky on the timing, and no more mortgage to pay is a savings account of it own.
 
Fortunately we were classified as “essential” for most of the work that we do, we have not seen much of a slowdown. With all of the people loosing their jobs or having their hours cut, I have had some of really good applications come through and was able to hire two new guys in the last two weeks that both have great experience and work ethic!!

On the home front, I have been really enjoying the slower pace and all the time with the wife and kids!

Stay safe!
Ryan
 
I was lucky to have scheduled my 8 weeks of vacation for now, so I get to stay home until May 17. After that date, I have to reenter society for at least 10 months.

I gave my shop a very deep cleaning today. I took out everything I could & I mopped the concrete floor. What a pleasure to work in such a clean shop.

I have nothing to do other than work in my hobby shop. I spend 90% of my shop time stick welding. I had amassed almost 200 pounds of stick electrodes for just such an occasion.

I also amassed about 100 pounds of filler material plus gases for TIG & gas welding, so that is next.

I won’t be contracting coronavirus with my head in a welding helmet.
 
I am one of the lucky ones. I work for a multi-national computer company and have been working remote from my home office for 10+ years. There has been no slow down of work and only the minor inconvenience around grocery shopping. I am a couple of years from retirement and have been building up my retirement shop on the weekends. I do worry about people not so fortunate and my wife and I.
 
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