# Question Of The Week... (2021 week 6)



## ripjack13 (Feb 7, 2021)

*I'm assuming most of us in this group work with wood as our full-time jobs in some respects. Who here is doing this just as a hobby and has a job that has nothing to do with wood or building and what is it?*




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**Rules**
There is no minimum post requirement,
primates, woodticks, wood spinners, and leprechauns are welcome to post an answer.
This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather.

Reactions: Like 1


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## ripjack13 (Feb 7, 2021)

Hey @Tony , It's Sunday, right?

Reactions: Funny 4


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## Tony (Feb 7, 2021)

I am a route salesman for a company that leases and sharpens knives for restaurants. I never deal with with wood there, but we do sell high end cutting boards that are stabilized, cast sawdust.

Reactions: Like 3 | Funny 1 | Way Cool 1


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## woodtickgreg (Feb 7, 2021)

I'm a truck driver for a living. Woodworking is my escape from all the troubles of the world. It gives me something else to focus on and it's something I do just for the shear joy of doing it. My favorite thing is to take a project from the tree to the finished item. I never want my woodworking to become a job or something that I have to count on to make money from. I have other things that I can do to make money if need be. Trucking pays the Bill's and it's actually something that I enjoy doing, I always have. I have driven just about everything in trucking, only thing I really haven't done is heavy haul, meaning more than a 110,000 lb tanker or steel hauling flatbed. I mean the kind where you are police escorted and they shut down the roads because your so big. But for now I'm doing LTL trucking and bumping docs for a living. Driving a semi in the city does have its challenges at times, lol. But I like it, I get to see a lot of interesting things and places. We even make deliveries to woodcraft sometimes, lol.

Reactions: Like 5


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## Mike1950 (Feb 7, 2021)

Was a plastering contractor for 25 yrs. wood was just a hobby. retired now it is an addiction...

Reactions: Like 4


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## Gdurfey (Feb 7, 2021)

Been a civil servant now for 37 years, mostly Air Force. Currently a middle management leading a team of a 100 that performs software design and maintenance on AF satellite ground systems (communications, command and control). Although went to school as an engineer, been more of a program manager all my career. As Greg said, this is one of my escapes. Love making things and giving/selling to friends and acquaintances.

Reactions: Like 5


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## Brink (Feb 7, 2021)

I’m main attraction at the Bronx zoo

sometimes, you’ll find me acting like a shop foreman at a construction equipment dealership.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1 | Funny 8


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## Lou Currier (Feb 7, 2021)

Patrolled the streets and coordinated police academies until I retired. Working with wood was a great escape.

Reactions: Like 1 | Thank You! 4


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## Arn213 (Feb 7, 2021)

Brink said:


> I’m main attraction at the Bronx zoo
> 
> sometimes, you’ll find me acting like a shop foreman at a construction equipment dealership.


Not the Central Park Zoo- they are more kid friendly and nicer part of town.

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 4


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## Eric Rorabaugh (Feb 7, 2021)

Used to build houses with my dad before he passed away. Now, that I'm a game warden (AKA...trout trooper, squirrel sheriff, possum police, etc.), I just walk around in the woods locating burls where I can't get them. So working with wood is my relaxation time.

Reactions: Like 3 | Thank You! 1 | Way Cool 2 | Sincere 1


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## trc65 (Feb 7, 2021)

Always been involved in some aspect of agronomy or horticulture, but never anything professional with "woody" species. Working with wood has always been a hobby/ obsession.

Reactions: Like 3


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## DLJeffs (Feb 7, 2021)

Dad taught wood shop, metal shop, auto shop at the high school level. He made almost all our furniture we had while I was growing up. I never did any wood working until I got within about 10 years of retiring. First project was a glider rocker love seat for our deck (which didn't need super precise cuts and joints, etc). My degree was chemical eng / petroleum refining and I worked 31 years in the oil industry before retiring.

Reactions: Like 5 | Great Post 1


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## Nature Man (Feb 7, 2021)

Retired from the Air Force in 2005. Been woodworking for about 12 years or so as a hobby. Collecting wood seems to be 2nd nature! Chuck

Reactions: Like 2 | Thank You! 2


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## vegas urban lumber (Feb 7, 2021)

as my kid tells me i'm the junk man. i am self employed since 2004, had a venetian style glass blowing and glass fusing studio 2002 to 2008, i have been buying and reselling anything and every thing since, a lot in the scrap metal business. bought a saw mill about 8 years ago and have horded landscape removal logs ever since. at some point i intend to make more money off of wood slabs and the like. i have made and sold some rustic type wood furniture over the last 10 years.

Reactions: Like 2


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## Brink (Feb 7, 2021)

Arn213 said:


> Not the Central Park Zoo- they are more kid friendly and nicer part of town.


No, Central Park zoo doesn’t have primates, only stoopid monkeys

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 2


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## Rivens (Feb 7, 2021)

Senior IT System/Application Analyst for a Medical University.

Reactions: Like 2


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## Wildthings (Feb 7, 2021)

Wood has always been a hobby still a hobby but I'm retired from my full time job of 35 years working in the plastic manufacturing business. I worked mostly shift work and started as an operator, went into supervision and finished my career as the Training Supervisor for the Polyethylene unit. Produced 2.9 millions (yep millions) pounds of PE plastic every 24 hours (7-24-365) My unit was one of 4 units doing the same. On my days off I had a side job, Taxidermy, and have been doing some version of it since 1977. Some of y'all may remember, in October 1989, the Phillips 66 Plant that blew up in Pasadena, TX and killed 23 workers, well I was at the deer lease on long change. So I'm still here.

Reactions: Like 3 | Sincere 1


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## Gdurfey (Feb 8, 2021)

Wildthings said:


> Wood has always been a hobby still a hobby but I'm retired from my full time job of 35 years working in the plastic manufacturing business. I worked mostly shift work and started as an operator, went into supervision and finished my career as the Training Supervisor for the Polyethylene unit. Produced 2.9 millions (yep millions) pounds of PE plastic every 24 hours (7-24-365) My unit was one of 4 units doing the same. On my days off I had a side job, Taxidermy, and have been doing some version of it since 1977. Some of y'all may remember, in October 1989, the Phillips 66 Plant that blew up in Pasadena, TX and killed 23 workers, well I was at the deer lease on long change. So I'm still here.


I reread your post Barry, it didn't sink in at first. You were making the raw Polyethylene? I first read your first line as your were making specific products. Wow...….....sorry for your loss. Way back in the day my dad build gasoline plants all over west Texas until he was hurt in an accident. then things changed and all the plants consolidated along the coast.

Reactions: Like 1


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## DLJeffs (Feb 8, 2021)

Wildthings said:


> Wood has always been a hobby still a hobby but I'm retired from my full time job of 35 years working in the plastic manufacturing business. I worked mostly shift work and started as an operator, went into supervision and finished my career as the Training Supervisor for the Polyethylene unit. Produced 2.9 millions (yep millions) pounds of PE plastic every 24 hours (7-24-365) My unit was one of 4 units doing the same. On my days off I had a side job, Taxidermy, and have been doing some version of it since 1977. Some of y'all may remember, in October 1989, the Phillips 66 Plant that blew up in Pasadena, TX and killed 23 workers, well I was at the deer lease on long change. So I'm still here.


That was a nasty accident. We studied it for lessons when I got into fire protection. The petrochemical / plastics industry (in my opinion) was slightly more hazardous than the oil refining world. With oil we pretty much had flammables but in the petrochem world you also had many more reactions that needed to be controlled and managed. Some reacted with oxygen which meant they had to keep air out of the process plants which in my opinion was one of the hardest things to do.

Reactions: Like 1


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## David Hill (Feb 8, 2021)

My job— Family Practice Doc. 
Nothing directly relayed to woodworking or woodturning.
I started out with refurbing antique furniture as a “relaxation” hobby for resale— soon turned into “work”- not fun— because of demands made by people. Then I found woodturning by accident, really liked it. I turn mostly for relief from work and other stress and because I like to see what’s hiding in that piece of wood. I’m taking care to not it become “work”— doing commissions for a select few, and some turnings to support my “tool fund”. I like to try new techniques, tools, methods to push my boundaries—- if you ain’t learning-yer dead.

Reactions: Like 4


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## Wildthings (Feb 9, 2021)

DLJeffs said:


> That was a nasty accident. We studied it for lessons when I got into fire protection. The petrochemical / plastics industry (in my opinion) was slightly more hazardous than the oil refining world. With oil we pretty much had flammables but in the petrochem world you also had many more reactions that needed to be controlled and managed. Some reacted with oxygen which meant they had to keep air out of the process plants which in my opinion was one of the hardest things to do.


Ah yes peroxides and trichlorides. some volatile chemicals if you can't keep them contained. That explosion changed the entire industries way of looking at lockouts and isolations. Pretty crazy when you walked through it and see a 48" water line overhead that was melted like candle wax and cooled off

Reactions: Agree 1


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## T. Ben (Feb 9, 2021)

I drive trucks for a job,don’t like it as much as @woodtickgreg does,but it pays the bills. I mostly turn small things, mostly just because I have a good time doing it,I have and do sell some pens,so far my boss has been my biggest customer. Still had fun making all of his pens. Thankfully hasn’t felt like work yet. I am planning on making some boxes in the future.

Reactions: Like 4


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