Men's Sheds?

This seems like a good step forward as it seem like hobbies are often discouraged these days.

I've always had more hobbies than time but I know many who don't really do anything outside of work except drink beer and watch TV.
Some fear retirement, not for financial reasons but because they will get bored. I know a few who retired comfortably and then promptly went out and got another job because they didn't know what to do with their time.
 
I agree it would be nice but my impression of how things are in CA is we are on our own. We are like used machinery that just needs to go away. If you have a senior center it's not about making people useful like in the article. Sorry, I don't play card games or dance so there's nothing I'd be interested in. Meanwhile the state owns all kinds of property and gets rid of equipment for penny's on the dollar and even if you could get hold of somebody the shear amount of red tape reminds me of that thread about stuff that would be left out to rot rather put it to use.
 
Unfortunately, the forum doesn't have a provision for "dislike" - NOT for you, but for the situation(s) you describe. Best wishes!
 
I agree it would be nice but my impression of how things are in CA is we are on our own. We are like used machinery that just needs to go away. If you have a senior center it's not about making people useful like in the article. Sorry, I don't play card games or dance so there's nothing I'd be interested in. Meanwhile the state owns all kinds of property and gets rid of equipment for penny's on the dollar and even if you could get hold of somebody the shear amount of red tape reminds me of that thread about stuff that would be left out to rot rather put it to use.

Men's sheds have been very successful here in downunder. Usually started by a small group, often only one or two to begin with, but they grow. Have a look at posts 7 & 8 for ideas, ask the author how they were set up. It doesn't have to be playing cards or dancing. Metal work, woodwork, photography etc. etc., are all viable options, its about the talents and interests of those who start and run them. Many of the sheds here in Australia, get sponsorship from local businesses, in some cases tools will be donated by local hardware shops. many of the sheds, apart from learning, helping each other, make toys that are donated to local charities for children.
 
I know I'm always sounding like mr bummer, but it's hard to describe how things have changed here from when I was younger. Used to be you could take night classes at the high school woodshop for $35 for a semester. I can't remember how many nights a week but after you passed the safety course you do ANYTHING in there. It was huge. Then they started jettisoning the shops, wood, metal and auto. So all that went away. It's really hard to find shop space and rents are at a premium requiring insurance, sprinkler and alarm systems. Everybody is so worried about liability.

We used to have a pizza parlor that on first Wed. nights of the month all us pickers would go in their back room and jam for 3-4hrs. Everybody bought food and that back room would be packed with pickers and listeners. We turned their slowest night into one of their most profitable night. Never any fights, never too much noise as it was all acoustic, no drums or amps. They started giving us a bad time so we tried for years to find another place and couldn't talk anybody into it. The only ones were the senior center and they wanted us to supply them with a country band so they could line dance! But when we said we don't play that kind of music it fell through. So the jam that brought people from Bakersfiled and as far north as Fresno faded away.
 
C-Bag you say "It takes an engineer to make it complicated and genius to make it simple." I heard that different. "It takes an engineer to make it work, a salesman to create a market and an accountant to destroy the whole thing".
 
I know I'm always sounding like mr bummer, but it's hard to describe how things have changed here from when I was younger. Used to be you could take night classes at the high school woodshop for $35 for a semester. I can't remember how many nights a week but after you passed the safety course you do ANYTHING in there. It was huge. Then they started jettisoning the shops, wood, metal and auto. So all that went away. It's really hard to find shop space and rents are at a premium requiring insurance, sprinkler and alarm systems. Everybody is so worried about liability.

We used to have a pizza parlor that on first Wed. nights of the month all us pickers would go in their back room and jam for 3-4hrs. Everybody bought food and that back room would be packed with pickers and listeners. We turned their slowest night into one of their most profitable night. Never any fights, never too much noise as it was all acoustic, no drums or amps. They started giving us a bad time so we tried for years to find another place and couldn't talk anybody into it. The only ones were the senior center and they wanted us to supply them with a country band so they could line dance! But when we said we don't play that kind of music it fell through. So the jam that brought people from Bakersfiled and as far north as Fresno faded away.

Yes we had pretty much the same here, but the self startup men's sheds have made a huge difference, also the volunteer historical groups restoring old steam trains, paddle wheel boats on the rivers, old stem driven sawmills, an pumping stations We have hundreds of these dotted across the country.
 
C-Bag you say "It takes an engineer to make it complicated and genius to make it simple." I heard that different. "It takes an engineer to make it work, a salesman to create a market and an accountant to destroy the whole thing".

It would seem everybody has heard their version of this and it seems the version depends on where you are in the "chain". Yours seems to be what they would say in the engineering dept, mine is from the mechanic's POV. Everybody is just trying to do their jobs but not until my last wage slave tour did I have access to the engineers and ask them directly what had plagued my mind as I tried to repair some nightmare. "What WERE you thinking(or smoking)?". That's when I was exposed to their world where they were given a task to design something without knowing the overall function just like another of my favorite analgy's of being like mushrooms. Kept in the dark and fed dung. I think it's weird the most chaotic force in the whole mess is not represented, management.
 
Yes we had pretty much the same here, but the self startup men's sheds have made a huge difference, also the volunteer historical groups restoring old steam trains, paddle wheel boats on the rivers, old stem driven sawmills, an pumping stations We have hundreds of these dotted across the country.

My impression from all this is while men's sheds are a great idea that our particular passion is not represented even where the sheds exists.

I would be interested to hear how ACHiPo's local loose association works. How did you find each other, and do you have get together's? This discussion has made me reach out to a local guy on the list and another that I met while buying a tool from him off CL. I guess I'm not looking for something formal but somebody local to network with when I need help or ideas. I don't want to step on anybody's privacy but too bad there's not some way through this site to see who else is local to me.
 
Yes many versions, In my version the accountant represents management.

Many years ago during my apprenticeship, the founder of the firm brought his son into the business, The young man, only a coupe of years older than I was, had just completed an engineering degree, and was given a position in the drawing office. It didn't take long before he started sending drawings out to the toolroom, where I worked, These drawings were of weird and wonderful Ideas that he had. One day I was given a drawing for a part. after studying it for a while deciding how to go about making it, I realised that it couldn't actually be made. It had a spindle within a spindle, but the slot in the side was not big enough to allow the inner spindle to be installed. I rang the drawing room and spoke to him asking could the slot be made bigger. He slammed the phone down and came storming out to the toolroom demanding that I be sacked because I couldn't read a drawing. Soon the foreman and the shop manager became involved, they supported me and said that it couldn't work. He was furious stormed out shouting that we would all be sacked. He didn't show his face in the toolroom for quite some time.
 
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