Six Months Retired, I’m struggling.

[slow-poke]

Exact opposite situation for me. I’m semiretired for 10 years now. I love to tinker and seem to have and endless list of projects. Short list:
1) complete mini work project hopefully today
2) Cut the grass
3) huge landscaping project in backyard, the irrigation is now complete, at least 200 hours of work remain.
4) Complete rebuilding the deck at the cottage in Trex, previous guy that built it must have lost his level, and his brain.
5) Complete CNC conversion of lathe.
6) The never ending list goes on……. If I had to work I would not be able to accomplish the other fun stuff.

 

[mmcmdl]

Around here, I go outside, close my eyes, spin in a circle, open my eyes, and no matter what direction I'm facing, there's something to do. Move to a farm, and your problem will disappear.

Regards.

Boy isn't this the truth ! I've been off since Oct. of 21 , and haven't gotten a decent break since . So many darn projects to catch up on .

Jeff , ever thought about tool sales ? Man could I keep you busy ! JK , but it keeps me going . I have a huge pile of uncut logs still in the back yard , basements full of unwanted tools , cars and trucks I want to work on , 45 acres of woods up in NY I need to attend to , repairs around the houses , etc etc etc . This just never ends . I swore I was not going to get back into tractors , but guess what ? There's two sitting in the driveway at the minute ready for parting out and one for restoring . Won't mention any colors . Oh , forgot the big one ............GRASS ! Been cutting both lawns every other day because of the rain and sun daily . You can HEAR the grass growing !

 

[projectnut]

It's quite a change going from a 60+ hour work week interacting with hundreds of customers to sequestering yourself in a shop trying to figure out what to do next. Most of us go through that stage once the honey dew list is completed or at least under control.

Have you considered any "large" projects that could span over months or even years? One of my first big projects was to build a small articulated end loader from scratch. I didn't really know where to start so I purchased a set of plans from CAD Trac. When I got them, I didn't like what I saw so I started redrawing them. The project spanned over 4 years with the first 6 months at the drawing table. I ended up with a machine slightly larger than the original and weighing nearly 3 times as much.

It was sort of a fill in project that took up any spare time I was willing to devote to it. According to the company the assembly project (if you bought their precut kit) was supposed to take about 40 hours. They no longer sell kits in that they were getting too expensive for most hobbyists. The last complete kit I saw advertised about 4 years ago had a price tag of over $11,000.00. I spent less than half that amount sourcing my own materials. All the materials and components I purchased for my machine were new.

I spent probably 500 hours redrawing components, another 500 hours sourcing materials and components, and another 1,000 hours or so cutting, machining, welding, assembling, wiring, and testing the machine before I ever lifted a scoop of dirt with it. It could have taken another 200 hours if I painted it as originally planned. Unfortunately, I ran out of patience, so the machine never got a proper paint job. It still works fine but isn't as pretty as it could be.

Over the years I've built a few accessories to make the machine more useful. I've added a snowplow, set of forks, and a log splitter. You can build just about any accessory you can think of.

Here's a link to the original CadTrac on their website:

CADTrac 1500

After numerous requests CADplans has developed CADTrac, the articulated, 4 wheel drive, multipurpose tractor you can build using a welder, bandsaw, drill press, torch, common hand tools and commonly available parts. The all-hydraulic drive of CADTrac eliminates the belts, chains, transmissions...

cadplans.com

Here are a few pictures of the machine I built:

 

[Ischgl99]

If you decide to get some machines to recondition, you might want to take one of Richard King's scraping classes if you haven't already. I'm thinking about going down that rabbit hole myself lol.

 

[addertooth]

One of the best ways to keep the mind sharp, is to engage in additional hobbies to learn. My life has followed "Madonna's Mantra" (the singer). She felt it was essential to "re-invent herself/her skills" every ten years.

I won't be officially retiring until I am 70 years old. For now, (while I am at the peak of my earning potential) I am buying the supplies/equipment for hobbies I will doing for the first decade of my retirement.

I recently gravitate towards skills/hobbies which are obscure, and the practitioners of it are in demand, and "aging out". I like hobbies which "pay for themselves".
Current ones include:

Restoring antique fountain pens. The restored pens sell for much more than the beater pens they start out as. Sometimes hundreds more.

Hand Engraving. The folks who do this are dying out, and younger guns are not interested in a hobby that takes about 5 to 10 years to develop real skill. Current rates are around 50 dollars an hour.

Togishi. The art of polishing/restoring antique Japanese swords. This is utilizing hand/finger stones to reveal the character and grain of these antique swords which were pattern steel. It typically pays about 185 dollars per inch of blade. Re-Wrapping the Tsuka (handle) typically pays about 200 dollars.

Old hobbies included Gardening, Woodworking (designing and making custom speakers), Wine/Beer/Mead making (went to the shows and competed), BBQ (I reached the point where a grill company was sponsoring me), Electronics (worked for decades in this vocation as well), Sailing (currently live in the desert, so this one is right out), Motorcycles (had to get out of it due to being invisible), Car Racing (and keeping it running required a lot of mechanical work), Machining (it was one of my first careers, so really a re-awaking of that skill-set), Welding (Mig, Tig, Stick, Plasma cutting), Knife-making, Hunting (climbing the local mountains to get to the game hurts my joints now), and gaining new skills/certification to stay relevant in my career field (Computers/Engineering/Networking/Security).

For me, staving off aging/boredom has been about finding new passions, and the (sometimes steep) learning curve of new crafts.
Once you stop doing/learning, you progress to the next stage... which is simply the movement towards "fading away".

 

[erikmannie]

How about buying a mountain of 3” X 4”, .120” mild steel coupons (pre-cut from the local steel yard), & practice welding joints? That would be the first thing that I would do.

I never feel like I have to make anything. It is perfectly valid to just cut a taper, face, turn or bore to a diameter, or single point on some round stock. The journey is the destination.

 

[Charles scozzari]

I didn’t think it would happen to me!
Every day is the same, I’m struggling because I don’t have a project.
Co-workers aren’t coming to me asking me to fix this or fabricate that.
I miss my buddies at work.

I looked into steam engine kits, meh. Nothing feels right.
I’m sure this is probably normal but man, it’s not easy.

The weeds are gone, the house is painted, the gutters are clean, the cars are washed and waxed, the trailer is serviced, the lawn mower is ready to go, the lathe just got new oil. Yeah, I’m at that point.

What are you guys doing?

Good morning, I'm retired for over 16 years and and have more to do then I can handle. Don't fall into that rut. I would suggest restoring an old car. Thats something that is rewarding and will more then keep you busy. You will also meet some great guys with great cars and plenty to do. My latest project is making 90 feet of wrought iron fencing for my house. Your feelings will pass, you waited many years for for this. Make the most of it, the option is not good.

 

[C-Bag]

I think the biggest difference for me from a lot of people is that I didn't socialize with the people that I worked with. Work was not my life. It was just a way to pay the bills. I had an active life away from work. So finding stuff to do was not a problem. I had more time to do what I really liked to do after I retired.

This is EXACTLY the way I would describe my relationship with my time as a wage slave. My day always starts and ends the same, my canine buddy Gus and I hit the trail for at least an hour and half in the morning and 45 to 60min in the evening. Depending on how much I’ve got to get done. I’ve hiked all my life and as a mech I was on my feet. But when I quit and started doing my side project full time as a product I realized I needed to walk more and got dogs. Their happy character and need to walk has been a boon to my physical and mental health and they never have an excuse they don’t want to go. It also makes me a visual fixture in our neighborhood and because of that I know literally everybody. I am not a social guy by nature and would not know a soul otherwise so my dogs have made me 100x more social than without them. My wife is still working and I never feel lonely with my fuzzy shadow around.

 

[mmcmdl]

My wife's last day is next Friday , officially retired . I'll most likely be released back to work in mid-July if the stomach feels up to it . I can honestly say I miss work also . I have a great boss and basically do whatever I want to keep the place running up to snuff . Not sure but maybe get back onto nightshift to help the newer guys along . We are still in the process of closing up one of our plants also . My eyes are on the complete machine shop and have been promised all the equipment and associated tooling . Just what I need , but I'll have the room once the other basement is cleared out . I've given up on having the shop in an un-controlled environment and will be starting over where I started out , so the journey continues .

 

[mickri]

I met a guy in Mexico who retired from running an internet service in small towns in Colorado. I believe it was a wifi based and he beamed internet to the residents of these towns. He was cruising with his wife and kids when I met him. To keep busy and add some income to the cruising kitty he developed a web site devoted exclusively to paper airplanes. Last I heard he had developed several other websites.

One of my very good friends who is a breast cancer survivor devotes one to two days per week driving cancer patients to their doctors. Another thing that she does with a friend of hers is deliver RV's from the manufacturer to far flung dealers. She is currently delivering a Winnebago from Iowa to Alaska.

The point is don't be afraid to look outside the box. Let your imagination run wide. It's not like you are trying to make decision for the rest of your life. Try anything that strikes your fancy. If you don't like it move on to something else.