Sparks of Inspiration: Embracing Hobbies for Mind and Soul

Delve into the world of hobbies in this episode, where I revisit the joy of being a DIYer and explore the art of welding after two decades. Discover how hobbies can clear the mind, offer creative solutions, and add a touch of joy to life. Tune in for a lighthearted conversation that might just leave you inspired.

Transcript

Showing My Hobbies

Breach 0:01

Team one stand by Copy . Team one stand by Breach , breach , breach . So at dawn , don't me a couple days ago , that I tell people all the time that you should find a hobby , something to keep your mind moving , keep you distracted from things that may be bothering your life or things that you know maybe you just need a little clarity on and something to kind of help you get there . But in thinking about it a couple days ago , it dawned on me that I haven't really shared anything that I do , and this was confirmed when my daughter told me that she was talking to someone and telling them about how or the hobbies that I do , and the person was surprised , you know , didn't know that I had done this or any of the things that I had done , and that's when it clicked that you know it helps people a whole lot more when you're actually showing them what you're talking about , and that's what we're doing . That's what this one's about is me showing you a little bit of my hobbies , things that I do that you know help me keep my mind moving . I do love hobbies . So that's what we're going to be doing now because , you're seeing , I love learning , I love having new hobbies , I love to be able to do things myself and I strive for that . I'm a person that believes I shouldn't have to have somebody else do something that I can do for myself . So I'll learn it probably never become really good at it , but I do , and in doing so I acquire a lot of hobbies and it's been fun . I really enjoy it . I learned that I love learning new things and well , it's made me more useful person as well . I like that too , and in particular , today's hockey is welding . You guys can see it , but this ain't supposed to be like that is broke , big broke , big hole right there , not supposed to be there . And several years ago I was taught how to weld . I say taught , I was shown how to weld , and once I got out of that job I never welded again and had been trying to find a reason to need a welder . And well , this happened . So I got one .

Breach 2:41

Now , and after doing some research and finding out that this mower deck , my little mower was going to cost almost as much as the mower itself , and not wanting to go to someone else , we're going to try welding again . I mean kind of like riding a bike , right , that's what I'm thinking Should be . Let's see . Yeah , I have those moments where you kind of feel like you shouldn't be doing the things that you're doing . Maybe it was a bad idea . I haven't gotten there yet . Whoever put these little screws in here remind my big pile of grass . They didn't think this process through .

Breach 3:31

As I'm looking at it , this little cover , while it is beneficial , it actually is a pain in the butt . Not too bad , but it'll suck at wrench here . I'm going to play around a little bit . We're going to keep going . Not like . This is like terrible . Plenty of mechanics I'm sure that are looking at what I'm doing . I'm not a pair of guys or whatever your job title is . It'll be easier if you did it this way . Why are you complaining ? It's that Because I don't do this every day ? It's a hobby , I don't know what you're going to call it . It's a necessity . That little screw doesn't like to stay in there . It fits perfectly . We're going a couple more and this one will be done . We can move on to the next step . Look at that little guy . There we go .

Working on a DIY Welding Project

Breach 4:33

For those of you that are not able to watch this episode , or maybe not in any of the episodes , I'm sorry that the episodes have gone more to focusing on the video aspect of it , but I mean , that's kind of the world and you can at least still hear . I'll try to describe things the best I can . Hopefully you guys will be able to get a good enough picture of him . Oh no , that won't do . Don't look at that . You know what to say . Nothing in life that can't be fixed . Where are you at ? Hey , get that one . Yep , we're getting it .

Breach 5:20

And , by the way , if you thought that thing's probably going around , if you thought this was like a how-to video or something , it's not . It's just me being me and my natural habitat . I'm in my shop either . It's a little messy Now . Where's that punch ? Ha-ha , eureka Found it . Probably not the right one . See where I can sit this down . That's not going to work . Yep , see , folks , it's not going to work in production . Let's see what this means . Ha , got it . Let it do it . Crap , okay .

Breach 6:15

Anyone else ever wonder if engineers take the time to work on the things they design ? I'm not saying anything bad against them . We need them , they're important , but that may be hard to tell . It's a big hand and Well , for whatever reason , they don't design things for people like me , and I don't think they work on their products , because if they did , maybe we wouldn't have such a hard time sometimes . I don't know , maybe it's just me , brian , that's not safe . Ha , jokes on you . I never said it was .

Breach 6:54

This is not a how-to video on how to work on your lawnmower or how to weld anything like that . This is just a how-to on having a hobby . Ha , got it Never . A solution you can't find . Well , that thing is dirty , one of the biggest problems of having ADHD . Like , I'm focused on that . That's a big hole , naughty . Anyway , I'm focused on that . That's why I'm supposed to be focused on it . However , all I can see is all this grass . So now I'm sitting here , instead of welding , brushing a bunch of grass that shouldn't be there Because , for whatever reason , whoever engineered this thing decided that all these grooves were necessary .

Breach 7:45

Not only that look at here , that's a hole , that's a hole , hole , that's a hole hole in there . There's grass in it , and my brain won't let that go , because now I'm going to have to get my air hose and blow that out , not because I need to Probably best to keep a rest from being in there but because my brain won't let it go . I have to do that . So I'm going to do that now . You guys can't see it . I was too excited , just meant like five , ten minutes , looking for my little air gun here , and Then I thought I hit record because , you know , like I said , grass in here , that's nowhere near exciting , because all of it blew out . I thought I was recording the whole time and I guess I could have shoved grass back in there . But yeah , yeah . So unfortunately you guys must out on that . But Is all that necessary ? No , but it's my project and that's what I'm . Do you even have a shop if you don't have a hose real ? Thank you , harbor Free . Like my organization is not great , but I got me a hose real and I was happy about that Time .

Breach 9:08

For the next step , apparently , and welding it makes a difference on how thick things are , and I thought originally like I'll just go at it . You know why not ? You know I never measured thickness before . It didn't really matter to me . So why do I need to worry now ? Well , because this is the only deck I got and yes , I know I could always get somebody that knows what they're doing to come do it , but I don't want to . I want to do it myself . So how do we do that ? I have a micrometer yes , I think that's what it's called , and if it's not , don't correct me , because I don't really care . I'm not a scientist and I think that that metal should be roughly the same thickness as the rest of the metal .

Breach 9:50

So , and this is point one zero nine inches .

Breach 9:56

We got over here . Point one zero four . I'm going to assume that through the pressing process , that some of that change , but that's roughly about the same . And so Point one zero Four . One zero nine . There's about one thirty seconds of an inch . And yeah , but you didn't think I knew that . But , uh , yeah , I did jokes on you . I knew that I'm lying , I didn't know that .

Breach 10:26

I had to Google it . That's my hat crooked . There we go . That feels weird . I had to Google it because I don't know fractions like that or just someone's like that . Yeah , I'm not a math guy . So I had to Google what Point one zero four , point one zero nine inches was in fractions . And those of you that are like Savants or math people or whatever , don't , don't get on here and say something about it . I'm not really that concerned because Google is a thing for now and as long as it is I can use it and I figure I Can't think of anything when I really need to know it . Outside of that , it's not my job , but we'll figure it out . I Google it . It's one thirty second an inch and that makes a difference on how hot the water is . So Next thing , we got apparently clean off the surface .

Breach 11:16

It's filled , but that's dirty , that's really dirty . And uh , what'd that bracket go ? There it is , yeah , equally is nasty , and apparently welds don't like to stick to painted surfaces or rusted surfaces and , like I probably should make sure I put this back on here , right , somehow , you reckon that hole is supposed to be in there ? Probably not , huh ? Why does this look like it's smaller than the hole that was there ? Doesn't matter , I have a hammer and we can fix anything with a hammer . Let's turn this thing off . Safety squints activate . Okay , update . They're getting there , at least on this piece . I didn't touch that bracket yet . We're getting there on this . But why , any of you guys that are welders ? Why Now I'm trying to grind that off with that flapper disc ?

Breach 12:17

Does it look like the paint is smearing Like wet ink , like I don't know if you can tell there's areas where there are red , there is red paint . Get that from there . Why it don't make any sense . It's paint . It should just grind away . And also , I had to put up my canopy because the weather's decided it wants to . You know , do what it does in southeast Georgia and uh , yeah . So hey , back to it . Yeah , instruction said use a wire brush to remove rust and or paint . Instructions unclear Got rust and that paint are going anywhere . So we got to use the grinding wheel again , but I had to remove this pulley . So thanks to the Uggadugga , we got that out the way . Now we can go back to cleaning . Maybe one day , sometime soon , hopefully , I'll actually get to like screw up welding . Let's see . Nope , I am your father . So new update Grinding creates a lot of dust , a lot of it , and while normally I just hope my breath will get good , especially here that is a lot of dust , that rust , this thing puts it off .

Breach 13:55

Watch your ears . Yeah , that's a lot of dust . I don't want to breathe that in . So got the old mask on . Here . They're still cleaning , still hoping to get the weld , but based on the way this is going , welding's not going to go well either .

Breach 14:24

All right , it's about ready to get started . I am satisfied with my cleaning job . Probably shouldn't be , from what I understand , but Nonetheless I'm about to do this . The only way I'm going to find out is if I do just that . So I hope my next update is not from hospital bed . We'll see .

Breach 14:58

Alright , well , who started ? By the way , I like my helmet . Yeah , definitely out of practice . Any of you guys actually weld like as a profession , or not even a profession like you can at least get weld halfway decent trying not to laugh too hard , but like I'm getting something there . What I understand . The biggest thing is making sure you got penetration , and I know I've gotten penetration because I had the heat turned up too much and I was melting away my material . But the thing is this one down look at there . I mean it's on , it's functional , and functional is what I'm looking for right now . So with it , I wish it were better , but we're making progress and at the end of the day , if I can get a bunch of that stuff filled in I got a grinder I can make it look somewhat pretty . Let's see . Get back at it , alright , so back at the project that will never end . I finally have my backing plate on .

Breach 16:10

I had a friend suggest that putting on mower decks is , or welding mower decks is , something that typically they would put on a backing plate , which is just a big plate that you could web crap to . Sorry for getting so close . So he suggested that I do that and I did . It is ugly , it's homemade soap , and I don't mean the good soap Like people are like . Oh , I'm going to go in and be like Dr Squatch . No , I'm talking about the people that are taking out every little sliver of soap that they have , heating it up and mashing it into one ball . That's what I'm referring to . Those of you that are welders y'all are probably just . This is a travesty , but it's functional .

Breach 17:13

I do know that it is adhered and , at least for now , it's going to get the job done . So I'm going to finish welding up the bracket on the backside , on the top side , finish welding up the bracket on the top side I don't know , I've got a backing plate and then , once it gets nice and cooled off and dry , we'll throw some paint on there so that we make sure we kind of inhibit any rust as best we can , which , let's be honest , there's going to be a lot of rust . Once we get that done , put the mower deck back on . Have that done . See you in a minute . Alright , so you guys are kept in the loop .

Breach 17:59

I have decided I am done welding . I am only making this thing look worse . But I have done a considerable amount of grinding and I just I know it's not factory , it's probably not even square . I also know that there's a lot of room for air in the welds . That I did , but at the end of the day , what I was looking for was functional and that it was there . And I think I accomplished that . So I'm going to let this paint dry and then we'll get her back installed on the mower and we'll see where it goes .

Breach 18:41

Alright , guys , several hours later and the mower deck is back on . It's functional , it is level . It's a puller , right mate , but it is level and it works . Are the prettiest welds in the world ? No , would I trust anyone else's life to it ? No , I say anyone else's because I'm pretty stupid . I risk my life for a lot of stupid stuff I do . But it's functional and at the end of the day , I've worked on a new skill . I now have a welder so I can get better at it . It's a useful skill and it only gets better with practice . Like everything else , I haven't wasted my day and I actually accomplished something , so it was worth it , and that's the whole reason behind it . So , like I said when I began this video , if you don't have a hobby , find one . You don't like it . Keep going until you find one you do . Until next time , guys , appreciate it . Bye .