Your projects, what are you working on in your free time? Options

[mirocu]

Wow, you are all tuned up in firewood for the next winter!

Yup


New roof over woodcutter is done and I have to say it turned out great. Metal sheets were cut into proper length and old holes filled with goo and then all four were hauled up and secured. Unfortunately I can't provide you with pixies. Imgur has undergone changes now and they are so severe my computer shuts down and restarts. It's happened twice now. Looks like I need a new pic dump again. Sigh.


I wonder if I can piggyback on ghastley's site?

This post has been edited by mirocu: Jul 15 2018, 03:08 PM

[stargelman]

My current project is a home gym. So far I have this:

- Concept 2 Model D rowing machine
- treadmill
- adjustable multibench (inclines to about 85 degrees)
- set of barbells and dumbbells and weight plates plus a rack to store them in
- bench for ab and back exercises
- protective floor tiles
- a bench for relaxing on
- a Tv and a little media box that you can play music videos on

So this is all pretty good and I'm getting good results but I want to get into some serious lifting, and lifting with barbells is somewhat risky if you're doing it all alone without a spotter or anything.

So I wanna buy a power rack.

For those that don't know what that is, it's a metal cage, usually about 2.2 meters high (7.2' ish) and it has contraptions for putting down the barbell and most importantly, it has an adjustable safety bar that you can set to a hight that, if you lift the barbell above your body -such as when benchpressing- and your strength fails, it will crash on those bars and not on you. So a pretty good thing. Also, some of them come with or offer as an upgrade option a lat pull addition with a pulley system so you can do exercises for your back and shoulders as well as cable curls and stuff like that.

Today I've pondered whether to get a full rack or a half rack, and whether or not to add a lat pull option, and if so, whether it should be plate loaded or plug weights. I've actually been pondering this for quite a while, also the question if it will actually fit in the room at all.

Have any of you build a home gym with stuff like this? If so, I'd be very interested in hearing of your experiences!

[Acadian]

I’ve been a gym rat for most of my life, fueled in part by my career in the US Marines. So I’m well familiar with gyms.

You are wise to focus on safety as a concern, and the Smith Machine you describe is one I use even in full gyms due to the safety stop feature where can set a hard limit on how far down the bar can go. The Smith Machine also prevents another hazard – losing balance with a heavy barbell aloft, resulting in potentially a hazardous fall.

I’ve toyed with the idea of trying to make my own gym but always abandoned the idea due to space, cost and good access to full gyms. To get what you envision is a significant investment. I’m guessing you’ve looked at all that and perhaps don’t have convenient / affordable access to a full gym.

Sorry not of much help beyond endorsing the use of a Smith Machine for heavy bar work.

[stargelman]

I've been to gyms in the past. I'm sorry to have to say this, but there just aren't any good ones anywhere near, neither in convenient range (I'm living in the countryside) nor in the next bigger town (which would be Brunswick (not counting Peine here)). I've been to gyms there and all of them have exercise bikes, treadmills, cross trainers and if you're very lucky a small amount of rowing machines. Beyond that, it's machines for muscles. Not one of them even had a half rack. One had a single pullup/dip bar which was constantly in use. They all had some dumbbells and barbells and benches, but nothing approaching anything you'd consider useful for functional training.

There's that, but more importantly, I'm working out every day before work for about an hour (30 minutes cardio, 30-45 minutes of free weight lifting). It'd be almost impossible for me to integrate that into my daily life if I had to drive somewhere first as I'm usually already pressed for time. Also, this way I can watch music videos of my choosing while I work out, which has proven to boost my motivation a lot. There's nothing like working the treadmill to the beats of some good eurodance music, like 2 Unlimited, or other music with a good beat.

And then, I don't know if that's just a problem here, but there are really weird people visiting the gyms here. Not all of them are weird, but the weird ones are certainly sticking out

PS: it's a power rack I want to get, not a smith machine - the idea of it offering much safety of course being pretty much the same:

[Acadian]

Makes good sense in your circumstances. I'm spoiled with nice weather and my gym an easy walk away.

Ah yes, I've seen similar power racks - something like that should be perfect. Nice addition having the stuff up high for pull ups. And are those adjustable dip bars on one side? Very clever if so.

[stargelman]

Makes good sense in your circumstances. I'm spoiled with nice weather and my gym an easy walk away.

Ah yes, I've seen similar power racks - something like that should be perfect. Nice addition having the stuff up high for pull ups. And are those adjustable dip bars on one side? Very clever if so.

Yes, they're adjustable. They come off and on the same way as j-bars

[Decrepit]

It's finally finished uploading and ready for view, Transport Fever Scenic Ride-Along ep7 - Goods for Dunwich.

In this one we ride the rails carrying Goods to the city of Dunwich then return to the Goods Complex with a load of food for eventual delivery by truck to Kidderminster, Goodstown and Farmland Village.

Otherwise I've done no projects worthy of the name. Still feeling run down from that lawn mow just over a week ago have done practically nothing other than mope about the house. Felt decently better yesterday, but partial relapsed after missing most of last night's sleep due to the upload. (Stinking Windows keeps putting my PC to sleep even though I told it not to in Settings.)

[Decrepit]

Gonna mow the lawn later this evening. Dread it. Haven't fully recovered from the last mow. That said, this is our "coolest" days in and for some time. Even the "feels like" temp will be several degrees below 90F when I start. Can't afford to pass up this opportunity.

Got a clean bill of health from the Neurologist. Scored 34 (out of 38?) on the memory test, which I take almost every year. Better yet, I'm now officially allowed to take my sure-file migraine ender Zomig again!!!! The nurse I started out with turned me to an OTC electrolyte restorer. Bought two containers of it during today's grocery run. Have already taken a few swigs, but am saving most of the first bottle until after today's mow.

Prepared this year's termite insurance renewal payment for mailing tomorrow. (Need to remember to buy more stamps. I've one left.)

As mentioned, made a grocery run this morning. Total, just over $41US, including electrolyte restorer. Not bad at all. No surprises or splurging. Just stuff I purchase week after week after week.

Over that past several days I "filmed" what might well be the main video and most prelude clips for episode eight of my TpF Scenic Ride-Along series.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jul 23 2018, 11:39 PM

[Decrepit]

Mowing went well. If anything I felt better at the end than when I started. Certainly no worse. Felt well enough this morning to trim my one remaining "real" tree and a few emerging weed bushes. Still need to trim a super big weed tree in the back yard and some trees/bushed along the fence bordering my back yard and a low-rent apartment complex. Carted removed limbs to the neighbor's burn pile. He gave me carte blanche to do so some years ago, but I'm gonna check with him later today to make sure it's still okay.

No other "productive" projects for the day come to mind. Well, maybe work a bit on my next TpF ride-along video.

[mirocu]

Sounds good, Decrepit. Nice to know you are still in shape to do yard work



We just changed coolant in tractor. Much needed as it was more sludge than coolant/water at this point

[mALX]

My current project is a home gym. So far I have this:

- Concept 2 Model D rowing machine
- treadmill
- adjustable multibench (inclines to about 85 degrees)
- set of barbells and dumbbells and weight plates plus a rack to store them in
- bench for ab and back exercises
- protective floor tiles
- a bench for relaxing on
- a Tv and a little media box that you can play music videos on

So this is all pretty good and I'm getting good results but I want to get into some serious lifting, and lifting with barbells is somewhat risky if you're doing it all alone without a spotter or anything.

So I wanna buy a power rack.

For those that don't know what that is, it's a metal cage, usually about 2.2 meters high (7.2' ish) and it has contraptions for putting down the barbell and most importantly, it has an adjustable safety bar that you can set to a hight that, if you lift the barbell above your body -such as when benchpressing- and your strength fails, it will crash on those bars and not on you. So a pretty good thing. Also, some of them come with or offer as an upgrade option a lat pull addition with a pulley system so you can do exercises for your back and shoulders as well as cable curls and stuff like that.

Today I've pondered whether to get a full rack or a half rack, and whether or not to add a lat pull option, and if so, whether it should be plate loaded or plug weights. I've actually been pondering this for quite a while, also the question if it will actually fit in the room at all.

Have any of you build a home gym with stuff like this? If so, I'd be very interested in hearing of your experiences!

Your neighbors and friends will be knocking on your door day and night to see if you "don't mind if they use the equipment for an hour,"

[mALX]

Gonna mow the lawn later this evening. Dread it. Haven't fully recovered from the last mow. That said, this is our "coolest" days in and for some time. Even the "feels like" temp will be several degrees below 90F when I start. Can't afford to pass up this opportunity.

Got a clean bill of health from the Neurologist. Scored 34 (out of 38?) on the memory test, which I take almost every year. Better yet, I'm now officially allowed to take my sure-file migraine ender Zomig again!!!! The nurse I started out with turned me to an OTC electrolyte restorer. Bought two containers of it during today's grocery run. Have already taken a few swigs, but am saving most of the first bottle until after today's mow.

Prepared this year's termite insurance renewal payment for mailing tomorrow. (Need to remember to buy more stamps. I've one left.)

As mentioned, made a grocery run this morning. Total, just over $41US, including electrolyte restorer. Not bad at all. No surprises or splurging. Just stuff I purchase week after week after week.

Over that past several days I "filmed" what might well be the main video and most prelude clips for episode eight of my TpF Scenic Ride-Along series.

I haven't seen the vid yet, but I will come back to it. Really glad to hear your medical report, that sounds like it went really well!

Wow, you are all tuned up in firewood for the next winter!

Yup


New roof over woodcutter is done and I have to say it turned out great. Metal sheets were cut into proper length and old holes filled with goo and then all four were hauled up and secured. Unfortunately I can't provide you with pixies. Imgur has undergone changes now and they are so severe my computer shuts down and restarts. It's happened twice now. Looks like I need a new pic dump again. Sigh.


I wonder if I can piggyback on ghastley's site?

Glad the roof is done, don't want the little yellow 'Cavator getting rained on! But...I came here seeing you saying something about sludge in her? GAAAAAAAAH !!!! Better take better care of her than that! Poor baby 'Cavator!

Sounds good, Decrepit. Nice to know you are still in shape to do yard work



We just changed coolant in tractor. Much needed as it was more sludge than coolant/water at this point

GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! "NOOOOOOOO!"

[stargelman]

Your neighbors and friends will be knocking on your door day and night to see if you "don't mind if they use the equipment for an hour,"

Yupp, well, I had it all planned. Then the gf, who has been kept informed of all plans all steps of the way steps in and lets me know she feels uncomfortable with all that sporting equipment stuffed into that room. That's the end of that, I guess.

[mirocu]

@mALX - Tractor and Cavator is not the same thing

[Acadian]

Yupp, well, I had it all planned. Then the gf, who has been kept informed of all plans all steps of the way steps in and lets me know she feels uncomfortable with all that sporting equipment stuffed into that room. That's the end of that, I guess.

@mALX - Tractor and Cavator is not the same thing

Tractors are sexy; Cavators are cool. There ya go!

[Decrepit]

For the first time since that lawn mow in super hot weather over a week ago I felt up to attempting an exercise-walk this morning. Went well. Maintained my "normal" pace so far as I could tell. Even managed a decent burst of speed at the end. Only negative I noticed is slightly more labored breathing. Hope it's temporary. Might or might not resume dumbbell exercises this afternoon. If not today, tomorrow. <crosses fingers>

Putting together TpF SRA ep8. Still need a short Eastleigh Station closing video and most text narrative. It's slow going, not helped by the fact that Eastleigh Station has no added scenery on one side. Considering the point of this series is scenery that's sort of hard to work around. And no, I can't add scenery there. Well, I could. But. It's part of Eastleigh proper. I expect the city to expand and overwrite anything I add there. Hmm....I suppose I can add a hedge row highlighted with occasional trees bordering the tracks on that side. I won't mind those being overwritten. Better than nothing?

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jul 25 2018, 01:22 PM

[stargelman]

For the first time since that lawn mow in super hot weather over a week ago I felt up to attempting an exercise-walk this morning. Went well. Maintained my "normal" pace so far as I could tell. Even managed a decent burst of speed at the end. Only negative I noticed is slightly more labored breathing. Hope it's temporary. Might or might not resume dumbbell exercises this afternoon. If not today, tomorrow. <crosses fingers>

I'd think everyone is breathing heavier in this weather when doing any kind of physical activity. I certainly do. My home gym was at 30C this morning

[Acadian]

Decrepit, you'd think when it got hot enough the grass would be considerate enough not to grow!

Stargelman, does this mean you'll be adding 'air conditioner' to your list of required home gym equipment?

[stargelman]

Decrepit, you'd think when it got hot enough the grass would be considerate enough not to grow!

Stargelman, does this mean you'll be adding 'air conditioner' to your list of required home gym equipment?

The only place I have air conditioning is in my car. Nah, I'm doing my morning routine in 30C as well. It just means I need to drink more and I'm even more tired afterwards.

[Sakiri]

Our grass is long dead. lol