I'm also super curious about this 11,000 in^3 engine. That sounds... Fun.
Back on topic, adding a few:
Taking a visibly cupped board and working it into useable s4s. Watching the contours move after every pass on the jointer, and then watching them move on the planer only for them to mostly/completely disappear when you reach final thickness.
When planing wood, the weight reduction as the rough sawn stack is too heavy to lift in one go to doable in one go. (Also the opposite, struggling with the dust collector shavings bag out of the shop)
Surfacing rough sawn stock and watching the grain get crazier and crazier after each pass. What looked like a boring piece of wood now has the cut list completely turned around because it's the feature in this project.
Oh yes, I agree, the smell of cutting, teddering, raking, and baling.
Reminds me of the Lovin Spoonful singing "... and fall on my face in somebodies new-mown lawn"
bailin_hay.jpg
A friend and I used to bale my fields but now with the horses and llamas and donkeys on pasture I pay the guys that bale for a living.
All I have to do is haul, unload and stack. I buy 150 bales at a time.
hay_grapple_2.jpg
JKJ
1. When my square meets up perfectly with my saw blades and then to my work piece.
2. Trees changing colors in the fall.
3. Flowing effortlessly through a series of curves on my SV650S.
4. Doing my job correctly and helping someone.
The feeling of riding your motorcycle with all your gear on it for a few weeks vacation............Rod.
The sound of a log splitting, and the first peek inside.
The first coat of finish
Putting a finished piece that I love in the hands of someone who loves it more.
Well, gee, if anything is fair game then:
The feeling of skiing in 2 feet of fresh powder when your tracks are the first of the day.
Witnessing ice sublime when you are out at -20F and the RH is so low that it does. Otherwise, -20F is almost never fun.
Seeing the Milky Way.
Getting the opportunity to witness wild animal babies suckle on mama.
Being scared to death and riveted with fascination at the same time from animals large enough to kill you and close enough to do it with no protective fence or gun.
A month long hike. The other hikers you meet along the way, except the scary ones. The wonderful people who give you food when you cross a road or buy you dinner in town, or the ones who give you a ride to get there - only to realize the second you close the car door that you haven't bathed in 10 days! That reaction is priceless.
John
Either an EMD or GE locomotive engine. 4300 and 4400 horsepower respectively. Ironically they have both went smaller and gotten more power per cubic inch. Rather than V-16's they are now V'12's. They also power a lot of towboats running up and down the Mississippi and it's tributaries. But I worked on the locomotive end of it. The 12 cylinders are actually 1,010 cubic inches per cylinder so a little larger displacement. They get 4,600 horsepower from the 12 cylinder.
“I love the smell of Napalm in the morning ... it smells like ... victory”
Sorry couldn’t resist.
There is a very fine line between “hobby” and “mental illness.” - Dave Barry
Nah. It's about memories. I worked as a production welder back when I was in High School. I took a night course at the local VoTech school and parlayed that into a job. it sure beat flipping hamburgers for the summer. My work was MIG but there was a lot of stick welding going on. I enjoyed those two summers more than any job since. So yeah, burning flux is stinky but the memories are great.