Why a forum on disabilities?

[Kasual]

I am suffering from degenerative osteo arthritis and have been for the last six years. This means I operate machinery when on morphine. My ability to stand for more than 10 minutes is low that my workshop has 2 chairs and a stool.

All the planning for work is safety first because it has to be as my concentration levels are low especially after 3 or 4 hours. I get up around 0600 and am in bed around 1300 to 1400. As a chronic pain sufferer my lifestyle until recently (last 18 months) was extremely depressing.

There are those that will say that I shouldn't operate machinery, especially on my medication, but I say that my sanity is only kept in check BECAUSE I have my workshop!

If I stopped then the alternative is to crawl up into a ball and do nothing and did that for 4 1/2 years (4.5000 in imperial) so since its my life, my decision and my workshop, that's what I will do. The importance of this forum and those who contact me via my website and blog is that it gives me the social intercourse (no smut here please) that most human beings, including me, need.

So I am happy with my lot and am enjoying model making. ANYTHING can be overcome if the payback is good enough. Anything.

The usefullness of doing even small jobs for others is immense to the mental well being. So if I can do it (whatever it is?) then so can anyone.

Just read this for spelling and hey, life's better that the read! Oh happy days........ :big:

Well then.

Guess I found the right place.
******** Military here with a magangled up lower back and right cryattic nerve makes life....interesting.

I took possession of some family tools from my dad, grandpa, and uncle. Now I'm taking the long route on getting a shop setup.

Got parts for three Atals 19" lathes, an Enco mill and an Atlas Shaper. With a whole bunch of fiddly bits to make em all play nice.

First order of business is staying motivated long enough to put order into all that mess. I'd take a picture if I didn't think the image of all that clutter wouldnt break the camera.

Where is that magical locus if motivation? How did you come to terms with the pain versus productivity?

K.

 

[Cogsy]

Welcome K. For me, getting into the shed and getting something done is somewhat therapeutic, in fact when I get really engrossed in something the pain seems to reduce. Having said that, there are times the pain gets too much and I just have to stop what I'm doing for the day/week/whatever. At least for me, except when I having a really bad period, I know I'm going to hurt being in the shed but I'd be hurting a fair bit anyway just sitting in the house except I wouldn't be having any fun.

 

[DJP]

I recently read that the average life expectancy for males in North America is age 84 while the average for life without a disability is age 70. On average if you have a home workshop you are likely to spend about 14 years working with a disability. Then you die while cutting threads on a lathe.

I have recently proven this to be true with two fractured vertebrae resulting in difficulty standing or walking. My solution has been to add seating in my shop which also becomes handy when a buddy stops over to chat (social time is good). I built a small platform for my Bridgeport so that reaching the collet release shaft was not such a stretch.

I can see where those who move to a retirement residence may have given up too much. They gave up their home workshop.

 

[marvin hedberg]

i have visited a model maker that worked in a redone closet by using smaller machines
and building exquisite small models. all work was done sitting down.
he had a small shop vac to keep chips out of the rest of the apartment

 

[Cogsy]

The big problem with average life expectancy data is the 'average' bit is often skewed greatly towards a lower age. Because of all the things that kill large amounts of kids and youth, like drugs, wars, fast cars and suicides, which don't affect older generations anywhere near as much, an average population life expectancy of 84 likely means that if you are one of the lucky ones to make it to your 80's then you're highly likely to live into your 90's. So be careful about giving up the things you like to do just because you might be approaching a milestone.

 

[DJP]

I'm not giving up anything due to age which is the reason to discuss machining with a disability. The only discovery is that disabilities are real and they happen earlier in life than you might expect. They are usually a surprise as well.

My injury and now disability has cost me retirement time which I need to make up now.

 

[goldstar31]

I'm not giving up anything due to age which is the reason to discuss machining with a disability. The only discovery is that disabilities are real and they happen earlier in life than you might expect. They are usually a surprise as well.

My injury and now disability has cost me retirement time which I need to make up now.

I would certainly agree with most of your comments especially about the possibility of an early situation.
Really it is a bit more than that said he now approaching his 89th year.
All this concern about continuing to go into your workshop and doing things is more than a little presumptive.
The certain odds are that 1 in 4 of us white blokes will have prostate cancer whilst our more coloured cousins the figure is more likely to be 1 in 3 or even 1 in 2. For the other side, the ladies, the chances of cancers or plumbing problems are just as high. Then for those 3 in 4 of us will have strokes or cancers or have a collection of stents as people like my son in law will perform- and if luck hols out, maybe a few more.
Laughingly, it holds good but only if we can afford to be alive. certainly, the dates when a younger generation can leave their worksop job and stop trying to do what they did at 20 is being further and further beyond the biblical three score years and ten. Retirement on a pittance beyond 70++- ??? Listen to my kids who have damned good salaries, own their own houses outright and have no worries that grandpa will have ensured that the now kiddies will have their uni needs sorted out. Assuming that I complete the 7 year rule of inheritance provisions having ticked off half already.

And then there is the thing called- I forgot for a moment- dementia or --- I forget.

Of course, if we are lucky, we will live in a care home amongst the stench of involuntary urination or worse.
But can we or those to whom we have given Enduring Powers of Attorney( or local equivalent) enough money to - well- avoid a pauper's grave.

Well, tonight, I'm dining out---- again- the Freemasons do a smashing meal and a drop of beer for a ten pound note. For the time being, my kids have little worries. They will scrap what is laughingly called my workshop as they will enough to worry about in my other impossible affairs as a zany and somewhat smelly widower.

My workshop plans- really- by the time I have devoured all my pills, drunk my obligatory de-caff( because I tend to leak) I have forgotten to have breakfast-- or where I have put some of my tools necessary to complete some vast project which I envisaged-- when I had a ---- memory.

Think about it- NOW

Regards from whoever I am.

 

[MachineTom]

Last I heard your name was Norman, still sharing most useful and not thoughts, that often bring a smile to the reader.

The general thought is that if you live to 65, you can expect to live 20 years more. So occasionally I test that idea with the local newspaper. I find that the obits proves that to be accurate most of the time.
The county I live in has a very large number of senior communities, so there is no problem finding data every morning.

To keep the brain tuned up, do the math in your head . Only use deaths of someone over 65, then add/ subtract the years more or less than 85. So a guy at 90 is +5, and at 70 a -15. After this +/- the result is close to zero most the time.

 

[Cogsy]

I checked on the current life expectancy figures and they differ a bit even in North America. For males, 78.7 years in the USA vs. ~80 in Canada. The 84 year figure is for females in Canada. So the data you're seeing from the obituaries seems to match pretty well in that case, where the actual average age of people who make it to 'old' age is quite a few years higher than the average life expectancy. The bad news is the life expectancy age is less than what we thought, and is starting to reduce with time, potentially due to the modern lifestyle.

 

[Henk Lensing]

I’m almost seventy and live in the Netherlands. When I was forty I had a heart attack and stroke. After the recovery I started my own business in making software until my retirement. Because of a lot of medicines Parkinson visited me and severe cluster headaches came with it. Now I’m shaking, using oxygen to keep the headaches acceptable and my heart is a porcelain organ, my doctor said.

But I was grown up as a engineer, studied a long time and have my engineering degrees. I tell you: they can never kill that engineer in me. So now I have my own ‘cave’ with a lot of tools and restoring a Myford 7 lathe. I’m at work every day, singing a song and very happy!

 

[plonker0169]

Go for it Henk, I also live in the Neterlands. Didn’t have the ability to restore a Myford so had to buy one. Enjoying it immensely.

 

[plonker0169]

I meant Netherlands

 

[Matt mercer]

Good for you sir! 70 years young and in you shop everyday still tinkering with things. I'm 30 and I hope I'm just like you st that age!!

 

[reubenT]

Modern lifestyle and diet is messing up a lot of us. While modern medicine keeps us going awhile, the quality of life is questionable at times. Watching it all and researching the causes behind it all, I have decided to do something about it. First I'm going to aim at growing all my own food using nutrient dense fertility methods, to pack all the nutrition possible into what I eat, (as well as enhancing the flavor to maximum so it's really fun to eat) Then try to aim at eating it all fresh from the plants. The fresher the better, the less processing the better, even just cooking kills the life element of the plant products, and it seems that eating all live food from plants can extend life a long ways beyond normal as well as avoiding many of the problems that come on us causing pain and difficulty. And the lifestyle of outside work in agriculture is the healthiest possible I think, and low stress as possible. From what I have read that's the best plan I could come up with. And along with it I enjoy working with metal. Small scale foundry and machining type metal working. So I aim to use that to make agriculture support machines, things that aren't being manufactured any more. While I'm 53 and still pretty healthy and fit, I see some age related issues starting to show up and don't like what I'm seeing. (and feeling) I can't let things go any further downhill, have to get busy on a solution. Life is just too interesting to watch it slip away too soon. If I get it just right perhaps I could make it to over 250 like Li Ching Yuen did. Or at least past 150 like a man did back in old England (I think it was England, don't remember for sure) He hated to cook and when his wife died he just quit cooking anything. A poor gardener and goat keeper. But at 152 he was invited to go live with royalty and no longer had to fix his own meals, and died shortly after.
But I think machining is a nice hobby that keeps the mind engaged instead of just wasting away in boredom, and can be done by disabled as well with very little extra adaptation. One who keeps busy doing interesting things is going to last a lot longer than one who has no hobbies.

 

[DJP]

It's good to see that you have a plan and one that reduces processed foods in your diet. We have always tended a small vegetable garden mostly as a way to show children and grandchildren what fresh food looks like before it is processed. Our heritage is farming even though we live in a city now and watching family survive on the farms may prompt you to revise your plan. It is definitely not a stress free life as nature makes growing crops difficult at times. To compensate farmers kept dairy cows but they require daily care and feeding so you become trapped on a farm. Finances become an issue when machines need to be purchased yet without the machines the amount of land required to sustain a family is too large. My observation is that the life span of farmers is not greater and mostly they get severely injured while working.

Metal fabricating is satisfying as a hobby but those that do it full time end up with respiratory or eyesight problems in my experience.

So, keep your plan but focus on eating fresh food would be my suggestion and get ready for age 70 when a disability is likely. I know.

 

[Rocket Man]

My biggest problem these days is motivation. I have a lot of pain in my back, hips & legs. I can play in the work shop as long as I have a chair. I love science it took me several years of experiments, building, testing, I finally built a small German V1 pulse jet engines that will run for a week with no valve damage. My blood sugar has been giving me trouble for a while I finally learned not to eat sugar or carbohydrates, lots of protein for breakfast and lunch. I can eat what I want for dinner. I have built several, steam engines, several hot air engines, several jet engines, electric engines, they have all become boring now I need another more technical project to challenge my brain, something useful like a steam power generator to power the work shop would be nice. I like the Full Size hit & miss engines but not the table top models they sound like toys. Now I am having AFib heart problems this is driving me nuts it makes me dizzy and weak, I stopped drinking caffeine and it has mostly cleared up. I have a good friend in Germany that I met online but we have never met in person, we have fun sharing our projects. Siggi speaks enough English that we can talk, his English makes me laugh so hard it makes my day every time I receive an email from him. He puts English words together is a funny way, uses the wrong word and spells English like he would spell German like, pikture instead of picture. Siggi is the curator of WWII museums in Germany he tells me I know more about German V1 & V2 rockets that he does. LOL. Siggi lives near the border of Netherlands in a small town next to a river. Siggi built a 1 transistor ham radio receiver he sent me piktures. I have been building electric things too, 3 transistor transmitter, 2 LED light blinker, induction heater, I sent him piktures. Siggi built a rocket engine, jet engine and turbine engine, I sent him pics of my models but no pics of my first rocket engine it flew out of the mounts and went threw the plywood wall it has been inside the wall 35 years. I built a larger rocket engine it pulled the work bench in the center of the shop out the 8 ft garage door an down the driveway it went before I jumped on the work bench an made it stop. I got out of bed at 3 am this morning my hips were hurting me so bad I could not sleep. Doctor gave me meds, 1 made me pee my pants all day the other made me sleep 23 hours every day. I have a terrible time sleeping my legs hurt me so bad. I have learned to buy wine by the case a glass of wine at bed time works better than any meds I have taken. It is hard for me to sleep more than 5 or 6 hours each time. April 20 I can start planting the garden this is 1 of my few motivations these days. Tomatoes, corn, beans, potatoes, garlic, onions, melons, carrots, peppers, okra, herbs, we eat good and healthy too, no toxic chemicals. We put 1 year of food in pantry & refrigerator every year. We go camping all year mostly spring and fall, camping is miserable in 100 degree summer heat but we don't mind winter camping in 20 degrees the camp fire feels good. We love to be camping when it snows. Today is always the first day of a new project what every it turns out to be I made about 30 drawings of ideas. I am considering an ammonia engine it is self contained with a tiny flame like hot air engine and with radiator cooling. I have learned that I can buy 10 bottles of laundry ammonia and concentrate ammonia from 10 bottles into 1 bottle to run an engine. I have piktures how do I upload them here. My Bridgeport mill and Church Hill lathe are so dirty I have been wanting to clean them up and repaint them but then I probably won't want to use them I might get a dirty spot on the new paint. I have always hated my ugly green color Browning surface grinder it should be painted for sure. I have been thinking about painting them for many years not sure I ever will it is more fun to build a new project.

 

[DJP]

Instead of wine I tried CBD oil and it worked to reduce back pain but my legs still go numb if I stand too long. Your life story and recent disabilities could be anyone's story. I think it's common world wide.

I too have a dirty Bridgeport mill and Myford lathe that could use a good coat of paint while the shop needs to be better organized but as you say I might not use it as much if making it dirty makes extra work.

I had to build a small platform for operating the Bridgeport to reach and release the R8 collet. It was also necessary to add stools to sit which generated a benefit when buddies come over to talk.

We can cope.

 

[Sprocket]

There are things we can't change, like our heredity, and pure aging, but there are portions of our lives we have control over. Seeing as this board involves a lot of teaching/ learning, and I assume there are some young guys here, what would you tell them to help avoid the things that that are giving you problems now?
I'll start. This one is easy
Forty years ago, I started to notice a change in my hearing, couldn't hear as well against background noise. I started wearing hearing protection anytime I was making noise. My hearing is no worse now than it was then, and significantly better than my wife's, but hers is hereditary.
If you could have changed something, what would it be?

(If I can figure out how to update my profile, I will)
Doug

 

[goldstar31]

I'll start. This one is easy
Forty years ago, I started to notice a change in my hearing, couldn't hear as well against background noise. I started wearing hearing protection anytime I was making noise. My hearing is no worse now than it was then, and significantly better than my wife's, but hers is hereditary.



Doug

Everyone's hearing gets worse with time.

Get an audiogram of both ears and compare it with past results.

I have the traditional 'ski jump' audiograms from aircraft noise and getting rid of relegated ammunition when I was 18-19 years of age. I'm now 88+

Oddly, the British government through the Royal British Legion have finally given me a set of proper hearing aids which on the commercial market would be at least£6000.

Cheers

N

 

[DJP]

I book titled 'Younger Next Year' revealed the secret for me. It's true that heredity and illness early in life limits expectancy but to be younger next year we need to hunt or forage for food every day. The book reveals that a primitive portion of the human brain needs to know that you have gone hunting or foraging every day in order to process food correctly. Without time hunting or foraging the brain assumes there is a famine or injury preventing this normal activity and food is stored differently. All it takes is 40 minutes every day of walking and that's why owning a dog is so beneficial. Our dog taught us to go for a walk every day.

Eat healthy food (not processed) and walk every day is the message that I share with younger people. I'm not sure that they listen even with good hearing.

The book concludes that you can easily maintain the fitness and vitality of age 60 until the 80s which is how you stop aging and become younger next year. In my case childhood illnesses and injury in my 70s have shortened the good years but I keep going best that I can.