Showoff Your Other (Non-Rocket) Hobbies! *Eye Candy Please!*

I heard defacing coins is illegal... not sure about Taiwan's law however.

taiwanluthiers said:

I heard defacing coins is illegal... not sure about Taiwan's law however.

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This should clear things up:

U.S. Code is 18 U.S.C. §331 reads: "Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law made current or are in actual use or circulation as money within the United States; or whoever fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced, mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled or lightened - shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. [Emphasis added.]"

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Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who 'fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States. This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the U.S. Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent. (Source U.S. Mint)[Emphasis added.]

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So those machines that you see at tourist places that turns pennies into something else (souvenir coins) aren't breaking the law either?

taiwanluthiers said:

So those machines that you see at tourist places that turns pennies into something else (souvenir coins) aren't breaking the law either?

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It's only illegal if you try to pass it of as its face value afterwards. So, if you tried to use that penny as a penny, it's illegal. If you sold the penny to the other person as a souvenir coin, then it's perfectly legal.

Same for cut coins. You try to pass if off as US money, it's illegal. However sell it (or gift it) as jewelry, it's fine.

My latest batches of homebrew. Black IPA (Dark Matter) in the foreground in primary and Autumn Pumpkin Spice (Frosty Moon) in the secondary. My brewery is Final Frontier Brewing so the beers get astronomical or space flight games. Next up is A-okay Rye IPA.

Mike

My Gypsy said:

Can't go wrong with a Phil Thomas SS45. Mine has an Orlick Picco 45 under the cowl swinging a 1455.

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While we're at it... Here's my 1/8 scale of the My Gypsy, 2004 I.M.P.B.A. Concourse winner.

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Very Pretty Dennis, you guys have a really nice lake there as well- hope to make it up and run there one day.

The past couple years the fishing in Southern California has been ridiculous. I havent been flying rockets because of my other passion of freedive spearfishing. Here's a few pictures from some successful days in the water.

K'Tesh said:

It's only illegal if you try to pass it of as its face value afterwards. So, if you tried to use that penny as a penny, it's illegal. If you sold the penny to the other person as a souvenir coin, then it's perfectly legal.

Same for cut coins. You try to pass if off as US money, it's illegal. However sell it (or gift it) as jewelry, it's fine.

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Melting is a different story, but not a clear cut one. Pennies from before 1982 (and part of 1982) are 95% copper* and 5% zinc* and the that's 1.4¢ worth of copper at today's spot price. Pre 1965 dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollars are 90% silver 10% copper, and can be had, with patience, near spot price of their silver content on eBay. And no one buys small quantities of metals at spot price, so these can be real bargains as compared to what you'd pay from a metals dealer, as long as the quantities of other metals are tolerable for your application.

Melting these coins is not clearly artistic use like the cut coin above or coloring, but it's also not clearly fraudulent. I have melted them as a cheap source for experimental metallurgy and plan to do more as well as some small scale casting, but it's iffy as to whether or not I'll be breaking the law. When it's on the scale I plan, no T-man is going to bother with me.

As an aside, pennies from mid-1982 and later are copper plated zinc. If you're going to do one of those souvenir pennies, look through your pockets for an older one, because the copper plating on newer ones sometimes leaves gaps where the zinc shows through.

* There are exceptions, but they are only on considerably older pennies. During WWII there were zinc plated steel pennies for three years, and there have been periods in which they were 95% copper, but the other 5% could be either zinc or tin. These are very rarely in circukation, but I did find three "steelies" in my pocket one day about a year ago.

Sculpting, learning the banjo, and drawing...

Attempting Monokote for the first time in 25+ years...



Chris

With all the ARFS out there I surprised you can still buy MonoKote. Looks nice, I covered a sailplane in white/navy years ago.

@ K'Tesh, 01 Aug 2015

Thanks for doing this. As one who has done an endo due to a storm drain, face first into the road, this is appreciated. Maybe only road cyclists appreciate this . . .

It also looks like you've built a couple of BluBabys.

FatBoy said:

Sculpting, learning the banjo, and drawing...

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I'm amazed by your drawing! :eyepop:

Blackleaf99 said:

@ K'Tesh, 01 Aug 2015

Thanks for doing this. As one who has done an endo due to a storm drain, face first into the road, this is appreciated. Maybe only road cyclists appreciate this . . .

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Not a problem. I'm amazed that with all the lawsuits in this nation that there's still a problem with it.

Yeah, I saw the word
Drawing
Saw the drawing
Brain perceived
Picture,,
The comment about the drawing made me go back and look.
I was distracted by the sculpting, something I've considered.

I just got the Grizzly G0758 mill... haven't got anything in mind as far as what I'd make. I got it for making small guitar parts, some smithing, etc.

It has proven itself quite useful in sharpening cutters... I can install a dremel grinding wheel in the collet and clamp the cutter in the desired angle, then move the table to sharpen the cutter. It made the cutter real sharp and in fact the surface looks like it was done by a surface grinder even though the stone is fairly coarse. Now the cutter's so sharp that it's taking a very aggressive cut.

taiwanluthiers said:

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I just got the Grizzly G0758 mill... haven't got anything in mind as far as what I'd make. I got it for making small guitar parts, some smithing, etc.

It has proven itself quite useful in sharpening cutters... I can install a dremel grinding wheel in the collet and clamp the cutter in the desired angle, then move the table to sharpen the cutter. It made the cutter real sharp and in fact the surface looks like it was done by a surface grinder even though the stone is fairly coarse. Now the cutter's so sharp that it's taking a very aggressive cut.

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I love the Grizzly products I own and their shoes room in Bellingham,WA is amazing. For the money they make excellent product.

You know first I thought when I wanted a mill was to get their mini mill (G8786) but there were some stuff I didn't like about it. For one thing the column could easily shift due to chatter or whatnot... and I really hated MT3 collet (bang on the drawbar to loosen the endmill, where it will slam on the table damaging it). So I went with this even though it's about 200 dollars more. Other than the limited Z axis height (9") which really limits things if you use the chuck and any drill bit at all (and a vise), but this mill is a lot smoother, more precise, and the fixed column is very rigid. The quill DRO helps a lot too because sometimes the fine feed knob have heaps of backlash.

Okay, you asked for it!


ride dirt bikes with my son:


and build pimpn' AK's

Here is a shot of my old Lionel layout with wooden rail ties.



Here is a shot of my N scale layout

grouch said:

With all the ARFS out there I surprised you can still buy MonoKote. Looks nice, I covered a sailplane in white/navy years ago.

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When you visit Roy's Hobby Shop up in Hurst, you will see a ton of Monokote and Ultrakote is n stock, as well as dozens of kits that are not ARFs. Still builders out there.

You will likely end up visiting there because: not counting HobbyTown in Arlington (fair amount of LP rocket stuff) or Hobby Lobby, they have the best selection of LP Estes and similar kits in Tarrant county, assuming you do low power.

Tons of building supplies as well.

grouch said:

With all the ARFS out there I surprised you can still buy MonoKote. Looks nice, I covered a sailplane in white/navy years ago.

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Thanks! One of my local hobby shops carries a pretty good assortment of covering. Love the smell of that place... The covering is pretty easy once you get back into it. I got the tail covered this week, maybe the fuselage tonight...

BEC said:

It also looks like you've built a couple of BluBabys.

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A BluBaby 33" lives in my car all summer. There's a nice park on the way to work, and I can usually get 10-15 minutes of stick time if the weather cooperates. There's a foam Piranha in there too.

Finished cutting this today... A 1970's Taiwanese $1 coin. It's about 1" in circumference.

Here is where I got my username, I'm a home winemaker. Specifically a nut for Cabernet red wine. I've made a few batches at home as well as Strawberry and Mango wines. At 30 bottles a batch, it takes me forever to drink. More time aging I guess.
The strawberry wine(in the carboy pic below) was made from 5 buckets of fresh field ripened organic strawberries. Oh man the wonderful smell when you cracked open a bottle! 30 bottles of it though was way too much. At 14% alc. it was a hit at parties. The second pic is Cabernet Sauvignon in mid-fermentation.




I am also an amateur programmer in C,Java & Basic. I'm working on a few Android games, One of which had a run on Google Play.
This is was on Google Play for a year before Atari complained that it was too much like Asteroids and... it got pulled



This was a racing game that I was working on. The car physics worked good, only 2D flat-plane though, so no jumps.



This was a 3D RPG I was tinkering with - RPG are way too tough to make good. But it was a good start.



Here is my latest one, title screen for a 2D platformer(with temporary graphic set). Very early stages of development. Plays a lot like Mario. I'll have to make it different enough so Nintendo doesn't get their panties in a bundle...

FatBoy said:

Sculpting, learning the banjo, and drawing...

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Beautiful pencil drawing Jeff!
If I haven't gave you this advice about the banjo - get a Metronome and start slow.
Speed will come on it's own.
When you get ambitious enough, check out the "How To Build A Banjo" section in the Scrugg's book.
Then stop by www.stewmac.com for all the pre-fab parts.
I've built a dozen banjos over the years.



This is a one-of-a-kind Piccolo banjo, only 23.5" long. It's like playing your full size banjo at the 12th fret or an octave up.
It was a scratch build back in 1979. I even did the Gong Show with it!
It opened a lot of doors. Roy Clark played it onstage and Glen Cambell's banjoist (Carl Jackson) used it once in Glen's show.

Thanks! That is a sketch of Wally Shira prior to his Apollo 7 flight.

I think I have seen your piccolo banjo somewhere on your website. Pretty cool! Thanks for the stewmac link. I had no idea that people could build their own banjos. Thanks for the banjo advice. I have been talking lessons since December and I mostly just pick with my finger tips, but lately I have been using finger picks and now I am getting way better sound.

K'Tesh said:

Finished cutting this today... A 1970's Taiwanese $1 coin. It's about 1" in circumference.

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That looks awesome! :clap:

tab28682 said:

When you visit Roy's Hobby Shop up in Hurst, you will see a ton of Monokote and Ultrakote is n stock, as well as dozens of kits that are not ARFs. Still builders out there.

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Been going to Roy's for 30+ years. Not really the same anymore.