Ordinary tasks are now.....

[flehto]

Tasks that were formerly easy are now tasks to be celebrated for their difficulty as if I was starting to build in 1977.  Shown below is a sideplate that took an inordinate amount of time to complete and which now is ready to be inletted. ...sideplates used to be one of the easiest of builds and inlets, but no longer.

This definitely is not a complaint or a summons for sympathy, but some info concerning failing eyesight. I can readily imagine the original builders who had to "hang it up" because of bad eyesight and whose trade was their livelihood.... while.mine is just a hobby.

Started building when 45 yrs old and although this is hindsight, should have started at a younger age.  So, you younger builders, build as many as you can manage.....Fred

   

[Joe S.]

Ya kinda a bummer having to put on magnifiers,glasses ect. to do the tasks involved in building these things.I'm certain if I was building this thing in my twenty's my plain 'ol eyes would have been plenty.While it was a slow gradual process my eye sight really took a $#@* after fifty.While I still see pretty good down field reading and doing real up close intricate work without help(glasses) is a must.I see or should I say feel where your coming from   

[Mike Brooks]

I can't see worth a crapola any more either Fred and you probably have 25 years on me. I have a "bandolier" of glasses of different magnifications to get me through the task at hand, but my sight still isn't what it used to be when I was 20 even with all the glasses.....

[JCKelly]

First pistol 1959 had a $5 Miller Bedford lock & a round .45 cal Numrich barrel. My peak was early '70's making some 1/3 scale guns.

Hands used to know what they were doing. Let my skills lapse. Now each time I pick up a tool, of any kind, I spend a while thinking about just how to use this thing.

But at 76 I have a nice new set of plastic eyes, nothing to blame but my own inactivity.

[oldtravler61]

 Fred I understand completely an J.C I know have had never damage in both hands for several years. No complaints it's just the way it is. But dang my friend Jack Duprey is 81 an still shoots iron sights. Plus he's still building some mighty fine guns too! Hope I'm still moving at that age. Oldtravler

[jerrywh]

 so far my eyes are fair and my hands are real steady.  My strength is going fast. My back looks like a pile up on the freeway on a MRI.  Standing kills me. 

[Bill Raby]

   At 47 years old my legs are a wreck. Guess I broke them too many times. Can't stand for too long at a time and running does not work so well any more. Back is kid of a mess too. Right arm is fairly well deformed at I smashed it all up. But the crazy thing is that my eyes are actually getting better somehow. Started wearing glasses when I was 13 and vision steadily got worse until I was about 40. I still see about the same at long distance, but I have perfect vision up close now. Used to need glasses for reading. Now I can't read with them on.

[Daryl]

Tasks that were formerly easy are now tasks to be celebrated for their difficulty as if I was starting to build in 1977.  Shown below is a sideplate that took an inordinate amount of time to complete and which now is ready to be inletted. ...sideplates used to be one of the easiest of builds and inlets, but no longer.

This definitely is not a complaint or a summons for sympathy, but some info concerning failing eyesight. I can readily imagine the original builders who had to "hang it up" because of bad eyesight and whose trade was their livelihood.... while.mine is just a hobby.

Started building when 45 yrs old and although this is hindsight, should have started at a younger age.  So, you younger builders, build as many as you can manage.....Fred

   

Fred- put a bit more bevel on that side plate's edges & I'd say it's about perfect, as-is.  When I first looked at the picture, I thought it was inlet and a nice job at that.

[Darkhorse]

   At 47 years old my legs are a wreck. Guess I broke them too many times. Can't stand for too long at a time and running does not work so well any more. Back is kid of a mess too. Right arm is fairly well deformed at I smashed it all up. But the crazy thing is that my eyes are actually getting better somehow. Started wearing glasses when I was 13 and vision steadily got worse until I was about 40. I still see about the same at long distance, but I have perfect vision up close now. Used to need glasses for reading. Now I can't read with them on.

Same thing happened to my wife about 20 years ago. Next time she went to the eye doctor she proudly told him about it and he immediately made her an appointment with our doctor. I mean, right then. Turned out she was diabetic. Eyesight that suddenly changes is an indicator.

[Bill Raby]

   At 47 years old my legs are a wreck. Guess I broke them too many times. Can't stand for too long at a time and running does not work so well any more. Back is kid of a mess too. Right arm is fairly well deformed at I smashed it all up. But the crazy thing is that my eyes are actually getting better somehow. Started wearing glasses when I was 13 and vision steadily got worse until I was about 40. I still see about the same at long distance, but I have perfect vision up close now. Used to need glasses for reading. Now I can't read with them on.

Same thing happened to my wife about 20 years ago. Next time she went to the eye doctor she proudly told him about it and he immediately made her an appointment with our doctor. I mean, right then. Turned out she was diabetic. Eyesight that suddenly changes is an indicator.

   Its not sudden at all. Very gradual over the last 7 or 8 years. No diabetes either. A few years ago my mom found out that she is pre-diabetic. It can be hereditary so I have been getting checked for it on the annual doctor check up. Last time was in March. All good.

[flehto]

Magnification is helping less as time passes....macular degeneration causes the eyes to distort images  so that straight lines are curved and sections of what you're looking at are missing.  I do try to compensate by turning my head back and forth to get the "whole picture" but sometimes that doesn't even work.

But as can be seen in the pic, things do get done and I guess I'm lucky in that respect.  Also....after reading some of the posts, I consider myself lucky...things can always get worse. ....Fred 

[thecapgunkid]

I'm sixty seven, and growing more and more sensitive to the twenty first century passing me by. Daylight is a must in my little shop.  Keeping in context with Wallace Gusler's comments in his carving video, I wonder not only about the effects of lighting on the old masters, but also about how long they actually lived compared to us.  I can't imagine anybody in the eighteenth century producing something with the quality Fred shows here at his age.

I'm just glad I got to do all this after having a heart attack and not getting dead.

Don't shoot yore eye out, kid

The Capgun Kid

[g2608671@verizon.net]

I hear what you are saying and have the same issues - but in different ways. The trick is, I think, to keep doing things that we can and when age or disability puts a twist in whatever this may be then find something new to explore / do or take a different tack on the same path.  I have been into weight lifting almost all of my life and now at 67 I can't do what I used to do - shocking!  So I still lift but I do so with a different focus and different purpose.  Muscle mass is a thing of the past so I now concentrate on tone and hit the cardio hard. I't not the same as with building guns; I get that, but it has a similar bottom line.  I try to walk the same path, maybe a bit slower than before with more rest periods, but I have found that by doing so that I appreciate things I have overlooked.

[Tim Crosby]

 I was wearing Bi-focals 12 years ago and had had enough, so I checked into Lasik eye surgery. Turned out I wasn't a candidate for it but I was for PRK, another form of Lasik. Today I can see as well as I did 50 years ago without glasses. I would recommend it to anyone.

  Tim C.