Symbiosis

[Growlers]

My wife and I are retired. Her hobby is quilting, mine is guns. We just recently started sharing our basement for the purpose of pursuing our respective hobbies. I have had my gun hobby in an unfinished part of the basement for years, but we only recently remodeled the other half of the basement for her quilting, to get the mess out of the rest of the house.

We are finding that our separate hobbies have some interesting intersections with one another. For instance, she has scrap flannel fabric which she cuts into squares for me to use in cleaning my guns. I, on the other hand, run a dehumidifier in my half of the basement to reduce rust issues in my guns, ammunition and equipment. The distilled water from the dehumidifier goes to my wife, which she uses when ironing her fabrics.

I use my gun-cleaning and lubricating supplies to keep her quilting equipment up and running. She lends me her quilting clean-up tools when I make a mess reloading. And so forth....

Have any of you found handy, useful ways of sharing with others' hobbies to save cost / improve efficiency in your own hobby? I love finding surprising ways that things like this can work together.

 

[Armybrat]

Well, my wife watches a lot of cooking shows and I eat many of the new recipes she fixes.
It seems to be a one way street in our case though, because she does not like guns or anything about them.

 

[<*(((><]

@Growlers We have a gun/quilt shop heading up to the mountains. Her side is Amish quilts and various leather goods, and his side is guns and army surplus. Sadly, he passed away about 4 years ago or so, but she is still advertising guns for sale so she must have taken a liking to his hobby over time. There was some bleeding over between the to hobbies as I believe they had some leather goods such as holsters, scabbards, and such which I'm not sure if they made in house or not.

 

[entropy]

While ours isn't quite as symbiotic as yours, SWMBO and I often work on things in the basement separately, but end up helping each other out. Mostly me moving stuff (of which there is a'plenty in her case) but sometimes she has things for me, like after clearing out some things, she gave me some plastic drawer sets to help organize my little corner of the basement that is my gun "shop" (don't do outside work, except for friends and family) and reloading area.

 

[somethingbenign]

My wife loves to cook and do the whole gourmet presentation thing. I'm getting into hunting, I think that relationship is self explanatory.

 

[dh1633pm]

My wife loves to please me and I like to please her. Our worlds do not intersect for hobbies. I have my man space and she doesn't touch anything past its door. I told her all Guns that might be out) usually on the bench for cleaning are fully loaded with malfunctioning triggers of which a mere breath towards could set off. She likes to cook and I eat what she cooks. We do lots of things together. The Gun thing is not one of them.

 

[doubleh]

Like the OP my wife and I are retired and she's a quilter and I a gun person. Things are a little different in the hobby spaces though. She has a room in the house and I got the garage. It's not a bad deal. I installed air conditioning and have a great ol' stereo system that I can listen to just as loud as I want. Since I'm half deaf (and have the dr's report to prove it) and she can hear as well as a bat that makes it nice for both of us.

We used to shoot together but arthritis has finished that for her. She still goes with me usually unless I do like I did this morning. I was headed to the range at 5:30 AM and she's not big on going with me that early.

 

[Milt1]

When I leave to go to the range, usually one day out of each week, she is delighted because she has the house and her Beagle Bailey all to herself. Doesn't get any better that that!

 

[theotherwaldo]

My sister carves stone, hardwood and mammoth ivory for pistol grips and stock inlays as well as her usual fine art works. She also carves and details my unfired stoneware and paints scenes on my decorative doors and panels.
I sharpen her blades, maintain her dental drills and other tools, and build her jigs, rigs, mounting components and display tables.

 

[J-Bar]

Making beaded jewelry, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, is my wife's main hobby. She also makes beaded hatbands for my cowboy action shooting addiction. Two examples: (The tracks on the brim are blackpowder beauty marks, the result of blackpowder brass landing on the hat after getting ejected out of Winchester 1873 and 1866 rifles!)

Symbiosis? When I am shooting she can do her beading in peace!

 

[hdwhit]

The distilled water from the dehumidifier...

Water from a dehumidifier is not distilled water, it is condensed water.

The distinction is that when water is distilled, it is heated above its boiling point and only that portion of the vapor that boils at (or around) 212 degrees is condensed thus ensuring it is pure water with only trace impurities.

Condensed water, on the other hand, is water vapor in the air that is returned to a liquid state by passing it over a chilled medium. Water vapor can contained dissolved solids and they will remain in the liquid after it is condensed. If you live in an area where water vapor is largely free of dissolved solids, condensed water may be used interchangeably with distilled water. But if the concentration of dissolved solids is high, it can foul the steam channels of a steam iron resulting in colored spray being deposited on the fabric and usually ruining the steam generator.

Ask me how I know.

 

[Armored farmer]

I have a fine home-made quilted rifle case for my flinter.

View attachment 795875
Mrs loves to garden, and i test my guns on the overgrown zukes.

 

[Armored farmer]

she likes to waterski, and i like being the captain

 

[Zaydok Allen]

My last girlfriend liked to shoot and respected my gun hobby. I even bought her a gun.

We had plans to move in together and get married. I am a neat and organized person, and my reloading area is clean enough to serve as a place to eat dinner also. She was a walking weapon of mass destruction. Everywhere she went she left destruction and chaos. Junk mail piles appeared, all sorts of random food packages would for some reason be in places no sane person would eat food, and she NEVER returned anything to where she found it. It was like a tall toddler that could reach everything had been there and was never told to pick up her toys. It drove me bananas especially in my kitchen. Counter tops are temporary place holders when you are using something, and cabinets are the permanent place holder.

I envisioned what a shared hobby room would be like when we lived together............................

I ended the relationship.

Now I'm thinking about buying a Wilson Combat pistol and a Harley Davidson Roadster!

 

[jamesjames]

There currently is no mrs. jamesjames... the gun hobby was part of the friction that led to the divorce. But the gun hobby intersects with so many other interests that it is amazing. My son is an athlete and also interested in shooting sports and engineering and inventing. He has a keen interest in how things are put together and how they work. I am a sculptor and bronze caster, so I've spent a lifetime shaping and working metal.

This has allowed me to take on minor gunsmithing projects that others might eschew. I've made stocks for handguns, adjusted channels and bedding block fit in stocks for rifles, and built a single action army clone out of a colt cylinder and a 1980s clone frame. I change sights and scopes like I change dirty socks. A gun doesn't pass through my hands without me trying (and usually succeeding) to improve it. I de-horn edges and polish actions and replace springs.

None of this would have happened without my other interests and skills (and a bench-load of tools) in metal working.

 

[J-Bar]

Now I'm thinking about buying a Wilson Combat pistol and a Harley Davidson Roadster!

Good decision. I think you, the pistol and the Harley will have a symbiotic relationship.