08:50 – Barbara left yesterday afternoon to spend several days visiting with friends in Cape May, New Jersey. Colin and I made two quarter-pound burgers for dinner. Usually, I have only one, but when Barbara’s gone Colin feels entitled to more human food, so I made enough to share with him. He’s always worried that with Barbara gone I’ll forget to feed him. Of course, now that we’re in Sparta, if he gets a bit peckish there’s always the herd of cattle in the field adjoining our back property line.
Because of my vertigo, Barbara always worries about leaving me alone for long periods. She’s afraid I’ll fall and can’t get up. To assuage that fear, which is not unreasonable, I carry my cell phone on me the whole time she’s gone. I also won’t shower while she’s gone, because the last place in the world I want to lose my balance is in the shower. Instead, I’ll just do sponge baths.
Interesting email overnight from a guy who’s looking for a hobby that would be a useful skill to have if the SHTF. He’s thinking about buying a high-end personal CNC milling machine and downloading templates for everything imaginable, up to and including AR-15 lowers. The problem is, he knows nothing at all about the subject and wanted to know what I recommend. I don’t have a recommendation, because I know nothing about it. But as I recall, MrAtoZ purchased just such a milling machine a year or two ago, so perhaps I can get him to write a guest article about the issues involved and his recommendations for consumables, etc. for someone who’s willing to spend at least two or three grand to get set up.
10:14 – Oh, good. I just got email from Jen. Her husband read my post this morning and said a CNC mill might be a good hobby for him. He’s into mechanical tinkering anyway, and hinted that his workshop has plenty of space remaining. So that’s at least two people who are thinking about it. MrAtoz?
A nearby maker space might already have the hardware he is looking at. That would provide him a relatively inexpensive way to learn before he commits his money.
I will second the local makerspace recommendation.
Also, trying a simple milling project without a 3d mill might be a worthwhile idea. 80 Percent Arms makes an Easy Jig that allows you to finish your own 80% lower with only a router and hand drill.
The truly crazy might want to search Youtube for “King of Random melting aluminum cans” for ideas on how to make aluminum castings. Which you could then mill into something useful.
Also, I’ve thought about milling my own 80% lower, but decided not to do it unless I find a handful of friends who have a similar interest. I am not a lawyer, but it is my understanding that you can’t transfer a finshed 80% lower to another person under any circumstances. The usual gun transfer rules do not apply since it does not have a serial number.
Actually, as far as the feds are concerned, not only can’t you transfer that finished lower but you can’t allow someone else to use your machine to make it himself, even if you don’t charge him.
There are rules galore and we’ve learned the hard way that the regime doesn’t follow the rules; rules are for Dirt People. So grok that as thou mayest and do the right thing.
For just doing AR lowers, there is the Ghost Gunner project at Distributed Defense; $1,500 will get you the machine, the sw and instructions; load it up and let it rip for a few hours and you got yerself a fully functioning AR lower, unregistered and without a serial number (unless you put your own on it).
But meanwhile I’d “third” the suggestions to find, if possible, a local maker space.
Funny, I’ve been kicking around the idea of an article for a ‘tinker space’ kind of a shop. Fun now, and able to build small versions of most things.
I’ve got a pretty complete shop, but I’ve been duplicating it in mini form for here at the house.
If you wanted to be ready to make a bunch of stuff, like a model shop, you could go basic or delux, big or small. What do you want to make, and where can you put it.
Silicon Greybeard has some posts on his small shop.
http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/ is a good starting point for home foundry.
There are a series of books about building a machine shop from scratch and scrap, author starts with a G and I can’t remember…
Anyway, it’s a huge subject. Woodworking shop, metal working shop, blacksmithing, machine shop, model shop, electronics lab, all subsets of the bigger “shop space” idea, and all a lifetime of study in their own right. Oh and do you want to fix things or make things? Big things or little? Power tools or hand? What era of tech? So much….
nick
I thought your vertigo just made you more likely to fall over. You have problems getting up if you do?
As to the milling machine, I think your correspondent would need to do a lot of work to become proficient.
I’m afraid I might hit my head or break something.
I’m sure a CNC mill takes some gettting used to, but the whole idea is that it obviates the need for a skilled machinist by producing the parts from detailed electronic blueprints. As far as I know, there’s no real skill involved. You put a chunk of metal in the machine, download the blueprint for what you want to make, start the machine milling, and walk away until it’s finished.
Other than the typical hand tools and power drills, saws, etc., the only shop equipment I have is a Dremel Moto-Tool and the frame that turns it into a miniature drill press. I’d love to have comprehensive shop equipment for wood and metalwork, but realistically I don’t have the skills, space, time, or money to pursue it. There are already lots and lots of people around here with those skills, so I focus my attention on stuff that may well be critically important that few or none around here can do. That mostly focuses on science-y stuff like isolating insulin from animal pancreata, manufacturing synthetic antibiotics and other important pharmaceuticals, isolating cardiac glycosides and other important drugs from plants, being set up to do soil and water analyses, medical bacteria culturing and antibiotic sensitivity tests, etc. etc. etc.
WRT a CNC Milling Machine:
Check with your local community college. Many have a Machine Technology course. Our’s is designed around a working person so classes are convenient. A welding course should also be considered.
“…realistically I don’t have the skills, space, time, or money to pursue it. There are already lots and lots of people around here with those skills, so I focus my attention on stuff that may well be critically important that few or none around here can do.”
Ditto. Which in my case involves the critical elucidation and analysis of medieval and Renaissance epic poetry.
Other than that, I’m working, slowly, on the commo and firearms stuff, and also on learning certain IT-related stuff that will translate into various levels of SHTF scenarios, some of which overlaps with the radio areas.
Drudge reporting that Cheeto-Head has Floriduh (for today) and the Electoral College has both psychopaths in a dead heat. Whereas I’d thought that Killary had it all locked up by now. Silly me.
@RBT
Regarding vertigo. This may have been discussed before, my memory is not what it once was.
If your variety of vertigo may be Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) then I suggest taking a crack at performing the Epley maneuver or a derivative at home.
I had BPPV after my head-on in 2014, two Epley maneuvers a couple of weeks apart resolved the vertigo effectively.
It’s painless, fairly simple, and you are out nothing if it fails.
” As far as I know, there’s no real skill involved.”
That would be completely wrong.
Special purpose tools like the Ghost Gunner, that are designed to do one thing might get close to that but anything else takes a lot of knowledge and a personality that will allow the kind of focus that gets good results.
The machines require setup and maintenance. The raw material needs to be processed into a shape that works as a starting point. Almost every operation on the mill (or lathe) starts by “facing off” or making one side of the material true so you can reference that. Get that wrong and nothing else will be right. Workholding is a bit of an art all by itself, as is jig making, tool making, etc. It would probably surprise you to know that the way you secure the work is as important as any other part of the process.
Even just being a ‘machine operator’ who loads and unloads a modern tool takes training. Even if the tool is making the same thing over and over, you still have to monitor and correct for tooling wear, movement in the jig or material, changes in the material, tons of stuff.
One of the things everyone who starts into home machining learns is that (like most things) it’s harder than it looks, and there is a BUNCH of hidden base knowledge. Just knowing how to measure and get correct and consistent results is a big deal.
Just buying the tool (machine) is the first step. After getting it set up, you still need tooling (the parts that cut/hold/etc) workholding, measuring, stock, lubricants, etc.
We are a LONG way from plug and play manufacturing.
That said, there are tremendous resources available to start someone on the path. Youtube is chock full of good videos. There are tons of good books. There are whole communities dedicated to advancing the art and helping people along the path.
nick
added- again the quality triangle, good fast cheap, comes into play. The ‘cheap’ part of home machining means that ‘good’ isn’t going to be fast, and ‘fast’ isn’t going to be good. For example, a Bridgeport mill from the ’50s or ’60s is relatively cheap at about $1200-2200. But you will spend a bunch of time reconditioning it, getting everything squared up, and accumulating all the associated tooling. OR you could sit down with a catalog and spend $20k-30k and have all that delivered. You’d still need to set it up and learn to use it, but you wouldn’t (probably) be fixing it before you could use it.
Butchery comes to mind. Oh, sure, any fool can hack into a carcass, but it takes experience to turn a wallyhog into something anyone would want to eat.
Another skill is interpreting the will of the gods, spirits, or gaea. If everything collapses, the teeming (but not so quite as teeming as before the collapse) masses will want assurances and leadership in making their way through their miserable lives. Someone skilled at inventing new ceremonies and at interpreting chicken entrails will be able to collect tribute “for the gods” and be in fat city while everyone else ekes out a living.
A couple of quick thoughts on CNC machines:
1. I echo the above comments on finding a “Maker Space” and Community College courses to space money before you invest in a machine. There is one MS in the Vegas area I plan to check out.
2. You can’t download a template, load your machine and come back tomorrow with a finished piece. Each machine is different and your piece has to be scaled. One wrong placement and your piece is useless. Pieces also have to be rotated on most hobby level machines, so you will have to come back to do that. I’ve found a hobby machine that rotates pieces, but the build platform is only about an inch.
3. Most entry CNC will be limited to aluminum. They also won’t have liquid cooling or vacuuming of scraps. Overheating and chips will scrap a piece and your bits real quick. Start with MDF for practice or any number of low density materials. I have a small 3D printer I play with and I can tell you setup is critical. One wrong placement or your scale is off and you have to start over. The machines are getting better each year though, and 3D and CNC will rule soon.
4. Find somebody who is already doing it. That’s not easy, but being an apprentice will help a lot. I don’t know anybody, yet, so I’m in the learning mode. I just got a hobby level Shapeoko to do some work on wood. I hope to get plans to cut wood to make objects, puzzles, etc. This is a cheap way to start. It is a 3-axis machine, but geared towards a small z-axis.
Again, echoing all the above like Mr. Nick. Professional CNC machines run into the $100K range. I think most of us have many other interests to preclude anything but entry level hobby stuff. Maybe start with a cheap 3D printer to learn the software and setup problems.
I see Coffin’ Cankles is still out coughing. Hacking up whatever in her hand and then shaking with other people with the same have. Gross. She’s pandering to Black females. Why waste time on a group that is voting for you anyway?
I bought another 30 pounds of rice and case of canned corn this week.
“Horrifying photos show how children are dying of hunger as HALF the population lives in ‘critical’ poverty in socialist Venezuela
Child malnutrition in Venezuela, South America, is dramatically on the rise
In the socialist country’s capital a lone cases have doubled in a just a year
Maria del Carmen Chourio, 5, was hospitalised weighing just 11 pounds
By Jessica Duncan For Mailonline
Published: 07:02 EST, 17 September 2016 | Updated: 08:23 EST, 17 September 2016
Food shortages in Venezuela, South America, has caused a dramatic increase in child malnutrition.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3794086/Horrifying-photos-children-dying-hunger-HALF-population-lives-critical-poverty-socialist-Venezuela.html
Why waste time on a group that comprises 4% of the population tops?
n
As to hobby 3d printers, I know a couple of people that have them, and have read countless tales of woe online.
If you want to print, do research, spend the MONEY. You won’t be buying a hobby machine.
If you want to spend all your free time working on your PRINTER, just about any one will do.
nick
BTW home depot carried makerbot printers here for a couple of months. MicroCenter has about 6 different models available on the store shelves. Frys has them too. Clearly there is interest, but I don’t think the age of physical desktop printing is here yet, like desktop publishing.
Here’s the link I was looking for earlier:
http://gingerybooks.com/
you can bootstrap yourself a whole machine shop with those books.
n
Sam’s also carries 3D printers.
Prep for the week:
I’ve been doing simple lock picking for years. Not even at the hobby level, just a useful skill to have. I’ve opened a bunch of locks with lost keys over the years, but all standard pin tumbler.
I noticed the backup key on my Gun Vaults all use the tubular (Ace) lock. I bought some basic tubular lock picks and started practicing. Perhaps another useful skill during the Baracalypse. Most vending, gas pumps and other outside machines seem to use tubular locks. You could bash a lot of them open, but in the beginning you will want to be covert. Raiding the casino ciggie machines will be like finding gold in the beginning. Ciggies will be more valuable than food in the beginning. There is a high Asian population in Nevada and they all seem to smoke.
Bosnian Bill on youtube.
There are lots of kids showing one quickie way or another to bypass locks. Most of them are BS, with either a buggered lock, or they got lucky with a pinning that works quickly with their technique.
Lock bypassing is a great skill to have.
Don’t forget that force is often quicker.
Most masterlock padlocks will open right up with a sharp blow straight down, inline with the shackle. A wonderbar style crowbar will help you put the force in the right place and direction.
A ‘master key’ or 3ft bolt cutter should be in everyone’s bug out vehicle. And don’t forget that the lock shackle is the hardest part of the locking system so DON’T cut it if there is a 50c gate latch, or a thin chain to cut!
A set of 7 bump keys from ebay will get you thru most locked doors in North America, and only costs a couple of bucks.
For advanced study, and because it won’t get you popped for possession of ‘burglary tools’, look at a hacksaw outfitted with a carbide ‘rod saw’ blade. You can power thru a case hardened shackle in seconds, and even a U style bike lock will cut thru in a couple of minutes.
Even more advanced students might want to buy a box of ‘keyed alike’ padlocks and ‘pre-arrange’ some escape routes by cutting a link and substituting your own lock in the chain….
n
@mrAtoz,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3794323/Living-style-26-feet-underground-Las-Vegas-home-boasts-15-000-square-foot-bomb-proof-basement.html
Too bad it got outed, that looks like a real swinging pad….
n
@MrAtoz
I got a gun vault mini for $5 at a pawn shop because it had no key and the battery was dead. I determined that if the battery was ok, you can get to the code reset button with a coat hanger or a wooden skewer and reset the code. If not, and if you can’t pick the lock,
you can drill a 1/8″ or smaller hole, in one particular place on the door, and then pop the latch with a stiff wire. Put a machine screw in the hole and the box is usable again.
The hole in the door trick works even if the box was mounted to something solid.
The ‘reset the code’ trick points out a vulnerability of all the ‘gun safes’. They need to be secured to something. If your gun safe is not bolted down, thieves will either carry it away, or push it onto its face, and cut thru the back. The backs are usually MUCH thinner steel than the fronts, and it is very quick to cut a V shape with an angle grinder, peel it back, and remove the guns that way.
n
Forget all the polls and pundits, the fraud that will go on with this election will be like nothing we have ever seen or even imagined. It sure won’t be as simple as hanging chads.
The only thing “illary” has going for her is a Chicago election machine that has gone national and digital. Its only weak point is security.
“illary’s” weak point is her body tolerating all the drugs they are pumping into her every day. I foresee her kidneys failing any day now and a pulmonary event maybe even before that.
” I foresee her kidneys failing any day now and a pulmonary event maybe even before that.”
From your mouth to god’s ear….
n
Machining basics: MrPete222 (Tubalcain) on YouTube, also Keith Fenner, Abom79, Keith Rucker, Bruce Whitham, Doubleboost, Oxtoolco and many others. There is a good basic series on machine tools by MIT, and one on prototyping by Prof. Dan Gelbart. A good forum to join is http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/forum.php
CNC Machining basics: NYCCNC (John Saunders). Not as simple as it looks.
+1 on Bosnianbill for lock work.
Another useful SHTF skill – gunsmithing. Knowing how to fix guns, make black powder and make reloading equipment would be wizard-equivalent.
Knowing how to make priming compound (lead stypnate or certain fulminates) plus basic explosives would be an advanced skill. RBT??
The trouble with real gunsmithing is that it is a mixed art/craft/skill, and requires elements of the blacksmith’s, mechanic’s, machinist’s, goldsmith’s and cabinetmaker’s trades.
Too bad it got outed, that looks like a real swinging pad….
My dream home. I wonder who bought it.
I got a gun vault mini for $5 at a pawn shop
Yup, other than a real 500# type vault, most of these are to keep an honest man honest and keep prying eyes out.
For me, entering geezerdom, a lot of these preps like lock picking, 3D printing, CNC is to keep the mind sharp. Learning new software, too. A sharp mind after basic beans, bullets and bandages is probably the most important. I don’t want to be a slobbering numbskull like Mr. Ray when I hit 70. lol! You can have supplies to live 20 years, but what good is it if you are mentally or physically distraught?
I’ve had to back off on the electronics hobby and python programming for business and taking care of my Mom purposes. Things have slowed down, so time to get back to that. There’s nothing like making a LED blink! lol!
I call my idea of a shop a ‘tinker space’ because I see it used to tinker around with stuff. It’s not a factory, nor would you build cars or houses with these tools. It should be small, have a variety of tools, including cnc machines, but also machines for hand work. You can fit a surprising amount of stuff into a garage if you go small scale.
CNC [manual versions are less capable but a good tool anyway]
hot wire foam cutter
sherline type mill
sherline type lathe
vinyl cutter
router style machine (ie 2.5 D), shopbot
additive printer, filament or resin, makerbot
benchtop machines
belt and disk sander, 6″
table saw,
drill press/pillar drill
bench grinder
chopsaw
bandsaw, 9″
router table
Hand machines
circular saw
jig saw
angle grinder
router, 1/4″, 1/2″
drill motor
impact driver
random orbit sander
dremel
[cordless versions ok, but corded good]
Metalwork
torch – gas, brazing, soldering, bending (cutting if possible)
small brake (for folding metal)
small roller (for making curved sheetmetal)
vise
forge
anvil
wire feed welder
plasma cutter
sand blaster
Air tools
compressor
pin nailer
narrow crown stapler
angle grinder 1/4″
impact wrench
Electrical/electronic
gun type soldering iron
pencil type soldering iron
multimeter
magnifying glass
desoldering tool (bulb,braid, or suction syringe)
Plastic
toaster oven
heat strip, for bending plexi
vaccuform, make your own kydex!
soldering iron, big one for plastic welding
Hand tools as needed.
Finishing tools as needed.
With the right tooling and accessories you could make just about anything small that COULD be made in a small shop. You can fit all this and more in a bedroom, garage, large shed. You might want some outdoors, and stuff like dust collection and fans are nice.
None of these need to be big, and you don’t need them all at once. Add them to meet your need interest or desire. Some are more advanced than others, but they all are useful in unique ways.
nick
I’m pretty good with Nick’s list.. Need a welder. Seems wire fed is the way to go.
AND, commenting on some things from a couple of days ago…..
Another vets event at the Killington ski resort on the Veterans Day weekend; hotel owner there is giving us a wing and will feed us and let us ski or do whatever, gratis. Not a vet; he just wants to do something for us and won’t even take the tax deductions.
Hard for me to keep bitching that nobody back here gives a shit, but man, it woulda made a world of difference 40-50 years ago to so many guys.
Keep going to meetings. It’s got to help. At least to vent.
If Dad had had this 40-50 years ago I’m pretty sure it would have saved me many beatings.
He lied about his age to enlist. WW2 in China and Iwo Jima. Said he was there when the flag went up. And that it was re-staged for the press… after everyone had their first bath in a month. Might be cow patties but that’s the story I heard my whole life. There’s a WOW! awesome statue in DC. Then Korea, Cochin, for a Purple Heart.
I remember seeing two. The paperwork and hearts are gone… the sisters took everything in the house that was worth much while mom was watching TV or reading a book. Then they moved and mailed her car keys to me. A month later. Heh, when the neighbor says “yeah, them two ladies took a lot of stuff out of that house”, might be a clue. Esp. when he works out of town. Yeah, I know you can apply for replacements. Wouldn’t be /his/ though.
Anyway, Korea and then a few years of recruiting in Oregon. Did the Honor Guard for JFK for a while. Good guy, he said.
Then ‘Nam for a year. When I was almost 9 what came home looked like Daddy. Sounded like. Smelled like. Old Spice! Had the same scritchy beard on the weekends when ya had to give M&D good night hugs before bed. Was not my Daddy.
Little brother gets a bad report card? One of the sisters missed the school bus to get home? And she went to a different school? The transmission goes out on the Toronado? The lawnmower won’t start?
My fault. Somehow. All. Of. It.
WTH
He asked me why I didn’t get married. I was maybe 25. I had had the chances and offers, too. I told him that I have his temper. I don’t want to be beating my kids the way you beat me. Oh, shock and horror! He never beat me! Uh. Yeah. It wasn’t him going to school in 5th grade looking like there is was a grapefruit in the front of his underwear. Because the belt buckle got loose. Oh well.
Old times. Ok, shove it all back into a back corner of my head….. I’m not good at suppressing memories. Never have been. Is anyone? I really don’t know. I remember waking from a nap while in the backseat of ’57 Windsor. Scratchy plasticy upholstery. We were moving to somewhere is all I knew. To Oregon from 29 Palms. Little sister, 13 months younger, is in the front seat in mom’s lap. And we crossed the Golden State Bridge. WOW!!! I was blown away at how pretty it was. I was maybe two and a half years old, if that.
BTW, the Purple Heart tags on Mom’s van have no extra cost. More like $7 a year compared to ~$65 for my car. I’m not sure getting shot with a bullet is worth the discount.
Texas also has “military service” plates. A friend has Air Force plates. Another, Army plates. Just had to give a copy of his DD-214. No discount, no surcharge.
I don’t want to be a slobbering numbskull like Mr. Ray when I hit 70
I already have a five year head start. Just got sent a couple of samples for Depends in the mail. I wonder who did that. Or is Depends scouring records from somewhere that have my age or birth date?
If Dad had had this 40-50 years ago I’m pretty sure it would have saved me many beatings
Yeh, same with the uncle who I lived with. Was injured during WWII in Europe when his tank got hit by a German shell. He never talked about it, found out from family and some records after he died. Never found a purple heart.
There’s nothing like making a LED blink!
Especially if it is in a FLASHLIGHT!
@Mr. paul; I’m sorry you went through all that stuff with your dad, man. That is known, as you probably already know, as “secondary PTSD,” and a lot of us got a load of that growing up, having had dads who were Korea or WWII vets, and in my case, a WWI vet, too! And my wife’s uncle was a WWII Pacific war vet; in retrospect we can see now that they all suffered from PTSD, ranging from mild to severe symptoms. And they got ZERO fucking help from the VA when they got back, as did most of us when WE got back from the ‘Nam clusterfuck.
As said at our last group meeting; they love us when we’re still toting the fucking rifle out there somewhere, but when we come back and get out, we’re stale dogshit.
None of my business; I dunno if you’re married-with-kids, but depending on how old they are, if any, it may be worthwhile to get some help yourself for this stuff. You are a secondary casualty, or “collateral damage.”
Some of us have brought our spouses to various veteran events (and disability hearings and counseling stuff) but I may bring up at the next meeting that it might be worth exploring the idea of working our kids into this area.
I got the brunt of my parents’ (Dad’s) “discipline,” too, being the oldest. He’d done shore patrol stuff in NYC and Baltimore and then the north Atlantic patrols chasing der unterseebooten of the Kriegsmarine. Not a fun guy sometimes growing up. And my maternal grandpa did three years in North Africa and my other grandpa was in the so-called Great War; neither grandfather was a day at the beach, I can attest.
Then there’s me; what a botch I made of helping to raise two stepchildren up here over the years; a long-time drunk with a short fuse and frequent nightmares and the thousand-yard-stare thing a lot of the time. Having already lost my first marriage for those reasons, among others.
This shit redounds throughout lifetimes, not only the veteran’s life, but those of his spouse, kids and grandkids.
@paul, for the money you can ‘t go wrong with the Hobart “Handler” in 120v, or possibly in 240v. I’ve got the 120v version and it has made me a crapton of money over the years. It’s almost maintenance free, with a bit of care. Will weld any steel you are likely to have around the house, shop, or farm. It’s compact. It’s theoretically possible to weld aluminium with it, but from a practical perspective, no. If you know you will need to weld aluminum or >3/8″ steel all the time, get a bigger machine, but the 120 will do for almost any work less than that despite what the nameplate limit is.
Get the flow meter and a bottle of gas, and run steel wire. Get a couple of different sized tips, and be sure you have the size for flux core wire. Get one spool of flux core. Sooner or later you will run out of gas in the middle of the night, with just a few more welds to make. The flux core will save you then. Or you may have something to weld where the flux core will perform better, or you can’t bring the gas bottle along. Get the autodarkening helmet with a big window in it. Get a set of leather sleeves and good gloves. Gloves are expendables. So are tips. Don’t bother with anti-spatter sprays and dips. Instead setup your weld parameters correctly.
The technique is easy to master, and once learned will suffice for almost all ‘shop’ welds. Last time I priced it out, $400 for the welder. $250 to get set up with the medium sized bottle and gas flow stuff. $150 for the hood.
Don’t waste time or money on harbor freight/chicago electric/etc. Lincoln, Hobart, Miller, ESAB are the brands to look at. The hood protects your VISION. Get a good one.
My Handler is 20 years old and for some periods of that got heavy daily use. So are my sleeves and my hood (helmet.)
I’ve also got a big Miller machine, but I leave it set up for aluminum with a spoolgun, and have never used it for steel. THAT’s how good the little Handler is.
The range of work that having a welding machine opens up is amazing. Fences, brackets, bumpers, repairs, doors, door guards, sculpture, furniture, roof racks, the list goes on and on.
nick
Oh, and get used to using a shield one darker than recommended. Anything to better protect your eyes is worth doing. It means having good lighting in your work area so you don’t JUST have the arc to see your work.
Heck, I’m missing a few things from the list, and many that I have are not currently set up. I have all the stuff for the foam cutter, but not the time. I need to get some more stuff together for the 2.5D router too.
I’ve made it this long without a plasma cutter, but I really feel the lack. Things that would be simple and quick with one, are neither without, which means they often don’t get done. A CNC plasma cutter is the next best thing to a personal laser or waterjet.
OH, I forgot personal laser cutter! They are practically a small business in a box.
Oddly, the thing I’m using most at the moment is the vinyl cutter. It’s a very versatile machine. With the right vinyl you can do sand blast etch resists. With normal vinyl you can do a photo mask for circuit boards. And doing signs and banners is very satisfying.
nick
“”@RBT
Regarding vertigo. This may have been discussed before, my memory is not what it once was.
If your variety of vertigo may be Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) then I suggest taking a crack at performing the Epley maneuver or a derivative at home.
I had BPPV after my head-on in 2014, two Epley maneuvers a couple of weeks apart resolved the vertigo effectively.
It’s painless, fairly simple, and you are out nothing if it fails.””
Jenny’s correct about that. It’s about the “rocks” (litho-whatevers) in your semi-circular canals. I have seen two people deal with it, one an uncooperative old man who still came through it fine, with nearly instant improvement. Younger patient and I agreed that the procedure is a good thing to have printed out and in your first aid kit(s). A reasonably agile person can do it all alone!
Re: vertigo and ablutions. Why not look into a shower seat, and one of the shower heads on a hose type assembly? Both the showers in my house have the rod such that you can adjust the height of the shower head to aid in bathing. I installed them because of the high probability of orthopedic surgeries in my life. We had them when I was a kid, so that my 6.5 foot dad and 5.5 foot mother would have one less thing to argue about.
Grab bars and such are always important, really for anybody.
The hard part is finding structure (wall studs and such) for
proper installation.
From experience: Do NOT try to just anchor them in fiberglass!!
Grab bars and such are always important, really for anybody. The hard part is finding structure (wall studs and such) for proper installation.
I put a 48 inch horizontal bar and a 36 inch vertical bar in the shower in the new addition. The vertical bar is just inside the enclosure so you have a place to grab while stepping in. I had the framer add additional 2x4s in the shower walls while we were building it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0071L35OY/
and
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00499QGHO/
Highly recommended. I need to retrofit these to the other showers / tubs.
I passed out in the shower 28 years ago after having food poisoning and throwing up all night. I hit the shower enclosure on the way down and got 100 stitches in my left knee, 35 on the inside. I had another piece of glass work its way out just a year or so ago.
Ah, to be young and have all that time to set up and play with those tools. They all keep getting better each year, too.
@nick, here is your nice house with a 7 car garage / workshop on one acre for $395K:
http://www.har.com/6811-Rustling-Oaks-Dr/sale_61977164
Just a little close to the railroad tracks for me though.
Bet that open field behind the house spends a couple of years under construction with high density development….
Other than that, it looks nice. Lots of room for preps, lots of shop space. No outbuildings though. Kinda close to the river?
n
And right down the street from the new schools complex….
Love this quote regarding the broken gasoline pipeline:
“Tennessee’s consumers need to maintain their normal driving and fuel buying habits. If consumers fill up unnecessarily, top off their tanks when they aren’t close to empty, and fill multiple containers at the pumps, then our petroleum retailers will not be able to keep up with the demand of the fuel supply,” he said.
Quik Trip spokesman Mike Thornbrugh said several stations in South Carolina were seeing outages.
“When you have a pipeline of that magnitude go down, it just shows everybody unfortunately how fragile the system is and it doesn’t take much to cause some hiccups,” he told WYFF
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-3794459/US-agency-orders-corrective-action-gas-pipeline-spill.html
This is why we prep.
Imagine you need to get out of town, and you can’t get gas…
n
“Ah, to be young and have all that time to set up and play with those tools”
Most guys are looking forward to being OLD enough to retire and play with their hobby tools!”
n
Bet that open field behind the house spends a couple of years under construction with high density development….
Other than that, it looks nice. Lots of room for preps, lots of shop space. No outbuildings though. Kinda close to the river?
Nope, the Grand Parkway is going diagonally across that field, elevated – forgot that, in the next ten years or so.
That property is six miles away from the Brazos River. Normally. The Brazos was three miles away from that property this summer though. But that property was still 15+ ft higher than the river.
You can, and should, check all flood areas in Fort Bend county via:
http://fbcgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/OnePane/basicviewer/index.html?appid=cfe8b1a5660f4c5ca07f48aec0690591
from
http://www.fortbendcountytx.gov/index.aspx?page=337
And here is the Grand Parkway map for southern Fort Bend County:
http://www.grandpky.com/Segment-C
That empty field (usually has cotton in it) is in the Page 1 of 5 in segment C.
“”Imagine you need to get out of town, and you can’t get gas…
n””
No fecal material, Mr. Holmes!
I had just about run dry but figured I’d get home for other issues and I put off filling up,
last night.
Dave; some things never seem to change. Reading your post I immediately thought of the Kipling poem TOMMY. I am sure you know it. To remind others …
“For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!”
Lathes are fun. And a machine shop doesn’t gave ro be a computerized CNC hi-tech place – my own lathe is nearly a century old and suffices for most things.
There are a lot of books and guides out there now, and working stock is easy to get off the internet.
But a word of warning -turnings are razor sharp. You really really really don’t want to track them into your house. Have clothes and shoes just to work at the machines in. And if you do woodwork you don’t want to have the tools in the same shop, a turning in a piece of wood is nearly invisible and very painful to discover the hard way.
I chatted with a Vietnam Vet today, in an outdoors store.
Started out about knives (right in front of us) and he brought up the topic of FLASHLIGHTS.
He shared some info about the walking sticks he makes. He needs one, had a good one, said he has metal inside himself.
I sincerely thanked him for his service, and explained that I had a good college deferment… and I tried to apologize for not doing more to prevent or end that war.
Talkin’ ’bout my g-g-generation!
As an off-shoot from the current gasoline pipeline issues…
Many years ago, a guy I met explained that natural gas pumping stations ran on natural gas. More recently, as I understand it, many of the pumping stations have been converted to electric power (maybe a good thing, maybe just moving the pollution load elsewhere).
In any case, the time when NG dealt with its own bizness, off the other Grids, is likely long gone.
I like my NG, but I guess I need to bet on it a lot less…
@spook, yeah, the EPA screwed that up. What was a bootstrapped system is now dependent on diesel and the grid.
kinda like japan, where the pumps for the nuke plant couldn’t be POWERED by the nuke plant…
n
And the assumption of long term availability of Nat Gas is core to a LOT of emergency management plans.
(oh, I get my nat gas whole house gennie back from the service and repair guys Real Soon Now. Still need to find a transfer switch. and get the pad ready….)
Couple days ago I asked what we would see happen to divert us from hillarity’s health issues.
I’m hoping this ain’t it.
“IED Explosion Reported In New York City; 29 People Injured With 1 In Serious Condition”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-17/explosion-reported-new-york-city-least-15-people-injured
And coupled with this:
PIPE BOMB detonated on route of Jersey Shore military 5K race: Thousands of runners including wounded vets and their children evacuated after trash can explodes
Pipe bomb exploded shortly before the Semper Five Run at Seaside Park, New Jersey
The bomb was in a garbage can when it exploded – no one was injured in the explosion
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3794320/Pipe-bomb-explodes-Marines-charity-5K-no-injuries.html
Pipe bombs in trash cans. East coast where all the media are. No deaths. Lotta noise and attention. I almost hope it’s terrorism because deep state actors is a bit more horrible to think about.
nick
@lynn, yikes being in the shadow of the grand parkway is not what I call fun.
n
Besides the health issues, they now have to divert attention away from the dead heat in the Electoral College and Cheeto-Head taking Floriduh so fah.
But still, another seven weeks to go and anything at all can happen from now on. This is the wackiest political campaign year I’ve seen since I arrived on the planet.
@lynn, yikes being in the shadow of the grand parkway is not what I call fun.
The 45+ trains per day running past that house are much louder. The railroad track is in the process of being double tracked. My office, 2 miles away from that house, is about the same distance as that house from the railroad tracks. When two trains are passing each other out front, my entire office building shakes. The wife and I keep on thinking that we might build a house on the north side of our office building and every time a train go by, say no way.
I wasn’t talking about a grab bar in the shower, per se, although those are very useful items. What I meant is shown in the link below. The shower head / hose assembly itself has a rod / rail to slide up & down, allowing you to adjust the height of the shower head itself.
https://www.amazon.com/Alsons-1551PBBX-Button-Trickle-Shower/dp/B00083NBPK/ref=sr_1_5?s=kitchen-bath&ie=UTF8&qid=1474171770&sr=1-5&refinements=p_4%3AAlsons
Well, as Mr. nick mentioned earlier, we got us some distractions: the pipe bomb incidents and now the big pipe-LINE break near Birmingham and three states declaring a state of emergency and pending probable shortages. Hillary’s what? What was that about Hillary?? Oh look: a squirrel!
From the Herd of Squirrels Department:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-says-syria-situation-worsening-warns-us-141723100.html
Oh, look: FLASHLIGHTS!
(Fixed that for you, Dave)
(Was distracted by several models of LED Camping lanterns at Wally World this afternoon. Almost got one, but I’ve got two already.)
From the Constitution Day Department:
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2016/09/18/constitution-day/comment-page-1/#comment-187405
And I’m pretty sure that g-g-g-etc.Grandpa Franklin would feel the same way today. Incidentally, on the $100 bill he is the spitting image of my dad, except for the long hair.
“”Well, as Mr. nick mentioned earlier, we got us some distractions: the pipe bomb incidents and now the big pipe-LINE break near Birmingham and three states declaring a state of emergency and pending probable shortages. Hillary’s what? What was that about Hillary?? Oh look: a squirrel!””
Yeah. Uh… Yeah!
Wait a minute, I think I hear a squirrel chewing on something important again…
Probably the gas line on a vehicle here that has run out of gas anyway…
@ Rick H…
“”(Was distracted by several models of LED Camping lanterns at Wally World this afternoon. Almost got one, but I’ve got two already.)””
I have one of those, likely one you saw.
It has a stack of LEDs & adjustable brightness.
The catch is that it throws “hot” spots of light, and shadows.
It might work better with a diffuser, say a wrap of white paper?
A lantern oughta throw out a nice even circle or sphere of light,
but it’s hard to test this in a lighted store.
“”I wasn’t talking about a grab bar in the shower, per se, although those are very useful items. What I meant is shown in the link below. The shower head / hose assembly itself has a rod / rail to slide up & down, allowing you to adjust the height of the shower head itself.””
Yeah, for sure. Adjustable nozzles, shower seats, grab bars…
for youse old guys of course.
Seriously, adapt! Plan ahead!
Besides the health issues, they now have to divert attention away from the dead heat in the Electoral College and Cheeto-Head taking Floriduh so fah.
The “Les Deplorables” backdrop in Miami Friday night was genius.
Florida begins voting in October. Anymore, state-wide races get decided in the counties traversed by I-4 — not cheap media markets but concentrated.
The big question mark is how dependent Central Florida has become on the defense contracts and neocon freak show commands at Mac Dill. South Florida and North Florida are fairly predictable since 2000.
@Dad’s admonition yesterday, today, and tomorrow: Watch The Other Hand, Don’t Pay Attention To The Latest Shiny.
And: when shaking hands with a politician, count your fingers afterwards.
Sea Story Time: On board submarines we have limited space (who would have guessed) so the spares we carry have to do multiple duty. Here is where a skilled Machinist and a supply of appropriate stock are vital. We only had a lathe (I forget how long), several specialized welding machines, and a small “forge”. The Machinists that were on my boats were real wizards; able to fabricate anything that was metal or plastic. While operating in the Mediterranean we stopped for a repair call from the sub tender USS Spear. The USS Nautilus was tied alongside the Spear with a “broken” main drain pump (you don’t leave home without it). They could fabricate the needed parts and knew we had a Machinist that could. Long story short, within 48 hours that Machinist, with help from the whole Nuke Engineering Crew, had completely rebuilt that drain pump. It had a cracked shaft and a cracked impeller that the Machinist had to recreate from raw stock (forge on the Spear was used to mold the impeller after he created the mold) and us Electrician Mates rewound the motor, turned the commutator, and installed new brushes. If we had not fixed the Nautilus they would have faced being towed back to the USofA, which would have been slow and no fun.
Hats off to all submariners!
I could not possibly have done that duty, being too tall and claustrophobic, but I have long maintained that the nuke subs should be the first line of defense for our continent.
Does the Navy have minimum height requirements for topside sailors? Maximum hight requirements for subsailors? 🙂
I imagine OFD and I would not have enjoyed life on a sub.
Dave Hardy wrote:
“This is the wackiest political campaign year I’ve seen since I arrived on the planet.”
1976 was pretty weird too…
“Does the Navy have minimum height requirements for topside sailors? Maximum hight requirements for subsailors? “
I am not aware of height specs, but I am sure the Navy had them as well as all the other services. Of course these days no specs apply if you are some other gender than male.
When I was on the Los Angeles, SSN 688, our Engineering Officer was 6’8″, he had red hair and was called “Big Red”, how original. He always wore his hardhat.
We also had a non-designated Seaman (E-3) who was 4’2″ with doe-like eyes so he was called Bambi. Smart kid and knew how to take jokes. But be aware, he was an All-State Wrestling Champion in not just his weight class but all above.
Huh. When my dad joined the Army right after 12/7, he originally tried to apply for training as a fighter pilot but he was considerably taller than the 5’10” limit. I guess cockpits were smaller back then. They ended up training him as a B-17 navigator.
Fighter pilots are still smaller guys, at least the ones I met.
The services have maxes and mins, and there is a ton of ergonomic data about them. If you design for the military, you have to use their ergo data, so that everyone can reach everything and see over whatever…..
There might be exceptions when recruiting is down, or there might be different standards for some MOSs. Most of the SF guys I’ve met were smallish too….
n
Yeah, most SF guys are wiry little fireplugs who can march, crawl, run, swim or fly through Hell. Military police USED to be big tall buggers, but like the civilian cops, Affirmative Action and Diversity crap put the kibosh on that. My dad was USCG Shore Patrol and because he was a big tall bugger they put him on the color guard, too. Ditto your humble servant here, out in Kalifornia. I had pics of both my dad and me in our respective color guard units but they’re currently MIA somewhere. In mine I’m wearing a chrome helmet and white gloves in the Mill Valley, Kalifornia Little League season parade. Community Relations, you see, back in 1973.
Same deal worked with military/security police during bar brawls and suchlike; we were ALWAYS gonna win, eventually. Lotta guys figured they’d get their shots in on the MPs but that would turn out to be a very bad call on their part, eventually. Time in the brig or stockade or “correctional custody” could be made extremely uncomfortable. Assuming one had recovered by then from “injuries sustained during transportation.”
In Kalifornia I was teamed up with another sergeant, a black guy my size, and usually all the chit ceased immediately on our entry wherever. Back then in the military and then again in civilian cop life, there was no black and white; we were all just cops. Miscreants would try to call the black cops “brother” and suchlike and get less than nowhere.
It’s all different now and much, much worse.
[snip] Yeah, for sure. Adjustable nozzles, shower seats, grab bars… for youse old guys of course. [snip]
I’m not particularly old, but I’m a hairsbreadth away from being crippled by my knees & back. Those sorts of things are just good planning; I’ve been under the knife 11 times and will be again.
holy cow, 11 times?
That’s a lot of scar tissue.
n
I wasn’t talking about a grab bar in the shower, per se, although those are very useful items. What I meant is shown in the link below. The shower head / hose assembly itself has a rod / rail to slide up & down, allowing you to adjust the height of the shower head itself.
https://www.amazon.com/Alsons-1551PBBX-Button-Trickle-Shower/dp/B00083NBPK/ref=sr_1_5?s=kitchen-bath&ie=UTF8&qid=1474171770&sr=1-5&refinements=p_4%3AAlsons
Dude, I wish that I had put one of those in the new shower. I thought about it after I bought the Moen shower hardware from Moore Plumbing Supply (real metal, no plastic ! at twice the price). But I was too lazy to go back.
Something like this would have been good for us:
https://www.amazon.com/Moen-3668EPORB-Handheld-Shower-Rubbed/dp/B00DDVZCHO/
Fighter pilots are still smaller guys, at least the ones I met.
My uncle was a naval aviator from 1965 to 1968. He flew the A4 fighter/bomber off the carrier deck with 4,000 landings. Six months off the Vietnam coast doing two-a-days over Hanoi. He is 6’2″ and has 24 inch wide shoulders. The cockpit window of the A4 is 19 inches wide. He had to turn sideways to get in the cockpit. He figured if he ever had to eject that he would lose at least one shoulder. BTW, back in his day, naval aviators had to make it through boot camp with Marine DI’s. His DI made them run through the surf at the Florida naval base every day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_A-4_Skyhawk
John McCain was his squadron ??? commander for a while. My uncle’s wingman spent six years in the Hanoi Hilton when he was taken out by a new SA-8 ??? missile. My uncle came back the next day and Stuka dive bombed the Hanoi missile base with four ??? six ??? 500 lb bombs from 45,000 ft. The Navy gave my uncle the DFC for surviving that little fracas while trying to save his wingman from the VC. He tankered over Hanoi six ??? times flying circles over his wingman until it got dark, squeezing off one 20 mm round each time the VC got close (the A4 only has 100 rounds of 20 mm).
BTW, the A4 is the little plane that flies rabbit in the “Top Gun” movie. One engine, no after burner, no supersonic. The delta wings means that it lands on the carrier at 175 knots (fast !). When the carriers launched an A4, they always launched two. The first plane was all fuel tanks. The second plane with full armament would take off and then buddy up with the first plane and fill his tanks. The first plane would then land on the carrier and refuel, launch, buddy, land, and so on several times for the day.
I don’t mean any ill towards the Air Force, but Naval Aviators on Carriers are 10 notches above. It takes a pair to take off from a moving runway that you then have to find that moving needle in the haystack when you are done with your mission.
WRT to being “under the knife 11 times”: you need to find another orthopedic surgeon. Any competent orthopedic surgeon will warn you that ALL orthopedic surgeries are only a temporary fix and an insult to your joints on their own. Most replacement joints will only last 15 years at best, many less, and the “new” ones that claim 35 years are failing at a rate just like the old ones.
My orthopedic surgeon is a family friend, considered to be the best in this corner of the state and known well state-wide. He is very up front with his patients. Joint surgery is serious business and if your are not in top notch physical condition and keep your weight below 225 lbs. you will not have an easy recovery or a very long benefit.
Look seriously at people you know who have had back and/or joint surgery. If they are crowing about how great they feel, just wait, they will soon be more crippled than before.
Diet, physical conditioning, and appropriate pain control is the long term fix.
Unfortunately in my case, as a Polio “survivor”, my joints have been destroyed by the muscles that were rendered useless by Polio.
I’d never say anything bad about naval air pilots, but my admiration for them takes nothing away from the bravery of our other pilots in the AF or Army, both fixed-wing and rotary. Talk to anyone about the choppers in Viet Nam. Those guys had big balls, as do their more recent counterparts and as do the ground-attack guys flying Warthogs in the sandbox, including the women.