Machining with Spud

My neighbor Chris, who also goes by Spud, came over this afternoon to work on a few projects for his dragster.

He had already made some parts but wanted some aerodynamic radii added. Ok, they are just for looks, not drag reduction.

So I used my Shaplane tool to make some radii.

Pretty.

Pleasing to the eye.

I then turned my attention to making a mandrel out of plastic for him. I used a half center to support the work while allowing a facing cut.

This end will be grabbed in his smaller Atlas lathe when he gets back home...

I turned the OD with a shoulder at the chuck end.

While I worked on the mandrel, Chris was milling slots in the smaller parts.

Chris, hand on one crank and the other ready to drip some cutting oil on the slitting saw, with panache and élan, to boot.

The finished saw cuts.

I didn't take pictures of the drilling and tapping of the mandrel because I was: a) busy working on it and b) it was boring. That's one of the exhausts of his dragster mounted on the mandrel. He needs to trim the powdercoat from the bottom section and needed a way to fixture it on the lathe for that.

It's tapped for the screw that when tightened expands the mandrel against the inside of the tube.

Library Sale and Pathetic Cake

This is the weekend of the annual Friends of the Library Book Sale at the Benton County fairgrounds. It is my favorite event. You never know what you'll find.

Waiting in line. I usually arrive about an hour before it opens on Friday evening.

Mayhem. This year was the first time I noticed crews of day laborers scanning books with a handheld gizmo, scooping up books based on value for resale. It's a controversial practice. A friend who is an old school book hunter hates them but he's at an advantage. Technology can't compete with a lifetime of knowledge.

I managed to find a box of gun books right off the bat.

The rest of Friday's haul.

Saturday has lower prices, so we all went and bought some more. The kids have a similarly sized stack of new books.

Last night Felice finally felt well enough to have her birthday cake. Max decided to look cute.

44! My old lady.

Henry and Max jostled for position.

Some links:

• Restoring DiAcro Benders
• My Neighbor's new Econoline Brake Kit page
• A good way to surf Watch Instantly Netflix titles
• A Gunsmithing School Blog

It's About Time...

The kids haven't been obliging with cuteness lately, perhaps it's the fault of our new Wii.

Max came to the rescue with "Mr. Handy" a few moments ago. "Mr Handy called me a big fat bully."

Cute or insane? Take your pick.

In other news it took two weeks for the replacement heat pump fan to arrive. I'm glad to have been rescued from 19th century heat technology. Besides that? Nothing much to report.

Here's a great tutorial on using the jewelers saw.

Slingshots of the World!

It Never Fails...

Things go ok and then...

First a cute picture of Max. He is enjoying Taekwondo with Henry.

The heat pump wasn't starting...notice the small crack in the fan blade...

Oh yeah, and the other fanblade that's twisted, cracked and jammed against the housing of the pump...

Serviceman will be here Monday...should still be under warranty.

So I got to stress test my heart by splitting wood...

George's New Parlor Pistol

By "new" I mean new to him. He thinks it dates from the 1930's due to a possible date stamp. He said there was an Anschutz stamp under the grip. Normally I try to avoid "gunblogging" but this is a neat little pistol! I wasn't able to find any information about this pistol or any other pictures that exactly match anywhere on the internet...but it is probably a "parlor pistol" from the era when gentlemen would retire to the parlor after dinner for a quick pistol match.

Your middle finger rests on the trigger guard spur.

The side lever breaks the action open.

Just beautiful!

The sight is not original (George fitted that one)

You can see the lever enters underneath.

Broken, showing the action of the extractor. It seems to be chambered for .22 rimfire.

The butt...

Can We Build It?

Just a few random pictures...

Henry uses his talking Bob the Builder hammer to pound some cams into our new entertainment center.

The project went smoothly.

Max will knock you out!

Henry is stunned by the new Wii.

Notice the spilled dish of chips...a kinetic game for sure. Max is eating his controller.

A Few Pics...

Just a few pics...

Balloonhead

All the toys we bought for Christmas can't compare to a stick and a balloon.

Henry enlisted my assistance in some bicycle repair. Max was going nuts in the background.

Once you get past the lefty-loosey bit, Henry is pretty good at this stuff.

Fixing an Annoyance on my South Bend 10K Lathe

I love my South Bend 10K lathe. There's been one small issue that has bugged me since I set it up, the switch mount is a little low and obscures the quick change gearbox plate.

Looking down you can see that the switch obscures the gearbox.

The switch mount also prevents full travel of my dial indicator, when working right up against the headstock.

I unplugged the motor (!) and removed the switch box.

I drilled two holes to clear a 1/4" screw and tapped two others 1/4"-20. You can see my precise pencil layout marks.

The plate screwed to the lathe.

With the switch mounted in the new position I can now read the gearbox plate and use a long travel indicator without the stem fouling on the mount.

Holiday Cheer

So the snow has continued...

Henry ventured out and shovelled the paths. Not that we asked him to, he just wanted to do it.

Henry cleans the old wax off of the menorah.

I walked over to the neighbors house. The forecast said "ice pellets" and it did indeed pelt me.

Then the sun came out...Henry made a small snowball.

Henry and I assemble one of those newfangled tree stands.

My buddy Jim gave us a tree that was surplus to his needs.

Some links:
The USCG page about Cesar Romero

Lem's "The Futurological Congress" may be made into a movie!

One of my machine customers invented this nifty tool for removing a broken cork.

Here's an old review of the Taig lathe from Popular Mechanics. They have placed all of the Popular Mechanics and Popular Science magazines on Google Books for free! You can waste years of your life reading them.

Brrrrr!

It's cold here!

Henry received his orange belt last Thursday night.

It's amazing how well behaved he is in class.

This is snow. Notice Henry on the right.

We don't get snow often.

It's 25 degrees.

No lawn parties today.