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Posted on 08/07/2007 7:52:15 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Glad you could join us!
*snicker* We rented a little house in Maine for a weekend, but only stayed one night because it was so much smaller than we thought, when we arranged for the rental. Since then, SirKit always asks how many sq. ft. the place has before we reserve it!
The morning we checked out, we went looking for the Bush family compound (this was 1988, while Poppy Bush was still Veep. We weren't successful, so we stopped at this lovely cove and let the boys play on the rocks while I sat up at the van with Clare, who was only a few months old, at the time. As I was looking around, I realized that the house on the point to our right was the Bush's place! It's on a piece of land jutting out into the ocean. It's not a fancy place, just a big old rambling cape cod, with a couple of other smaller houses on the property. The location, however, is stellar!
Sam spent a few minutes outside resting and staring at the back of the nayber’s house. She occassionally gives him bones.
Today was not one of those days.
heh, nayber’s dog came to the fence, he got his rawhide treat. He’s a happy doggie. oh, Gypsy got one as well. :-)
other nayber’s son moved home last week, he’s living in the attic, got a window sized a/c in the attic’s front dormer. gotta be slighly warmish up there, even with the a/c. Works long hours so won’t be there much. good plan.
Morning!
I’ve got tomatoes since The Cage went up. They’re a pain to harvest, though.....good thing I’m short!
I’ve been doing some weeding and shoring up my bunny fence. It’s still too wet to mow but I have to go pick up sticks first anyway. If I feel energetic enough I’ll dig some more leaves into the west bed...unless the ground is too wet.
The ground is too wet. :)
Have you checked recently? Seems warm enough to dry the ground out. (except for the humidity) :-)
It seemed a bit damp when I was pulling weeds this morning. Besides, I’ve got another project going now. :)
What ya doing? LSA
I was prepping the ceiling and that one wall of thesunroom (that used to be outdoors) for painting. Now the race is getting ready to start.
Are those curtains you installed still keeping the heat within a reasonable level in the sunroom? This has been a helluva try-out for ‘em! LSA
Yeah, pretty much. Temps in the low to mid 90’s when I get home in the afternoon and I still haven’t got the second panel up yet. I’m thinking about trying to put a rod up there with velcro. If it works, then going in and out would be easier.
I don’t think Miss Cat likes the curtain. She still looks for a patch of light to nap in.
Heavy-duty velcro loops might work. You could use them on either side of where you want to enter/exit and then just pull the curtain back. Good idea!! LSA
Annie doesn’t get to see much sunlight either. I’m keeping the shades down to keep the glare out and the ac doesn’t have to work so hard.
So whatcha doing? I heard you over there mowin’ rocks earlier... wanna come over this afternoon/evening for dog play and visiting?
Just thought I'd mention a webcomic that Rose and I enjoy, Tales of the Questor. We've been reading it for some time, but last night I got the urge to go back and read it again from the beginning. I'd forgotten how good the stories are. I thought I'd mentioned it before, but I hadn't, so I'm doing it now.
Oh, a hint... to see what's different about this webcomic, read up through page 17 at least...
Mowin’ rocks is right...ungh! I did all but one patch in front, and by then had a couple of busted, oozing blisters, so I quit.
I have callouses from bike riding, writing and guitar playing...but none are in the right place to defend me from that dang mower!
Dog play and visiting and maybe a movie would be great! I still have tidying to do for a bit, and I should shower...heh. Gasoline scent is rather potent.
I wait for the August release of the Brownell's catalog with the same anticipation I used to reserve as a kid for the Sear's Christmas catalog. (I have to admit the Sear's tool catalog brings a bit of reading pleasure, but I already have most of the tools I want.) I will be scanning every one of the 528 pages to make sure there's not some cool tool or accessory I need, plus looking for new stuff that's just plain neat.
One thing I learned from the catalog (I wish I had found out years earlier) is that you need special tools to work with roll pins. They're those rolled-up hollow spring-steel pins that hold parts together without extra fasteners. They're cheap but effective, and a real pain to work with if you don't have the proper tools.
Brownell's has the proper tools. One set of punches has a small dimple, and a small enough diameter, to easily remove roll pins. The other set has a small cup in the end of the punch which holds and squeezes the pin enough to allow you to start it, and then finish seating it with a regular punch.
Roll pins have always brought me grief until I got these tools. After that, I started to look for projects that required working with roll pins. Even high-class modern firearms have roll pins in hidden areas. They are effective, and keep costs down, but aren't too attractive. And plenty of other things in this world use roll pins, not just firearms.
One area where the roll pin punches came in was in dismantling the Remington 700 firing pin, which requires its own special tool for it. The firing pin spring is powerful enough to shoot the firing pin through you, if you don't use the proper tool, shown on the left:
Next to that is a Glock magazine-squeezer-tool, used to remove the magazine floorplate. The two tools on the right are "plunger pushers", which are used to remove spring pressure on plunger-type ejectors, so you can use your roll pin tool to take out the roll pin and disassemble the ejector. The AR15 bolt in one of the tools show how it works.
Another special-purpose tool is this vise block, which lets you clamp an AR15 upper receiver in a vise without crushing it like an empty pop can.
Finally, one vey important set of tools if you work with rifle scopes. First is a set of precision-ground steel "points" that show you if your rings are properly aligned. This is especially important for "rotary mount" rings, where the rings are turned 90 degrees to lock them in the mount. It's also important when checking out QD rings. Never put the scope into the rings until you verify things align properly in all directions.
The tool consists of two steel sleeves, with both 1 inch and 30mm "steps" that are clamped by the rings. The two steel "points" are then slid in.
Good alignment looks like this. If the points don't meet perfectly, you have series problems, and do not proceed until you figure it out.
Once the alignment is verified, you're still not ready to mount the scope, at least if you're not obsessive like I am. You next have to lap the scope rings to assure you have a perfectly concentric, uniform, mounting surface inside the rings. The Brownell's lap performs this important function.
The lap is a steel rod what is coated with a compound that consists of heavy grease and 8000-grit aluminum oxide. It's slowly worked back and forth, and in a circular direction, in the rings, tightening the clamping screws slowly as you go.
The object is to lap away just enough of the inner surface of the rings to show that the lapping rod has "refreshed" the surface enough to guarantee complete ring contact with the scope, and its perfect alignment of both surfaces with each other. With a quality mounting system, like Leupold, things start out almost perfect, so it only takes about two hours of pleasant, patient work to finish the lapping job.
Once the rings are lapped, you can't just drop the scope in, at least if you're me. First comes a light dusting of rosin powder (also available from Brownell's) inside the rings. Even with perfect full contact with the rings, this is extra insurance that nothing moves under heavy recoil.
After that comes leveling the scope base to the horizontal, using a bubble level, and leveling the vertical crosshairs using a plumb bob. Finally, a little bit of colliminization using a laser bore sighter, before taking the weapon the the range for test firing.
If this doesn't seem like a labor of love to you, pay someone else to do the job right. You are building a precision surgical instrument this way, and while it's labor intensive, the results are well worth it.
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