| This thread has been locked, it will not receive new replies. |
|
Locked on 09/23/2009 6:30:55 AM PDT by Admin Moderator, reason:
New thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2346317/posts |
Posted on 09/25/2008 6:43:34 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!
Sing hey! for the bath at close of day
That washes the weary mud away!
A loon is he that will not sing:
O! Water Hot is anoble thing!
O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain.
and the brook that leaps from hill to plain;
but better than rain or rippling streams
is Water Hot that smokes and steams.
O! Water cold we may pour at need
down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed;
but better is Beer, if drink we lack,
and Water Hot poured down the back.
O! Water is fair that leaps on high
in a fountain white beneath the sky;
but never did fountain sound so sweet
as splashing Hot Water with my feet!
Ahoy Hobbits, Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day!
Avast you swabbies!
ARGH !
UNC plays the Pirates today.
Hope we keel-haul the scurvy scallawags!
see more Fail Blog
AARGHH! I gotta e-mail my kids!! I’ll see if Blue Mountain has a “Pirate Day” e-card!
Actually that’s a clever decorating idea. Gotta hide that ugly pipe, you know, so it doesn’t detract from the lovely decor of the surroundings. ;o)
I stopped by the local Bass Pro shop today, hoping to scope it out for targets of opportunity. I wasn't actively looking for one, but when I saw they had a Browning Auto .22, I jumped on it. Here it is, in all it's understated elegance, next to the Colt M4 .22, which is being transformed to match my "real" M-faux.
The Browning has two tapped holes on the barrel near the rear sight. I always thought the receiver was grooved for a scope mount, but I must have been wrong. I'll have to find something equally classic to go with the rifle.
It's made in Japan by Miroku, and the quality is as good as the Belgian ones, which were last made probably 40 years ago. I've seen the chicom copies, and they're trash.
The only downside is that the stock has several dings at the butt where this rifle, or others, were taken in and out of the rack. This gives me the incentive to some day strip the polyurethane finish, and redo the wood in a traditional oil finish.
The Colt .22 shows the Navy-type rear sight swapped out for a M4 carry handle, and a Magpul stock. Those were trivial.
The Magpul pistol grip and trigger guard were not trivial, and will take up quite a bit of my Sunday supplement. Still to come are the fold-down front sight, the Magpul three-color rail covers, and a cheap-ass chicom scope that looks like the Leupold CQT that will go on my "real" M-faux.
Good Afternoon Win-Mag - seems another show and the Chiefs (hope springs eternal with the Chiefs fan base) home game took a real chunk out of our club show. But got a line on a weaponry I’ve been looking for so there is that. Co-worker was there and he sold his 91-30 so he thought it was a good show. A brief shower and sun is shining, beautiful day indeed.
Most of this weekend was devoted (unintentionally) to replacing the rather useless "winter trigger guard" on AR-15s with the Magpul aluminum trigger bow. Here we see that I've replaced it on the Sig 556 rifle, while I haven't yet started on the P556 pistol.
By this time, I've done about six grip/trigger guard swaps on various weapons without a hitch. I started on the P556, and disaster struck.
The roll pin at the rear of the trigger guard decided not to cooperate, or move when I hammered it with the roll-pin punch. Instead, it snapped off. That's just a little aluminum "ear", machined out of the solid forging that receivers begin as.
After a very long moment of "oh sh!t", I turned to one of my father's favorite emergency potions, JB-Weld. It's a two-part epoxy that can hold a battleship together.
Before starting the repair, I wanted to get the M4-22 trigger guard changed. I don't know what those roll pins have against me, but that snapped, too. So I had two repairs to do.
The epoxy is very slow curing, even mixed in the ratio of 1-1 for epoxy and hardener. So I slathered on the mix, stuck the pieces on, and let everything set for 48 hours. I had a bit of weight on each part, just to keep everything immobile.
Here, everything's hardened, and I'm starting to clean up the excess to bring things back to their original contour.
But part of my problem was I was not going to trust those roll pins again, and risk another fracture. So I carefully tapped the trigger guard for some headless setscrews, and opened up the holes on the receiver so the setscrews had enough clearance that they wouldn't try to tap themselves into the aluminum. The P556 is now fixed, and ready to go back together, except for a bit of cleanup on the repair, and something to camouflage it.
At first, I was going to try (and still might) some Brownell's Aluma-Hide spray. I figured it would take about a half hour to mask off everything I didn't want sprayed, and 30 seconds to do the actual spraying. Then it hit me that maybe I could just dye the joint line. I tried some black leather dye (a very strong dye), and the results look promising. The light gray joint is now a very dark gray. I'll try more applications, and see if it improves things. The spray will be a last resort.
I still have to do the drilling and tapping for the M4-22, but with the success of the Sig, I don't expect more problems.
The Magpul pistol grip was more work than it first seemed. It needed some adjustment in the contour at the rear, and slotting the internal holes to fit a different spacing. But it now fits and functions properly. It just took most of the weekend to recover from these problems and get back on course.
As an extra bonus, I dabbled in some cold steel items this weekend, too. First, I retired my Woodsman's Pal, which resided in the "hidden compartment" in the bottom of the cargo area in the Jimmy. I used it a few times over the years, but I usually forget it's there. I took advantage of a good deal, and got an Ontario Ranger tomahawk, which I will now refer to as "camping hatchet".
It's a very nice item, and has a top-notch sheath by Desantis Holsters. There's even a semi-hard welt on the inside that protects all the sharp edges from poking through the sheath.
The nicest part is that it is short enough to fit in the pocket on the back of the passenger seat, needing just a spare baseball cap over the handle to discourage prying eyes. If needed, I can reach for it easily.
That pretty much completes my emergency equipment I carry in the front of the SUV (more gear in the cargo area behind the rear seat).
The safety vest and CRKT fireman's tool are pretty self-explanatory. The Czech rubber truncheon is a touch of old-world "persuasion", while the "camping hatchet" is reserved for the stickiest situations. I wrapped the handles in Camoform tape to provide a bit of cushioning, and a more tacky grip. With the vest stored in its own pocket, everything is nice and compact.
The "rubber persuader" goes in the bottom of the door pocket, with the pry bar on top, and the vest on top of everything else. The "camping hatchet" fits nicely in the seatback pocket.
I installed a hugh rechargeable cop flashlight on the passenger side of the instrument stack, and now have a nicely-customized GMC Envoy ready to handle things that appear unexpectedly while on the road.
Is it dawn yet?
Is it time to inaugurate The “The Hobbit” Hole?
Gypsy has put on a pound!!! It was a tough fight, but OB and I got in on her. Must have been the Vienna sausages and the rice/barley bars covered with braunschweiger.
I also frontlined Annie today; Jackson’s next, but he’s visiting his real home today. Don’t know how Annie got fleas, ‘cause she is not allowed out, but she had ‘em.
LSA
Dang a hammer monkey with JB weld ?..........:o)
Sorry ya broke that, JB weld is in all my tool kits, also double bubble epoxy packs etc .....is that aluminum alloy ? Aren’t there some small touch up pens at brownells for that ? Looks like a sharpie marker and is just the think I have found.
As to that rubber night stick....german polize carry those and when they hit ya on the left side of the noggin it comes around and slaps the right side all in the same application ........;o)
Hurts !
I know the nightstick has universal popularity all across central Europe. It must be a cultural phenomenon.
I'm trying to figure out how to hide the JB Weld seam, the rest of the aluminum is fine. I have the luxury of enough time to try out various approaches before going with the bake-on paint, which is intended more for complete refinishing jobs.
Cold Steel, indeed. They look suitably menacing. ;o)
I had a 'cold steel' experience last night. I was washing my Cutco Santoku knife, and as I was rinsing it, it slipped in my left hand, and sliced my right index finger. Oops. It didn't look that deep, and it bled for a bit, but since I was able to slow it down considerably, I didn't wake SirKit up to take me to the ER. We went to the 'Ready Clinic' in town this afternoon, and the Doc said he probably shouldn't do stitches, since it had been about 13 hours since the injury. He prescribed some antibiotics, just in case, and gave me a tetanus shot, since it had been 8 years since my last one. They irrigated the wound, put butterfly bandages on it, and wrapped it up. It's a little sore, but I can still move the tip of the finger, so I can write and type!
The sharper the knife, the less you feel the cut, since it's a clean slice without any tearing. I've cut myself with blades so sharp, I never felt a thing, I just saw blood coming from somewhere. Still, I keep a civilian "light duty" amount of Quick Clot around, along with bandages.
Washing sharp kitchen cutlery gives me pause, too. I should get some of those stainless steel chain mail filleting gloves.
ROTFL! I have some friends who had a cat that looked like Mr Big Stuff there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
