(no subject)
damn, has it been that long since my last entry in this thing? my last one was sept 21 and here is it 3 weeks later. so its time for an update!
projects have been going pretty smoothly, i made a huge stride on my wheellock last week. after two unsucessful attempts, i finally got the mainspring bent! after the first two attempts i found out what i was doing wrong. i was heating the spring too hot and bending it too fast, resulting in a nice fissure at the site of the 90* bend, making it worthless as a spring. so this time i didnt use as much heat and bent it very slowly. it must have took me about 5 or so minutes to bend it around, and its a nice solid, clean bend, which is critical to a good spring. so the next few days i'll final bend it, shape and then heat and temper it. if all goes well with crafting parts and fitting them it should be sparking by the end of the month, and a completed, fully functional rifle at the end of november.
oo i also got some cool stuff in about a week ago for the rifle. i ordered two water buffalo horns to make a butt-plate, forend tip and some bits for the ram-rod. i got them in the other day, opened the box and was greeted by two horns that made a circle about 2 feet in diameter, lol. i was in shock for a while thinking "what the hell am i going to do with these!?". they are far too big to boil to bend at once, we dont have a vessel that big nor do i want to buy enough oil to submerge it. so after a day or two of thinking "wtf!?" i calmed down and am now planning to cut the horns into pieces a little larger than what i want the final peice to be, boil the peices, shape them and use them like that. so now i have that to look foward to doing.
elsewhere, its been about 3 weeks since me and varina started dating, and so far its been going pretty well. we get together every saturday evening and watch a movie or two, and i visit her at work in the library every now and then. we watched "phantom of the opera" yesterday, i forgot how good and beautiful of a movie that was. which kinda sucks because now i have to buy it, lol. if we're getting this close now, december's gonna suck. but i dont like to think of the end, just cherish and enjoy the time we have together now.
on another note, i finished a project for repair class the other day. its a kit gun that an aquaintence of mine wanted professionally finished. its a replica of an old colt revolver and i've been working on it for a few weeks polishing and prettying it up, and just finished it last week. it would have been done about 3 weeks ago, but they werent bluing at that point. i'll have to take pics of it before i give it back. plus im getting at least $120 for the work, so that just makes me day there! lol. i'll call him tomorow and he'll come up from raton and get it and pay me. so thats all good.
ok, its late and i have to wake up at 7 tomorow. damn class...
oh well, its almost over.
g'night!
projects have been going pretty smoothly, i made a huge stride on my wheellock last week. after two unsucessful attempts, i finally got the mainspring bent! after the first two attempts i found out what i was doing wrong. i was heating the spring too hot and bending it too fast, resulting in a nice fissure at the site of the 90* bend, making it worthless as a spring. so this time i didnt use as much heat and bent it very slowly. it must have took me about 5 or so minutes to bend it around, and its a nice solid, clean bend, which is critical to a good spring. so the next few days i'll final bend it, shape and then heat and temper it. if all goes well with crafting parts and fitting them it should be sparking by the end of the month, and a completed, fully functional rifle at the end of november.
oo i also got some cool stuff in about a week ago for the rifle. i ordered two water buffalo horns to make a butt-plate, forend tip and some bits for the ram-rod. i got them in the other day, opened the box and was greeted by two horns that made a circle about 2 feet in diameter, lol. i was in shock for a while thinking "what the hell am i going to do with these!?". they are far too big to boil to bend at once, we dont have a vessel that big nor do i want to buy enough oil to submerge it. so after a day or two of thinking "wtf!?" i calmed down and am now planning to cut the horns into pieces a little larger than what i want the final peice to be, boil the peices, shape them and use them like that. so now i have that to look foward to doing.
elsewhere, its been about 3 weeks since me and varina started dating, and so far its been going pretty well. we get together every saturday evening and watch a movie or two, and i visit her at work in the library every now and then. we watched "phantom of the opera" yesterday, i forgot how good and beautiful of a movie that was. which kinda sucks because now i have to buy it, lol. if we're getting this close now, december's gonna suck. but i dont like to think of the end, just cherish and enjoy the time we have together now.
on another note, i finished a project for repair class the other day. its a kit gun that an aquaintence of mine wanted professionally finished. its a replica of an old colt revolver and i've been working on it for a few weeks polishing and prettying it up, and just finished it last week. it would have been done about 3 weeks ago, but they werent bluing at that point. i'll have to take pics of it before i give it back. plus im getting at least $120 for the work, so that just makes me day there! lol. i'll call him tomorow and he'll come up from raton and get it and pay me. so thats all good.
ok, its late and i have to wake up at 7 tomorow. damn class...
oh well, its almost over.
g'night!