(no subject)
alright! its been a very good week, but today kinda sucked towards the end. but i'll get to that in a bit.
this week, we had a visitor from across the pond come in and do his thing for us, which was pretty damn cool. he's an old-timer english double-gun maker. which means he made and maintained double barrel shotguns. i dont think he makes them anymore, but he seemed to know what he was doing. but the neatest thing was that brownels came in as well and was shooting a video with our TV crew and jack (the englishman gunmaker) showing his stuff. jack brought in a bunch of his tools, and was just showing general maintanence and how-to's for double guns. which is pretty damn neat because not alot of people do double guns anymore. another one of the world of firearm's dying arts.
i didnt see much of the taping since i had other stuff i was working on, mainly my mauser stock, stevens stock and my wheellock. all stuff i want to get done. i got my mauser stock almost there, but i saw i had to pull out the bedding and start again with that. the metal work was sticking way above the wood line, so i had to remove all that with a dremel tool. by the end of the morning today, the old bedding was out, and levels had been set to continue with the new bedding. bedding, known also as glass bedding, is a method of getting full 100% contact between the metal work and the wood. this is done for looks and to fill in lousey inletting, and it has a function: the more contact there is, the more the force of the recoil is spread out evenly throughout the stock. the term glass bedding is missleading, there is no glass used at all in its basic instalation. in other appilcations, fibre glass can be added, along with other additives, may be added for strength. glass bedding uses a two-part epoxy resin called acraglass. hence its name. makes sence, huh? lol. so i have re-bedding my mauser to look foward to on tuesday. which is pretty neat stuff.
my stevens is a little-bitty .22 single shot rifle that needs a new stock. plus i think im just going to re-do the whole thing with a fine polish and re-bluing. i have the buttstock roughed out, and i installed the buttplate, and now i need to smooth it out and get it to final shape and then apply finish. also i need to cut a new fore arm for it, so it counts as much as it can for class.
now my wheellock grew this week in leaps and bounds! i got several parts to fit in without much alteration, got the mainspring shaped and ready for heat treatment, and now im just waiting to do that so i can move on to drill the wheel for some sears (see-ers). sears are inter-locking bits that when engaged together will lock and hold the gun ready for firing. a release of the sears allows the wheel to spin and create sparks when the frizzen is rubbed against it. frizzen is the bit (either flint, pyrites, etc) that when struck against hardened steel, creates a shower of sparks that ignites the powder, firing the gun. right now there is only 3 more pieces on the lock that i have to fabricate. and all but one i have to do from scratch. one (actually two parts) is the dog or cock that holds the frizzen. and the other is a bit that i made but lost a few weeks ago that limits how far one of the sears move. actually its the first sear that is moved to fire the gun. come tuesday again, i will harden and temper all 4 springs, and then start fitting a few more parts to the lock. after the springs are functional, i have to harden and temper the spindle (the part the holds the wheel and is attached to the mainspring via a small chain), drill four small blind (not all the way through) holes in the wheel, fit the flashpan to the wheel, add shims to the pan, harden the sears, a bit of soldering, final fit and polish and it'll be done! well, the machanism will be anyway. the stock is still a long way off. but i'll save that for another entry.
then this afternoon was pretty good. i got a package of cooling components for my computer. which i desperately need. my computer has a not so nice habit of over heating and then shutting down. usually during a game or when im watching vids online. so i got two new mor powerful fans for the case, and a new heat sink for the cpu. before it would run at about 39*-40*C just idling doing nothing. now its idling at a steady 36*C. not a bad improvement. tomorow night will be the test: playing AOE3. it always shuts down when i play. i found out the thing shuts down at about 45*-48*C, and it heats up that much. if it keeps doing this, then the next thing is liquid cooling, and that gets pretty pricey. but hopefully it'll hold up just fine. also i got a call from my "client" (if you wish) looking to pick up his revolver. he came by this evening when i was about done with installing the new fans. and he was very very pleased with the work i've done. and for all my work i got $150!!! which is much more than what i have in my bank account right now, lol. and now its burning a hole in my pocket, lol. i need to send some cash to a friend for payment for a rifle. and after that 50 bucks is, i want to get a movie or three from wally-world. im thinking "underworld: evolution", "corpse bride", "phantom of the opera", and one or two others if i dont find them. and then possibly some rum! lol. but also i want to wait and pay my internet bill. hmm, i get paid for my RA job at the end of next week. so we'll see.
but yea like i said, it was all going well and good up until this afternoon. i was tweaking the mainspring in the lockplate with the torch in the vise, and i was preparing to unscrew the spring from the plate, while still heating the spring. i was planning on dropping it in oil to harden it. i was unscrewing the screw holding the spring in, and a lick of flame from the torch flowed off the top of the spring, and flowed onto my middle and pointer fingers. only a small part of the side of the front knuckle (near the nail, but not the nail) was burned...pretty badly. but not nearly as bad as it could have been. i got a lick from the outside edges of the flame, not the cone of it where the gasses come out of the torch nezzle. the cone of the torch is about ohh... 5000*F, or there about. the lick was about 1000*-2000*. it only touched my skin for a split second, but it charred the skin on my fingers and cooked the nerves. after it happened i didnt feel much of anything except for some heat around the spot where it was cooked. but a few minutes later, it started to hurt, BAD!!! i ran some cold water over them and was able to examine the damage better. my pointer finger was singed, but nothing more than about a good 1st degree burn. which is just some redness, pain and tenderness. and is usually healed overnight for me. my middle finger got the fill brunt of the flame lick. the skin was a funky tan color, with some dark brown flecks, possibly where crud and oil built up before. the surface of the skin was indeed, cooked! there i got a good second degree burn. which is more redness, pain and swelling than a first degree, and the skin also blisters. im not sure how long it lasts because i never had a burn this bad before. it blistered up alot after dinner, and eventually popped after i worked on my computer a bit. also i got some burn gel from a buddy and that worked wonders!! the pain went (1-10, 10 being "holy fuck that hurts!!") from a 12 to a 3 instantly! but it was kinda wierd, before the gel the pain came and went in waves. but the gel shut it up for a good while, and then it finally quit hurting a while ago. i still know its there and its tender, but the pain is very minimal. so hopefully by monday i'll be almost 100%. i wonder how long the skin will take to heal...
and thats about it for me. i'll be finishing up a few things and hopefully healing in the weeks to come.
and im off. im tired and ready for sleep.
g'night!
this week, we had a visitor from across the pond come in and do his thing for us, which was pretty damn cool. he's an old-timer english double-gun maker. which means he made and maintained double barrel shotguns. i dont think he makes them anymore, but he seemed to know what he was doing. but the neatest thing was that brownels came in as well and was shooting a video with our TV crew and jack (the englishman gunmaker) showing his stuff. jack brought in a bunch of his tools, and was just showing general maintanence and how-to's for double guns. which is pretty damn neat because not alot of people do double guns anymore. another one of the world of firearm's dying arts.
i didnt see much of the taping since i had other stuff i was working on, mainly my mauser stock, stevens stock and my wheellock. all stuff i want to get done. i got my mauser stock almost there, but i saw i had to pull out the bedding and start again with that. the metal work was sticking way above the wood line, so i had to remove all that with a dremel tool. by the end of the morning today, the old bedding was out, and levels had been set to continue with the new bedding. bedding, known also as glass bedding, is a method of getting full 100% contact between the metal work and the wood. this is done for looks and to fill in lousey inletting, and it has a function: the more contact there is, the more the force of the recoil is spread out evenly throughout the stock. the term glass bedding is missleading, there is no glass used at all in its basic instalation. in other appilcations, fibre glass can be added, along with other additives, may be added for strength. glass bedding uses a two-part epoxy resin called acraglass. hence its name. makes sence, huh? lol. so i have re-bedding my mauser to look foward to on tuesday. which is pretty neat stuff.
my stevens is a little-bitty .22 single shot rifle that needs a new stock. plus i think im just going to re-do the whole thing with a fine polish and re-bluing. i have the buttstock roughed out, and i installed the buttplate, and now i need to smooth it out and get it to final shape and then apply finish. also i need to cut a new fore arm for it, so it counts as much as it can for class.
now my wheellock grew this week in leaps and bounds! i got several parts to fit in without much alteration, got the mainspring shaped and ready for heat treatment, and now im just waiting to do that so i can move on to drill the wheel for some sears (see-ers). sears are inter-locking bits that when engaged together will lock and hold the gun ready for firing. a release of the sears allows the wheel to spin and create sparks when the frizzen is rubbed against it. frizzen is the bit (either flint, pyrites, etc) that when struck against hardened steel, creates a shower of sparks that ignites the powder, firing the gun. right now there is only 3 more pieces on the lock that i have to fabricate. and all but one i have to do from scratch. one (actually two parts) is the dog or cock that holds the frizzen. and the other is a bit that i made but lost a few weeks ago that limits how far one of the sears move. actually its the first sear that is moved to fire the gun. come tuesday again, i will harden and temper all 4 springs, and then start fitting a few more parts to the lock. after the springs are functional, i have to harden and temper the spindle (the part the holds the wheel and is attached to the mainspring via a small chain), drill four small blind (not all the way through) holes in the wheel, fit the flashpan to the wheel, add shims to the pan, harden the sears, a bit of soldering, final fit and polish and it'll be done! well, the machanism will be anyway. the stock is still a long way off. but i'll save that for another entry.
then this afternoon was pretty good. i got a package of cooling components for my computer. which i desperately need. my computer has a not so nice habit of over heating and then shutting down. usually during a game or when im watching vids online. so i got two new mor powerful fans for the case, and a new heat sink for the cpu. before it would run at about 39*-40*C just idling doing nothing. now its idling at a steady 36*C. not a bad improvement. tomorow night will be the test: playing AOE3. it always shuts down when i play. i found out the thing shuts down at about 45*-48*C, and it heats up that much. if it keeps doing this, then the next thing is liquid cooling, and that gets pretty pricey. but hopefully it'll hold up just fine. also i got a call from my "client" (if you wish) looking to pick up his revolver. he came by this evening when i was about done with installing the new fans. and he was very very pleased with the work i've done. and for all my work i got $150!!! which is much more than what i have in my bank account right now, lol. and now its burning a hole in my pocket, lol. i need to send some cash to a friend for payment for a rifle. and after that 50 bucks is, i want to get a movie or three from wally-world. im thinking "underworld: evolution", "corpse bride", "phantom of the opera", and one or two others if i dont find them. and then possibly some rum! lol. but also i want to wait and pay my internet bill. hmm, i get paid for my RA job at the end of next week. so we'll see.
but yea like i said, it was all going well and good up until this afternoon. i was tweaking the mainspring in the lockplate with the torch in the vise, and i was preparing to unscrew the spring from the plate, while still heating the spring. i was planning on dropping it in oil to harden it. i was unscrewing the screw holding the spring in, and a lick of flame from the torch flowed off the top of the spring, and flowed onto my middle and pointer fingers. only a small part of the side of the front knuckle (near the nail, but not the nail) was burned...pretty badly. but not nearly as bad as it could have been. i got a lick from the outside edges of the flame, not the cone of it where the gasses come out of the torch nezzle. the cone of the torch is about ohh... 5000*F, or there about. the lick was about 1000*-2000*. it only touched my skin for a split second, but it charred the skin on my fingers and cooked the nerves. after it happened i didnt feel much of anything except for some heat around the spot where it was cooked. but a few minutes later, it started to hurt, BAD!!! i ran some cold water over them and was able to examine the damage better. my pointer finger was singed, but nothing more than about a good 1st degree burn. which is just some redness, pain and tenderness. and is usually healed overnight for me. my middle finger got the fill brunt of the flame lick. the skin was a funky tan color, with some dark brown flecks, possibly where crud and oil built up before. the surface of the skin was indeed, cooked! there i got a good second degree burn. which is more redness, pain and swelling than a first degree, and the skin also blisters. im not sure how long it lasts because i never had a burn this bad before. it blistered up alot after dinner, and eventually popped after i worked on my computer a bit. also i got some burn gel from a buddy and that worked wonders!! the pain went (1-10, 10 being "holy fuck that hurts!!") from a 12 to a 3 instantly! but it was kinda wierd, before the gel the pain came and went in waves. but the gel shut it up for a good while, and then it finally quit hurting a while ago. i still know its there and its tender, but the pain is very minimal. so hopefully by monday i'll be almost 100%. i wonder how long the skin will take to heal...
and thats about it for me. i'll be finishing up a few things and hopefully healing in the weeks to come.
and im off. im tired and ready for sleep.
g'night!