Busy, busy, busy

NRA convention would have been nice, but, we have been working a lot of overtime with little head notice. Didn't feel like securing a hotel and not being able to attend. I believe next years meet is in Louisville. I will schedule my vacation for it so I can guarantee being able to go. Not worth driving up to Indy and trying to find parking. Long drive for a single day and too much to see when there. Don't want to feel rushed. Probably get there early and check out some of the attractions in and around Louisville when I go. I love Kentucky. Gorgeous area and lots to do. I would live on the Kentucky side if it wasn't for the Ohio river. Catch the bridge under construction and the detour would make for a long ride in to work. It's still close enough for weekend and evening trips.

Still had a great day. The weather is perfect. I took advantage of it and got my grass cut, weed whacked and trees trimmed. Took out a couple of dead bushes that the draught took out. Year before last killed a couple of them and seriously damage a couple more. The damaged ones finally died all together. Have a tree near the house that doesn't look good. Still no buds at all. May take it down next weekend. Picked up some new bushes from Lowes to replace dead ones. Putting in some butterfly bushes. Been getting a ton of humming birds and butterflies through the yard. A ton of various types of birds fighting for real estate in the Arborvitaes at the edge of my back yard. Want to put rock down around the trees. Waiting on someone to put it on sale. Usually use mulch, but getting tired of having to replace it. Tiring day, but very productive.

Great start for the weekend

Got off work and headed to the range until it got dark out. Perfect weather. Lots of fun. Finally took the henry 22 for a little exercise. They had cowboy town set up for a shoot scheduled for tomorrow. Going to have to head up there to watch. We set up some older targets so as not to upset their setup for the competition. They have been very busy. A lot of new buildings out there. It looks fantastic. Lots of new targets as well. Took the high standard 22 I picked up at the last auction a few months back out as well. Not as pretty as my browning, but shoots dead on. Good investment. Picked it up really cheap. No one present bid on it and the online bidder was low. I couldn't let it go to someone else that cheap. Flea market all weekend, so probably check it out in the AM. Suppose to stay nice all weekend. Sunday will be the last spot shoot for the spring at the club. I will probably work it and get some of my hours in for the year.

Have a Happy Easter

Happy Easter.

Gaining on it

Spent the whole day sorting out the garage. Got the mess of a toolbox straightened out and the top of the bench organized. All the wrenches are back in order. Found all my missing screw drivers. I now have a ton of tape measures and utility knives. Amazing what you find when you clean. Filled a garbage can with junk. Probably spend tomorrow organizing under the bench. Pegboard helps out a lot for organizing some of the clutter. I managed to get the toolbox under the work bench, so that gives me a bit more floor space. Ran some electric down the bench. Still need to run 220 down the wall. Weather is down right beautiful. May have to take a breather to cut the grass.

No rain today

Chilly, but dry. I was able to pull the Vette out of the garage and do a little work out there today. Managed to get the mill and lathe out of the truck. Bit of a pain, but I managed. The lathe went on the bench. I was able to back up to it and the tailgate was almost a match for the bench height. Managed to drag it over and up on the bench. Heavy little sucker. The mill was a bit more difficult. The guy I bought it from made a heck of a heavy duty stand for it. Beats the heck out of the sheet metal one they sell for it. I dropped that down to the ground, put a two by four under the feet on one side to get it almost level with the tailgate. Managed to drag the mill out and finagle it into place on the stand. Had to majorly change the garage around to make a bit of room. Still a little more arranging to get everything where I want it. Pulling some of my duplicate tools from work for home. I hardly ever run a mill anymore at work, so I brought most of my parallels and some other setup gear home. Want to get a decent vice for it. Have a collet set coming along with a chuck and arbor. Hopefully start cutting my AR lower this weekend. So far, I am off the work list, but that can change.

Lathe isn't huge, but big enough for what I need. It swings nine inch and is twenty between centers. Can't get too big with just a garage. Has a quick change gear box so I can thread a lot easier than with the little craftsman lathe I was using.  Wish I had a pole barn, or a bigger garage. If the weather stays somewhat decent, I can do a little more rearranging tomorrow. I put the pegboard up in the fall. Still need to organize the tools. Want to get the craftsman box situated under the one workbench to free up some more floor space. Managed to get the old electric oven situated against the wall where I want it. It will be my powder coat oven. Hope to run electric down the wall over the weekend. I picked up the conduit and wire already. I installed a twenty amp outlet last fall above the bench. It is on it's own breaker, so the whole run above the workbench should handle about anything I throw at it. Have to run 220 volt down the way as well for the oven. Be handy to have 220 out there anyhow.

Last day of freedom..........

Back to work tomorrow. It has been a relaxing week. Lots of fun. Machine gun shoot was Friday. Today, drove back across the state again. Why? Last night I found a mill I have been wanting for a long time. It came up on craigslist. Less than half of the price of a new one, and it's all there and in good condition. He also had two 9x20 lathes for sale. Hard choice, but I picked between them and now have two new to me additions to the shop. My garage is too small to accommodate all my vehicles and a full size Bridgeport mill, so, a tabletop mill will do just as good. I have a smaller hobby mill, but it is too light duty for most projects. It is a CNC however, so it comes in handy for engraving and small parts.  The guy has a nice set up out there. Big pole barn. He upgraded to a full size lathe and a knee mill. He was just thinning out some of the old stuff. The lathe I bought is a central machine lathe which is the Chinese junk from harbor freight, but the price was right and it has all the accessories. Has a gear box so I don't need to physically change the gears for different pitch threads. It was a choice between that, or an old Atlas. The atlas was missing some items which I could have acquired, but, the central was complete with extras including the ability to cut metric threads. He upgraded the tool holder with a more rigid design and a quick change tool post.

The mill, a Grizzly 1005Z. Decent size for the garage with lots of potential. Have to do things the old fashion way and use the dials for a while. The way work is constantly cleaning, hopefully they clean house and pitch the Accurite digitals I took off of a manual grinder they pitched. They were going to throw the grinder away with the digitals, so, it's probably not too far down the line they tell me to throw it out. Then all I need are the two scales and I am in business. May be able to use the longer of the two scales on the one at the shop. I could live off of what they throw out at work. Have to wait until after work tomorrow to unload. Had help on the other end. Have to see if I can get someone at work to give me a hand getting the stuff out of the truck tomorrow.

Can they use death certificates I wonder????

http://www.twcc.com/articles/2014/04/11/o/obama-to-focus-civil-rights-message-on-voting

I have been voting in Indiana for many years. They ask for a drivers license or state ID card. Period. No, even though I am a white boy, I don't have a passport either. I don't travel abroad Obama and I find the pole just fine. I know many dead people vote democrat so I sort of figure maybe the death certificate is ok. Simple solution. Use a bit more of the money us working folk dole out to supply state ID cards to all the welfare drones. Take away their excuse. Not the illegal immigrants mind you, seeing as how they are illegal and NOT citizens, but, free ID to all the welfare recipients, no matter what their race. Leave it to Obama to once again beat the race drum. Bigots, him and Al both.....

Machine gun shoot day, yesssss

Got up at the crack of dawn and headed out. I love the new radio. My entire I-pod collection on the dash. The navigation unit is flawless. I love how it turns the volume down and lets me know the turn is coming up. I still tend to crank the volume, so, I use to miss a turn once in a while with the garmin. Made it out to the shoot really early, but, not quite early enough. I got all excited when I first got there. They ushered me up to the parking lot up by the entrance to the shoot. The lot was full, dang it. They funneled us through that lot and way way back to a far back lot. If I had been there ten cars earlier, I would have been parked by the gate. Parking by the gate gives easy access to your vehicle for carrying heavy items back to the vehicle rather easily. It also gets you out of the overcrowded bus ride up to the shoot. I always walk as the buses are standing room and everyone packed in like sardines. Maybe next year. I keep toying with just camping there. The spring shoot is usually decent temperature wise. Besides, the helicopter pad is in the campground.

I picked up a couple of lowers that need a little work. I picked them up for $30 a pop. Have a little mill and want to try my hand at making a lower from scratch. The 80% ones look way too easy: ) If they turn out decent, I may pick up a billet and make one from scratch. Another project for my free time. Also picked up a 40 round magazine, just because. First time I saw one and I just got a have one.

Finally,,,,,,,

Finally finished the radio project. Couldn't figure out why the navigation unit didn't work. Wrote pioneer, and sonic electronics for support. Several hours later and still waiting for them to call back. Figured it out after checking the wiring for the brake and double checking all connections. Went through all the submenus in the system folder. Finally found the setting. Does it simply have a drop down menu like the rest of the tabs in the system, no. Is it titled nav unit, no. They set a default to the I-phone, because I guess the whole world uses the I-phone. Make it too easy if they had no default and a menu to pick what you are actually using. The setting is titled for the USB input, even though it uses a RGB input. The I-phone setting doesn't change when you click it, you have to touch a grayed out small icon in the shadows of the setting and then it displays a grayed out drop menu. Wasted a couple days checking wires because of a setting they decided to hide. Maybe I can let them know what it was if and when their support team decides to follow through on their promise to call back.

On the plus side, it is awesome. The navigation unit turns the radio down and lets you know where to turn, then, unpauses the radio again. Best part is it won't be sliding around the dash when the mount loosens up like the garmin did. Found the setting to shut the voice off that lets me know I am speeding. We are officially done with the install and ready for the virgin run. Tomorrow starts the machine gun shoot. The very best gun show around. Where else outside of combat can you go and watch things get blown up and burn. Rent a machine gun, a flame thrower or go for a ride in a Huey. Only in America. Suppose to rain, but I'll just take a rain coat along. Most of the gun show is under a pavilion anyhow.

slight delay between drizzles

I finally got a break in the weather to install the navigation unit to the radio and run the cable back to the back up camera. Definitely not near as flexible as I use to be. Age and a fat belly have made maneuvering in tight spaces a bit of a challenge. I finally managed to get the back up camera working, after much fiddling with the settings in the radio. I thought I had it wired wrong at first, but it was just a setting on the radio. Still have to hook up the wire to the parking brake. Navigation unit is not working. Trying to figure out if it's a bad unit or just a setting on the radio. Stuff is just too complicated anymore. Can't get video through the navigation unit, but, the annoying bitch voice on the unit notifies me that I am speeding when I headed to the store. Sorry, my truck doesn't do thirty, period. Have to play with it tomorrow and see if I can get the video on navigation to work. It may have to do with the parking brake wire not being hooked up. Don't plan on watching movies, so I wasn't too concerned with it, but it may be needed for the navigation control. They use to hook it up to the ground side, but people just grounded the wire out and bypassed the safety. Now, it hooks to the hot side of the brake light circuit so it can sense voltage change somehow. Nanny police making life more difficult. Hopefully have it debugged tomorrow.

Ahhhhhhh, time to relax

It is officially vacation time. Hoping the weather is a little drier out. Two days and nights of rain is enough for a long, long while. This weekend is the big Louisville gun show at the Expo center, next weekend, the machine gun shoot. It don't get much better than that. Tomorrow, probably do a little relaxing. Not suppose to rain so I will get the video cable run back to the back up camera and hook up the navigation unit to the radio. Going to start the day off with a long overdue haircut and a nice breakfast.

Baby steps

Getting there slowly. I got the radio in yesterday, today, the weather was dry and I managed to get the rear view camera installed and the power hooked up to it. Crawled under the truck and found the best path to run the video cable. That's a job for tomorrow. Now that I found an entry point into the cab, I should be able to get the cable run and hooked up in short order. I will be able to hook the wire to the parking brake while down there. If I don't get the navigation unit hooked up tomorrow, it will be a short job for Friday. Then, just a little cleaning up and tying up of the wires, and we are done. Maybe Saturday will be the day to check out the navigation unit. First day of vacation should start with a road trip. Destination to be determined.

Well, it was nice out all day anyhow

Absolutely gorgeous out all day, until I get off.... It got up well into the seventies and sunny. I did manage to get a couple hours of nice weather before the rain. The car radio looks and sounds so much better now that it is in the car and not on the counter. I installed an adaptor that lets me use the steering wheel control as well. Didn't get the navigation part installed, but the rest of the radio is in and works flawlessly. Hooked up my Ipod and the radio actually controls the ipod right from the touch screen. It is awesome. I managed to get four speakers, the radio, the navigation add on, back up camera with wiring and all the adaptors and harnesses for about three hunded less than the local auto joint wanted for the just the radio and  camera with installation. She went in smooth.

 

 

 

                                                     Out with the old single cd player.

                   New radio looks factory. The adaptor fits perfectly with no ugly gaps or bulges.

The I-pod links up perfect and displays really nicely. Going to try and get the nav unit installed tomorrow weather permitting. I ran the wires while the dash was apart. Just need to run the antenna for the navigation, and the separate antenna for the traffic updates. Shouldn't take but a half hour. Just don't like trying to install stuff with the doors shut because it is raining outside. Thursday, weather permitting, I hope to run the cable to the back for the license plate back up camera. Again, the cables are connected at the radio end so I don't have to pull it again. Only odd wire I have left is the one that connects to the parking brake so you can play movies. Don't plan on watching movies, but, I will hook it up so it is proper. Looks and sounds awesome. Hope the weather is decent tomorrow so I can play with it a little bit. I linked my phone to it as well. You can make and answer calls through the radio, which reminds me I have to run the microphone as well. The important part is done. I am so happy to be able to play my I-pod through  the radio as I have quite an extensive audio library on it, and it is so much nicer than fumbling with CD's.