Ahh, the overtime returns

Ten hour day, day two. Weekend work wouldn't surprise me either. Rather work this one than the following one (machine gun shoot weekend), Nice to get some OT again. Tomorrow will be normal start up time, but Thursday, not so much. Have another dental appointment Thursday which means hauling myself to work at five AM so I can get my ten hours in before going to the dentist for scraping, poking and blood letting. Should be a down right fun day.
Did manage to get laundry and lawn work done after work today, so I may be able to hit the clubs monthly meeting tomorrow. It's that, or come home and cook up some pork tenderloin that I picked up today on the cheap. May hit the store on the way home and pick up a few more. I slice them up and freeze sections in meal plus size packets. May chop some up for pork tacos.

Why, why, why...........

Why on earth does Obama deem it necessary to pollute my neighborhood with his presence? Why? They just announced on the news he is suppose to be flying into the airport by me on Friday. There really aren't enough Demorats down here for him to waste the fuel, thank god. Why can't he go somewhere where he is more appreciated, like Illinois, or at least one of the blue areas of Indiana. Or he could fly out and try and help with Ebola outbreak. Pretty much anywhere but here would work. Next thing you know, Hillary will find her way here. Like cockroaches, once you allow one in, they are everywhere. And they don't make a spray for liberals, not that I have found yet anyway.

What a work day

Hit the club to get in some work hours. It was absolutely gorgeous out today. I made out well. I put in four bucks on a half pot, and won fifty bucks. Bought a spot on a splatter board for two bucks, won ten. Bought in on another, won twenty. Not bad for a leisurely day. Got most of my work hours in as well.

I got to see the caretakers ten year old daughter take everyone to school. Ten years old, and she won three of the big prizes at the spot shoot. She started with the hundred dollar prize. Her brothers 12 gage shot gun she was using was bigger than she was. I was highly impressed. She didn't flinch at all. Her footing was perfect, and she was downright obliterating the target. It was a blast just watching her. Some of the adults were getting a bit miffed. Got to see another little kid, probably about ten, win the other half pot for fifty bucks. It made his day.

All in all it was a perfect day. Figure I will work there next weekend as well, but the following weekend is machinegun shoot weekend. It will be awesome.

This weather can stay year around....

Been driving the Vette into work all week, and going out for a long cruise after work. I love this time of year. Take the top off and enjoy the breeze and the ride. Actually got the weekend off. Probably ride around and enjoy the weather for a change. most of the chores are caught up. Two weeks until the machine gun shoot, and counting down. Want to pick up a couple forgings, both upper and lower receivers. Be nice to find a 1911 forging as well. May check prices on an upper in 7.62x39. I can always score that ammo on the cheap, and have quite a bit as well.

Vette got washed and waxed Tuesday. Tomorrow will be the trucks turn. She's a bit on the filthy side. Figure get her cleaned up while the weather is sweet. Want to pull the radio on the Vette and run a cable from the rear input to the glove box for my I-pod. Need to put a relay on the truck radio to bypass the silly safety that keeps me from dialing phone from radio display without it being in park. It's nice to be able to dial while at a light. I am not stupid enough to try and dial and fumble about while cruising down the road. Wish they didn't have to child proof everything. Us big kiddies always find a work around, it's just a pain to have to do it.

OMG

Monday is a day late this week. Yesterday was smooth as silk. Today, not so much. The manual OD grinder that had an oil leak last week ate the grinder head motor this week. Total pain to get out. Being a universal grinder, it is buried in the main column and all the wheel heads have to come off to get it out. Never seen one go before. They generally last forever. Still have to find the oil leak, but we can look for that while the motor is out getting reworked. Last of the dinosaurs. It's a manual Kellenberger universal grinder. The service guy was out to help me with one of the CNC's a few weeks ago and said they are discontinuing making the manual version as they are not selling. It's a shame as they are a far superior machine to most of the other manual universals on the market. Hopefully tomorrow is a smoother day.
Only a few weeks until vacation. Need to head up north for a wedding towards the end of vacation. Cousins youngest daughter getting married. Time flies. Doesn't seem like the kids should be that old already. Get to catch up with my brother and my son for a bit while in the neighborhood. Hopefully get to stop off and harass Og while in the area. Just need to survive a few more weeks.

Wow, a pleasant Monday

A work Monday that didn't totally suck. Now that is a rarity. Day flew by. Things went perfect, and, my buddy brought in a slab of smoked ribs I had purchased at a benefit that was over the weekend. Nice easy dinner for tonight. Weather couldn't be any nicer. Life is good. Make a stuffed baked potato and some baked beans on the side. Maybe a brew or two.

Well, it's the day I do my bills

I pay my bills online on my laptop, and, apparently someone didn't think he got his ears scratched enough before hand. Or he thinks he is part parrot. He use to climb up there when he was  a little pup and nap. Hasn't done it in years, but apparently, I wasn't paying enough attention to him. It was a gorgeous day out today. Lots of relaxation and not much productivity. Didn't make the club this week. Felt too good just relaxing for a bit and not going anywhere. I did wander out and get the dog's treats. Apparently the grocery store eliminated the treats he likes so I had to hit the pet store and stock up. They had a decent sale on them where you buy two, you get one free, so he is set for some time to come.

Smooth day

Love Saturdays. No bosses so you can actually concentrate on getting your work done without their "help".  Day went great, and got off  work to beautiful weather outside, except for the skeeters. Blood sucking vermin. Tomorrow starts the spot shoots at the club so I will be heading out there to get some work hours in. Hopefully get home in time to get some stuff done outside. Fun stuff as I already knocked out the lawn work. Want to wash the Vette off and take her out for a while. I would take it to the club except they have a long gravel drive.

Finally a decent day

My jaw feels fine for the first time in a while. Wisdom tooth calmed down and all is well. Machines are all back up and functioning at work, and I can simply run them. Ahhh. Back to a somewhat normal state. Going on work weekend number two. Should make the next check a bit more palatable. Believe the spot shoots start this weekend, so, I believe I will swing by the club and get in some of my work hours. Usually have them in by the spring and putting in bonus hours now, but, I was extremely busy at work in the spring and didn't get to participate. Lawn work is all done, so hopefully get some garage time tomorrow. Last couple days have been spent napping after work. Feeling quite a bit better than I have in a while. Would like to finish some garage projects. Want to reorganize so I can get the Vette over more to the middle of the garage giving me some more room by the bench so I can work with the car in the garage. I would love to have a bigger garage, or better yet, a pole barn. Only a few more weeks until the fall machine gun shoot. This year has flown by.

Back to the dentist, yippee

After an unbearable day at work, I was fortunate enough to get into the dentist right after work. The right side never did fully recover after the temporary crown. I figured it was just the gums were raw from all the digging and drilling. Went in and she ground the crown to get some high spots off and it felt better, but the whole side was still tender. She told me to give it a few days and see if it got better as it may be tender from the high spot hitting, which made sense. Now, after only a few hours, the crown area feels much better, allowing me to feel the real problem. The wisdom tooth on that side is very sore. With the crown hitting, the whole area was lit up, but now I can definitely tell where the problem lies. Head back tomorrow and see if I can get a referral on getting them pulled. Dentist recommended it while I was getting crown done. They won't do it there, but will refer me somewhere. The fun just never ends.

Did manage to complete repairs on the machine they crashed over the weekend. No water leak. New grinding wheel installed. I fixed the solenoid for the coolant shut off. Fixed the way guards and replaced the way covers. Back in business and no mess. May actually be able to go in tomorrow, stay clean, and simply run a couple machines.

beating things back into shape.............

Machine I put back together Saturday after back shift majorly crashed the heck out of it leaked coolant like a sieve. I pull rubber way guard and find the stainless steel accordion guard covering the ways was bent all to hell. Took a couple hours getting the tangled mess disassembled and another few hours to beat and bend it back into shape. What a mess. Should have a new wheel to put on it tomorrow so hopefully we will be back up and running again.

Perfect timing. Working on the machine, I usually replace all damaged bolts with fresh, especially when they are 5mm button head cap screws. Can't get to new ones. The geniuses that run the place decided to replace MSC with Grainger, and MSC was in removing their tool cabinets which hold ALL hardware. Bolts, nuts, threading inserts, cutting inserts, taps, dies, every single thing every person in the shop needs all day long. What a mess. Everything Grainger has, which is way less than MSC stocks, is much more expensive. Grainger doesn't offer the inventory control MSC provided for checking items out against a job number so as to charge customer for parts used. This move will definitely cripple the shop for the foreseeable future. We peons on the floor had zero warning it was happening so we couldn't even get what we knew we would need out of cabinets to get by while they transition. They might be able to run the place worse than they do, but it would definitely be a challenge. Oh well, Monday is over. Hopefully it isn't one of those weeks with five Mondays in them.

Productive weekend

Finally forced myself to finish the fireplace project I started, shamefully several months ago. It shouldn't have taken that long. Only took about seven hours to complete. Should have done it months ago instead of leaving it looking half done. Great to have the living room looking presentable again, and the fireplace turned out very nice too. Waiting for everything to cure so I can take away some of the bracing, but that is just dry time.

I got my new C&R license Friday. Can't believe it's been three years since I got the first one. Renewing is a breeze as I only had to mail a copy of form to the sheriff's office instead of going in to get a signature like the first time you apply. Good for another three years now. Saw some delusional TV while working on the fireplace. Bill Maher came on, with Nancy Pelosi as his guest. WOW. Talk about a real life dumb and dumber. After watching the two babble about their twisted view of reality, I changed the channel. People actually liked those two, but, they were in DC.

Not much fun today, but got a ton of stuff done that needed doing. Managed to get my lathe moved and elevated so it's at a more comfortable level to work at. Hope on finishing up the work bench after I get off tomorrow. I have the Kennedy box I picked up at the fleamarket on the bench and some of the tools put away. Going to bring the Gerstner box inside. I will use it in the office for the tooling for my little table top mill. Trying to reorganize the garage so I have room to work out there. Would love to put another garage in back yard. Saw a neighbor do it  a few blocks down. Doesn't look bad at all. If I do it, I figure I will get rid of the shed and have garage built deep enough to have a space for yard stuff at the back of it with a separate door to get yard gear out without moving a vehicle. If I do that, it will be a couple years down the road. That would make it where I could actually use half my attached garage for a work shop and actually have room. Want to reinforce the floor in corner of my bedroom as well so I can move my big gun safe in the house and give me a bit more room at wall of garage.

 Oh well, back to work tomorrow. Hope it is better than last week. Last week was extra special. Went in Saturday and spent most of the day putting a machine back together. One of the guys blew the wheel up in it. Twenty inch diameter three inch wide wheel. When you blow one of those up, you need a change of shorts, maybe pants too. Got it reassembled and the job set back up. Just glad I'm not the guy who has to explain blowing up a thousand dollar wheel. Main thing is nobody got hurt. I was amazed the Lexan window held the shrapnel inside the machine. With the machine show over with in Chicago, hopefully I can get hold of the service people on one of the other machines I am working on. Love to go to the machine show one of these years. When it is going on, it pretty much cripples getting hold of any service people in the industry.

Time to print out and fill out the score cards again...

https://indianavoters.in.gov/PublicSite/Public/FT1/PublicOnBallotSearch.aspx

Yes, it is only midterm, but they all count. I really, really, really, yes and one more really wish Donnelly's ass was on this one. This is a nice site. You input your info and it tells you who is on your ballot and what questions will be asked, and it is printable so you can choose and take it along to the poll. Questions are easy. Retain judges? NO. I really wish Indiana could help win back the Senate, but, as said, Donnelly's useless Obama loving butt is not on the line on this one. Hopefully the Republicans can find someone who can control themselves to run against him. Still pissed off at Mourdock. He had it in the bag, then he opened his mouth. Oh well. At least we know he was against abortions. Thus, we got Donnelly. Yes, Donnelly. A couple more years of Donnelly. Oh well. Against abortions is perfectly fine. Say you are prolife and go on. Don't do a Mourdock and stick your foot in your mouth. We lost two senate seats over it. Say your prolife and let it be. No theatrics, no hysteria, no ridiculous elaborations, just move on.

Well, that was fun

I have a couple less holes in my head now. A few hours in the dentist chair getting drilled, gouged and jabbed. Plus side, the jaw is sore, but no longer throbbing. Got the temporary crowns in, a full checkup scheduled and an appointment for installing the permanent crowns. The kind of week I have had, I believe the dentist chair still beat working. Used half a personal day for it. Save the other one for a rough Friday that I really just need to get out of there early.
The ice is broke. They finally started up overtime again and I am one of the six lucky ones that get to work Saturday. Yes. The time off was nice, but, money is great too. We are backed up on work with them holding back on the OT, be a while before we can catch up.

Two, not one, dang it...

Managed to break part of a tooth last week, and it is tender. Get in to the dentist and find out what I thought was a cavity on the other side is actually another tooth with a missing chunk, just doesn't hurt. Yeah. Get to spend Thursday getting two crowns. Will be nice to get rid of the throbbing on the one side though. Nice set up though. Being the procrastinator that I am, haven't hit the dentist in a few, or several, years. It's a whole lot nicer now with the digital instant x-ray deal they have. Shoots my tooth and shows it to me on the monitor mounted above my chair instantly. Get to go get a couple wisdom teeth yanked as well. In some ways, it still beats being at work:) Need to get back into a preventative mode. Just lost track of time since I moved years ago and never got around to getting a new dentist. One more day of a throbbing jaw.

Now that was a steam show.

That was awesome. They have a steam powered machine shop on one half of the building, the other half, a wood shop. It is amazing watching how they did things way back then. Drive belts hanging from the ceilings. The old cutters back before the days of carbide and ceramic cutters. Saw a blacksmith, they had a smoke house going. They were threshing in a different section. It was the best steam show to date. Will definitely be putting it on the list of annual events to hit. Was debating going today. It was overcast really bad this morning and didn't improve all day. Hit a few rain drops going out, but continued anyway. Am glad I did. It stayed overcast, but it also stayed in the low 70's. Felt a few rain drops a few times during the day, but not enough to even call it rain. Stayed all day. It started raining when I was about fifteen minutes into the ride back home, so it was a perfect day.

                                                       An older lathe, one of three they had set up.

The power source

 

 

The wood shop side

Elnora Steam show this weekend

Several of the guys at work told me about the Elnora steam show. This will be the first time I go to this one. Suppose to have a huge flea market. One of the guys said the place they have it at has a working machine shop there as well with the overhead drive and the not so OSHA friendly long leather drive belts coming down from the ceiling to drive the works. Only about an hour to the north of here, so it isn't too bad of a drive at all. Starts today, but I won't be able to go until Saturday. Nice part too is the vendors should still be there Sunday if it rains Saturday where I don't go. A lot of the flea markets I go to, quite a few of the vendors start packing up early on Sunday. One of the guys at work said at this one, vendors have to sign a contract stating they will stay for all four days and wont pack up until four PM on Sunday. Makes it nice for those that can't make it any other day than Sunday.

 Brought my little CNC mini-mill in from the garage. Bench is filled up out there and I needed some room. Want to make a small enclosure for it to contain the mess. Picked up a thread mill for it so I can use it for threading. Hope to get the homing switches wired up this weekend and practice on a scrap pieces of aluminum. Figure I can make a couple of castle nuts for the buffer tube. Once I get it running good, I will mill the threads in the AR lower. I wanted to do it in the lathe, but I didn't like the set up I had for it. Just not quite rigid enough. Hope to find some decent used angle plates and such at some of the flea markets I go to and start accumulating some decent fixturing to make set ups a bit easier. I am eyeing a few set ups to convert my mill drill machine into a CNC. Shouldn't be too hard. Found some decent ball screw and nut setups, which I can put on to get rid of most of the backlash right out of the gate. I would like to set it up where I can run it as a CNC, and, leave the handles on so I can also run it as a manual mill for quick jobs. Figure the ball screws and nuts will improve function right off the bat and I can start slowly accruing the parts for the conversion. I use an old computer with MACH3 to run the mini, so I can set up another old computer in the garage for the bigger mill. Want to play with the smaller of the two lathes I have and convert it to CNC with a few stepper motors. I can run it off of the same software and computer as I will be using for bigger mill. Take some time to get there, but no hurry. It is just fun to play with.

Machine gun shoot is next month. Hope to pick up a couple of upper blank AR forgings to play with. Would like to pick up some 1911 frame forgings if I can find any. Found some in a catalog, but not in person yet. If you can find them at a show, cuts the shipping out of the equation, and you can sometimes get a deal on buying a few. I still have one AR lower blank to do after i finish the one I am working on. Figure the second will go a lot smoother than the first as I will know what to do, and, what not to do as well. Would like to work at a program to try cutting one on the CNC. It will give me something to play with over winter. Want to use one lower for .22 so if ammo ever becomes available again, I can shoot cheap. The other, a 7.62x39 for shooting the cheap easy to get surplus ammo. Want to try making some scope rails as well. Should be really easy and I am already accruing small scraps that are big enough to make mounts out of. One more day to get through until the weekend. It is weird. I am so use to working massive amounts of overtime and they have us cut back to forty hour work weeks for a while. I haven't worked forty hour weeks in many,  many years. Machinists don't work forty as a rule, they live at work. I feel like I almost have a life or something.