Happy Halloween

Had a lot of trick or treaters today. A lot of cool costumes. It is hit or miss as to the turnout. I think the awesome weather helped out. I got the headlight on the Vette fixed as well. Typical engineering. Doesn't matter the manufacturer, they all suck. The headlight motor stripped, which in itself is no biggie. I did the passenger side several years ago and left the drivers side go since it still worked. I put in the aftermarket bronze gear in place of the nylon one. It should be good for a while. Engineering idiocy? That was the placement of the screws for the headlight motor gear box. Drivers side should have been the easy one. It wasn't. One of the bolts, the hardest one to get to, stuck and I stripped the head out. Short of trying to drill it out, awkward entire headlight assembly of car, there was no way to get at it. Stupid part. Chevy barely blocks the head of one of the three screws for the gear cover on headlight motor, forcing you to take half the assembly apart. Since I couldn't get the stripped bolt out of motor base, I gently pried a bracket out of the screw heads way and managed to get the cover off gear housing thus eliminating having to disassemble entire motor assembly. It took some finagling, but I managed to get the old gear out and everything buttoned back up .  The nylon gear has three bushings in it. They were reduced to shavings. Nothing solid, just shavings. During reassembly, I was startled by some trick or treaters. I usually hear them coming up. The dad was checking out the mustang. She is still far from done, but everyone liked it. A lot of compliments on it. A lot of the moms really liked it. Have to get back on that project again.

Go global warming

October 30th, and in the 80's, awesome. I got some more outdoor work done. Repaired the rotten boards on the yard barn and repainted. Put a new cover on the crawl space opening, the old one was cracked. Hit the flea market. It was absolutely huge. Got my exercise in for the day. Tomorrow, toss candy at the kiddies. Hopefully Tuesday, I will get the new faucet on the kitchen sink. I believe that is the last real repair I have on my list. I am still contemplating buying that house I saw last week. May hit up my bank midweek and talk to them about possibilities. I know I can do it, just not crazy about trying to sell a house this time of year. May also check with realtor and see if the seller would work off of a contingency. Not the best time of year for them to market house either. May line up to take another look at it.

A little retro

Flipping through the tv channels and come across old Dr. Who episodes playing on Retro TV. Just in time to see Tom Baker materialize during regeneration. It is on weekdays for an hour each day. I remember watching it with my brother when we were kids. He was one of the more entertaining of the old doctors.

It is time again for the Indy 1500 gun show in Indy. Not sure I want to go or not. This close to the election, the line to get in is liable to wrap around the building a couple times. It is also time for the fleamarket down town, so lots to do. So far, I am suppose to be off for the weekend, if I can get out the door tomorrow without getting signed up. Only a couple more weeks until vacation. Not going anywhere. Just looking forward to some down time. Vacation will end with a military/gun show down town.

One day off does not a weekend make.

Went to the open house of the house I like that popped up for sale. They dropped the price quite a bit. Owner got the two lots merged into one on the deed now, so putting a garage where I would want to put it would be easy. No restrictions and a bit over an acre of land. House is older. All hardwood floors. Not crazy about the stairs. It has a basement as well as an upstairs area. Kind of an odd setup, but very doable. Really don't want to move until Summer though. Going to think about it. Only thing I don't like is it has a septic system. They put city water in, but didn't tie into the sewer. Have to check and see what it would cost to connect. After looking at building, and them having corrected lot paperwork, I would be able to knock the garage wall out and move it over to make it a two and a half or three car garage. The concrete is already there, the wall was constructed even with the house. Doesn't look like it would be too hard. Would still put another garage up next year if I get it, but I would definitely expand existing first. Really don't want to move right now though. Don't need to sit on an empty house during winter. It probably wouldn't sell right away.

Burned out

Machine gun show weekend. Last steam show for the year weekend. Me. I had to work. I am totally burned out. I go in at 5 or 6 am, their choice on start time, not mine. Work anywhere from eight to ten hours a day, sometimes more. Six days a week. I need to get away. They got rid of the FMLA abuser, but, they have not replaced him, so I now have no third shift guy. Trying to make it one more month. I get most of a week of vacation ending with a military show, so that will be cool. Then, only four weeks of work left and I will be off for Christmas. My grandsons first Christmas, so that will be awesome. He is growing quickly. Facebook helps me keep in touch and watch him grow. Still not the same as being there though. I miss family, but not the area. I absolutely love being down in southern Indiana. No comparison. Much less polluted. People are friendlier. Lots more to do. Back to work tomorrow, bah humbug.

Upper, part 1

Still need to blue and engrave lower, but it is done and functional. Still need to find missing sight. May rob a scope off of the one of my other AR's to use. Just don't want to have to sight it back in as it is set perfectly for the rifle it is on.

I figured it was nice out, so I wanted to play in the garage. I started machining on the raw upper casting. Had to think about how to approach it. I figured, looking at the blueprint, most dimensions come from the center of the hole, so, I figured, square everything up so I can hold on something. Next up, find the center of the thread boss and drill a precise hole, followed by, drilling a hole through.

After several attempts, I came up with this one to hold part while making first cuts. I did the top first.

Here, I did the front of the thread boss, the rails, as well as a cleanup cut on the back face. I figure this trues up three of the four sides so I can rest on any surface to machine another side. I am not finishing anything at this time, just squaring things up so I can grab them in a vise, or clamp to an angle plate.

 Here is the clean up pass on back side of upper.

Now, I was able to flip it, put it on parallels in a vise and cut the panel on the other side. This pic doesn't show it, but I also did a clean up pass on the top and front of the two nubs so as to square them up if I should need to clamp on them later.

I clamped the part to an angle plate, using a second angle plate and a parallel to square part up and support it for drilling operations.

I center drilled the part, followed by drilling through with a 1/8 diameter drill. I drilled about half way through, when I needed more clearance for flutes of drill. I ran a bigger diameter drill down most of the way, leaving some of the 1/8 inch hole for the drill to follow. In the end, it did walk off center, which I pretty much expected, but hoped against. It only walked about .060 to one side (but did stay centered up and down). So, plan B.

I clamped it the other way and used a center cutting end mill to center things back up. I used my extra long 3/8 end mill from the lower project. I followed this up with a 1/2  end mill. I will do the same on the other side. My new plan is to use a 1/2 dowel pin on each end to use for indicating center of hole to use as a datum point.

This is the other side also opened up and ready for the dowel pin. This should not have been such a long job, but my mill is extremely primitive. I have little travel on the ram and have to move the head up and down frequently for height changes, which is a real PITA. I really want to upgrade my mill. I believe I am going to buy myself a Christmas present this year. I know what I want, and the travel on it is a lot more, plus it is built a lot sturdier than this one. Plus, it is variable speed. I bought the one I have now off Craigslist, which is probably how I will get rid of it when I upgrade. The new one will be a table top model again, but bigger. It is also upgradable to CNC.

I am hoping on moving next year so as to get a bigger garage. Am watching a house about a mile down the road. It has possibilities, if the price drops. It only has a 1 1/2 car garage, attached, but, it has a bit over an acre of land. Plenty of room for a pole barn and/or garage. In that case, the attached garage would become the shop. I would then be looking for an actual Bridgeport at some point down the line. The new table top mill at that point would turn into a CNC at some point. Only reason I am really hesitant on that house is, school is back in session. I need to sell this house to move. This subdivision sells immediately during summer break. It is a perfect family subdivision and people tend to move more in the summer when school is out. There are a few houses for sale in my neighborhood now, and they aren't moving. During the summer, average time on market in this subdivision was a few weeks. If he drops the price on the house, I may have to go for it. It does have hardwood throughout and a walk out basement. House itself is fairly small, but the property would make up for it. A garage would be built immediately at time of sale as I would have it in the mortgage. I love my house, I just hate having to pull the car out to do anything. During winter, it is hard to pull the Vette out and get it out of the way. I could definitely get a lot more done with more room.

All done

Well, still need bluing, engraving and the stock, which I have on the way. It does cock and dry fire perfectly. Safety works. Everything is smooth. Package should be here Friday according to tracking info. Hopefully take it out and try it at the range this weekend. I found one of the two sights so far. Still trying to find the second one. I eat at my couch with my dog, so, the kitchen table is usually my work area, where I found one of the sights. I am sure the other one is in one of the bowls of gun parts. I will find it.

Here is the right side. Magazine slides in and out like butter. Have two magazines so far. I am very anxious to try the 9mm out.

Here is the left side. Everything is smooth. I did have some tweaking to do. I forgot to open the hole for the roll pin on the bolt catch. I had drilled a pilot hole all the way through. I forgot to follow it up with the finish size, oops. I also forgot to widen the bolt catch slot on the top of the lower. I used a 1/8 end mill, but forgot to open the slot to finish size. Found these oversights out last night while trying to assemble. I also forgot to finish the trigger opening to finish size. Fortunately, I found all problems yesterday and fixed them as soon as I got home. Well, after letting Spike out for a sniff around the yard, and, mowing the lawn. I believe it turned out good for a first try. I did learn a few things to look for when starting on the next blank forging. The bottom of the trigger pocket is paper thin. I figure I will take less stock off the top of the next upper to allow more stock in this area for machining. Shouldn't harm anything, just not happy about it. I do want a better mill, but am trying to hold out another year. I have been house hunting. I am leaning toward moving next year. Hoping on getting at least a three car garage, or a 2 car with a pole barn out back. This would allow for a real mill. Have seen a few with walkout basements, which would also work. I would so love a shop in the basement. Be able to play comfortably year round. I want a Bridgeport, just no room. Have had opportunity to get one, just nowhere to put it at present.