Technical Difficulties

I am about to start the next phase of machining these parts, and suddenly, my ancient notebook running Ubuntu 10.04 (the special version for LinuxCNC) is in its own universe.    The wireless network no longer works, nor does a wired Ethernet connection.  I tried to copy the files to print to a USB drive, but there is a permission problem that does not allow copying to it.  I even tried installing a USB 3.5" floppy drive, but Ubuntru 10.04 seems to have no idea what it is.  I fear I will have to type these programs in by hand on my other obsolete notebook.  But the latest version of LinuxCNC bundles withj a Debian version of Linux.

Just needed to reset my router.  It appears that DHCP requests were not being processed correctly.

How Did I Miss This?

I have always known the gun control movement has some marginaaly sane fanatics.  This column from October 2, 2014 National Review is a reminder of how many there are:

A cursory trawl through those sites reveals that Owens is correct in his assessment. The lion’s share of the commenters are innocuous and cordial — nothing more than law-abiding Americans participating in civil society. There are peaceful promises not to shop at Target or Kroger or Chili’s unless those businesses explicitly prohibit customers from bringing their firearms in with them; there are vehement-but-idle suggestions that anybody who wishes to carry a gun in public must have something seriously wrong with him; and there are the usual ignorant claims that shootings in America are on the increase (in fact, the opposite is true). But, every 20 comments or so, one sees exactly what Owens describes. Reacting to a photograph of a man standing at a checkout with a handgun holstered upon his hip, mom-who-demands-action Joyce Ward asks, “Why weren’t the police called immediately?” And “why,” Ward continues, “wasn’t he shot by the police for having a weapon”? Fellow poster Lisa McLogan Shaheen has a similar inquiry, wondering, “Why hasn’t someone called 911 so the cops can gun him down?” Others go a little further, proposing that they might help their cause along if they were actively to bring about an altercation. “Every time I see someone with a gun in a store I will call 911,” Jennifer Decker vows, “they’ll get tired of that right quick!!!” Even that plan is too limited for Ann Marie. “Just call the police every time you see someone with one,” she counsels, “the police will get sick of it eventually or have a run in with one of these clowns and then things will change.”

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/389441/moms-demand-swatting-charles-c-w-cooke

There is an example of one of the gun control crazies causing a death falsely describing the circumstances to 911:

The “black man holding a toy air rifle” to whom Senftner refers was named John Crawford III, and he was killed because, to borrow a phrase from Lisa McLogan Shaheen, a fellow shopper “called 911 so the cops could gun him down.” “If you sync the phone call to the footage,” Bob Owens tells me, “you’ll notice that Ronald Ritchie, the caller, makes claims that are not true.” Among those claims, the Guardian records, were that “Crawford was pointing the air rifle at customers,” that he threatened “two children,” and that he was recklessly “waving it around.” This does not appear to have been the case. Indeed, when the lattermost statement was made, Owens notes, “the gun’s muzzle was pointed to the ground.” So pronounced are the discrepancies between Ritchie’s story and the surveillance footage that John Crawford’s family is hoping to take legal action. “He’s basically lying with the dispatchers,” the family’s attorney, Michael Wright argues. “He’s making up the story. So should he be prosecuted? Yes, I believe so.”

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/389441/moms-demand-swatting-charles-c-w-cooke

 This iis an argument for not openly carrying and making sure your concealed carry is truly concealed.

At A Slow Enough Feed Rate...

The Sherline could cut a battleship in half.  Say 1 inch/century.  I screwed setting Z=0 and ended up millinf a 0.1" deep section earlier, at about 1 inch/min.  Slow works, but patience is required.

DuraCoat: Want To Try It?

I have most of the can of paint, andv degaser left.  The paint is still useful for four weeks after the hardening agent is released.  There's enough to recoat a large handgun or two.  If you are in Boise area,. and want to try DuraCoat on your gun, contact me in the next couple of days and you are welcome to the leftovers.

Another Machining Lesson

This is one that I learned when I first started with a manual mill, and I forgot it when writing my first programs.  On the first pass the surface will be rough and uneven, even when cut with a chopsaw.  So first pass should be less aggressive on feed rate and depth of cut.

UPDATE: I have had "Millie" running for several hours now cutting the first piece of aluminum to 2.686" wide, then I cut the bottom, the slot, and the side cuts.  Doing 0.005" per pass with 1/5 the mill diameter overlap is snag and chatter-free.

DuraCoat Firearms Refinishing

DuraCoat is advertised as a DIY firearm refinishing product. It is essentially a spray paint with hardening agent.  I used it last night to refinish an American Arms PX-22, which is a licensed copy of the Walther PPK in .22LR.  It is one of those guns that is so cute, you want to pat it on the head.  It is extremely small, and fun to shoot except for the well-known "Walther bite" when the slide comes back on any American sized hand, and scrapes the web between thunb and first finger.

I am not sure how much of the result is my clumsiness.  You are supposed to spray degreaser on, then use a small scrubber, then sand with 400-600 sandpaper, then apply three thin coats.  I am not sure I applied thin coats, which may explain problems reassembling the gun.  Ansd no, the instructions said nothing about disassembly, which have been a mistake, because the frame channel in whicch the slide moves got painted as well.  You probably know that PP/PPK pistols have an elegant disassembly procedure.  Pull down the trigger guard, pull back the slide to the rear, lift up at the back of the slide and ease the slide off the recoil spring that goes around the barrel.  No other pistol is quite this elegantly simple.  Putting it back together next morning the slide would not drop back into frame rails.  I sanded a spot or two where the paint seemed thick, sanded the black paint off the outside of the barrel, and eventually, with just a little cursing reassembled it.  I had to work the slide several times, before the recoil spring would reliably close the slide.  Obviously, I need to do some test firing before trusting this gun again. 

I wonder if I should have just left it together and painted only the exterior.  Some of the wear points on the original glossy exterior are wearing again, and presumably for the same reason.  I had not intended to order matte black (the original finish was glossy), but it does reduce its signature.

I would not do this to an expensive gun, nor would I spend $300 to have this NP3+ coated, but this cost me $129 when I was a dealer, so the $40 I spent seems appropriate.

Today's Machining Lesson

Even with lighter cuts, the workpiece was still pulling out of the mill vise, and then I realized why: When I started this project, I was using a drill press vise which I had squared the back of and squared the jaws of.  I switched to the Sherline mill vise, and discovered all over again while I switched to my modified drill press vise: the Sherline mill vise does not hold stuff very tightly.  I just went back to my modified drill press vise, and things are working again.