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Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Spatial Thinking

Scribner the publisher is having me read a manuscript (really a first draft,  not even at the galleys stage) of a new biography of John Browning.  I am really enjoying it.   It mentions that JMB had unusual spatial thinking.   He almost never drew what he wasd going to make.   The one time he sent Winchester drawings instead of a model gun,  it did not work.

I really wish that I had that gift.   I spent a bit of time making this low profile focuser for Baby.  When I tried to replace the existing crummy focuser,  I realized that I had this assembly rotated 90 degrees from where the saddle channel goes. 

The only good learning today was that because I sold my bandsaw when we moved off the hill (no room in the new house), I have a very hard cutting very small pieces of acetal.  You really don't want to cut small stuff on a chop saw without some secure way to hold it.  The limitations of my mill make it hard to cut stuff that is wider than another 3", burr while struggling with this earlier,  I realized that I can just rotate the piece in another axis, and cut from the top.

2 comments:

  1. I have the opposite understanding of Mr. Browning. During World War 2 the United States had to create a production company for the BAR M1918. They issued the drawings out to various small custom gun makers for specific components. These parts were then brought to a central location and assembled into the BARs. The story is the drawings were so good the parts worked without any modification or corrections.

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  2. Drawings and patent applications after he connected to Winchester usually done by the manufacturer.

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