I'll be hanging around the forum here for awhile this morning ... maybe quite alot today.

Yesterday morning, while getting dressed, my back just simply "checked out". One second I was leaned over ... the next microsecond ... I was gasping for breath. Actually had to call Kelly on my cell for help.

I used heat patches, BenGay, muscle relaxers, and a pain pill. Got so that, in the afternoon, I could work for a couple of hours. Not this morning. It's not having it. So ... I'm going thru the routine again ... using a tall walking stick (I climb it to stand) and a wierd crab dance (careful) to get coffee.

Figured I'd say hello ... and say I was here to chat if anybody is hanging around.

Gary

Bummer man . . . it's a drag to hurt. I had a rather nasty toothache a few weeks ago which was no fun at all. Hope you get a jump on some weekend R & R.

On the bright side . . . just ordered six boxes of .454 Hornady roundball. Bought out the online store's entire stock actually. We'll put it to good use!

-- Jim

Hey ... good man.

What's a real bummer is that I'll sit here wasting time, and then ... when it's beautiful around here this weekend ... if I feel better ... I'll have to work to make up for the down time. Nutz.

I guess I could sit here and model clay creatures to shoot! hehhe. What do you think Kent? Any tips? Did you have to go to school for this? I don't want to hurt myself! hahaha. Wouldn't surprise me!

Gary

I'm getting this vision of Gary sitting in his easy chair with a lap full of duct seal fashioning little critters. I'm off to put out another fire but I'll be checking in from time to time...

Before you go ...... ah .... Jerry?? Dude???????

Since were talking duct seal on this thread to. Kent how many pounds is the bear? Can buy it in 5lb increments, or buy a case which is 50 lbs. Dory

I bought mine at Home Depot yesterday. In the electrical dept. It's in wax paper wrapped bars (bricks) of 1 pound each. About $2 per bar. There were 9 bars to a case. Estimate of size, from memory .... 3/4" by 1 1/2" by 8".

I recall Kent saying he thought he'd used about 15 pounds for the bear.

Gary

If you make one ... post a pic!

How' you doing Gary? Need a cup of coffee or something? Still molding or have you been put in traction?

Actually improved a bit. Waddled out to the shop and did some lighter machining. Making a pot of homemade veggy soup right now.

yummy.

Gary

Just popped in for a cuppa, on my way to my last job....

Hope you not feeling too bad now Gary. Lots of back problems in my family too, though not in the same league as yours though.

I know you are not looking for sympathy, but I really do hope it gives you a f*$%ing break . Many nights of seeing my mother on the floor in agony gives me a rough idea of what its like...

Put some brandy in that coffee

No Brandy. The brother's gotta work--safely, and who knows how it will react to any other meds he's had.

When the shop goes dark for the evening.... most definitely yes. The only power tool I will run when the beers are around is the palm sander. But only if its ruff work. Beer does funny things to my highly tuned eye-hand coordination.....

Well ... you have one in my honor. haha. That's something I can't have with the pills. And ... since the pills are endless ...

I'll just have another coffee. hehe. and maybe puy a cookie in it! whoooh.

Gary

Thanks Pablo,

Maybe a little sympathy wouldn't hurt ... hehehe.

Just wore it out I guess. Will hang in there waiting for that miracle fail safe fix.
Gary

Gary, you should get your hands on one of these:

[www.bubbastik.com]

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Neat ... I actually recognized it immediately as a horse hame tip.

I have a couple of pcs. laid back to make a cane from. Had a good one from antler and bamboo ... but the bamboo dried in the winter dry house atmosphere and cracked the full length! Nutz.

Gary

BTW ... The day saw improvement in the back. I got a few hours of work in.

I've got one of those, I found in the rubble of a barn that burned down 40 years ago, it's in a box somewhere. Would you be able to put one of those on the end of and air cane? Gary?

Wouldn't some old stick work just as well?

Follow-up.

All kept getting worse all week. Saw the pain specialist this am. He targeted the sacroiliac joint as the cause of this classic pain pattern. Intense lower back on one side, pain in the crease of the leg/body, and wierd numb feelings in the toes. So, Wed., I get another horse needle. If that doesn't help ... then they can go in with needles and "burn" the nerves of pain receptors.

You see how endless this gets to be. There's the base layer of pain from fibromyalgia (that endless beat up feeling), then laid over that are the bad discs that make sharp pain here and there from pinched nerves ... then, to top it off this week ... stabbing pain from this sacroiliac joint. Makes for a fun day.

Never know what a week is gonna bring. At least there are treatments.

Gary

"Chronic pain ... not as much fun as it sounds" hehe

barnespneumatic Wrote:

> "Chronic pain ... not as much fun as it sounds"
> hehe


Gary,

Sorry to see that you are dealing with fibromyalgia and chronic pain.
I too suffer from fibro and constant pain.
Keep up the good work and know that it is appreciated, your work will be around and
cherished long after you are gone!
Hope you find some relief.

regards,
DJ

Hey DJ,

Thank you sincerely. Takes one to know one, doesn't it? I hope you also find a system that maintains your pain relief needs.

You wouldn't believe the number of times people have said things like ... "They're sympathetic ... but it's been 3-4 years now ... that's about ENOUGH now!" I get that tone suggesting that I should just turn off the pain now, because it's become inconvenient. I've also gotten a number of ... "they couldn't care less ... or it's just an excuse". Always amazes me the line between initial excitement and then abject hatred after your life serves you a lame deal or three or four. Bummer but the term "Chronic" or "for the rest of my life" doesn't play well. Some think you can just get anything fixed.

The station I listen to in the shop has been playing a commercial for some time. A girl, in a car accident at age 11 ... paralyzed from the neck down. Wasn't suppose to live. And, now she's graduating from Harvard today. And, I always think that sort of story does more harm than good. The commercial isn't clear ... I don't even know what it's pushing. But, it gives the impression that you can overcome anything, and succeed even beyond the expectations of a tiny fraction of the most privileged of uninjured people. That's the concept that's become popular. But, there's quite a few little details left out of that success story. I can think of quite a few immediate ones: Who's financing her? Who's meeting all of her physical needs? Why Harvard of all educational institutions? I'd think most paralyzed people would love to be able to just have their basic housing needs met. This strikes me like one of those stories where some unfortunate family has a TV show build them a 9 bedroom house, with an inground pool with a grotto, toss in a new car, and a wad of cash ... etc., etc. Creates the impression that if you don't just correct every issue, then clearly you aren't trying. Sometimes, most of the time, there isn't a fairy godmother to fix everything.

Hey - not that you touched a nerve or anything. haha. Thanks for your comment. I think I need some coffee to fix that nerve. haha.

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/2010 11:42PM by barnespneumatic.

A follow-up to the follow up.

Yesterday, Wed., I went in for a steriod injection into the painful SI joint which was the cause of my recent week of severe lower back and leg pain. Alot of numbing medication via needles (the area still partially numb today), and then a special needle placed under live X-Ray, right into the painful joint. This is all done at a surgical center associated with the hospital, by a pain specialist Doctor.

It's helped quite a bit already. A real relief from the constant severe pain.

Thank You, very much, to those who wrote to me with a well wish, and a prayer. This sort of experience does really grind you down, as it goes on and on without relief. The frustration of not being able to do anything, and just wait it out in pain. Usually, (it seldom fails), that such a week will be the time when someone's patience boils over and they fire off a bitter e-mail, which lands in my lap exactly when I'm already feeling like dirt. It was very nice to read some encouraging mails from good friends I've made in the trade. Each one with older orders for rifles of their own. I even got a few mails from readers I'd never heard from before, in other countries, which just enjoy my site and work ... and wanted to offer encouragement and a committment to say a prayer for me. That's very kind, unexpected, and it's met alot to receive that kind of encouragement and friendship. Thank you sincerely.

The temptation will be, as always, to resume too much too fast. I'll try not to injure the recovery.

Thanks Again,

Gary

Hang in there tough guy! You'll be back in the shop and digging yourself out from under an endless ribbon of stainless steel before ya know it!

-- Jim

Hey, that SS ribbon is pretty sharp stuff. Who's got the crazy glue?

Heheh . . . we've even got an icon for when Gary applies the cotton threads!



-- Jim

Isn't that stuff called "swarf" ? How the heck did they come up with that name, anyway?

In addition to being a genuine PITA when it gets wrapped around chucks and centers, it's a reasonable substitute for razor wire.

Hi Rotor,

You're right. Really nasty stuff. You have to really, really watch it. Usually, you try to set up "chip breakers" to interfer with swarf .... and thus break it into pcs. Stainless Steel doesn't want to break ... so you get a more endless ribbon ... and it is razor sharp - snaking around. You sure don't want to get that hooked on you. Can you say "spiral cut ham?"

Gary

Swarf?

wasnt that the big Klingon character from on of the Star Trek series?

Only if you had a "lisp"

I was working on a Mori Seiki horizontal cnc lathe and was turning 155 cal Howitzer cannon shell's for the Aerosonic Corp. One of the scrap men was pushing down metal chip's in the hopper with glove's on and it cut him bad. db

Yeah - that's just "razor wire".

I was fussing at stainless steel again today. When you drill and tap into a tube ... the miserible little swarf that's kicked up inside is a real pain to remove. It won't just break off. It's real maliable and tough. You have to worry it out of there without scarring the inside of the tube, and sand it clean and true. I really hate the stuff.

And now ... back to our program ...



Gary

Would you believe that there's an actual use (other than scrap) for swarf ?

I like to watch those "how it's made" programs on DirecTV where they show how factories produce whatever widget or gizmo they're selling, and they did an episode on bank vaults the other day. It turns out that they use pre-cast tip up panels of super-high-strength concrete to build the vault walls. The whole thing is assembled prior to the banks exterior walls, since it would never fit through a door and each part weighs many tons. After the panels are fitted together like a 3-D puzzle they weld them together from the inside with cast-in tabs, and then they fit the door and interior.

When they showed them casting the wall panels in the Diebold factory, they pointed out that the concrete they use has a bunch of extra additives to make it stronger, and showed a guy pouring in bag after bag of...you guessed it...swarf. When they took sample cylinders to harden off for destructive testing, little curls of it were sticking out the top like poodle hair on a lollypop, and for some reason everyone involved had on some pretty heavy duty leather gloves.

Of course, they also had enough rebar welded together in the precast form to make a pretty good vault all by itself even without the concrete, but I guess the swarf is like a fiber reinforcement to the aggregate mix. The stuff is cast almost dry, it takes a pretty good shaker table to get it through all the rebar and they don't even try to get a good surface finish on the top surface.

Interesting.

There's another product for me to consider! haha

Gary

Yeah, you could branch off into high-security super-concrete gun vaults to hold all those fancy airguns that your "collectors" never shoot.

GARY, your like the second person to have their back go out. What the hecks going on around here? Thats what happens when you OLD guys lift them HEAVY BB GUNS....lol (i'm in trouble now.


Now, back to getting serious here. You guys mentioned something about DUCT SEAL earlier. A few weeks ago, i bought a BUCKET of duct seal and a bucket of plumber putty. I've left the top off on both just to see which one would have the consisency of clay or sill puddy and it ended up being the PLUMBER PUTTY and not the DUCT SEAL. The DUCT SEAL actually dried up. Besides, when i bought both and looked at each one, the DUCT SEAL seemed to be pretty WET. It pretty much reminded me of BISCUIT DOUGH that is super wet were as the PLUMBERS PUTTY reminded me of clay. And on the directions of the plumbers putty the container said that the stuff doesnt dry or loose its trait.

Now, i bought the DUCT SEAL also at HOME DEPOT and in the electrical dept and all i saw were these HALF GALLON little buckets of DUCT SEAL and nothing like what you guys describe up above. Of course though, i chalk that up to being stuck here in CALIFORNIA. Sometime or shall i say, OFTEN TIMES, different stores in different states carry different supplies.

So now my question is, is plumbers putty just as good or the same as what you guys are calling duct seal. Cause my bucket is labeled DUCT SEAL and it dries up. But is you guys DUCT SEAL for SEALING up air duct tubing?

First ... who you callin' OLD ya young whippersnapper! You probably got your pants draggin' and shoes untied ... heheeh.

As to the duct seal. MIne came in bricks. It's a clay consistency. Stiffer in colder weather. Never wet. Does not dry out - ever. Kent's had his for years ... just keeps reforming it.

The plumber's putty I've used was more gooey. And it dried into a caulk like substance. Seems the opposite of what you found. Odd.

Whatever works. I'm sure either will do the same job when in their clay state. That's what ours are like when we shoot the stuff.

Gary

ok. Thanx GB

I think i'll go back to HD and ask someone that works there to point me in the right direction if there is one. I did find my DUCT SEAL in the AC DUCTING SECTION and i did look in the electrical section but no duct seal. I'm ready to start shooting this stuff.

Duck seal? Would you find that in the sporting goods store, right next to the decoys and shotgun shells?

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised at all if it turned out that CALIFORNIA duct seal turned out to be differently formulated from that for sale everywhere else. In a state which has the unmitigated gall to ban lead in bullets with absolutely NO legitimate reason or scientific evidence AT ALL, you can expect anything ridiculous to eventually become law. As long as one idiot with an agenda has access to one of their moronic legislators, it seems that no idea is too far-fetched or ridiculous to become "fact" in the looney state.

One of these days I fully expect to be travelling through (there is NO way I'll ever LIVE there) and find a bottle of purified water with a warning label on it to the effect of "The State of California has determined that dihydrogen oxide (sometimes knows as "water") poses a potential threat to the life and health of both adults and children"...based on the known drowning hazard of lakes, pools, and oceans.

It's kind of sad really, what's become of poor old California. Of course, there's nothing wrong with the place that eliminating about 20 million people couldn't fix, but God knows we don't want them moving up HERE.

Rotorhead....LOL....Honestly, i was thinking the exact same thing. Just check on my open bucket of DUCT SEAL and the whole thing is pretty hard and all dried up. But my open 1/2 pound of Plumber putty is still like soft clay. I would not be surprised either if they did change the formula to suit GOOD OLE CALIF. Been here 13 years and i'm still asking myself why.

And yeah, that whole CALI CONDOR thing is such a CROCK. I even know a couple of guys that work for the FORESTRY SERVICE and they think the law is a CROCK. I have yet to actually see one anywhere. Ohhh that's right, they keep em locked up in a pin somewhere and HAND FEED them. If they release the darned things, they probably have forgotten how to fly by now...lol. And yeah, they chances of them eating LEAD POISONED MEAT is simply stupid. If you can find me a deer or hog or elk or any animals that has been shot "IN THE GUTS" as they put it, that has enough lead in it to kill a GIANT CONDOR, heck, i'll eat the dead condor...lol.

My argument to that is, well, what about TURKEY VULTURES and CROWS and other animals that eat that same meat. Coyotes too. Why don't they have lead poisining? OHHHH SHUCKS, i better not mention coyotes cause they might just start protecting them too....LOL.

It's nothing more than backdoor gun control legislation, pure and simple.

The whole "protect the poor condors" angle is just the leading edge of the wedge seperating Californians from their second amendment rights...in this case through denying access to affordable ammunition. Sure, you can get "hunting" ammunition that's lead-free...and it costs a fortune. The fact that they manage to tar ALL hunters with this one broad brush stroke is an inspired piece of work on the part of the liars in Sacramento. It's breathtaking in it's audacity and mendacity at the same time, a masterful implementation of the "big lie" in the classic George Orwell style.

It pisses me off just thinking about it. I'm not sure how anyone with a brain and a sense of outrage can even live in that state.

California . . . great place to visit, but I'll never live there again (sorry Ced).

-- Jim