Have worked on hammer tubes. Remember that special drill bit I made for the heavy wall threading prep .... well, I finished all those holes. It cut like brand new to the last hole.

I have the majority of the firing valve housings machined. Ready to do the transfer port seat and port tube prior to jig set up.

Trigger assemblies always take too long. I worked most of the day on one of the housings to go into the jig.

Have had to review a bit. Surprising - being away from given operations for a couple of months means I have to review the notes. That's why I make such complete drawings and notes.

Been another season of nasty migraines. Been gloomy, rainy, damp, cool. All in all - great for January ... and who knows why ... but I keep some health drama rotating thru. If I were just writing the most interesting and compelling story, I'd let all that out cause everybody thinks it's a downer. But ... it accounts for slower progress. Working with a splitting headache is a special treat. Seems my lot so it is what it is - but I have to slow the speed to keep the accuracy during these days.

Thanks for reading!

Gary

I couldn't even imagine working with a migraine . I would wreck projects and probably lose a finger on rotating equipment ! And that's working off prints in hand not head .
Keep your chin up , it could be -15 deg out ! Hehe

Hi Kurt,

Nice to see your name. I just came up for a while. It's aggravating. I just got to the point where the entire receiver assembly is prepared. All parts machined. Everything clamped up into the jig ... aligned. Now ... next thing is to weld it. And, it's relatively cold here - damp - lower shop isn't complete you know. Lighting sucks down there cause it's not finished in the welding shop. And, about half an hour before ... the evening headache began winding up.

It's killing me to get some completed gun work tossed on the table. And, just closed one nightmare chapter .... I'll get these shops farther along and more organized .... but I know nobody wants to see shelves and lights now. They want to see a row of completed guns, built on the hood of my truck if necessary.

See how I feel later. The other night I went back down at 10:30 and worked a cycle. I know people are waiting. So; if I can work thru it I do. Got a couple of appointments over the next few days for all this stuff.

Anyway ... thanks for the note Kurt. I appreciate it.

GAry

Now Gary...nobody expects you to work on the hood of your truck. The tailgate will be perfectly sufficient.

Actually, if you could add up every project that's been done on a trucks tailgate, it would undoubtedly be an astounding amount of work. Probably NOT a lot of precision machine work, but certainly a whole lotta carpentry and plumbing and electrical and....you name it.

Given that my current workshop is a $150 translucent greenhouse tent, I think that your shop is "da bomb". Even if you do have to light the lanterns first to fire up the boiler for the steam engine.

Hi Sean,

I thought you Alaska Folk lived in igloos and built Ice House Shops. Another disappointing clarification ....

Feeling better. Several Dr. Appts. Tweak the bolts in my neck (figuratively).

Back to the Campus here at BPS.

More parts moved along. Some delivered. I know it's vague. Some things just cost me more to document and post - then I know I'm gonna get a responce for. So I don't go on about every water cooled, belt fed ...... ......

The Med. stuff would bore you. I'll live. Your investments will take another hit! ...... Hey ..... I heard that!!!

Gary,

Sean's shop may not be an igloo but it is 8 miles from his doorstep via a trail that needs to be cut by hand anytime the weather is deadly. OK, it's 6 feet from the other door but Sean never told the Discovery Channel about that door!

Hi Jerry,

Yeah .... About those Reality Senerios ....

Boy - for a bunch of starving people who's freezers are always empty ... They sure shoot terrible! Of my - I cringe. And they have no problem with unloading a box of shells in the general direction of their game. Course - they have to travel 550 miles from their doorstep to see a doe. They should get a MiniVan and drive it around the logging roads. One would jump out in front of it in ten minutes!



Gary

Yeah, that's the ugly secret of hunting in Alaska. For every photo you see where there's a guy holding up the head of moose with giant antlers or a bear with paws the size of dinner plates, there's a weeks worth of travel involved with a budget large enough to buy a nice used car. First the airfare up here, then the little prop plane out to the village, then the floatplane to the camp, then the jetboat up the river, then the slogging around in chest waders until you stumble across exactly the right game animal so you can shoot it.

THEN the real work starts, since you have to repeat the whole sequence in reverse, except this time carrying along a quarter ton of meat, skin and skull, plus all the fish you caught, and all your muddy gear. Plus hotels and lodges along the way, meals, tips, etc. It's definitely not the typical "grab a rifle, jump in the truck and go" style hunting like down south. Pretty much anywhere you CAN reach with a regular pickup truck or less than days hike has been relentlessly hunted by the locals and is a really low percentage option. The game guides are always working out way past where the road ends, where the critters still live.