1/27/14

I realized yesterday that in addition to my fiscal dumbassery, I was not as correct as I could have been when referring to the PS-90 weapon which the Hightower Armory stock makes a 10/22 resemble.  I said at least three times that it was an H&K PS-90 when in fact it is an FN PS-90.  Heckler and Koch are NOT the same as Fabrique National.  That would be like calling Fifi a Dodge F-150.  Anyhoo, I have made the requisite changes here in the computer but unless Spiderman wants to go back and fix my screwup, which I am in no way asking him to do, the intergoogles are going to be awash in my glaring stupidity forever.  So, there’s that going on.  And now we move to the travelogue portion of the program where I tell y'all what I did over the weekend.  Friday evening, Larry and I went to Cabela’s.  I applied for, and received, a Cabela’s Visa card.  I used it to buy the gun cabinet I told y'all about last week.  I was a good boy after that and did NOT buy: another “Spam Can” of 7.62x39 ammo, another ammo can full of 5.45x45 ammo, or a Mosin Nagant.  Larry kept me in check and wouldn’t allow me to run that card up while the ink was still wet on it.  We loaded it in the back of Fifi and I went home.  Saturday morning I backed up to the small door of the shop and got to work installing the shelves and bumper thingies.  I measured and drilled holes to install the shelf 35” down from the top of the cabinet because that was how much space I'd need to put the lever action .45 Colt, the longest of my short long guns, in there.  Once I was done with my mule skinnin’, I went in to help John with the installation of theengine in his 1200.  It plopped right in with very little drama.  He test fit theheader and discovered that… well, it needed some dents to clear the steering system.  He dented it and it fit better.  He also test fit the carburetors and they look good for clearance.  We futzed with the throttle cable and discovered that a wheel installed on the actuating rod at the front end would allow him to use the cable he has.  I zooked the cable wheel to the rod and he approved of my work.  It was a “Tim can weld” day so I decided to finish the down pipe for Lil' Wiggly which I quit welding last Saturday because it was a “Tim cannot weld” day.  I think that was all we accomplished… John, any comments?  [ Welded a v-band clamp on my header? - SM ]  Oh, right there was that as well.  From the shop we went to Cap’n D’s for some fried fish.  Damn, I loves me some of that fried fish with malt vinegar and stuff… on occasion.  After lunch we went our separate ways.  When I arrived in the morning, before getting to work on the cabinet, I sent the kid a text asking if we were still on for the sale of the 10/22.  I never heard back.  Around 1130 h I sent another asking again.  Again, I never heard back.  After lunch, I called his number but it just rang and rang.  So, I finger he realized he had low-balled himself on the price and was avoiding me.  No worries, it WAS a bit too good to be true.  I went home.  My plan was to wait until mom was at church on Sunday to unload and set up the new gun cabinet… this I could not do.  Since she was asleep, I decided to risk bringing it in.  I got it in the house and up to my room without her knowing about it.  I loaded the bottom with ammo and began looking at setting the Bullpup guns in there.  My measurements were not as good as I had hoped.  The spacing between the shelf and the bumpers puts the weapons resting with their optics on said bumpers.  I'm probably going to add some foam to the bumpers to cushion the optics a bit.  We’ll see.  I also didn’t like the way the guns leaned… or didn’t quite lean the way I had hoped they would.  I added a ruler under the foam on top of the shelf to tilt the guns back a bit better.  This worked pretty well.  I may still add some anti-rotation devices to stabilize them in position later.  We’ll see.  So, with the kid flaking on me, I decided I'd just go buy a new 10/22 at Bloodbath & Beyond on Sunday.  After lunch I did just that.  I bought the $239.99 wooden stocked, 18” barrel gun from them.  I would have bought an additional 10 round rotary magazine but all they had were the 25 round sticks.  Why I didn’t buy a couple of them I don’t know.  I'm just dumb I suppose.  Back at the house, I grokked the gun a bit and then took a nap.  Later on, I disassembled it and had a look at its internals.  The stainless 10/22 I gave to John’s son had a much smoother action but I figure this will “polish in” eventually.  It did seem to get a bit better when I oiled it… as Juan would expect.  I might take it to the shop and run it with some valve lapping compound to knock all the roughness off the pot-metal receiver… and I might not.  We’ll see.  I'm also thinking of taking it to Winchester Gallery’s gunsmith to see about milling off the front sight and having the barrel threaded for a muzzle device.  I have a spare birdcage now that the Tavor has that muzzle brake on it.  Well, as I've said at least three times already in this rant, we’ll see.  And on that note, I'm outta here.