No Soy Here

The Hickok45 starter kit is shaping up.

For those who don’t know, Hickok45 is a Youtuber who is so popular, he makes a living from videos. He shoots steel targets and containers of soda in his backyard. Wishing you had thought of it first? Who isn’t?

I have a berm and a target stand made from a realtor’s “for sale” sign frame. The stand is great for paper targets. I decided I wanted some steel gongs, too, so I needed a second stand.

The other day, I posted a video of the stand without paint and the bolts that tighten it. Today I have a photo of the [virtually] finished product. I just put the paint on it.

As you can see, it now has T-handles on top of the little sleeves that hold the crossmember in place. Those handles are made from steel I cut from a Hawaiian sling spear today. I welded them across the tops of a couple of 1/2″ black oxide bolts I happened to have on hand. With the handles in place, I can tighten the crossmember in position without a wrench.

I used Rust-Oleum truck bed coating to paint the stand. Truck bed coating is unbelievably tough. I screwed the bolts in as far as I could and painted the stand with them in place. This covered the exposed parts of the bolts without gunking up the male and female threads that actually hold the stand together.

The stand is surprisingly non-wobbly. The first time I fitted it up, I thought it needed more of an angle between the end supports, but with the bolts tight, it doesn’t move.

When the stand is fully painted and dry, I’ll mount the gongs on attachments made from pipe and flat bar. I already have the materials.

The friction from the gongs swinging back and forth will eventually cause rust, but come on. This is going to a cow pasture. It’s not a bench for Princess Kate to sit on. I guess I could wrap the abraded areas with Gorilla Tape before slipping the gongs onto the crossmember. That would greatly extend the rust-free period.

I don’t know how long Gorilla Tape lasts outdoors.

It’s very satisfying to be able to fabricate steel projects. For a long time, I was not able to do this, either because of lack of equipment or lack of skill. Now I have plenty of equipment and just enough skill.

Right now I’m going to make pizza. The faux plague and hysteria-related food supply problems got me thinking about making pizza with supermarket ingredients. My local Winn-Dixie sells whole-milk grated mozzarella, which is a dream come true, because part-skim mozzarella is generally nasty.

People snapped spaghetti sauce up after the insanity started, but I found some. I would be stunned if it was anything like as good as the pizza sauce I make myself. But it could be acceptable for times when the real thing isn’t available. Maybe it will even surprise me.

I hate to say this, but canned sauce has gotten so good, there isn’t much point in making sauce. I mean for pasta, not pizza. You can’t throw pasta sauce on pizza and get optimal results. Pasta and pizza are not the same. I can make pasta sauce somewhat better, but I would call it a 10% difference, if that.

I used to eat Paul Newman’s sauce sometimes, but plain old Ragu is better. They have a ton of different flavors, though, so you have to pick and choose.

Today I plan to make thin pizza with pepperoni, pineapple, onions, and ricotta. I make pan pizza better. I want to brush up my thin-crust technique.

On a related note, I wrote about a local chain called Five Star. I had a pepperoni slice that made a great impression on me, so I bought a small pie this week. It turns out their cheese is not fatty enough. The pepperoni slice was saved by the fat from the meat, so I didn’t realize the cheese was flawed. The pie I bought had little brown dots on it. The signature of dry cheese. Also, the crust was bloated, like Domino’s.

I think they would do a fine job if I ordered thin crust and a meat topping.

I tried their garlic rolls. Not good. The bread was fine, but they put some kind of salty yellow sauce on it. I assume it’s margarine. I don’t think they could afford to use that much butter. The garlic was burnt. Maybe I could make it work if I got rolls without sauce and nuked my own garlic.

I could make rolls today. I’ll try to resist.