Toilets Don’t Scare Me

I didn’t get to do any machining today. Figures. I got called to the boat to do a sea trial, and then I got MOST of the old handle off the valve on the head, and then my dad and I ran errands for boat parts. Now it’s nearly 5:00 p.m.

I got a new gate valve, figuring I might be able to take the heavy cast handle off of it and put it on the old shaft. The original valve had a stamped handle, which may be one reason it didn’t last. The debris that used to be a handle appears to be similar to brass, not steel, so I’m not sure why it rotted away. The valve itself is brass, and it’s still there.

The new valve I got is from Indonesia. The old valve had a stamped handle held on by a stainless screw that fit in the end of the shaft. The new one has the cast handle and a (possibly) stainless nut. The handle has a square hole in it, and the shaft is ground off so it has four flats on it, and the manufacturer just jammed it down onto the shaft. I think it’s tapered. I got it off easily using a vise and a hammer. I rested the handle on the vise, with the valve dangling between the jaws, and I hit the end of the shaft, driving it down through the hole in the handle.

I would rather make a cool handle that won’t rot, but this will be a good Plan B. I’d have to get a new stainless screw to put it on the old shaft. The old screw was cheap and soft, so it’s somewhat mangled.

I was thinking life would be much easier if I could just undo the pressure nut holding the old shaft in, remove the guts of the old valve, and insert the guts of the new valve. But I have no idea how to get the old shaft out once the coupling is off. Something holds it in place. I need to find a diagram somewhere.

I am Googling around, and now I’m wondering…was the guy who installed the toilet smart enough to know that a gate valve isn’t the right thing for throttling flow? This is something I learned from a sprinkler guy. A gate valve has a wedge-shaped thing in the path of the water. Turning the handle drives a screw that pushes the wedge into place, and I guess it mates against the brass of the housing, shutting off the flow. If you don’t open it all the way, bad things happen. The sprinkler guy said water flows over and erodes the wedge. Wikipedia says something about vibration eating it. Anyway, what you really want in a situation like this is a globe valve, and for all I know, that’s what’s on the toilet now.

Maybe the smartest course of action is to try to get the valve out of there, completely, and replace it with a PVC globe valve. Home Depot probably sells them. PVC would last a thousand years on that toilet.

It would ruin my fun, but it would work.

I also had an idea about rigging up a flex shaft to put the valve handle up at waist level, so people (mainly me) wouldn’t have to reach under the toilet to operate it. A PVC valve would probably be hard to connect to a flex shaft, and it would probably take a lot of torque to open and close it, and that would eventually ruin the shaft.

I like these venturi toilets much better than the old Galley Maids they replaced, but they are as temperamental as a doctor’s third wife.

Had a good day, even without machining.

Contain Your Amazement

I suppose everyone is writing about Michael Jackson today. Not me. All I can say is, I hope we were all wrong about him. I think he was a very sad figure. The world gave him everything he wanted–instead of what he needed–and it destroyed him. Something for me to think about if I ever feel life has cheated me. The only thing worse than suffering adversity is failing to profit from it. If you profit from it, to a certain extent, it ceases to be adversity. If you just sit around feeling cheated, you allow yourself to be defeated twice.

That’s actually worth remembering. Someone smarter than me must have whispered it in my ear while I was praying for more tools or something.

People love to say “God told me this” and “God told me that.” Me, I am rarely confident enough to make that statement. I could attribute something stupid or wrong to God; I would not be the first. On the other hand, I could end up taking credit for something he told me. What do you do? Search me. I suppose the best course is to consider what Gamaliel said. If a thing is from God, it should become obvious eventually.

I have the garage air conditioner running already. I am bound and determined to make a handle for the valve on the starboard head. I’m going to run over to the boat, apply bleach to anything in the head I might conceivably touch or even come near, and try to determine exactly what I have to make.

This is where Chinese measuring tools come in handy. There is no way I’d take my Mitutoyo or Helios calipers and clamp them to a toilet part. But Chinese…hey, that’s what they’re made for!

I should break down and get a Harbor Freight digital. Seven bucks won’t kill me. Most of my measurements will be right on target if they’re within ten thousandths, so most of the time, I am not going to need a really good instrument. And besides, whenever I mention calipers and accuracy, wise guys pipe up and tell me real men use micrometers.

I can’t decide whether to use brass or aluminum. I think either will be strong enough. Brass will turn green, and aluminum will look like…aluminum. Neither will corrode enough to matter.

Whatever. I can make both.

Not sure how I’ll slice the brass off. I bought a 36″ rod (a drop at a very good price), and it’s 1 1/2″ wide. I think that’s the exact size of my spindle hole. I doubt I can cram it in there for parting. I can always fire up the dry cut saw.

I hate to cut the brass. It’s so pretty, just the way it is.

The smartest thing would be to use stainless. All I have is 304, so it will rust a little, but it shouldn’t gall up against the valve’s stainless screw the way the old handle did. And I think electrolysis may be what destroyed that handle. It will be less of a problem with a stainless handle.

It looks like I may eventually “need” a hydraulic press. If anyone can tell me what size is good for piddling around in the garage, I would appreciate it. I don’t think I’ll be using this a whole lot, so it may be okay to go small and save space.

Later today my presence will be required for a sea trial, to see if the boat’s starboard engine still runs hot. Should be fun.

Acceptance

I replaced my beloved fishing glasses today. And I am bummed.

Why is it that every product I take a liking to gets discontinued? I guess it’s because I’m getting old fast, and by the time I realize I like something, it’s been on the market for a quarter of a century.

I used to wear Flying Fisherman sunglasses on the boat. They cost $12.95, the lenses were glass, they were polarized, they were the right color, and it didn’t bother me at all that they looked hideous. I kept a spare pair on hand, just in case they got discontinued. We started fishing again this year (I think we took all of last year off), and when I looked for my favorite glasses, they were gone. I don’t know if someone stole them, or what. You would have to be a pretty sorry thief to be satisfied with beat-up fishing glasses that look like something a doctor might make you wear. Whatever the deal is, they’re gone.

My dad is having some work done on his boat. The right engine has been running hot, so he had a mechanic run acid through it and change both of his raw water impellers. We ran by a marine supply store to look for gasket material for sea strainers, and while I was there, I bit the bullet and bought new glasses.

Naturally the ones I like are no longer available. I got some squinty ones that will probably be better in practice. But I want the old ones!

I look like a complete idiot when I fish. I wear a lavender dress shirt I got at an outlet store. I wear a horrible straw hat, held on with a chin strap. I do not care. I hate the sun so much it’s hard to describe it, and I also hate sunblock, so I cover everything I can. I wish I knew where to get a burqa with an embroidered sailfish on it.

I’m taking more of an interest in the boat these days. My dad spends a lot of time fooling with it now, so it’s a good excuse to get together and do things. And now that I’m somewhat tool-proficient, I can do a lot more. I need to make a knob for the starboard head; I guess I could fire up the lathe and give that a try. The brass is already here.

He thinks he may be able to con our boat guy (“boat guy” and “mechanic” are two different things) to take us out for yellowtail this weekend. That would be great. The wind is going to be from the west, so dolphin fishing is likely to be lame. I’d love to get some yellowtail, or some big snapper and grouper big enough to cut into fingers.

We ought to try to get some amberjacks. Some people won’t eat them because they get worms in their tails, but the worms are big and white, and you don’t have to eat the part with the worms. You can spot it and remove it. Let’s be serious. Fish have all sorts of parasites. The great thing about AJs is that they’re considerate enough to have parasites you can see and get rid of. With other fish, you enjoy your sushi and then find out later that you have toxoplasmosis or a tapeworm 30 feet long. Or ciguatera. That’s fun.

I love amberjack. I don’t know why more people don’t like it. Other than the giant worms.

The mill is still in shipping limbo. I guess I should email the seller and see if he has any idea which continent it’s on. I need to make a square hole for the toilet knob; I guess I can grind a tool and mount it on the lathe headstock and use it like a broach. It will take forever to open up the hole, but it will give a beautiful result. It will be a shame to put it in a sweaty little room where people pee.

Making the body of the knob would be easier on the mill. I figure a cross shape is easiest. I can make it by drilling four big holes in a disk and then opening them up to make it a cross. This would take like ten minutes on a mill. On a lathe, I have to find a way to chuck it, and locating the centers of the holes will be fun with no DRO. How I’ll open the holes up, I can’t even guess.

Another option is to take a short cylinder of 304 stainless and put a square hole in the middle. Not elegant, but it will last, and it will give lots of leverage.

There are a lot of things a machinist/woodworker could do to improve the boat. Example: replace the engine room hatch covers. Two of these–the ones you use to get in and out all the time–are very heavy. The frames are some kind of hardwood, and I would guess that the panels are one-inch-plus marine hardwood. They weigh maybe 35 pounds each. My dad does not need to be lifting those, and they don’t need to be that heavy. Sheet aluminum would be more than strong enough. I could make the panels and then screw them to wooden frames, or if I wanted to do a better job, I could use aluminum for everything. I’d have to insulate it well, but that’s not a problem.

I also want to make a part for his anchor chocks, so he can use “mud palms” (look it up) and still chock the anchor. By the way, if you need an anchor, I can’t recommend Fortress brand anchors highly enough. I’ve had the galvanized kind, and Fortress aluminum anchors are so much better, it’s not even worth discussing. They bite fast and hold like you would not believe.

I’m hoping to have a garage day tomorrow. Maybe I can get that knob started. Or at least make a mess and enjoy the air conditioning and the stereo. I have all sorts of metal to play with now, so I have no excuse for not generating swarf.

We Should all be as Heartless as Dick Cheney

One of the things that irks me about perceptions of conservatives is that we are somehow considered less compassionate and less generous than liberals. Of course, these things are not true. In fact, the opposite is true. We give more to charity. We are more likely to offer our lives on the battlefield. We support churches with more generosity.

Here’s some information from Charity Navigator, which is not a political organization:

Who gives the most in America: conservatives or liberals?

A. There is a persistent stereotype about charitable giving in politically progressive regions of America: while people on the political right may be hardworking and family-oriented, they tend not to be very charitable toward the less fortunate. In contrast, those on the political left care about vulnerable members of society, and are thus the charitable ones. Understanding “charity” in terms of voluntary gifts of money (instead of government income redistribution), this stereotype is wrong.

The fact is that self-described “conservatives” in America are more likely to give—and give more money—than self-described “liberals.” In the year 2000, households headed by a conservative gave, on average, 30 percent more dollars to charity than households headed by a liberal. And this discrepancy in monetary donations is not simply an artifact of income differences. On the contrary, liberal families in these data earned an average of 6 percent more per year than conservative families.

These differences go beyond money. Take blood donations, for example. In 2002, conservative Americans were more likely to donate blood each year, and did so more often, than liberals. People who said they were “conservative” or “extremely conservative” made up less than one-fifth of the population, but donated more than a quarter of the blood. To put this in perspective, if political liberals and moderates gave blood like conservatives do, the blood supply in the United States would surge by nearly half.

One major explanation for the giving discrepancy between conservatives and liberals is religion. In 2004, conservatives were more than twice as likely as liberals to attend a house of worship weekly, whereas liberals were twice as likely as conservatives to attend seldom or never. There are indeed religious liberals in America, but they are currently outnumbered by religious conservatives by about four to one.

It’s bizarre. We are taken to task repeatedly, simply because we don’t support mindless, incompetent, counterproductive giving that is the result of governmental coercion. The fact that we give freely, on our own initiative, receives no press. And journalists don’t like to point out that a big percentage of the “generous” liberals who vote for government handouts are likely recipients of the money in question. How is it generous to vote for the government to take someone else’s money and give it to you?

Still, I wonder if we do enough. My impression is that Satan steps in wherever he can find a moral fault with believers. Marxism, which is unquestionably Satanic, got a foothold because the lives of the lower classes were so wretched. They weren’t getting an even break. Had the upper classes treated workers better, it would have been harder to motivate them to generate social turmoil by fomenting revolution. Like Fred Smith (founder of Fedex) once said, no company gets a union unless it deserves one. Perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but maybe the principle is correct.

I wonder if private giving is everything it should be. I tend to doubt it. For example, I’m fairly sure tithing is uncommon. If it were the rule and not the exception, a substantial percentage of American incomes–maybe five percent–would be going to churches. And they wouldn’t know what to do with the money; they’d spend much more of it on social organizations. Charities would be swollen with capital.

I wonder about this because we have a political crisis on our hands. People who have no idea how economics works are blindly electing leftists who will eventually ruin us with their false generosity. And maybe we could reverse this trend if the needy were being served better by private organizations.

On the other hand, much of what is characterized as “need” is actually greed. It may be that perceived need always increases with the availability of handouts. Maybe increasing our giving will increase demand. But there’s a difference between private and governmental handouts: private handouts can be distributed with competence. The government doesn’t care if you deserve money. They only care if you vote. Private charities consider themselves stewards. Like Hebrew National, they answer to a higher authority.

Interesting question.

Whatever the answer is, I think we should all hope to be as lucky as the much-maligned Dick Cheney, who has given millions to charity. Not only did he and his wife make huge donations; they made donations that were huge in proportion to their total income. I would love to approach the Pearly Gates with something like that on my resume. It must be wonderful to find yourself in a position where you’re able to do that much good.

The odd thing about all this is that conservatives are doing a pretty good job of giving, and liberals are not, yet the political fortunes of liberals are waxing while ours wane. And one diabolical result of the move from private to governmental charity is that the givers are losing their blessings. The Bible makes it clear that we are not to give out of coercion. It apparently pleases God very, very little when a government forces people to do charity. So we are still losing the money, but we are not getting the full benefit of giving.

Another problem is that people feel entitled to government money. It therefore corrupts them. They become spoiled and ungrateful. When you have to go to a private entity or an individual for help, you know you’re getting a favor. You realize help is not certain. That has to be less corrupting.

I am not generous by nature. I had to be taught. Here (again) is a helpful passage from the Psalms; I had it printed on a Cafepress mug so I would have it in front of me:

1 Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.

2 The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.

I consider that a set of promises, and I cling to it. I don’t believe God would put things like that in scripture, yet would not be willing to back it up. God does not give lip service. The Bible also says that when you give to the poor, you lend to God. And God always pays interest. You get something in return, and it appears that the best way to characterize it is to call it God’s favor. It’s not just a monetary transaction. You may be blessed with money, but the only thing you can be sure of is that he will take notice of you and watch out for you, as he did in the case of Cornelius the generous centurion. That’s how I see it at this time.

I don’t know if generosity can save conservatives from political failure, but I am sure it can save individual Christians from the curses that hit us as a nation. I suppose we are reaching the point where that will have to suffice.

Hand me the Sledge

I suffered a crushing defeat today. I had to give up on my useless DVD burner.

I have an NEC 3550A burner in my desktop. Which sits on the floor. Making it a floortop. The burner worked fine when I first got it, but it eventually went nuts and refused to burn anything. I have upgraded the firmware, even taking a chance on a shady souped-up version written by kooks. I have upgraded my burning software. I have sent logs to the people at Alcohol-Soft. Nothing has worked.

I threw in the towel. I have a new Samsung on the way. Had to order it, unless I wanted to shop locally and get the wrong thing and pay way too much. Maybe next week I’ll be able to burn disks without turning on my creaky laptop (which fails about half the time).

I was using the PC to burn machining disks from Smartflix. There is no way I can take notes on DVDs fast enough to get them back to Smartflix before a late fee kicks in, so I make copies, send the originals home, take notes while watching the copies, and then discard the copies. Because I was having so many burn failures, I was still having late-fee issues.

My new solution is to copy them to my hard drive. I don’t want to sit in my sweaty office watching machining videos, but if I have the copies on my drive, I can burn them later, when the new burner gets here. After that, I can watch them in comfort. Either on the couch, or in the new Multimedia Garage.

The guys who sell videos are smart. Or maybe they’re just lame. They use ordinary purple recordable disks. These things are harder for DVD players to read, and they’re harder to copy. And they seem to get damaged easily. I’ve had several Smartflix disks refuse to play all the way. This makes life easier on the video guys, because it makes it tough to rent and copy the disks. If they upgraded to real equipment, their disks would be just like the ones you get when you buy movies. They’d last forever, and every machine in the universe would read them with ease.

I am tempted to take the old burner out and crush it with a sledgehammer. My dad has a 13-pounder on his boat, for removing props. I think it would be perfect for this job. I remember the joy the guys in Office Space got from destroying the Evil Printer. Or was it a fax machine?

The mill’s status is unknown. The last communication I had indicated an arrival date of around…yesterday. But it was not a firm date, and I have no mill, so I’m assuming the machine is still being twiddled with. When people are slow to ship you something expensive, they always want to let you know as soon as it leaves their facilities, so you won’t post nasty things about them on the web or try to back out of the deal. I have not received any authoritative shipping notices, so my best guess, based on being old and knowing how the world works, is that the folks who are drop-shipping the mill have not received the DRO yet. The mill is probably sitting in California right now, while irate Asian guys fume about the time it’s taking for the DRO to arrive from China.

The company is run by an Asian. That’s how I know the hypothetical angry guys are Asian.

It’s funny how we’re not allowed to say “Oriental” any more, even though it’s a completely harmless term (means “eastern”) and it’s more accurate than “Asian.” Benjamin Netanyahu is Asian. So is George Michael. But they’re not Oriental.

Wikipedia says “Oriental” is offensive in America, but not in England. That’s proof that it’s a legitimate term. Man, what is it with liberals? You can’t say “stewardess.” They tried to take “black” away from us, and blacks wouldn’t let them. American Indians got mad when they tried to make us stop saying “Indian.” What is the point of manufacturing a controversy where none should exist?

We can still say “hippie,” “moonbat,” “tree hugger,” and “feminazi.” I’m not letting those go.

I read something interesting today about milling machines. Evidently, if you really want to do good woodworking, you’re better off with metalworking machines than woodworking machines. You get more control.

I’m sure there are drawbacks. You have to watch out for oil and grease and swarf, and the tools turn slowly by woodworking standards. But imagine how much easier it would be to rout, using a milling machine instead of a router. You clamp the piece down. You use your DROs to make sure the measurements are right. Then you stand back in complete safety while the power feed does the work. No feeding your fingers into the bit. No eighth-of-an-inch errors because you couldn’t keep something from moving around. I guess if you really wanted to be a good woodworker, you’d buy an old mill and rig it so the spindle turned at 12,000 RPM. If the machine was worn-out and you screwed every cut up by ten thousandths, no one would ever know, because you’d still be super-accurate by woodworking standards.

The guy who was writing about it is an extremely proficient and experienced machinist. He pointed out a few pitfalls, such as using metal cutters on wood. But it sounded like a great idea, regardless.

Using a router is a giant pain. The work tries to jump, and sometimes it succeeds. It’s very hard to measure accurately. If you hold the router in your hands instead of using a table, it will do its best to tilt and cut big gouges in your wood, just when you think you’re about to finish your project without a hitch.

I wonder if there’s any reason I can’t put a 3-phase motor in my table saw and get a dry-cut blade for it to cut metal.

The mill will get here eventually, and then we’ll see what it will let me do.

Cancer

Sad news from Aelfheld, who blogs over at Operation Enduring Service.

He has a friend named Dan Howell. Dan is a firefighter in Beaumont, Texas. His sister Mary Ellen has cancer. It’s in her lungs and lymph nodes, and it has gone to her brain. Right now she is also fighting an infection. The family is asking for prayer.

Here is a link to OES. Here is a link to Mary Ellen’s page on the Caringbridge website. It’s a nonprofit-owned site that provides individual blogs for patients.

I’ll Send Marv Out for an Olive Branch

What a morning. You could say we’re having a bit of a drizzle. By that I mean it looks like dusk outside, the sound of thunder never quite goes away, and you would not be able to walk ten feet out there without getting soaked.

This is Tuesday. Every Tuesday, I have breakfast with my dad at a local deli. We’ll be a little late today. In weather like this you have to wait for a lull so you can brave the little segments between your car and shelter.

The Internet connection keeps flickering. I’m glad I don’t have any great need for it today.

Weather Underground says the local humidity is 100%. Doesn’t that mean we’re under water?

It’s funny how much it can rain here in a short time. The other day, Miami Beach got nine inches overnight. Mike and I grew up in a low-lying neighborhood with bad drainage. We used to take his jonboat out when it rained hard. We rode it up and down the street. The water in my yard got so deep once, my dog–a huge German shepherd–resorted to swimming. Kids went boogie-boarding on the sidewalk.

It’s a wonder we didn’t die of cholera after getting in that water.

It’s tapering off a little. Maybe it’s time to leave.

More: Honesty in Government

I decided to check the water situation, including watering restrictions, online. We’ve had a drought, so there are annoying rules that change a lot. Here’s the URL of a site I was directed to: weuseless.miamidade.gov/home.html.

Isn’t that nice? Government employees, admitting they’re useless.

100!

I guess you could say it’s a little warm today. Miami has blistering sunshine (due to low latitude) and miserable humidity, but the temperature usually stays below 90 in the shade. Today we hit 100 in some places. It’s like August out there.

Oddly, the humidity is low by our standards, at 55%. That means you walk outside and feel like you just opened the oven door, but it takes over a minute for sweat to start running off of you, which is unusual in the summer.

I guess even Al Gore has a good day once in a while.

I received a bunch of metal today. One item: a loaf of 1018 steel. It’s just like a loaf of government cheese, only it’s steel. Same size and shape. I’m hoping I can cut it into tool holders. If not, it will make a really effective paperweight. It weighs 72 pounds. I’m a little nervous about dropping the dry cut saw on it, but I have Ridgid oil, and if it acts up, I guess I can quit.

I got a 36″ round bar of 360 brass. It’s about 1.5″ in diameter. I think. It’s so pretty, it will break my heart to slice it up.

I also have a long 12L14 round rod, a 12L14 rectangular rod, a long 304 stainless rod, and a long A2 rod. It seems like cheap rectangular or square mild steel drops in easily machined alloys are not easy to find.

I found a company that publishes photos of the mill I ordered. I’m shocked at how nice it looks. It’s gorgeous. Even the Chinese DRO. Of course, those photos are the closest I can get, because there was a shipping delay. The DRO wasn’t in stock, or something. For some reason, the DRO took an extra week to install, so I assume they didn’t have it when they needed it.

Here’s something useful I’ve learned. When you receive a box of steel odds and ends, and you have to stick one in your chuck right away because you have no self-control, try not to machine off the place where the sender used a marker to write the metal’s designation.

Geez, that mill looks nice. I can’t get over it.

Stick This in Your Brain

Someone was asking for a dolphin recipe. I’ll tell you what I like to do with these tasty fish. I adapted the traditional Cuban recipe for fried snapper. Hmm…might as well give you that first. It’s called “pargo entero,” or “whole snapper.”

Take a whole snapper. Clean it. Scale it and remove all the pointy bits. Cut the head and tail off if you want. Make a series of slashes from top to bottom on each side about an inch apart, down to the bone. You can slant them toward the back of the fish as you go down, if you think it looks prettier.

Egg white will make everything stick better, so apply it if you like. Rub salt and crushed garlic into the fish. Pepper too, if you want. Now cover it with cracker meal and fry it in hot oil. Peanut oil is standard. Some people mix parmesan cheese into the meal, but it can burn. Get the fish nice and brown.

Dolphin are bigger than most snapper. For a big fish, you make fingers, which are strips about as big around as a finger. It will be better if you throw out the dark meat. If you do this with a snapper or small grouper, you don’t have to skin it. Don’t eat dolphin skin.

I serve this with lime wedges and tartar sauce. Wonderful.

Deep-frying is best. If you have a turkey fryer with a basket, go for it. Otherwise, pan-fry with enough oil to cover the fish halfway.

Church was wonderful yesterday, as usual. I couldn’t go on Saturday, so I was really ready. I got there earlier than usual. I’m always amazed at the quality of the music. I don’t know where they find these people.

They’re still teaching about Philippians 4:8, which is all about keeping your mind on good things. I made up a mnemonic for the NIV version. “PPLANTER.”

Pure
Praiseworthy
Lovely
Admirable
Noble
True
Excellent
Right

The key is to remember that P is the double letter. You’ll go crazy if you get confused and try to think up two R words.

One of the associate pastors talked yesterday. One of the things he talked about was the problems men face with lust. That’s a tough one, because these days, most women think it’s appropriate to dress and behave provocatively, even at work. Somehow we have turned that into a virtue. Women don’t understand the male mind; if they did, they’d realize what a stupid strategy this is. It leads to problems for both sexes.

He talked about the difficulties men face in certain situations, such as beach outings and web surfing. He said sometimes the best thing is to take a break from the Internet. That’s a great idea. You can’t be tempted if you’re not online. When I got home yesterday, I decided to take his advice. I’ve been overdoing the Internet, so it seemed like a good move. I didn’t turn the computer on once, and I didn’t miss it. I had a very relaxing day, and it was productive as a Sabbath. I got out my Complete Jewish Bible and went through Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and some other stuff, making notes in the margins.

Ephesians is very useful. Christians don’t have a clearly defined set of laws to follow, but this book lays out very good guidelines for our behavior. Chapters 4 through 6 will save you a lot of page-flipping. I guess I could make a simple list of the guidelines this book provides. You don’t always have to read the text itself to get the benefit.

The Internet is loaded with temptation, and lust is only part of it. Internet rage is a real problem; Christians are not supposed to be angry and abusive, but try blogging or joining forums, and you’ll see how hard it can be to avoid getting drawn into the corrosive spirit. Then there is gossip. Some of the biggest websites are proudly devoted to it, and it can cause you real problems. The ancient Jews believed it caused houses to literally rot. The “leprosy” referred to in the Bible was not always a human disease. Sometimes the word “leprosy” is used to describe this rot. And how about covetousness? Internet shopping is a fantastic resource, but a lot of people abuse it. It has helped me get into a number of rewarding hobbies, but from time to time I’ve bought things that were pretty stupid, and some people shop just to fill time. Worse, they buy on credit, spending money they haven’t earned yet.

I have a rule about shutting down the PC at 8 p.m. I am not doing a great job of following it, but I’m going to buckle down and get serious. At that time, I should be spending time with my birds or doing something else of value. I’ve been getting to bed early for a long time now, on the theory that nothing I need to be involved in happens after ten o’clock, and I’ve been proven right. Abandoning the web in the early evening is also a good idea. I should quit even earlier.

I suppose it would be a violation of Philippians 4:8 to fail to point out the positive things about the Internet. Let’s see.

1. Biblegateway.com and other sites let you browse your favorite version of the Bible online. That’s very useful, and because you can cut and paste, it helps you share what you find with others.

2. It’s easy to donate to charities online. I have a list in my sidebar. Two favorites: World Vision and The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. World Vision will let you choose the gift you give, and they’re not all temporary fixes. You can give things like giving pigs or fruit trees to poor families in Africa. Or vaccinations. Right now, they have a deal where you can donate money for medical machinery and get matching funds to multiply your cash by 14. The IFCJ will move a Jew to Israel from a place like Ethiopia or the former USSR, for $350. You can change someone’s life permanently for a relatively small amount of money. You can save up until you’re ready, or you can partner with friends. You may have doubts about giving people temporary handouts, but when you move someone to Israel, it sticks.

3. A number of ministries have sites where you can download podcasts and videos. Perry Stone has all his TV shows online, if you’re a prophecy buff. Try Voice of Evangelism. And there’s a big site with tons of canned sermons from various people: Sermonaudio.com.

And of course, there are places where you can go to get prayer. Oddly, this site has become one of them.

I got a little out of hand while I was trying to learn about and acquire machine tools. I had to spend a lot of time looking things up and asking questions. It got me in the habit of spending too much time online; I just realized this yesterday. Now I’m more up to speed, so there is no reason to sit glued to the monitor all day.

Hope you find this helpful.

Another Score

The fishing was great today, although we didn’t make enough of an effort to take advantage. We hit two schools of dolphin in about 2200 feet of water. The first bunch was small. The second were bigger. We weren’t really prepared to deal with a school, so we only boated a few. Val was the only guest, so I didn’t consider it a serious outing.

Here’s the end result:

Got home from sweating on a hot boat…to find that the air conditioning was on the fritz. Man, that hurt. I was really looking forward to hitting that cold air when I walked in, but it wasn’t there. Got a guy coming to look at it. I’m hoping it’s the capacitor on the compressor again. Not sure why they only go out on Saturday.

Other than that, phenomenal day.

Outing Planned

We’re fishing again tomorrow! Looks like Val will be on hand, and he might bring fellow Babalu member Henry Gomez.

The wind is not making me happy. To catch dolphin, you want an east wind. If you can’t get an east wind, you at least want to avoid a west wind. Somehow, the fish know. And one report says the wind may blow from the south-southwest in the morning. That’s almost west.

I consider it a boat ride with my dad and friends. I am too old and fat to do a good job of fishing. I can do a fine job in a small boat by myself, but when you add one or two more people, it’s just too much. No one knows how to rig baits or tie hooks on, so I run in circles all the time, helping everyone else. If something goes wrong with the boat, that goes on my plate, too. So these days I don’t really worry about catching anything. I hope we do, but not enough to pass out from heat stroke.

It’s great to spend time out there with my father. We missed a lot of opportunities when I was a kid. It’s surprising how well you can erase memories like that by doing things together later in life.

Both Cancer

Got two fresh prayer requests. I can’t believe I’m developing a reputation for taking these. Actually, one isn’t that fresh. I neglected a few emails over the last week.

1. A while back, reader Ruth requested prayer for someone named Sarah. You can see the post here. Sarah has breast cancer, and it has invaded her brain. She is not a Christian. Her mother asked for prayer for healing and salvation. Here is part of a recent report:

Sarah is doing good for her condition. She has cancer in the brain which they are treating first. She has started wearing her wig. Her companion is still with her and supporting her. L___ S____has had a fund raising campaign, you may have seen it in the Pilot, to send the family on a dream vacation. She has a doctor that is loving and encouraging. In his words “There are three types of healing, medical healing, miracle healing, and the healing of death.” He has been very straight forward with here but offers encouragement. Asked her if she would like him to meet with her kids, which she did. For someone without insurance, things are going very well. Still a very sad situation.

2. Second, the father-in-law of a friend of mine has some cancerous skin lesions. I don’t know what type, but he is asking for prayer. Generally, you don’t have to worry much unless you have a melanoma and you don’t jump on it right away, but it’s possible to have real problems with basal and squamous cell cancers. I think his name is Carlos, but I asked for confirmation. New information: Gilbert.

That’s it.

Guy from a machining forum sent me some steel, and it arrived today. I may try threading! I can’t wait! Even though it’s a pretty unimpressive thing to do.

You Can’t Eat Bullets

I have new hope that the hoarders are running out of money. I’m only guessing, but I have three indications. First, Classic Arms says business is slow, and they have Wolf ammunition for sale. Second, Natchez Shooter’s Supply has 9mm and .40 S&W at near-normal prices. Third, Outdoor Marksman is starting to build up a good supply of 9mm.

I’m really peeved, because it looks like someone snapped up all the cheap Swiss K31 ammunition from Outdoor Marksman and Dan’s Ammo. Now it’s appearing on Gunbroker, the biggest ripoff site in the universe. I thought I had plenty of time to get more. And there is no 7.62 surplus sniper ammunition anywhere.

I should go ahead and sell the K31. It was fun, but I’m not going to pay $2 a round to shoot a $200 gun. I can get equal accuracy in a Savage .308 and make my own ammunition much cheaper. The PSL was a pleasure to shoot when quality sniper ammunition was dirt cheap, but once the financial advantage is gone, it’s just a bulky, temperamental gun that isn’t all that accurate.

I think the people who cornered the market are going to regret it. The boom is going to bust, and then they’ll have to decide whether they want to sell at a loss or live in homes so cluttered with ammunition they can’t walk.

The price of copper has dropped something like 40%, and with a depression or very deep recession likely, it will probably be even lower next year. I know Obama’s handouts are masking our problems, but like I always say, borrowing against future taxpayer earnings to pump up the economy is like eating your own leg. You’ll stay alive, and you may feel better, but you won’t gain weight.

Put Away the Umbrella

I have kind of an odd prayer request for you today.

Yesterday I got my hair cut. My barber asked if I had read about his brother in the paper. He showed me a newspaper article about a guy who looked a little bit like him. I assumed he was kidding about this guy being his brother. The man in the story had lost 300,000 pounds of live coral to thieves.

It really was his brother. And this is a big deal. As it was explained to me, aquarists pay $8.00 per pound for live coral, and people who sell it keep it offshore in federal waters, on bits of sea bottom that are allotted to them. He had been cultivating this stuff for five years, and now it’s gone, and it’s the end of his business unless it’s recovered.

At first, I thought it was a joke, but it’s not. It’s terrible. So maybe some of you will join me in praying the coral is found and returned, and that these two brothers will credit God with it and turn to him.

Also, I am pleased to report that my campaign of psalm memorization goes well. I’ll give you the list of psalms I’ve managed to master: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 15, 23, 34, 37, 41, 63, 101, and 141. I’m about to wrap up Psalm 9. You probably thought I wouldn’t follow through with this. I admit, I have missed more than a few days, but I’m doing okay.

It’s wonderful to know this stuff. In the Bible, God promises things, and he gives us guidance, and he warns us about problems we may encounter or cause. It’s all as fresh and relevant today as it was in ancient times. Much of this material is expressed in the psalms, so if you memorize them, you come to understand what God will do for you and what you have to do for him. That brings power into your life. The Bible is like the Constitution. If you don’t know what’s in it, you may fail to get the benefits it confers on you. If you do know it, you can have faith in God’s promises, causing them to be fulfilled, and you can avoid provoking him.

Over and over, I am startled by the good things God does for me, and the way my prayers are answered. It’s funny, but he often does exactly what I ask, and I’m so conditioned to expect the neglect and punishment I deserve, it takes me a while to realize a prayer has been granted. Even when God gives you precisely what you ask for, you can fail to see it unless you’re paying attention.

A few weeks back, I started feeling that, at last, I was walking in God’s blessings. My family has always been under a curse, and I’m very accustomed to it, but lately I have felt my back straightening up. I have started to feel that it’s safe to be less defensive and to expect good things. It’s not an easy thing to face. After you’ve spent several decades being blindsided and cheated and sandbagged, it’s hard to stop bracing yourself as though waiting for a storm to pass.

It can bring tears to your eyes when you see God turning toward you and coming through for you, after half a lifetime of losing when it seemed you should win. I guess this is how a person would feel after being healed of paralysis or blindness. It overloads your understanding.

To me, winning doesn’t mean great riches or earthly power. It certainly doesn’t mean fame. I want a family that works. I want to succeed at the things I do. I want health and reasonable prosperity. I want to have hope and confidence. I want a little purity in my life. And contentment. I believe God wants all these things for the vast majority of us, and that we can get them through faith and obedience. If there is a lack in your life that you just can’t get God to fill, it must mean there’s a blessing that will come from it.

I am conscious of things I need to do in my own life, to help the blessings flow. I have to watch out for self-righteousness, which can take the form of scorn or schadenfreude. I have to be as patient and forgiving with others as I want God to be with me. I have to squelch lust. The Internet is a minefield, in that regard. Even well-meaning people I know will sometimes send funny emails featuring naked women. Before the Internet, that kind of thing really was not part of my life. It’s amazing how the web funnels sins like lust and gambling and hate into our lives.

I can’t expect things to continue to improve unless I continue to improve. That’s the bottom line.

I remember my trip to Israel, back in the Eighties. It was such an odd thing; a Gentile whose life was falling apart, being drawn across the Atlantic to spend four months in the Holy Land. From the minute I left Kentucky until I stepped off the return flight in New York, I felt as though God’s hand was guiding me. I was an even worse Christian then than I am now, but it was as if he knew this was important, as groundwork for something later in life.

I did things wrong. I arrived on a Friday. I didn’t tell Aaron I was coming. He was in Jerusalem, and I ended up on his former kibbutz near Afula. Then back to Jerusalem, where I sat in on yeshiva lectures–where I located Aaron by spotting his horrendous plaid boxers hanging on a clothesline. Then four months on the kibbutz next to his. Working in the grapefruit fields. Chicken houses. Date groves. Almonds. Sleeping on Masada; weekends in Jerusalem. Having a vision on the kibbutz. Witnessing strange behavior from people who seemed to have their strings pulled by spirits.

I was alone, but it was like a guided tour. I trusted God to lead me around and take care of me, and he did. And then I got home, and his guidance seemed to be gone. I tried to get it back by joining a church a few years later, but I got offended by prosperity theology and quit. Then I became a realtor. A college student. A grad student in physics. A law student. A lawyer. A writer. After 911 I began praying regularly, and after a few years, I found that God was willing to guide me again. Now I attend church. I participate in charity. Old sores are healing. New doors are opening. I feel like I’ve picked up the thread I dropped when I left Israel.

I wish I could tell other people how to get this, but I know I’m not ready or worthy to do it, and I know almost no one listens. I certainly didn’t. I was terrified that I’d become a fanatic and sabotage whatever progress I had made in the secular world. I guess I’ve done that, but none of that really belonged to me anyway. It was just bait, to keep me off track. “Vanity,” the Bible calls it. “Leasing.” Nothing I could claim as an eternal asset, or which could not be taken away from me by my enemies. The one you serve in order to get things can usually take them away when you stop serving him.

It’s working. That much, I can tell you. I hope what I write here will help some of you maintain or renew your enthusiasm.

Crack is Cheaper

One of the frustrating things about trying to learn machining is the constant search for cheap metal. You would think metal would be inexpensive, given the low prices of many large metal objects. But you would be wrong. Seems like metal is the only thing that loses value after you use it to make something.

I’ll give you an example of the kind of problem I’ve come up against. I wanted to make some brass knobs for a bathroom cabinet. The best size brass cylinder for my purposes is about 1.5″ in diameter. I need four knobs, so a foot of brass is a good safe amount, to allow for waste and leave a little extra for chucking. Let’s check Onlinemetals.com.

For 360 free-machining brass, which is a brass machinists like a lot, the cost is over forty bucks, before shipping. Add shipping, and it’s over $53.00.

Now, what do knobs cost at Home Depot? I don’t know. But less than $53.00 for four. Granted, you get way less metal, and it’s probably the worst metal available. Still, it takes some of the fun out of making the knobs for myself.

You can do better on Ebay, right? Wrong. Well, okay. Right. But not a whole lot better. Ebay used to be a true flea market, packed with finds. Now, many of the sellers are ordinary retailers who charge near-retail prices. This includes the metal dealers. So it ain’t that great.

Luckily for me, I found a guy who is liquidating the inventory of an aircraft business. Up side: cheap metal, cheap shipping. Down side: metal very weird.

There are certain metals machinists use all the time, like 12L14 steel, T6 aluminum alloys, and the brass mentioned above. Then there are metals from Mars, like “Greek ascoloy,” “Inconel,” 660 stainless, and “Waspaloy.” The liquidation dude has lots of this stuff. If you want to buy from this guy, you have to spend forty minutes Googling each alloy to find out what it is.

I got some good stuff from him. A little tool steel, some stainless, and a mysterious round bar which might make a good tool holder, provided I can machine it. But by the time I found him, the really useful items were gone.

I also found a metal dealer that sells drops. These are like carpet remnants. Example: somebody who makes locomotives orders x hundred feet of mild steel 3″ by 3″ bar, and you buy the remaining 16 inches cheap. You can save maybe two-thirds of the ordinary price. You get dinged on shipping, but if you order a large amount, it still pays off handsomely. I got some mild steel I hope to cut into lathe tool holders, plus the brass I wanted. Plus something else I do not recall.

People say, “Go to the local scrap yards and ask if they sell drops.” I guess I can do that. I already put in a word at a boatyard. But Miami metal dealers don’t seem all that interested in that kind of business. They sell new metal cut to order, and they buy scrap, but if they are letting people come in to wander around and look for goodies, they are definitely doing a bad job of advertising it.

One nice thing about joining forums is that forum members help each other out. I bought a drill chuck with a useless taper in it, and it turned out another guy needed that kind of taper, so I sent it to him for nothing. He’s going to send a mystery package in return. Another member offered to send me some steel rods for nothing, as long as I paid shipping.

So now I will have the beginnings of a useful scrap pile. I won’t be totally helpless.

Steel rod suitable for turning and threading is not readily available around here. A reader recommended a local dealer to me, and they’re great for angle iron and aluminum rod, but they had no idea what leaded steel was. Seriously. Did not know what it was. I had a dowel I got from Home Depot for a welding project, and I tried turning it, and wow, is it lame. Imaging trying to turn cold cheddar cheese in a lathe. The tool jumps. The metal tears. The finish is horrendous. Cutting fluid made no difference. So I guess I can forget Home Depot for turning stock, even in emergencies.

I was using a round-nose tool I made myself, intended mainly for finishing things I make using cobalt. A round-nose tool with a big radius gives a better finish than a pointy cobalt tool. I tried it on the Home Depot dowel, hoping to create a surface I could use as a basis for threading. Upon witnessing the cheese effect, I concluded that I make really bad tools. Then I chucked a piece of aluminum and tried it, and the finish was beautiful. It shocked me. So it’s not me; it’s the metal. Fine for welding. Useless for turning.

I’m keeping an eye on Craigslist. Sometimes a liquidation takes place.

Can you do anything useful with machine tools? Sure. Here’s a link someone just sent me. A guy made a 1/6-scale Chevy 327 that runs. The perfect thing to have on hand when Stuart Little goes through puberty. Or it would make a great power source for a blender.