Learn From my Woes

I’ve been having lots of fun over the last week. I won’t go into the details, because I don’t want to experience the psychic trauma all over again, but I can tell you some conclusions I have garnered from my ordeal.

1. While the Supreme Court reviews the constitutionality of applying the death penalty for crimes not involving killing, they should also consider applying it to anyone who embeds a drain pipe in a concrete floor.

2. Anyone who installs a roof vent for a plumbing system without putting a screen on it to keep roaches out should be forced to spend a week in a small cardboard box with said roaches. After being smeared liberally with peanut butter and honey.

3. We need to pass laws sanctioning the flogging of building contractors on sight, based on general principles.

4. The outhouse is a greatly underrated invention which deserves a second look. In fact, if I ever have a home on a big enough piece of land, I think I’ll install an outhouse purely as a precaution.

5. Having been through so many hurricanes I have lost count, and having been deprived of electricity, running water, phone service, and the Internet, I am pretty sure running water is the hardest thing to do without. When you can’t make full use of your house’s plumbing, it becomes difficult to keep your body clean. You can’t do dishes. You can’t do laundry. And the situation in your home generally deteriorates as the effects of dry living cascade into other areas.

I think number 3 was already obvious.

If you ever have to fool with your house’s plumbing, please listen to my advice. Do not run pipes under anything you can’t remove and replace in ten minutes. I read about one sap who installed a multi-thousand-dollar concrete driveway over a drain pipe that subsequently went bad; imagine the horror. Do not listen to a plumber or contractor who says it’s okay to build over pipe because “it will never have to be dug up.” As Murphy could tell you if he were here, anything that can have a problem requiring it to be dug up, will. It’s better to have a two-mile run of pipe under your lawn than a ten-inch run under a concrete slab.

Avoid cast iron pipe at all costs, even if PVC makes noise, because sooner or later, cast iron will flake off and give you permanent clogs that can only be fixed by replacing your pipes. Use the biggest-diameter drain pipes your plumber is willing to install. And whenever you have work done, take pictures while it’s in progress. It will scare the hell out of your plumber, motivating him to do the job right, and the photos will be useful later when things go wrong. Especially if you have to sue.

Plumbers still seem to know what they’re doing, but I can’t figure out what happened to all the competent building contractors. Did someone kidnap them and bury them in the Everglades? Who built all the nice old houses and buildings we see every day? These days, contractors will look you in the face and say, “It is impossible to do this job right, regardless of what you pay, because all the people who know how to do it right are dead.” That’s not an exaggeration; they actually say that.

I suspect that the single best reason for stopping illegal immigration is to keep our houses from falling down. We used to have a system of apprenticeships and exams. Now we have ignorant peasants who stand in front of Home Depot, waiting to find out what arcane areas of construction they’ll have to master on a given morning. “Enrique, what do you know about masonry?” “Todo, senor.” “Enrique, what do you know about wiring a house?” “Todo, todo.” “Enrique, what do you know about cooling gas molecules with a current-controlled CO2 laser?” “No proleng. I feex.” This is why the paint on your walls went on without primer and your shower was plumbed with half-inch electrical conduit.

That’s not completely true. American workers do horrible work, too. Inventors keep changing building materials and practices, making things simpler and easier, so less skill is required. But the American construction worker is too fast for them. He manages to lose skills so quickly, it’s impossible to for inventors to keep up. In the past, the main benefit of doing your own construction was the lower price. The quality was likely to suffer. These days, contractors are so inept, you are likely to do much better work even if you start with no skills whatsoever.

I hope we never have to say that about doctors.

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Somebody had a tougher weekend than I did.

“Tough”

Condi Rice is upset because Israel is building new housing in the eastern section of Jerusalem, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE JEWISH NATION.

What nerve they have. After all, isn’t the land sacred to Muslims, too? I mean, a Koran verse refers to an imaginary mosque–a mosque in a dream–which kind of, sort of, in some feeble way, could be said to resemble the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, which DID NOT EXIST UNTIL LONG AFTER MOHAMMED DIED.

Never mind David and Solomon and the other JEWISH kings of Israel and Judah who ruled in Jerusalem for centuries.

The Dome of the Rock was established on the site of a Christian church, which itself was built on the Temple Mount. The Muslims put a mosque there for the purpose of humiliating Jews and Christians, much as they sealed Jerusalem’s Golden Gate and placed a cemetery just outside it. They sealed the gate to prevent the Messiah from fulfilling prophecy by entering through it, and the cemetery was intended to prevent the Messiah and Elijah (who must precede Him) from approaching the gate. The theory is that the Messiah and Elijah are both cohens and can’t legally enter a cemetery. Oh, yeah. That will work.

The Road Map to Peace is a Road Map to Appeasement. It’s a remarkable invention: a map which helps people get more lost. It’s worthless and offensive. Condi is smart, and I’m sure she has good intentions, but even the Secretary of State has to defer to God.

I can’t wait for the day when the Jew-hating con artists are back on their own soil, and their poisonous arguments are no longer taken seriously by anyone. And I truly look forward to seeing that mosque demolished and scraped off the Temple Mount.

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I respectfully request that people quit putting the term “raghead” in comments.

Here’s Another One for History’s Dung Heap

Here is an appropriate Sabbath topic: Iran’s delightful president has repeatedly stated his intention to destroy Israel, and the MSM does a very poor job of covering it. Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has put up a page of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s threats, and if you haven’t read them, I suggest you take a look.

The Book of Enoch says people from Iran will be annihilated one day, as they approach Jerusalem. It’s not clear how much, if any, of this work should be considered scripture, but you don’t have to be a prophet to predict that Israel and Iran are going to have a confrontation.

And Then I’ll Shut Up

Why is it that EVERY Butterfinger bar I buy on impulse at Home Depot is broken in half when I unwrap it?

Also, why do I keep unwrapping them quickly, assuming nothing is wrong, only to have the upper half of the bar fall on the floor of my car?

Happy Father’s Day.

Compulsive

I finally buckled down and rooted around the web and found out exactly what kind of Colt Woodsman pistol my grandfather had. It was a second series gun with bakelite grips and a 6″ barrel. And I found a few promising old guns for sale. Looks like they range from $500 to $900 for pretty much the same item. I figure I should be able to find a good one for $600 to $700. I still wish I knew which of my cousins ran off with my grandfather’s gun. I should go ahead and send a mass email and ask. Otherwise, someone will probably trade it away. I’m the only grandson who ever shot it with him, so I’m sure it has no meaning to anyone but me.

He had a couple of big S&W .357 revolvers. I believe they had 4″ barrels. I let those go instead of buying them from the estate. They had no sentimental value to me. Now I’m kicking myself. They may have been 27-2s.

Problem with the Woodsmans I found: they all have holster wear, to one extent or other. My question: is it possible to repair holster wear on an old blued gun without ruining it?

I’ve put bluing on my Romak III, and it looks swell, but considering the finish it came with, that’s about as daring as whitewashing an outhouse.

Seems like Gunbroker has horrible prices on anything that’s popular, but obscurer weapons are not as bad.

Am I crazy to want to try a Colt King Cobra? Anaconda guts in .357…how can that be bad?

My dad used to have a Trooper Mk. III in nickel with a 4″ barrel. Marvelous gun to hold in your hand. But this is Miami, so naturally it was stolen.

Guns Answer All Questions

I think I finally figured out what to get my father for Father’s Day. This issue has driven me insane for weeks, but I have arrived at a pretty good answer. I’m going to get him a carry permit! How can you beat that? He keeps saying he wants one, but he hasn’t done anything about it. Miami has a well-known range that supposedly has quality instruction, so I plan to sign him up.

For a while I thought it would be fun to get him an M1 rifle. But a thousand bucks is a little steep for Father’s Day. More problematic: it’s always a bad idea to buy someone a present you would like to have for yourself. To provide an exaggerated example, when your aunt Susie lives in an iron lung and you’re a triathlete, you don’t buy her a racing bicycle. It looks bad.

I used to get him good cigars and expensive brandy, but I have begun to think those are questionable gifts for a Christian to give. A carry permit poses no ethical problem. After all, Jesus told the disciples to buy swords, and His followers carried them in His presence.

Actually, it’s kind of strange, how many ostensibly sound Christians love to shoot. Makes me wonder if there is some kind of divine purpose to it. And Christianity is big among the armed forces, too. The Bible predicts a lot of armed conflict in the future, and I have never seen any indication that when these conflicts occur, Christians or Jews are expected to disarm and allow themselves to be massacred. I don’t think the admonition to turn the other cheek means you have to allow your family or your country to be subjected to slaughter.

I need to figure out my moral position on cigars. There is no doubt whatsoever that using cigarettes and smokeless tobacco is immoral. Tobacco delivered by those means is an addictive drug, and it’s also abusive to the body. An occasional cigar is almost certainly harmless, judging by statistics. But is it okay to promote tobacco use in one form, when the other forms cause so much misery? Cigarette smokers are deeply affected by example and the desire to fit in; that’s why they become smokers in the first place. No one does it for the wonderful taste of cigarettes. Maybe using tobacco in front of cigarette smokers and potential cigarette smokers is wrong.

Maybe the answer is to smoke what I have and quit. I can’t remember my last cigar, anyway. The nicotine was ruining my sleep, so I had to stop.

As for brandy, I think the morality of giving it as a gift depends on the nature of the person to whom you give it. Over the last couple of years, I have cut way back on drinking. I can make a fifth of whiskey last months. I have been trying to make myself have one drink every day, and I usually forget. But for other people, booze is a challenge.

I think a permit is the way to go. Now I’m in the clear until his birthday.

Indoor Shooting the Next Step?

Today’s shooting did not go well. However I was at a gun range, in the greatest country in the world, in a red state, blasting away with two beautiful pistols. So it was still a good day.

I started out with the .45 at 50 feet. I felt good about my shooting. Last week’s big lesson was to watch the trigger pull. This week I tried to make my sight picture extremely consistent. Things went well, although the wind was rocking my target a bit. I had three duds that would not chamber. I am still the world’s worst reloader. From now on, when I reload for my semi-automatics, I plan to keep the gun barrels by the press and chamber every round before approving it. That should help me avoid chambering problems at the range.

Here are 47 shots at 50 feet.

I got out the .38 Super, and things went a bit better. I continue to suspect that this gun is more accurate than the Smith & Wesson. However, I had to quit after 20 shots because I had another damn undercharge. I have no idea how this happened. When I get one of these, the bullet goes about a quarter of an inch up the barrel and sits there, and the only way to get it out is with a dowel. So the .38 went back in the box. This was probably a round I loaded before I got the press mounted correctly.

There was a guy there with a 9mm, shooting nearly as well as I did. I was glad to see him. When everyone else shoots badly, it makes you feel great about what you’re doing, so you don’t try as hard.

I went back to the .45, and damned if the wind didn’t kick up and turn my target sideways. And the target was rocking back and forth in a four-inch arc, which drove me nearly crazy. After half a box, I had to quit and wait for the line to be called safe so I could fix the target. Between the motion and the effect it had on my concentration, I ended up with pretty big group.

The target holders at seven yards are better than the ones at 50 feet, so I moved the target closer for my remaining 25 rounds. I noticed something odd. Shooting at 50 feet made seven yards easier.

A cop showed up and took the spot next to me. He was shooting a 9mm Glock 17L, which is the 6″ target version of the 17. His shots covered an area about a foot wide at 50 feet, which is not great, but it’s much better than most people at the range can do. And he was doing a weird exercise which must be a cop thing, moving the barrel back and forth over a four-inch distance and then firing.

The target gun was clearly a waste of time. I have the 3″ Glock 26, and it shoots just fine at 50 feet.

Jim from SOTW gave me some advice on revolvers this week, and it got me thinking about a blue 5″ Smith & Wesson 27-2. This is a nice revolver about 30 years old. Supposedly better than the current production. It’s like a Dirty Harry gun, except for the caliber and length. That got me thinking about Dirty Harry, and that got me to thinking about the way Clint Eastwood’s .44 Magnum sounded in those movies. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they really sounded like that?

At least Eastwood’s movies were realistic when it came to accuracy. I’m still irritated with Mel Gibson over “have a nice day,” which is physically impossible with anything other than a rifle.

I’m not sure whether I’m still improving or not. When the wind is blowing so hard your target turns completely sideways, you probably aren’t getting optimal results that reflect your ability. But I enjoyed myself, and even if I’m not getting better, I’m definitely not getting worse.

And More Reloading Antics

South Florida is finally having what may be a decent gun show. I went to a show a while back, and it wasn’t that great. But the Suncoast gun show is coming to Fort Lauderdale this weekend, and I may check it out. If what I read is correct, it’s supposed to be bigger.

The show I went to last month was small, and I didn’t see any great bargains. I would love to pick up some .357 and .38 Super brass and maybe check out some old .357 pistols or 1911s.

While I was researching the show, I found an article from 2003. The Suncoast show was in the Tampa area, and dealers were talking about things like MREs and hazmat gear. We were really worried back then. Not as badly as they were right after 911, but much more than they are today. People were going to gun dealers to buy things like gas masks. I had forgotten, and I’m sure you have, too. No wonder we’ve all turned our backs on George Bush and pretended we never endorsed the decision to go to war. We can’t remember what it was like to be afraid of terrorism on our own soil, effected with WMDs produced by the Hussein regime. We were very nervous back then.

That story underscores the importance of gun dealers. Sooner or later, there will probably be large-scale terrorism in the US. Who will you turn to when you want to prepare? Uncle Sam? The same outfit that couldn’t even equip our soldiers with body armor? If the government couldn’t put armor on thousands of soldiers to keep their arms and legs from being blown off, it won’t be able to get millions of people the things they need to protect themselves from attack and infrastructure disruption. Most of us won’t get what we need. But the ones who do will get it from gun dealers.

And of course we’re trying to drive them out of business.

I learned something new about reloading today. If you lower your belling die so it opens the cases more, you have to lower the seating/crimping die. Otherwise you get cases that are too big around up by the bullet, and they won’t chamber. I had to run about 40 rounds through the press a second time. Fortunately I didn’t have to take them apart.

The new bench top is more rigid than the old one, so I’m not having as much trouble with the mount flexing. Guess I’ll head for the range and see how my handiwork pays off.

Consider the Alternatives

Ann Coulter is unfashionably complimenting George Bush on the job he has done. Although I think she’s bad for the GOP, and I will never be able to support her until she apologizes for calling Muslims “camel jockeys” and “tent merchants,” she is usually right on the money. Apart from the slurs. Even today she can’t resist pointing out–clearly in a pejorative way–that Detroit is full of Arabs. If she were criticizing their support for our enemies, I’d be right behind her. But that’s not what she did. She just commented on their presence and left readers to connect the dots.

The current trend is to bash old George and pretend you never supported the war. Even O’Reilly now says the war was a mistake. Which says a lot about O’Reilly but nothing about the war. I still think George Bush has been an exceptionally competent President, and I support our troops (which means I support their mission). I’m not happy with every aspect of the Bush Presidency, but think where we would be if we had elected Al Gore.

Actually, things might not be so bad. We would have had a series of economic, military, and diplomatic catastrophes between 2001 and 2004, and then we would have elected another Republican. And we would still control Congress. Assuming we were not ruled by a caliphate.

President Bush gave the country a much-needed and highly effective shot in the arm by slashing taxes. He did a great deal to end the Clinton recession (yes, it began under Clinton). He restored the Clinton-hamstrung military and gave our troops back their dignity. He scared the living hell out of our enemies, to the point where one of the worst, Muammar Khaddafi, became a peace activist. He prevented terrorism on US soil, in spite of determined liberal efforts to remove obstacles and provide incentives. And we rewarded him by voting America-hating, venal, immature, unpatriotic Sixties holdouts into Congress, and by treating him like a lump of plutonium.

I wish he would work to establish a bigger, more powerful Israel, instead of pushing for retreat. He is criticized for criticizing appeasers, but the truth is, he has done some damaging appeasing of his own. I wish he had never hired Colin Powell. I wish he had had the common sense to abandon his ill-fated and naive “reaching across the aisle” approach, which has never been rewarded with anything but betrayal. I wish he had fired half of the CIA and the State Department, with their treacherous, left-leaning ways. And he should have gotten rid of incompetent and disloyal Clinton holdovers, and he should never have tried to help Mrs. McClellan by giving her hopeless, inept, spineless, lying, whining weasel of a son a job for which he was not qualified. But George Bush kept the ship afloat in troubled times, and that is something neither Gore nor Kerry could have done.

George Bush even tried to fix our energy problems. Bill Clinton had no energy policy. When Clinton’s term ended, George Bush wanted to expand domestic drilling. His administration met with the correct people, oil men, to get the ball rolling. And the greenies and hippies handed him his head for it. If he had gotten his way, we would have a million more barrels coming out of the ground every day. That’s a big deal. OPEC only produces about ten times that much. And did you know the affected area is only about twice the size of Cental Park? No, not if you get your news from the liberal media. For a million barrels a day, we would trade an area the size of a nice farm. That’s a good trade, even if every caribou on the parcel has to be waterboarded. And ANWR is just part of the picture. Think of the offshore sites we’re not allowed to drill.

The hippies caused our energy problems. They filled their diapers over safe, cheap, clean, abundant nuclear power, and amazingly, we treated them as though they were worthy of attention, and we stunted an industry that could have put an end to oil-fired power plants. They fought to keep refineries from being built. They crippled the coal industry. And somehow, we have decided that Big Oil and SUVs are what put us where we are. Meanwhile, France–the model nation for hippies everywhere–is something like 80% nuclear. Go figure.

You can get a nuclear plant going in under five years, if you actually want to do it. If we had started building new ones in 2000, we could have had them running by now. Think how much better life would be.

The thing no one seems to understand is that the hippies don’t want us to have energy. They think the world is a museum exhibit, and the human race is like a kid in the museum, spray-painting his name on the relics. They want us to use as little energy as possible, so we affect the planet as little as possible. Sane people want industry. They want big, safe cars. They want construction. They want retail sales to boom. Because those things generate wealth, which–the hippies will never understand–is the thing that provides us with shelter, medicine, food, education, and the hippie’s holy grail, peace. Only a fool wants the human race to do less. The answer is to do more. And to do more, you need more energy.

The earth is not sacred. It’s not an organism. It’s a ball of dirt, put here for our benefit. It has no mind. It has no soul. It has no rights. We are more important than the earth. We are more important than caribou and polar bears and snail darters. People with common sense know this without being told. Hippies will never know it, because their religion denies it. Yet we allow them to make policy. So we are being driven toward a condition in which we sit around our dilapidated homes, trying in vain to grow food without chemicals, with a shriveled economy and a vestigial national defense. The hippies won’t be happy until we live like Africans. Some realize this and think it’s a fine idea. Some are so dumb they don’t realize this is the direction in which they are pushing us.

I said France was the model nation for hippies, but that’s not true. The real model nation would be something more like rural Sudan, where people face starvation, ignorance, poverty, and anarchy. This is the left’s utopian destination, whether they realize it or not. Sudan. Or North Vietnam. Or North Korea, where educated, industrious, disciplined, law-abiding people fall down in the street, die of malnourishment, and rot in public. At best, the former USSR.

Oil men and carmakers and manufacturers blessed us with the world’s strongest economy and most powerful military. They gave us the highest standard of living in the world. They made it possible for the world to defeat Hitler and Communism. Name something of equal value greenies have done for us.

To get back to George Bush, I’m glad I didn’t abandon him the way everyone else has. He has his weak points, but like Winston Churchill in World War Two, he was the right man at the right time. Ann Coulter is right to back him up.

With Only Minor Injuries

Once again I have distinguished myself as the King of All Tools.

No snickering.

I screwed down the new boards on my workbench, and then I started thinking about my problems with the wobbly reloading press. I decided to grind a little bit off the front of the bench and set the press a little farther back, so I could put long lag shields through two two-by-sixes and use longer bolts. It seems like it doesn’t flex nearly as much. Now I have to crank out a box of ammunition and see what happens. It would sure be nice if I could worry less about flexing and the problems it causes.

It’s great having a Wecheer tool permanently mounted on the bench, with an assortment of Dremel bits in a box screwed to the wall. When I got the idea of setting the press back, I tried to use a drill and a rotary rasp, but it was crude, so I popped a sanding drum on the Wecheer and got it done jiffy-quick.

All the more reason to buy a sliding miter saw. Same basic rationale.

It turns out my little Panasonic impact driver will turn a 3″ #14 screw into a two-by-six without a pilot hole, no problem.

Of course, I only know this because it was after the screw went in that I realized I had forgotten to drill the hole.

Convenience Worth its Weight in Gold

People are giving me all sorts of saw suggestions. I don’t know that I’m going to upgrade right away. But I might, simply because inflation and increased shipping costs are making waiting a questionable idea.

As one reader suggests, I am not planning to make fine furniture, mainly because I am totally incapable of doing so. But my experience with the crappy, non-fine projects I’ve attempted so far tells me that sub-millimeter accuracy is the least you should accept for any wood tool.

Someone else says he has had inaccurate cuts with Dewalt saws. A lot of people on the web make the same complaint. It looks like the best choices for average Joes are Makita and Bosch.

I have to think about it. My table saw can do a lot of the things a sliding miter saw can do, with effort. The great thing about a miter saw is that you can leave it set up all the time and walk over when you need it. Pop the blade through the wood, clear away the sawdust, and you’re done. It’s a wonderful convenience. There is nothing like a versatile tool you don’t have to take out and set up.

The garage is looking good. I actually managed to get the car in there, with room to spare. This is nice. No more getting into a 150-degree oven every time I want McMuffins.

I have a question for the Christians who read this blog. Is there a book you would recommend for a person who claims to have intellectual reservations about Christianity? I know Josh McDowell wrote one; I haven’t read it. I suppose I should point out that I would be looking for something consistent with the Protestant Holy-Spirit-centered viewpoint.

I tend to suspect that this type of book doesn’t work too well. Most non-religious people who are aware of Christianity and resist it do so deliberately, in order to excuse their lifestyles or to punish God for His perceived misdeeds and failings. Or to inflate their own pride. It’s 2008, and people still think making fun of Noah’s Ark somehow makes them look intelligent and sophisticated. I believe people are more likely to be moved by the testimony of others whom they respect, and by people who set good examples, and by prayer. But I thought I’d ask anyway.

In other news, it’s Meat Day. My weekly Winn-Dixie ad is here. And Boston butts are 99¢ a pound. If you’re looking for a cheap way to feed your family, Boston butts should not be overlooked. Soak in baking soda brine for a day. Season however you want. Bake at 300 until it falls apart. Simple.

Boneless rib eyes, $6.99/lb. Not bad. More expensive than Costco, but the meat seems to be a little better.

Chicken leg quarters, 69¢/lb.! Oh, yes. Barbecue time.

Baby backs are $3.99/lb., but I prefer spare ribs.

OH, YES! T-bone, Porterhouse or bone-in Ribeye steaks $5.99/lb.! Where are the car keys? If I can get a rib roast, it’s time to age some meat.

Mr. Tool Continues his Organization Spree

I am beginning to re-enter that zen-like state I used to achieve when my garage was perfect. Reloading destroyed the equilibrium, but I’m getting it back.

I keep thinking about sliding miter saws. I was trying to figure out what a miter saw should be able to do, to bridge the gap between a circular saw and a table saw. And my guess was that if it could cut a two-by-ten, which is the biggest piece of lumber you are likely to encounter before going to sheets, it would fill the bill. Does that make sense?

I made great progress in the garage. I cleaned and rearranged and planned, and I finished little projects that were cluttering the place up. And then I drove my car inside. Exciting. Some bedwetting eunuch egged my car last night, so I figured it was time to start parking indoors again.

I doubt it was personal. I don’t have any enemies in Miami. There is just something about a car with style that draws eggs. This is the second time since I bought it.

If it is personal, you have to wonder what it feels like to be that much of a wimp. Pretty awful, I would imagine. Cringing in the dark with your little carton of eggs, because that’s all you’re man enough to do. I hope it was some kid looking for thrills. A grown man doing something like that would be beneath pity. If it’s an adult, it’s someone who is terrified I would push his face in if I caught him. It’s flattering to think someone fears me that much.

I suddenly have a cute idea for the reloading press mount. It’s not the most ergonomically correct machine on earth. You have to stand in front of it to pull the lever comfortably; if you sit to the side, it’s a reach. What if I bolted it to a thick piece of metal–maybe 3/4″ aluminum–and turned it sideways? The aluminum piece bolts to the bench, and it extends off the front. The press bolts to the aluminum. That way, I could sit to the left of the press with the bench on my left, pulling the handle straight toward me.

Geez, then the finished bullets would have nowhere to go. The bin hangs from the left side of the press.

I’ll work something out. If the lever moved parallel to the front of the bench, the press might be more rigid, because the boards making up the bench run from left to right. I have doubts, though, because the press lifts off of the wood when I raise the handle. That suggests to me that the flexing of the wood is not the problem. I think the problem is that it’s damn near impossible to tighten this press down with two bolts way back at the rear.

One weird thing Hornady did when they designed the press was to lower the front lip of that little bin. The problem there is that if a bullet bounces, it flies out of the bin. They put little slots at the end of the bin, so you can slide a piece of cardboard in, and that’s how I keep my bullets from hitting the floor. If they’re going to make the bin that way, they should include a little piece of plastic to put in the slots.

I had to go to Home Depot yesterday, and while I was there, I tried to find tubing in a size that would slip over the outside of the tubing on the primer feed. Right now, I contain the used primers by clamping the end of the tube. But the tube is just small enough to get clogged up when the primers stack up a certain way. If it were slightly wider, that would never happen. Sadly, Home Depot didn’t have a single piece of tubing in an appropriate size.

Today I realized I had a giant pile of live ammunition in the garage. Not “pile,” really. But hundreds of rounds, in boxes. I moved that indoors. Not too useful without a pistol, but I have been known to leave guns out there on rare occasions. I suppose that if you really hated burglars, you might plug a gun’s barrel with epoxy, load it, and leave it on your kitchen table when you go to bed.

Another Sweaty Day

I don’t know how anyone could ever say my life isn’t exciting. Today I cut a plank into shelves, and I also used my dry cut saw to make a padded jack head fit my floor jack. The stem on the jack head was longer than the original, so I cut it down. I painted the bare, unplated end with truck bed paint, but I guess I can expect rust anyway.

I felt like I was overspending when I bought a 10″ miter saw a year or two ago, but increasingly, it seems like I didn’t spend enough. I just cut a one-by-eight-inch board, and I had to turn it over to complete the job. I have looked at 12″ sliding miter saws, which cut bigger stock, but they’re heavy and take up lots of room. I believe a 10″ sliding miter saw would have been perfect. Ridgid doesn’t make one, but Makita does. For the low, low price of $500.

Oh well.

I’m not sure what people generally use for pieces of wood that are not right for a circular saw or a table saw. I would think a 10″ sliding miter saw would cover 95% of the bases.

It amazes me how often I don’t have the right tool for a job, after all the acquisitions I’ve made. I guess this is why people hire other people to do their work for them.

I still can’t figure out what to get my old man for Father’s Day. It’s driving me nuts.

How Much do You Pay a Major Domo?

Still working on household BS today. Sometimes I understand why people used to live in tents.

I have been informed that the reason my pump repair did not work is that I used a fitting not suited to seal a system under pressure. There isn’t a whole lot of pressure in a pool pump return, but I guess it’s enough to make leakage a problem. I managed to find someone who will fix it for nothing, so I guess that nightmare is over. I can’t believe a simple repair to a piece of PVC pipe can be so difficult. Putting a new PVC project together is very easy. But try fixing an existing project. Completely different story.

I have this dream that one day I’ll own enough tools to make the vast majority of home repairs possible without bringing in outside help. Maybe that’s insane. But I didn’t expect to be stopped by ten inches of pipe.

I wonder how single women live. Most are hopeless with tools. I guess they end up paying a lot more than households with men.

When life resumes, so will blogging.

When do You Give Up?

Let’s have your opinions on a religious issue.

Imagine you know someone whose behavior is truly vile. Let’s say this is someone who has had ample–even exceptional–opportunity to turn to God. And you keep this person in your prayers for years. And it doesn’t seem to help, probably because free will is a barrier even God will not breach.

The Apostle Paul referred to abandoning unrepentant people to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. It sounds like he meant he gave up praying for them, in order that they might suffer and be motivated to change. Does that make sense? Do you ever give up praying? Maybe it’s okay to stop, because prayer takes time, and you can overload yourself, and time from which one person will not profit can be given to another person who will change. It just seems a little odd, refraining from praying for someone, in order to help them. And helping was part of Paul’s motivation.

As a Christian, you want to see miserable, hate-filled people change. And Jesus encouraged people to be persistent in prayer. But eventually, you want to move on!

It seems to me that the danger of giving up on a hateful and unpleasant person is that you may be depriving that person of the help of the only human being who cares at all. People like that live in loneliness, darkness, complete cynicism, bitterness, spite, and envy. Other people can’t stand them and feel contempt for them. They remove them from their lives. Seems to me that a person like that is better off being the subject of prayers uttered purely out of obligation than no prayers at all.

More

I guess I should have read up before asking. It looks like Paul was referring to driving people out of churches. One example was a Christian who had a sexual relationship with his father’s wife. This person presumably had to be cut loose for the good of the church, where he had somehow managed to find approval and encouragement. And I think Paul was talking about an official act, performed by the assembled church.

Maybe an individual should never completely give up, although I can certainly understand expelling God-hating, continually offensive people from your life.