Thursday, December 4, 2008

Defending the Constitution


This evening I was reading on one of my favorite gun forums and in the Second Amendment Discussion section of that forum I ran onto a topic I have been pondering for a while now. The basic topic was, Is a Christian allowed to participate in civil disobedience to defend the Constitution? Apparently I have not been the only one pondering this lately so I am posting my conclusions here. I make no claims to have the correct answer here. However, at this point this is the conclusion I have arrived at after much thought a prayer.

As a Christian (albeit far from a perfect one..I admit that up front) I have pondered the same issue.

The first Issue I had to resolve was the priority of obedience. In a fallen world it is impossible to be perfectly obedient at all times. There are many "catch 22s" in this world. In those cases our only choice is to choose the lesser of two evils or the higher of two goods.

I do agree that we are to obey our authorities and are instructed to do so by our Christian teachings. However, I do not see anywhere in scripture where obeying authority is given as the ultimate obedience in light of injustice.

There are higher principles that the Christian is to obey. The principles of Justice and Righteousness come to mind. When we are in situations where we see people being oppressed and treated unjustly, the greater good is to work or fight for Justice even at the cost of civil disobedience.

The second issue I had to resolve is Exactly what is our government in this country?

We do not live under a king or a noble aristocracy as Phalanx pointed out. There is no hierarchy of "anointed" royal ancestry set over us as a king or emperor. Although most of our legislators and judges have woefully forgotten that fact.

We live under a representative republic who's law is based on a foundational document, Our Constitution. This republic is set up in such a way that "we the people" are empowered by the Constitution to rule ourselves through the representatives WE elect to "enact" the rule of law set forth in that founding document.

"We the people" are the rulers of this country. We hire, through election, (and pay taxes to pay their salary and benefits) legislators and administrators to do the footwork of that self rule. We are the employer... They work for us! That is why it is called PUBLIC SERVICE in this country. Another fact our SERVANTS have woefully forgotten.

This is why every soldier's first oath is to protect the Constitution from enemies abroad and "at home". Their second oath is to obey the President of the United States. This implies they day may come when the military has to disobey or maybe even apprehend/arrest the president in order to protect the Constitution.

This principle in our system of self governance is exactly why the Second Amendment is in our Constitution. Because the day may come when "we the people" have no other choice but to toss our SERVANTS out of the vineyard by force.

Because that is the system of government we have, I have come to firmly beleive God honors our fighting to keep our constitutional rights safe and justice in tact...even if our only choice left is a violent one.

The greater disobedience is to set by and watch as our Servants chisel away at the rights we are guaranteed by the Constitution without reprimand. That is being a poor steward of your government.

I do beleive violence should be the absolute last resort. Vote, petition,demonstrate, heck even riot first. That said, If all other resources and methods have been exhausted and the people's rights are still being oppressed, I do not believe it is sin to take up arms and defend the constitution against tyranny.

God bless,

Ray

Here is a link to the original forum thread
Greybeard outdoors forum

Friday, November 28, 2008

Ya its been a while




Ya I know it seems like forever. Things got super busy there for a while.

I've had my nose to the grind stone trying to get back on track for having to replace two automobiles. My old truck finally gave up the ghost and my wife had a deer belly flop into the hood of hers as she was going down the highway. So now I have a newer Tundra pickup and she has a minivan. Deer season was in there to boot (no I don'thave any pics of big bucks to show). Hopefully the life drama will be over with for a while and things will get back to something resembling normal.


Here is one of the pieces I finished recently. This is the Odin pen from the Norse pen set I have been working on. I still have the Loki pen to go and hopefully will be getting it done next month.

I am also about half finished with the African themed knife with the lions and elephants.
I should have pics of that to post in a couple weeks. I may get side one photographed and posted this weekend. That side is just about done.

Ray

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

I forgot to mention



I got so into my fish stories I forgot the broken rod (thanks Kevin for the reminder)

The rod I built for this trip broke on the first fish. I didn't even get the hook completely set. I contacted Dancraft to get the manufacturer's contact info to get a replacement mid section but Dan said he had some spare parts and would send me one. That's good customer service.

Here is what happened. Micheal and I got to the river and started looking for fish. There were a pair of salmon side by side about 25ft downstream from me. The one on the right was just a bit forward of the other which made it nice since I am right handed. I pulled off some line and drifted to the fish. The fish took it. I moved my arm to set the hook and heard a crack like the sound made by stepping on a stick. I saw the top two sections of my rod fall to the water and my fish shake the hook off.

The rod really didn't take any stress. There wasn't even a fight with the fish. Of course, the first thought in my mind was ,"Michael's rod is built on the same blank". Needless to say I was fairly anxious while Michael fought his first few fish but his rod did just fine even when bent over on some tough fish in fast water.

Fortunately, I will only have to re wrap 3 guides on the midsection to get he rod back in shape. Dan said he didn't think I would have to do much if anything in the way if fitting on the ferrules to replace that midsection. That's good it will make the replacement easy.

More fish pics




More pics of Mark, Michael and me with Chinooks.


It seems to be the typical reaction of people to want o fish in the same hole as the guy catching fish. Sometimes you just can't find a stretch of crick that has fish and no people there trying to catch them. Saturday and Sunday were not too bad as you can tell by the pics. Monday however, was a different story. We only had half a day Monday to fish so we went to a section of river that ran through town so we had more fishing time and less driving time. Mark and I had settled in to a good hole of water (where I caught he steelhead actually) . It was a short section about knee deep, 40 ft long with a riffle at each end. Visibility was good and it held its fair share of fish. There was a line of fish about four to five deep across each riffle and there were several cruising around the deeper hole. Mark and I pulled about a half dozen fish out of there in about a half hours time. So here we are drifting our fly to the fish we called and PLOP PLOP we look up to see that the two guys who had been fishing just downstream from us had crossed the riffle and were now right across from us interrupting our drift with their flies.

We turn around and climb the bank and took a break. We took a little walk and circled around and got back in where they had originally been. There were quite a few fish there too. In typical Mark form he loudly ask me, " SOOO Ray, how many cast do you think it will take for me to hook one of these? What 3...4 ...maybe 5?" I kid you not, the first drift was perfect right to a 18-20lb Chinook's mouth. That fish started thrashing the water started splashing and one of the intruders upstream was so struck by the scene that he lost his footing and SPLASH butt first right in the water. It was absolutely classic. For sure one of the highlights of my trip.

Just as a thought.................. Youngsters are made to take Hunter safety courses before getting their hunting license. My daughter recently took the class to get her hunting license and its a good program. Not only do they teach safety but ethics and sportsmanship on top of it. I am the last one to want another law or rule on the books. But if people don't take some initiative to teach their kids to be respectful and courteous on the water it won't surprise me some day to see water safety and ethics classes being required before one can get a fishing license as well.

I am not at all opposed to sharing the water with people. As popular as sport fishing has become it is inevitable now days to run onto other fisherman on the water. Practice good sportsmanship, give your fellow fisherman some room and try to stay out of his casting lane to make it possible to successfully share a hole of water.

May you all have tight lines. We enjoyed several this past weekend.

Ray

Fish Pics







The boys and I took our annual pilgrimage north this past weekend to take advantage of the Lake Michigan salmon run. The water was a little higher, faster and murkier than it has been the past few years we were up there. We still caught several fish. Egg sucking leach patterns were the pick fly of the weekend for us. The favored colors were purple , black, and tan. I did catch a few on Saturday with a flo pink but that didn't last long.

I think we were still on the early end of it this year. There were very few dead ones along the banks and the fish were averaging a bit smaller than they have in the years we hit the run dead smack in its prime. Needless to say we had a lot of fun anyway. The nice thing about the timing is these fish were fresh out of the lake and full on fight.

The first pic is of my dad with a nice Chinook. Pic two is me with a nice fresh Chinook. I don't know what happened here in pic three. I guess the fish decided to flop when I took the hook out of his lip right at the time Michael snapped the camera. You couldn't have planned this pic if you tried. Pic four is Michael with a nice Chinook. The last pic here is Mark and me with a tag team. Mark with a Chinook and me with a nice Steelhead (that was fun). I had spotted a few other Steelhead this trip. However, by time I spotted them they were on to me and that was the end of it.

I was wanting to round out a grand slam this year but it did not happen. I got the Salmon and the steelhead but the big brown trout eluded me this year. To make it worse, just up stream from Micheal and me was a jerk who hooked a very nice Brown that would have gone several pounds. This was a 28"-30" fish with solid girth. The guy catches a fish to be prized and what does he do? With his chest puffed out with pride, he drags it up on the gravel bar, steps on it to take the hook out and to release it he kicks it back in the water. What a total PUTZ!!!!!!!!!!!

Mark was closer than the rest of us were so he took the fish and worked with it to get it revived and moving on its own again. We can only hope it lived but after the way it was treated the odds are against it. I considered walking down stream (with what vacation cash I had in my pocket) to talk to those burly Russian guys fishing with the surf poles and grappling hooks to see if I could get the guy treated the same as he treated the fish. Ya ...... beat half to death and tossed in the water. What can I say, a conscience can be quite inconvenient sometimes.

Hang on more to come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Ol' Bessy got sick



Well Blue Bessy had a Bearingectomy over the past couple evenings. I am glad to report she is recovering nicely.

Mark and I decided to get on the stick and finish up our salmon rods for an upcoming fishing trip. Mark was turning his rod handle and the ol' girl started slowing down and heating up. I have suspected her bearings were going out for a while now. They finally gave out on Mark. Fortunately, my local Car Quest had the bearings and a puller to get the old ones out.

I had never used this type of puller before. I guess I should realize how lucky I was to grow up in Dad's shop and have REAL tools. The $20 puller worked but as you can see from the pic three hands and a couple monkeys are required to make it function properly.

Once we pulled the old bearings out we looked them over. Not really a lot of noticeable wear on the bearings but the cup races were visibly wore. I am sure the bearings were wore it was just hard to see. The old bearings had an installation date scribed on their backside 12/12/50. 58 years is a long time to ask out of any bearing. My dad said dating the installation was common on a lot of American Made machinery and in a lot of machine shops doing replacements. These obviously were the original bearings since that is about when the lathe would have been made.

The new bearings are in and the headstock is back together now. I am letting the silicone gasket sealer cure out overnight before refilling the oil reservoirs. Tomorrow evening I should get everything back up and running so we can get back on those rods.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Dragon finished



It was a rainy dreary day out this morning so I did not have my usual sunshine to use my photo box. But all things considered these didn't turn out too bad. I caught a few stray reflections but not horrible. I am sure Mark (the owner) will take better pics. He has a better set up than I do and does a pretty good job with it.

The dragon wraps around the spine of the knife so the dragon dance covers three sides of the folder. The yellow is 24K gold inlay. The red lanterns are copper inlay and the green eyes are emeralds.

This was a very different type of work than I usually do and I found the change to be fun.

Now its back to the bench to finish up the Falcon pen project. I also have pics of my finished rod wraps to post. The reel seat for that is almost ready to anodize. At that point all the components will be ready to glue together into a finished rod.

Ray

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Almost done



Almost done seams to be the theme of the day. I almost have the Dragon Knife done. I almost have the Falcon pen done. I almost have my new aluminum anodizing line finished. The goal is to have them all wrapped up before the weekend is over.

Once the Anodizing line is set up I will be able to make my fly rod parts out of aluminum and anodize them. This will make those ultralight rods a lot better to take that extra weight off.
I have all my chemicals now. I have the agitation device set up in the anodizing tank. It basically is a grid of acrylic tubing drilled full of holes to agitate the tank with aeration. I have my hot tanks (I used cookers and crock pots since my items will be small) for the other chemicals, dyes and sealers set up. Good lighting over the line with the power supply at eye level on a VERY sturdy shelf.

What's left? Well I need to finish the lead plate hook up and the hanging aluminum buss bar to complete the anode and cathode in the system. I need some heavy duty gallon jugs for dye and chemical storage. I still need a rinse tank. I have a water hose just outside the garage door next to the line but I still need a collection tank or tub next to the line for the water from the hose to collect. I think that is about it.

One more part to engrave on the reel seat (Oh ya that's almost done too) and its ready to anodize. I am really looking forward to giving this a shot.

Ray

Monday, September 15, 2008

Back to the rod




Finally we got some more done to the rod this weekend. I had the opportunity to do some work on the lathe this weekend and managed to turn out the rest of the parts. I even got the hood engraved and rough cut out.

Parts from left to right.
Trim Band, front hood, wood barrel insert, thread sleeve, slide band, threaded nut, fighting butt housing, end cap.

I am engraving this set with a flair cut style of bright cutting I have been playing with lately. It is a bold and relatively quick style to cut but it still looks good. When the engraving is done this will be anodized.

I think I have all the materials to set up my anodizing station. I am waiting for my friend Mark to finish with my hammer drill so I can bolt the shelving on the wall over the bench. Hopefully one evening this week I will get that done and be ready to do my own aluminum anodizing.

Ray

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Ready to hunt

This week was spent mostly engraving. My daughter had her hunter safety classes a few evenings this week and most of today. I spent that time with her at the class. She passed her test with a 96% BTW and we are ready to start doing some squirrel hunting to get her ready for deer season this year.

I have done a lot on the falcon pen. I am far enough along that I will probably go ahead and finish that up in the earlier days this coming week. The copper for the dragon knife has arrived. so as soon as the pen is finished I will be back to that. Both of those projects should be finished (or close to it) by the end of this coming week if everything goes right.

I hope to get back to rod work tomorrow after church and finish up some drawings for the African themed knife and the Native American themed knife.

I have also been setting up my own anodizing set up for aluminum and titanium. That will allow me to make my reel seat hardware out of aluminum to reduce weight even farther than the titanium offers. That will be a benefit (I hope) on the ultralight rods.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Hang the weatherman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Friends and I had planned a fishing trip for this past weekend. We expected the water to be a bit high due to the remnants of Gustav but the weather forecast was for two days of bright sunny skies for the weekend. Granny Clampets beetles can forecast weather more accurately than those boneheads. Two gloomy drizzly days with heavy cloud cover most of both days. There were few minutes each day the sun peeked through but definitely NOT what the Weatherman told us to expect.

We did catch fish but not as many as usual. The water was a bit cloudy due to the runoff and it was about a foot high. All three of us had decent catches but not at our regular numbers.

Its been a few days since I posted . I have been nose to the grindstone trying to get enough work done to be able to take off for the weekend. Projects are going well. I have the first coat of epoxy on the rod, I have the falcon pen started and I almost hav ethe inlay finished on the Dragon knife. The dragon knife has given me fits. There is one copper inlay around a curve on the butt end of the knife that is driving me nuts. I have inlaid it twice and can't get it to stick. Its wanting to bow up in the middle. I have tried cutting it deeper and recutting the footing. Today I ordered some new dead soft pure copper sheet (I think my current stuff is alloyed). When it gets here I will clamp this inlay as I go to make sure it seats the way it should. In the mean time I will continue to work on the falcon knife for David.

Sketches are also going on now in the evenings. I almost have the drawings for the African Elephant and Lions knife done. I am also working on sketches for a Ron Lake Fixed Blade with a Native American theme.

Back to work,

Ray

Monday, September 1, 2008

Getting started on a couple new ones














I have had the weekend to play around with some rod building now its time to get back to the grindstone.

Here are the designs for the projects I will be cutting on today. One is a falcon themed engraivng for a pen sleeve and the other is the parade dragon theme for the Sawby Knife. I am still working on the African elephant and lion designs for the other knife. The scroll on that is a bit complex and is taking a while. Hopefully, I will get that sketch finished in the next evening or two.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Rod update and other stuff



I got a lot done on the rod this weekend. I glued up the cork rings for the handle Friday night. I spent Saturday making reel seat parts for four rods including the one I am working on here.

Earlier today I finished turning the aluminum reel seat parts and the cork for the handle. Pic #1 is the glue up and Pic #2 shows the turned handle, the reel seat barrel on the mandrel and some of the aluminum seat parts.

I recently got my hands on an aluminum anodizing set up so the plan is to engrave and anodize the aluminum parts. Because I don't want to put a whole lot of time into these I am going to try and engrave it with the "transition" style or flair cut style that Ron smith has been using.

I finished out last week by completing designs for a Chinese New Year parade dragon theme for a knife and a falcon themed pen. I am working on an African safari themed knife for another customer. Its been busy around here.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Wrapping it up!!!!!!!!!!!!



Since I only have one guide on the butt section I will wait to wrap it. For now I wanted to go ahead and get the guide wrap on the other two sections going. I am planning to make the reel seat and turn the handle this weekend. I know that is kinda doing things backwards but ..........................

The wraps on these are black "A" nylon thread with metallic blue trims using sulky metallic blue thread. I have wrapped the trims on these independent of the main wrap because I don't want the tags to show through the black threads once they are soaked with epoxy. The aft trims are five wraps long and the for trims are three wraps long.

The wraps are looking pretty nappy here because I only have one coat of epoxy on the wraps. Usually only enough epoxy to soak the thread is used on the first coat. I put this on a little thicker because I am inlaying jungle cock feathers for alignment markers and on the guides. I let he rod turn on the drayer for about an hour and ahalf till the epoxy was heavy enough to beat gravity but still sticky enough to accept the feathers being pushed down into it. The feathers starts small and diminish in size as they run down the blank to the point that the last three guides don't have any on them at all. Looking down the rod they get smaller and smaller as if they disappear over the horizon like in a perspective drawing.

BTW, I'm still working on the close up photography thing with the new camera. Hopefully close up pics like this will get better as time goes on.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Time to measure


Now that the guides are placed its time to take some measurments and see what line weight this rod will actually through. Using the common sense rod building system the Ern is measured by flexing the rod 1/3 of its total length using post 1996 pennies. It took 80 pennies to flex this 9' rod 3'.

Using the Common Cents tables that gives this rod an ERN of 9.83, putting it at the high end of a 9wt rod rating. Since I usually use a weight forward line with a moderate sink tip and a weighted mini head to get the fly down to salmon, this will probably work fine with a 9wt line. I will test cast it with a 10 wt before setting up a reel with line just to make sure.

As a side note: To find out more about the Common Cents system follow the rodbuilding.org link . On the left of the forum page there is a link to articles explaining the system.

I also measured the Action Angle. My flash washed out the pic a bit but the action angle hit at 62 degrees. Making it a moderate action blank. Looking at the general arch of the flexed rod backs that up. I tend to like slower action rods since I have a sort of lazy casting style. From what I can tell so far I am going to be very happy with this rod when its finished.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

pics of Thor




Here are pics of the recently finished Thor pen parts. David used my fly rod hood design as an influence for the sleeve shapes on this set or Norse god pens.

The sleeve and cap top are made of titanium. The yellow is 24K gold inlay and the red is copper inlay. The sleeve has Thor with his hammer and iron gloves. Norse lattice design with Thor's two goats wrap around the back of the sleeve. The cap top has a gold inlay image of a pendant design based on Thor's hammer.

I am still learning to use the new camera and I need to get better control of the depth of field on some of these macro shots. The good news is they look a LOT better than pics I was taking with my other camera. Sam Alfano was kind enough to give me a few tips on taking this type of photo and it has helped a lot.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Salmon Rod Project start to finish






Well its been a few days but I have been busy. I finally finished that Thor pen for David. I had an allergy war and was fighting sinus headache for about three days so it took me bit longer to get it done than I wanted.

I have also started a few more rod projects. It is going to be a while before I finish that Winston handle carving ... so in the mean time I am building a few Salmon rods. My dad, a few friends and I are going Salmon fishing in WI in October so I need to get my rods done fairly soon.

These two rods of mine are not going to be art rods but just good using rods with a few fancy touches. Since they are for me I am using them to experiment on. Both are being built on unsanded 9' 9wt 3pc fly rod blanks from Dancraft. I really like the looks of the ridges spiraling up an unsanded blank so I got excited when I heard Dancraft had these on clearance.

The first thing I did was sand down the reinforcement wraps at the ferrules of the blanks. The wraps stood pretty proud on the bottom but they look nice now that they are sanded and profiled a bit. Once that was done, I put a coat of perma-gloss on for a rod finish (pic #1). Boy did that make the blank come to life.

The next step was to wrap the ferules with some gray size D nylon thread so they don't split when the rod is flexed (pic #2).

Since I generally like to prepare the parts before I get to far along the next thing I did was to taper and sand the feet on the guides. Dancraft also had these sic guides with plated stainless frames on clearance so I grabbed those up to use on these rods. I generally don't like plated guides but the wallet won the day this time. My favorite guides are Ti framed gold cermit or sic guides. I made jigs to hold the feet by drilling and tapping a piece of nylon rod and using a nylon screw to hold the guides through the ring without harming the inserts (pic #3). I use my powerhone with a diamond lap to grind the feet (pic#4). This set up gives me long, clean tapers and a very nice finish on the feet. The slow moving powerhone also grinds the feet fairly quickly without getting them hot.

It was too hot out in the garage today to spend too much time out there but I did manage to get the cork rings picked out, arranged, and drilled (pic #5). After they were all drilled I glued them up on a mandrel to be lathe turned into a handle. I use System-3 boat building epoxy to glue up my rods and cork. There may be better products out there that are geared specifically to rod building but I have to do something with this 3 gallons of System-3 I have left over from boat projects.

I hope to get a lot more done on this tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Artist or Craftsman?

This an interesting topic that comes up in discussion from time to time when people who make things get together and talk. It strikes me as quite a coincidence that it has come up recently on both an engraving forum and a rod building forum that I participate on. As both a trained craftsman and a formally trained artist I always have an opinion on this topic. I have given it much thought over the years and here is my post from the engraving forum that pretty much sums it up.

"I always get my self in trouble with this topic.

Because like "Love", "Art" is one of those terms and concepts that is hard to put a two sentence description around. Further more, they both are abstract terms with philosophical underpinnings that have been twisted, butchered and abused throughout history to serve various peoples personal agendas.

So let me say up front, if you disagree with me that's fine. I will still sleep tonight.

I have found that the simpler such terms are defined and the less baggage we hang on them the more meaning they have. So here are my simple definitions that separate the craftsman from the artist.

Craftsman
One who sets forth to produce something to a specific level of skill and quality of fit and finish to produce a piece of work that is higher quality than the mere assembling of parts required to make the basic item.

Artist
One who employs the creative process to produce a piece of work of unique visual or emotional character by use of the principles and elements of design and/or philosophical or emotional concepts.

I don't know where our society got the idea that the artist was of a higher level of skill than a craftsman ... or that somehow it was better to be an artist than a craftsman. An artist is not just a "better craftsmen". They are two different skill sets. To me the ultimate is when a person employs both artistry and craftsmanship successfully in a piece of work.

Not all craftsmen are artist. Not all artist are good craftsmen. The craftsmanship of some artist down right sucks as does the creativity of some craftsmen."

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

In the mean time


Most everything seems to be in limbo stage right now. I am letting the perma-glosss cure out on the Winston rod while I decide what to do with it. I have a coat of perma-gloss curing on a Dancraft blank as a blank finish. I am still cutting away on the Thor pen sleeve.

In the mean time here are pics of a Baby Browning I finished a while back. The client sent me these snap shots after the grips and fitted case were made for it. Its nice when a client does that. I don't often get to see the finished piece since most guns, pens, etc. have to be engraved and then the parts sent of to be assembled . Its always a pleasure to see how the whole thing came together.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Its Monday, back to the engraivng bench

Well today I didn't get anything done on the Winston rod today. Spent the day working on a Broadwell fountain pen sleeve. I'm engraving this one with a Thor theme (I'll post pics when its done). I wanted to have this done last week but did not make it. I'm trying to get it finished up in the next couple days. I have a knife with a parade dragon theme, one with an Artemis theme and a couple more pens I have to get started on when this is finished.

Ray

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Pulling one out of the fire...maybe



Here is my current weekend and spare time project. This handle will go on a Winston blank I am working on. When this stabilized walnut was in block form it had a gorgeous feather crotch figure to it. The figure was quite disappointing once it was turned.

After scratching my head for a while I decided that rather than tossing it out I would sculpt it. I was planning to flute the reel seat on this like a Greek column anyway so I decide to carve it with acanthus leaves like you find on a Corinthian column. I just about have the for-end of the handle roughed in. Once I get the whole design roughed in I will go back and sculpt it a bit deeper to add more dimension and detail to it.

I am using perma-gloss for the first time as the wrap finish on this rod. The jury is still out as to whether I like the product or not. I will probably have to get several more coats built up before I decide. I do know one thing. I really don't like the fragile little lid on the bottle. I got my third layer built up and the lid broke when I was replacing it on the bottle. Arhg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Close up of Rod building tools











Obviously I am still trying to figure out the ropes on the picture thing. Anyway, the first picture above is a close up of the gauge to measure the action angle of the rod blank. The middle picture is of the double bearing spline tester. The third is of the rod balance which clips into the lathe bed when in use. To the far left of this pic you can the see the rod holder of the static deflection set up. The last pic is of the rod holder end of the ERN guage.
The only thing I really still need here is an upgraded head stock and chuck for the lathe. Hopefully, my wife will get that for me for Christmas this year (if I can stand to wait that long).

If you are interested in the Common Cents rod building system, the Rodbuilding.org forum has a great set of articles that explain it very well. There is a link to the forum on the right of this page.

Lets start with what I just finished


About a year ago I was convinced to start building my rods using the Common Cents system I read about on the Rodbuilding.org forum. The more I learned about this system of rod building the more I realized that was the way it needed to be done.

I have a space problem and a set up problem I had to find a way to work around. When I opened my engraving school here at the studio I had to use what was my dedicated rod building bench for student workstations. I am having enough classes at the school now that it is not feasible to be constantly breaking down and and resetting up the bench between rod bench and student bench. I need a way to set up a portable rod building set up that could be used while leaving the student workstations in tact.

Here is what I came up with. This is my portable common cents rod building bench that breaks down and stores on top the cabinet when I have a class here. It is made to set across the two engraving vise stands at those student stations.

The base is a small sturdy construction with drawers. I made it so I could true up my rod lathe and semi-permanently screw the lathe bed to it. The upright on the left has both a static deflection tool for guide spacing and the rod holding end of my ERN measuring gauge. On the right end of the set up is a unit that uses the bed of the lathe as a track to slide back and fourth as needed. The upright on this piece is a reinforced metal ruler to measure the ERN. On that ruler is an Action Angle guide made of engravers plastic. I engraved the angle readings through the white surface into the black subsurface for clean crisp lines and numbers. On the back of the angle plate I made a kydex clip that holds it to the ruler in a way that allows me to slide it up and down as needed. The ring eye for the static deflection test and a built in spline finder are also on this right hand section. I have to go now. I will try to post more close up pics and more detailed descriptions in my next post. Hopefully tomorrow after church.