Chris Johnson

The featured image is of one of my very first sandcastings. It came out better than expected given my level of experience. My later castings were much better.

I used Petrabond for this casting, which gives fine details. The item in the front is a Duplo block, and the part in the back is from a wooden bowl with a handle.

Sand Castings

A sand casting starts with a pattern. The pattern needs to create a void in the sand, which will be filled with molten metal. To allow the sand to hold its shape, fine sand is mixed with a binder and a liquid. When the binder and liquid are in the proper ratios and thoroughly mixed, when compacted, the sand will hold its shape after the pattern is removed.

This means that you must be able to remove the pattern from the sand without damaging the void. Any sand that crumbles from the sides will cause an imperfection in the surface of the casting. Or worse, it can cause a void inside the casting.

Because we need to be able to remove the pattern safely, The pattern is created with “draft” or taper. With proper draft, as soon as the pattern releases, it is no longer in contact with the sand at all. If the pattern is undercut, meaning the sand covers the pattern, there is no way to remove the pattern from the sand without disturbing the sand.

For the parts shown, there is only one piece of the pattern. For a pattern that does not have a flat side, we use two patterns that fit together to form a whole, called a split pattern.

The Flask

The flask is a two piece box that is open on the top and bottom. The bottom piece is called the drag because you drag it across the molding board. The top is called the cope.

You start by placing the drag upside down on the molding board. Then you position the pattern inside the drag with the taper pointing up. The molding sand is then added to the flask until the pattern is covered.

The sand is then “rammed” up. This means compacting the sand by ramming it again and again with the end of a stick. This will force the sand to bind together and bind to the edges of the drag. More sand is added and the next layer is rammed up. This is repeated until the drag is overfull of sand.

Once the drag is full, a stick is used to scrape off the excess sand, called striking off. This leaves a flat sand surface.

A second molding board is placed on top of the drag and then the sandwich of the bottom molding board, drag, and upper molding board is flipped over. This leaves the pattern exposed on top side, sitting in a cavity in the sand. The sand is extremely firm if rammed correctly.

Now the cope is put over the drag to complete the flask.

Ramming Up the Cope

With the cope in place, we can put the other half of our split pattern in place. More parting powder is dusted over the pattern and top of the drag. Think of parting powder as non-stick spray for sand casting.

Once the pattern is in place, we can then ram up the cope the same way we rammed up the drag.

When we finish striking off the cope, we cut a sprue for pouring molten metal into the mold.

The cope can now be lifted straight up, and with a little luck, the top pattern will come away in the cope and the bottom pattern will stay in the drag.

To make sure everything goes back together, the cope has alignment pins, and the drag has alignment holes.

Pattern Extraction

This is the most frustrating part of the process for me. The two halves of the split pattern are firmly held in their sand voids. We need to get them out. The surface of the pattern that is facing us is normally very flat.

If you have made the pattern correctly, there should be threaded holes to insert screws into. Once these screws are in place, you tap and rattle them to cause the pattern to shift slightly in its void. If done correctly, this makes a very thin space between the pattern and the sand.

When you think you have done this enough, you carefully lift the pattern straight up. If you don’t, you can destroy some of the void in the sand.

This is why making patterns is such a high skill level job. The pattern must have enough draft, or it won’t release. The surface needs to be very smooth to reduce the friction between the pattern and the sand. There can be no undercuts. And the pattern must be sturdy enough to withstand being rammed up, over and over again.

Once the patterns are drawn out of the sand, gentle air from a squeeze bulb or from a low pressure air hose is used to remove all the stray sand. Sharp lips of the pattern might be gently touched with a soft brush to remove any sand that might separate from the walls when the casting is poured.

Cutting Runners and Gates

Tools are now used to remove sand from the drag to make channels, called runners, from the sprue hole around the different patterns in the drag. Smaller channels are then cut from the runners to the void/patterns. These are called gates.

Cutting runners and gates is a science unto itself. They have to be large enough for the molten metal to reach all the gates before it starts to freeze. It can’t be so large that you waste metal that is needed for the casting. The metal needs to be a laminar flow; turbulence can cause erosion of the sand of the walls of the runners and gates.

In addition, you want a place for sand carried in from the pour to go and settle out without the loose sand entering the casting.

Closing the Flask

Once all the work is completed on the mold, it is time to prepare the mold for the pour.

The mold needs to be transported to the foundry floor. For large castings, the mold is created right there on the foundry floor. I’ve watched videos of them molding and casting drive wheels for steam locomotives, wheels 5 feet or more in diameter.

The process is the same, except the flask is huge and is rammed up on the floor. Overhead cranes or other types of cranes are used to lift and flip the flask. It is remarkable to watch.

If the mold is small, then the cope is put on the drag, the alignment pins bringing the two parts in to perfect alignment with each other. It is important to note that it is not relevant that the cope and drag be in perfect alignment, just that they align repeatably. That is to say, when the alignment is correct, the voids in the two halves of the flask will be perfectly aligned.

Once closed, the mold is transported to the foundry floor for the pour.

Occasionally the mold is too heavy to be closed and moved. In this situation, the drag is first moved to the foundry floor, then the cope is moved and put into place.

If the mold is truly too heavy to move, even in halves, then the mold will be rammed up on the foundry floor. Cranes will lift the cope off and put it back when required.

Pouring

When the mold(s) are in place, ready for the pour, the furnace is started. The metal is brought up to temperature. Additives will be added to create the correct type of iron or steel or aluminum.

When the metal is up to temperature, the crucible will be lifted out of the furnace and transferred into a pouring gizmo; the word escapes me. For large pours, the furnace has a pour spout at the base; the furnace is opened, metal runs out and is caught in a crucible or ladle.

Regardless of the method of getting the molten metal into the pouring crucible or ladle, the metal is carefully carried to the molds and then poured into the feed sprue.

The metal has to be poured at a constant speed into exactly the correct spot on the mold. If the pour is too slow, the metal will freeze, and you will not get a good pour. If you pour too fast, you risk overrunning the sprue, which will get metal to run out over your flask, which can be very dangerous.

You want to continue pouring until you see metal start to come up the risers. If you don’t see this happen, then you have a short pour, meaning that the casting might not be complete because it didn’t get enough metal to completely fill it.

The pour has to be continuous as well. You can’t stop and start. To do so would be to cause chill spots and potential freezing.

The Wait

After pouring, you need to wait for the metal to completely freeze. To cool enough that it can be handled.

Different metals have different wait times, affected by the mass of the castings.

I was able to observe a bronze bust being poured. I asked when they would break open the mold. They laughed at me because it would soak in the mold for at least 24 hours.

Certain metals perform much better if they are allowed to cool slowly.

Luckily for me, the wait time for aluminum castings is about an hour.

Even after 2 or 3 hours, the castings I make are warm or hot to the touch.

Rough Finishing the Casting

Once the casting is cool enough to work with, the casting is cleaned. The means to remove all the sand that is still attached after breaking the casting out of the mold. If there was a core print, the casting might be soaked in water to help remove the core.

After all the sand has been removed, the casting is cut free from the gates and risers.

The flashing is also removed. The flashing is where metal leaks between the two halves of the mold. You can see the parting line in most objects that are cast or molded.

In some foundries, the casting is then processed to clean up any remaining excess metal.

For some metals, the casting needs to be heat-treated before it can be machined. This consists of putting the casting in a heat treat oven and bringing the metal up to temp. Then the casting is held at that temp for a known amount of time. Finally, it is allowed to cool according to the heat treat instructions.

Most metals have internal stress. I’ve watched a piece of 1/8″ steel curve like a banana when I cut it longways due to the internal stress being removed.

Part 2 tomorrow, about lost sand.

There is a good reason for using internal combustion engines instead of steam engines in our modern world. IC engines are very portable and very fuel efficient. A gasoline engine is about 20-30% efficient, while a steam engine of the type I’m working with will get between 8 and 15%.

In other words, an IC is about twice as efficient as a steam engine.

Having said that, most of the power you use comes from steam. Instead of using a reciprocating engine, we use turbines in the modern era. We still boil water and use the pressure from the steam to get radial motion, which is converted into power. You get that power in the form of electricity.

When you hear about coal power plants, or nuclear power plants, the difference between them is the fuel used to heat the water, not the electrical generators.

The advantage of steam, for me, is that I can use almost any fuel to generate the steam.

Fuel For Steam

Depending on the design of your boiler, it can use wood, coal, propane, natural gas, gasoline (bad), kerosene, diesel, or a host of other fuels. The only requirement is that the firebox be able to handle the fuel and the temperature generated by that fuel.

Coal was often used for locomotives. It produces more BTUs per pound than does wood. It burns hotter and typically longer than wood. Plus, it will keep for a fairly long period of time. The downside of using coal is that it emits sulfur dioxide (SO_2) which will eat at almost anything it touches. It is a primary source for “acid rain”.

This means that burning coal is hard on your firebox, fire tubes, and smoke box/stack. It is why many restored locomotives use wood instead of coal to fire the engines.

I want to be able to use coal or wood but have a burner that can be put into the firebox as needed that will burn liquid fuels. I have an axe, I have trees and fallen branches, I can make steam.

I will buy coal in fifty pound bags and that will provide steam for hours and hours.

Types of Boilers

There are two primary types of boilers and one “toy” boiler. We’ll start with that toy.

With a toy boiler, you have a tube filled with water; you heat the tube up, it creates steam, you tap the steam off the top of the tube.

The boiler I used for my first live steam test was a pressure cooker. I attached a hose to the rocker port and then the other end to the steam engine, a simple double-acting wobbler.

Skip about halfway to see it actually running.

A boiler of this type wastes much of the heat that is put into the system. It can make high pressure steam but at a fairly low rate.

The next type of boiler is a firetube boiler.

A firetube boiler captures more of the heat put into the system by routing the fire through a series of tubes surrounded by water. The goal is to extract as much heat from the fire and gases as possible and still have a good fire.

Water completely covers the firebox. The hot gases then pass up into the first set of fire tubes, which brings the hot gases through the water back to the left side of the image. The hot gases are then mixed back together and pass forward through the third stage before being exhausted to the outside air.

The design criteria include the size of the fire tubes, the length of the tubes, and the surface area of the tubes.

A small diameter tube has more surface area per given length of tube because we are measuring the ID of the tube. For small tubing, the wall thickness adds a larger percentage to the OD than for larger IDs. But as the cross-section of the tube goes down, the velocity through the tube goes up. A smaller pipe requires a faster flow to move the same amount of gas.

As the diameter grows, the required size of the walls of the pipe also goes up. This creates a balancing act. You also need some way to create draft as the fire is starting.

The pressure is working to crush the tubing; this is the right direction for the strongest vessel with the thinnest walls.

This is the standard for boilers from 200 years ago through today. As long as you have enough water in the boiler it will be a very safe boiler.

Water Tube Boiler

This type of boiler runs water through the tubes inside the firebox. It is a faster method of getting to steam pressure but has some downsides.

Water enters at the top left at room temperature or lower. It is pushed through some lazy coils within the firebox to warm it up but not to create steam. It is then added to the very hot, near boiling water in the separating drum. From there it is pulled down and pushed back into the firebox at the bottom.

As the water moves through the coils, it absorbs more and more heat until it wants to boil but can’t because it is held under pressure. When it finally reaches the steam separating drum, again, the steam is free to escape; it boils.

That hot steam is still carrying too much water; it is considered saturated. As it is tapped off the top of the separating drum, it travels back through the firebox for a third time; this time it is being pushed by pressure, not pumps.

During this third trip through the boiler, it is “super heated” which is to say, it becomes so hot and the pressure so high that it is no longer considered saturated.

In other words, it is “dry” steam.

This type of boiler requires two pumps, one that can inject water against high pressure. The other is actually running at “normal” pressures. While the contents of the pipes is at a higher pressure, the inlet pressure and the outlet pressure only differ by a small amount, as compared with the feed pump, which is working against 150 psi or more.

The Ofeldt Boiler

My Ofeldt was attempting to design a better still, for making alcohol; he designed this instead:

In this design there are no circulating pumps. The water is injected into the central drum, where it mixes with the hot, nearly boiling water.

“Cold” water flows to the bottom where it enters the coils. The coils are in the hot gases of the combustion chamber. As the heat transfers to the water, the water starts to rise. As the water absorbs more and more heat, it starts to change phases. As it enters the gas phase it collects at the top of the central drum. From there, a pipe will lead down the side to a pancake coil at the bottom, closest to the burner. This is the superheating stage.

From there, the superheated steam is sent to the engine.

This is a very compact design that works well for small spaces. The firebox can burn any fuel with the correct grating and burners.

This is the boiler or steam generator I plan to make.

Design

I am not a good welder. I will need to be better to make this boiler.

The central tank will be schedule 80 black pipe, as large as I can afford. It will have pairs of threadolets added for each coil, top and bottom.

To the threadolets will be 1/4 NPT, which will connect to an adaptor from 1/4 NPT to double ferrule compression fittings. This means that I will be able to weld the threadolets on with full 360 access to the root. Giving me a higher possibility of success.

After each thradolet or set of threadolets is welded in place, I’ll add the adaptor and then a capped plug. This allows me to do a hydrostatic test of the boiler chamber one weld at a time. And when I start adding the coils, one coil at a time.

I’m hoping for 4, 6 or 8 sets of coils. I think I can do this.

As they say, a grinder and paint makes me the welder I aint.

According to my research, the boiler I’m describing should produce more than enough steam at a high enough pressure to drive the steam engines I’m designing.

If it works, I’ll look into having a real boilermaker make them for me. And be shocked at the price.

P.S.

I read your feedback on this blog. One of the things I realized is that I often write articles that allow me to set down my thoughts and ideas logically. I’m putting my reasoning into words to break cycles of indecision.

Yesterday’s article about cycles is more like how my mind runs normally. I’ll be thinking about something which circles back to the original thought, which will take me in a different direction for another rabbit hole which then cycles back to the same driving force. Frequently without ever reaching a conclusion.

For those that know me in person, it doesn’t look like this from the outside. It just looks like a nearly instantaneous leap to a correct or at least an excellent starting point.

I have an obsession with knowing how to do things. I need to know how things work. And occasionally I get lost in reality.

Years ago, I was working for Cray Research, Inc. We worried about cycles and memory access times. The unit time of accessing memory was a cycle and was 80 ns. I.e., freaking fast.

I became interested in photography. My mentor was already doing some spectacular photography, but I believe I’ve become better than him.

One of the ways I became better was in the concepts of studio lighting. I purchased and was using studio flash, getting good results.

The issue? How the heck did we sync the strobe with the camera? The camera fires, and the flash goes off. There is a propagation delay before the signal reaches the primary light and it fires. There is more delay while the light travels to the next light; there is still more delay before that light can fire. How can this work?

The answer was simple: the real world isn’t the digital world. The lens would be open for 16.6 us. This is 16,600 ms, or 16,600,000 ns. The only requirement was that the flash go off a some point while the lens was fully open. The camera wouldn’t initiate the flash until the lens was fully open, so it was never an issue.

I didn’t wrap my head around reality; I was working in my model of reality. I was wrong.

The Circle

I want to make something. What I would like to make is a steam engine.

To make a steam engine, I need a machine shop. I’ve purchased that. I also need to learn how to use all the machines in my shop. I’ve made a good start at that.

I also require castings for the steam engine. To get castings, I need to purchase or make them. To make a casting, I need to first make a pattern. Once I have made a pattern, I need to “ram” it up, and then cast it.

To make a pattern, I have to design the pattern and then construct it. To construct patterns, I require good woodworking skills and good wood for pattern making. Pine and most common hardwoods are not going to cut it. I’m working on getting those skills.

The pattern design is also a skill; I understand it, but I’m not good at it. CAD can make it easier.

Once I have the design, I need to construct it. This is pattern making, and I don’t have the woodworking skills to do it. But I can CNC or 3D print my patterns.

To get better at woodworking, I have to practice. To practice, I need space. The space has to be heated. I can handle working during the summer; I can no longer handle working in subfreezing weather.

The workshop will be in the first floor of “the hut”. The hut needs to be finished, insulated, and powered. This is a good time to learn about off-grid power systems, like solar. The solar system won’t be enough for this area, so what if I can add supplemental power from a genset? I don’t like the sound of internal combustion engines, but a steam engine? That sounds good to me.

So I want to make a steam engine.

Since I’ve created a cyclic tree, maybe I can break it with something? How about learning to make 3D printed patterns? I’m still doing all the design work, but now I can have a machine turn it into a physical item.

I liked my toy 3D printer, but it was a kit that wasn’t good, and it was never accurate enough. I was never able to build pieces that could fit together. It was retired. But new 3D printers are plug and play, which is what I want. I would rather not build them and tweak them physically; I want to use them to create physical objects.

And look at this, there is a set of modular 3D prints that can be linked together to create a pattern for a flask. The thing that holds the sand that patterns are rammed into. This means I can actually have sturdy flasks that won’t burn.

But all of this requires some skill in CAD. I have years of experience doing 3D solid modeling. What I don’t have is experience in creating the blueprints for translating these models into reality. But a CNC mill would be helpful for some of that. And I have a mini-mill that I got from my father. I can convert that to a CNC machine for certain operations.

And with the ability to make standard flasks of standard sizes, I can then make molding plates for those flasks to simplify casting certain items.

I can use a 3D printer to make runners, gates, spouts, and risers to make it easy to make castings.

The cool thing is that I can make a 3D printed pattern with proper shrink rates, then cast that pattern in aluminum. The aluminum then becomes the working pattern, so we have to allow twice the shrink so the working pattern can then be used to create our final castings.

If I’m going to be making my own patterns, I will need to make core boxes. Cylinders for steam engines are complex; they have ports cast into them as well as steam passages. Which means I will need to machine or print core boxes.

But there is a minimum size that cores can be. You don’t make 1/8 in cores 2.5 inches long. What is the right size steam passage?

Well, the steam passage should be able to transfer the swept volume without ever having a velocity above 6000 ft/minute. Where did they get 6000 ft/minute? Don’t worry, they used it in the age of steam, and it was empirically tested.

What does it mean though? Well, we know the volume in in³/s. If we divide that by 6000*12 in/60s, we will know the cross-sectional area required.

The area required is equal to pi*r^2, where r is the radius of the steam passage. We can use this same area when designing the ports for the valve and cylinder.

But I’d really like to know if this value was any good. Well, the “easy” method is to run a CFD analysis of the steam flow in the engine.

This would seem to be easy, since the workflow is to build a mesh of the domain for the CFD analysis, then set the initial conditions and let someone else’s code do the work.

What the heck is a CFD “domain”? Well, that’s the part that isn’t modeled. Which means I need to make an inverse model of the steam engine parts that are important for a CFD analysis.

But that requires new skills in my CAD program.

And all of this must be done because I want to be able to build steam engines that are fractional HP in size, but big enough to do the work required.

What would it be like if I had a steam engine that was driving a hydraulic pump for a wood splitter? Would that be cool? Motors for hydraulic pumps are built around HP requirements, but steam engines produce excellent torque at low RPMs. Do we really need a 5 HP engine to drive a wood splitter?

Now, If I get a 3D printer, I can use it to print Gridfinity and multiboard systems to organize my reloading room. My reloading room is full. I can’t get to the press, and I need to get there because I require more 9 mm ammo. And I want to reload a few hundred 30-06 and 7.62×51 rounds with something for taking deer.

So having a printer is a good idea. And I know where it will go. All I need to do is throw away the three junk paper printers that are stacked there, and I’ll be good to go.

Are we having fun yet?

I’ve been having a difficult time being motivated to write. I made a promise to myself to post at least once a day when I started writing for Miggy, and I’ve kept that schedule ever since.

The number of readers seems to have dropped to a very few core readers and my guess is that I just don’t write the things people want to read.

At the same time, when I hear about something interesting, it is normally because somebody else has already chimed in.

So the question of the week:

What do you get out of this blog? What is it that gets you to click back to see what is new?

Thank you

We have all had the unfortunate issue of having to deal with ignorant and incompetent people. For most of us, this is frustrating.

One of my personal weaknesses is the more I respect someone, the harder it is for me to accept incompetence or ignorance from them.

But what is “ignorance”?

Ignorance is not dumb. It is not stupid. Ignorance is not knowing.

Ally is a cookbook author. She is about to publish her third cookbook. We couldn’t be more proud of her and her accomplishments.

Over the Christmas holidays, she decided to try baking, something she isn’t good at yet.

She pulled out one of our older cookbooks, from the early 1950s, and followed the recipe, or she thought she did. The recipe called for 3 cups of flour, sifted.

Being good at English, she read that to mean, “Measure out three cups of flour, then sift it.” What it actually meant was, “Sift a few cups of flour, then measure out 3 cups of that sifted flour.”

The reason is density. Just like we measure gunpowders by weight, we should measure flour by weight. The density of the powders or flour can change; the mass does not. 1950s cookbooks created flour with a known density by sifting it.

Ally didn’t know this; she was ignorant of this. She is not stupid; she just did not know.

Ignorance is correctable; you can learn what you are ignorant about or decide it is beyond you. Even if it is beyond you, you will know that it is beyond you.

There are many things I’m ignorant about. I’m told I’m unusual because I don’t stay ignorant about subjects that are even remotely interesting to me. And according to some, I quickly become competent in areas that I was ignorant about just a short time ago.

This makes it difficult for me to claim ignorance about subjects. I consider myself ignorant about processing animal hides. Yet I know more about it than most people. I’ve yet to succeed at tanning a hide, but I know I don’t know. I know it is not beyond me; I know that I can become educated in the subject and become reasonably competent in the subject.

Recently it was pointed out to me, in this blog, that I was ignorant in reading or understanding technical drawings. I have no formal training and I need to do more. I’m doing my best without doing a deep dive.

Weaponized Ignorance

This is when a person is willfully ignorant. It takes an effort to be willfully ignorant, but for some, it is easier than actually thinking about what they are doing or saying.

When a person is willfully ignorant, refuses to learn, yet continues to opine on matters in which they are ignorant, then they have weaponized their ignorance.

The left is calling for laws and regulations to force “bad” law enforcement officers to not wear masks and to have their identification prominently displayed.

According to them, if they aren’t doing anything wrong, then there is no reason to be masked.

They are willfully ignorant of what happens when an agent is unmasked. They are doxed, and then bad things do happen to some of them.

The wife and I are watching a BritBox show called Blue Lights which takes place in Dublin, Ireland. Our introduction to one of the lead characters is when she is checking her car for bombs. As far as I know, this is true. They know that they will be targeted if the “bad guys” learn where they live and who they are.

These ignorant malcontents know what will happen if our officers are unmasked: they will be attacked. If not physically, then socially.

The left calls detentions and arrests by ICE and other federal law enforcement “Kidnappings”. They know that these are not kidnappings. Or they are willfully ignorant.

They scream about “due process” without ever realizing that these criminals have been given due process. Ten minutes of research would enable them to learn that there are immigration courts that do nothing but oversee migration cases. These courts can, and do, issue final removal orders and warrants.

They are screaming at ICE officers that they aren’t real cops and don’t have arrest powers. Of course they have arrest powers. Do even a bit of research, and you will find that most federal agencies have some sort of internal police force with arrest powers.

And being ignorant allows them to scream “Why!?” like a two-year-old toddler being put down for a nap. They would know why if they bothered to learn about the subject they are opining on.

Listen to Ketanji Brown Jackson asking questions from the Supreme Court bench, “I don’t understand.” “Explain it to me.” And most famously:

• Blackburn: Can you provide a definition for the word “woman”?
• Jackson: Can I provide a definition?
• Blackburn; Mhmm, yeah.
• Jacson: No, I can’t. Not in this context. I’m not a biologist.

Willfully ignorant.

Weaponized Incompetence

This is a step further than willful ignorance. This is when a person refuses to learn something so they don’t have to do it.

The husband who refuses to learn how to cook anything, forcing his wife to cook every meal or to eat out. My dad didn’t know how to cook; from the time Mom died until he was in care, he ate very poorly, mostly hotdogs. This was his choice.

This is the person who tosses the colored in with the whites, leading to the whites not being white anymore. Who is going to ask that person to do the laundry, knowing that their incompetence could destroy entire loads of clothing?

In the same way, what husband or boyfriend doesn’t panic when he sees his wife with a hammer and saw?

Hey, we were all ignorant and incompetent once. I have a picture of my brother and me cutting a piece of wood with saws. I’m using Grandpa’s panel saw, not a bad choice. My brother is using a hacksaw with 24 or more teeth per inch. Today I know that my brother would have been lucky to get a 1/4 inch into a piece of hardwood with that saw.

Now hold me to the same standard. I had a 16 tpi blade on my horizontal bandsaw. It would cut anything, but slow? Oh my goodness. I was using it because the rules say to have at least 2 teeth engaged in the cut at all times, and I was using it to cut 1/8-inch stock. I’ve upgraded to an 8 tpi blade. I can’t cut 1/8-inch stock the narrow way, but I can lay it down, and it cuts just as fast, if not faster. And I can actually cut larger stock at 3 or 4 times the speed of that other blade.

A leftist can’t safely handle a gun. Because they are incompetent, you and I have to store our firearms where they are useless to us but a child can’t access them.

The intentional ignorance and incompetence is draining. It hurts to watch them. It hurts to listen to them. They are so ignorant that they don’t know what they don’t know, but they are damn sure they are right and I am wrong.

If you have the best possible trauma kit in the world, it does you zero good if you don’t have it with you.

I believe that I have as many trauma kits as any other person. Every load bearing vest has a trauma kit. The range bag has a trauma kit, my get-out-of-Doge-expeditiously (GOODE) bag has trauma kits.

My car has multiple kits in it.

What I was missing was something that I had on me every time I went out. I decided to buy an ankle trauma kit to try.

I have been 100% consistent since getting it; if I have a firearm on me, then I have the kit on me.

First things first, it is comfortable. I was expecting it to cause issues or to print in horrible ways. It doesn’t print, and it is comfortable. When wrapped around my sock, it is noticeable for about 3 minutes, then I forget it is there.

What I purchased I expected to be good enough. I’ve decided it isn’t. What it comes with is a SOFT-T tourniquet, a 4″ combat bandage, and a pair of nitrile gloves.

What is it missing?

A mini-Sharpie, mini-bandage shears, and z-fold gauze for wound packing. That’s it. If really pressed, a pair of mini-hyfin chest patches, for sucking chest wounds.

I could upgrade my ankle kit with another pouch, but I’ve not found one that I like. I want to have a QuickClot Z-Fold bandage, and that is a slightly larger package than simple gauze.

If you don’t have an ankle kit, look into it. I think you will be surprised at what you can get that will meet your needs and still be extremely comfortable.

Be safe out there. Keep your head on a swivel. Stay out of stupid places at stupid times. Stay away from stupid people.

I had two rifles to zero and time to spend with my wife. It was a wonderful day!

We took seven guns to the range and shot 4 of them, never noticing we didn’t have a chance to shoot the pistols.

We took two fun guns as well as my serious rifles for zeroing.

Wife brought Mrs. Pink, her AR-15. Yes, it has all pink furniture. It is most definitely hers. We set her up with a half size torso target at 50 yards. Truth, we don’t think she put a single round from her AR on paper.

On the other hand, she had a blast! She was using a single 20-round GI magazine from the 60s. What she got was manual of arms training. She learned how to load magazines, rather than having me hand her loaded mags.

She knew how to operate the rifle, but she didn’t have it down to the point she could just do it. So she got to practice charging the rifle, dropping the bolt after inserting a new magazine, removing and inserting magazines.

She was at a bench with a bench separating us. She did it all on her own. After getting her going, the next time she interacted with me was when she told me that Mrs. Pink was out of food. That was 100 rounds downrange. 3 of which were mine.

From there she moved to a Henry Big Boy in beautiful brass. This one is chambered in .22LR. She went through a couple of 100 round boxes, just beaming from ear to ear. She loved how smooth it was and how nice it was to shoot. She declared that she liked it better than Mrs. Pink.

At my bench, things were not going as well. My primary goal was to get the AR-10 zeroed. I have a new LVPO 1-8 by Vortex. Beautiful scope.

I had no real issues with the scope, except for having difficulty spotting where rounds were hitting the target. I never did get that figured out because after about 5 or 10 rounds I started to get failure to feed.

After I got back home, I did a bit of research, and AR-10s are known to be picky. They need 50 to 200 rounds before they are worked in, and they need lots of lube to begin with.

For me it was a single shot rifle with painful ergonomics to charge the next round. AR-10 buffer springs are much stronger than AR-15 buffer springs. I was there with 40 rounds in two mags. I think I sent 20 or so rounds downrange.

She’s been cleaned, lubed, and put away. I require some more range time. I require her to feed flawlessly every time.

On to the beauty of the day, my CZ 600 in 30-06.

This rifle has a trigger that makes my 1911s feel like Glock triggers (Yes, that is an insult to the Glock fanboys). It is a light trigger with zero take up. You put your finger on the trigger, think about pressing the trigger and the round is on its way downrange.

It has a vertical safety. It is likely a “crossbolt” style, but instead of the left to right arrangement I’ve seen for crossbolt safeties, this is vertical. The engage button is just behind the trigger guard. The disengage button is just behind the bolt. You just press down with your thumb to take the safety off.

I didn’t test the magazine feed; it comes with a 5-round magazine, but I feed each round individually.

With just boresighting, my first 3-round group was about 0.5 inches at 50 yards. It was also 4 inches left and a bit high from where my point of aim was. It took around 20 rounds before the point of aim and point of impact were nearly the same.

I don’t think I’ve shot a rifle as accurate as this before. I brag about punching primers with the 7.62×51 NATO Remington 700. This was easily 50 fold better than that Remington.

With the overkill of the scope, I could actually see point of impact. I could see my breathing modifying point of aim. I also found myself aiming for the corner of the 1″ square bullseye because that was more consistent than “somewhere” in the 1 in^2 red blotch.

For fun, I just put the crosshairs on the center of the 1/2 steel target at 100 yards. That rang true. So did aiming for the head of the steel.

It was just a little to crude to have any idea where on the steel I was getting impacts.

I’m still smiling from range day. Oh, it was warm today, with the temperature just above freezing and no real wind.

It has been more than 24 hours since a paid agitator received the “Find Out” part of “FAFO”. Some things have become clear.

First, she is not married. She was living with a female partner raising children.

Her job was to be a paid agitator. She had taken professional development courses to further her career as a paid agitator.

Her partner was also a paid agitator.

She attacked a federal law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon. As such he does not need to wait to be lethally hit or severely injured before acting to stop the threat.

But the lie has entered the gestalt of the left.

She was an innocent woman attempting to flee an encounter with evil Trump minions, afraid for her life, when she was murdered for no reason at all.

I remember the anger I felt when I saw the video of Saint George Floyd being murdered by a police officer in full view of the world.

I remember how I was glad I was not there. Not knowing how I would have reacted to a cop attempting murder. Would I have killed the cop to save the life of that black man?

And it was all a lie.

That didn’t stop massive riots, the burning of cities, and the death of multiple people. All because the left and the media couldn’t stop lying.

It is my belief that the only reason we are not seeing massive riots already is the temperature is too low. It is too cold for a good riot.

If the weather changes for the better, it is likely we will see riots. If it doesn’t, it would not surprise me even a little that the media keeps things at a low simmer until it is warm enough for the riots to happen.

DefCon 3 right now, people. As it warms up, DefCon 2.

Keep strapped, keep your head on a swivel, stay away from stupid places, stupid people. Nothing good happens after midnight.