Thursday was a driving day. I took Hagar to drop off her stuff for a weekend event. Since it was in the right direction, I stopped at my metal supply shop to pick up some metal.

To understand an interaction with these folks, you have to first understand noob.

13+ years ago, I found them because they were close to where I had a client. It was no issue to stop in and buy from them.

I opened the door and was in their office. Not in an anti-room, but in their office. Bill turns to me and asks, “Can I help you?

“I’d like some 1 inch steel.”

“What type of steel?”

I’m a smart guy. At least that’s what my mom told me. I had no idea, “What type of steel?” Steel is steel. Aluminum is aluminum.

Bill wasn’t interested in teaching a noob. He took enough time to make sure I got what I needed, and I was ready when I came back.

I now know to ask for 6061 when I want aluminum. If I want cheap steel, nasty and ugly, but mostly flat. I ask for that garbage steel, 1018. If I want cheaper still and less flat, A36 steel.

If I want a better steel, I’m likely to ask for 4140 or some other word or number I’ve seen mentioned.

I ask for what I want by name. If I don’t care, I’ll ask them as the steel people. They have always treated me fairly.

Thursday was slightly unusual for me. I had placed the order on Monday. Told them I was picking it up on Thursday. And I specified some sizes specifically.

If you are a production shop, and your end size is 1x3x10, you will get 1.061 by 3.061 by 10.125. You do not get 1.5×3.5×15.

The time it takes to remove that extra material is money. The cost of that extra steel is money.

The cost of material is based on weight, for all intents. That 1x3x10 is 8.520 lbs and that is what you get charged for.

If the material is a little oversized, nobody cares, and you pay would it should weight at the nominal size.

If they are cutting that from a longer stick, you will often get charged a cut charge. This ranges from $5/cut to $10/cut.

On the other hand, drops are a thing. If a client has ordered four 7ft long sticks of 0.25×4 6061, that is what they are paying for. That is a single cut because it will be gang cut. But a stick of 0.25×4 is 10 foot long (Or 20, I do not remember). That means they have 4 pieces that are 4 feet long.

They aren’t going to trash it. They aren’t going to scrap it. They are going to put it on a shelf and how somebody wants to buy a piece of 1/4×4 that is less than 36 inches long.

Which means me. I’m willing to buy those drops. So I get a good deal on most drops.

So I walk into the metal supply shop. “Hello Bill!”

“Hello, AWA, it’s been a while.”

“It sure has Bill. I don’t work around here anymore.”

“You’ve changed your look.”

I stroke my beard, which is starting to look good.

“I didn’t say for the better.”

With that, I knew I was part of the accepted. This is a person I interact with maybe 3 times a year. It has been over 4 years since I purchased from Bill.

He greets me by name. And gives me a gentle insult.

That insult stopped my search for a closer supply house. I’ll stick with Bill and his people.

(Bill is not his name. If he were to read this, he would know I’m talking about him.)

It has been a filled week.

There are things you do not know you need until you have them. I’ve been cleaning parts with a spray bottle filled with WD40’s cleaner/degreaser, which sort of works. I also have used Purple Power at a 50%, 100% and had good luck with it.

But the chuck I took apart this week had oil and grease that might have been original from the factory, 50 years ago.

I ended up using a simple aquarium type pump with a dish tub on top of a 5 gallon bucket. I was able to clean that chuck in less than an hour. It looks nice.

Which leads me back to why I required that chuck cleaned and put back into production. Back in 2018, I picked up a semi-universal dividing head, BS-0 size. It is somewhere. I knew where it was for a long time, but every time I needed to use it, I didn’t actually do it.

Now I can’t find it. Instead, of replacing it, I picked up a cheap 8″ rotary table. This cost less than the 3″ dividing head I had purchased.

The differences are that the rotary table doesn’t come with dividing plates, easily fixed for cheap. And it doesn’t have a foot stock, or lathe dog, nor a chuck.

That old chuck is about to be mounted on the rotary table. I will finish making the chuck key soon, then it is on to the rotary table work. Making gears.

Which takes us to “Chinesium” goods. Rotary tables can be had for less than $90 from Amazon. That is a 4-inch version. A Yuasa 12″ tilting rotary table is only $5,815.

You get what you pay for. Mine is on the very cheap side of things.

The overall quality feels and looks good. Nothing obviously wrong with it.

But, because it is Chinesium, the first task, before first use, is to tear it all the way down, clean it, lube it and put it back together again. The reason is that there is likely to be chips and grinding grit in the tool. Not likely, there is dirt in the system.

There is a handle that is used to rotate the table. I removed that handle with the dial to reveal a machined surface that the dial rides against. There is a glob of grease there, as there should be. But when I wiped my finger across that machined surface, it came out black. This is an indication that there is grinding grit in there.

That grinding grit will destroy a tool if it is left on working surfaces. Thus, we clean it well before putting it into production.

Making progress in the shop.

For your thoughts, Hagar reported that she had watched a video by a young woman that had escaped from Gaza. She suggested that we consider why there are all these pro-terrorist protests throughout the United States, but there does not seem to be any in the countries that have had to deal with the Palestinians.

So the questions are, are there pro-Palestine protests happening in the Middle East? Are there pro-Palestine protests happening in other countries? If so, how many and how big?

Why are they mostly(all) happening in the US?

When talking about sensitive places, the state takes the position that who or what might be in that location is what makes that place “sensitive”.

This is just a dumb way of infringing on The People’s right to keep and bear arms.

We will ignore property rights at this junction, just to simplify the discussion.

My yard is not a “sensitive” place. No matter who might enter my yard, there is nothing that would make it a place where I should be kept from bearing an arm.

The same goes for the street in front of my house. Nor anyplace along that street.

But what about a school? A school is full of “vulnerable” people, children. Having vulnerable people doesn’t make the place sensitive. For example, what if the school was empty of students, and you were attending a meeting with a bunch of crazy liberal/leftists? Like school administrators and teachers?

The park is not a sensitive place, nor is the town hall nor the public parts of the police fortress.

What makes a place “sensitive”, is whether the government has taken responsibility for providing security and that security is comprehensive.

For example, a courtroom. The state has the responsibility for providing the security, in the form of armed security. They people are disarmed before entering the courtroom. The courtroom is secured at all entry points to prevent people from bypassing the security screening.

In addition, that place should only be made a sensitive place if it provides a safe location outside the security parameter for you to secure your arms.

This means that my pooling place is not a sensitive location. The state does not provide any real security.

This means that airports, outside security checkpoint are not sensitive places.

In addition, the areas beyond the security checkpoint are also not sensitive places. This is because the TSA does a shit job of screening. TSA’s security record is so poor that El Al still performs their security screenings of all passengers.

An El Al aircraft is a sensitive place.

Mark Smith has spoken many times about the relationship between sensitive places and Supreme Court cases. The commonality in the locations singled out by the Supreme Court as sensitive is that they provide comprehensive security.