JDHasty
03-08-2015, 01:03 AM
Three weeks ago our 85 year old gunsmith buddy injured his back lifting a lath chuck.
Total perfectionist that disassembled the chucks weekly to clean all the chips out, just because that is what Beretta taught him to do before the Nazis pirated him of to Germany for the duration of WW2.
My other, now retired, gunsmith buddy used to go up and help him once a week to "catch up." Then afterwards he did our machine work. He can do great work, but....
He didn't volunteer to show up and make parts orders from Brownells, mount scopes, "bore sight" rifles and clean rifles and do other things that keep a gunsmith afloat in order to have access to a machine shop. He did that as a favor. But it did allow us access to a machine shop. More that that it provided us with "continuing education."
We're screwed. I'm guessing that the lath chuck that really seriously injured our perfectionist gunsmith's back is the straw that breaks the camel's back this time and he may take his wife's counsel and retire for good.
What good is it to be a "gun crank" without access to a machine shop? Our fascination with what Remchester has to offer started on it's steady slide to disinterest about the time we stopped wearing three cornered pants.
The fun in putting your ideas to work is to sit around and shoot the bull about them and then work together to get the hardware built. It gives everybody an investment interest in seeing what comes out of it.
Let's be clear about where I am coming from, C.S. Landis and Donaldson (idea men) were not sitting and cogitating and then commissioning a gunsmith to execute their vision, they were actively shooting the bull with Marciante and Killborn and other skilled craftsmen who were also "idea men." Then it was into the shop to put the idea together and then see if we were right or wrong at the range.
So... on the up side, this just may be the incentive I needed to clean out the garage and get rid of everything in order to fit a Craftsman (Atlas) lath and knee mill into my humble abode. That is what I have thought about for a long time, but without having our mentor looking over our shoulder it is a voyage into uncharted waters. Barrels and other parts are expensive and oh so many times that perfectionist has kicked us right squarely in the region in which it would do the greatest good.
The good that can come from this is that we are finally going to have to reach down and grab our own bootstraps and actually develop the skills needed to recognize what he was kicking into our backsides on our own. The appreciation of recognizing that you cannot leave anything you have control over to chance, the experience to recognize where you have control and then the patience to take maximum advantage of every bit of precision your machine tools have to offer. All of this without us looking over our shoulder and seeing his boot headed our way and his hands holding the reins that said: whoa, let's think about this for a bit longer before taking away metal you can't put back.
Total perfectionist that disassembled the chucks weekly to clean all the chips out, just because that is what Beretta taught him to do before the Nazis pirated him of to Germany for the duration of WW2.
My other, now retired, gunsmith buddy used to go up and help him once a week to "catch up." Then afterwards he did our machine work. He can do great work, but....
He didn't volunteer to show up and make parts orders from Brownells, mount scopes, "bore sight" rifles and clean rifles and do other things that keep a gunsmith afloat in order to have access to a machine shop. He did that as a favor. But it did allow us access to a machine shop. More that that it provided us with "continuing education."
We're screwed. I'm guessing that the lath chuck that really seriously injured our perfectionist gunsmith's back is the straw that breaks the camel's back this time and he may take his wife's counsel and retire for good.
What good is it to be a "gun crank" without access to a machine shop? Our fascination with what Remchester has to offer started on it's steady slide to disinterest about the time we stopped wearing three cornered pants.
The fun in putting your ideas to work is to sit around and shoot the bull about them and then work together to get the hardware built. It gives everybody an investment interest in seeing what comes out of it.
Let's be clear about where I am coming from, C.S. Landis and Donaldson (idea men) were not sitting and cogitating and then commissioning a gunsmith to execute their vision, they were actively shooting the bull with Marciante and Killborn and other skilled craftsmen who were also "idea men." Then it was into the shop to put the idea together and then see if we were right or wrong at the range.
So... on the up side, this just may be the incentive I needed to clean out the garage and get rid of everything in order to fit a Craftsman (Atlas) lath and knee mill into my humble abode. That is what I have thought about for a long time, but without having our mentor looking over our shoulder it is a voyage into uncharted waters. Barrels and other parts are expensive and oh so many times that perfectionist has kicked us right squarely in the region in which it would do the greatest good.
The good that can come from this is that we are finally going to have to reach down and grab our own bootstraps and actually develop the skills needed to recognize what he was kicking into our backsides on our own. The appreciation of recognizing that you cannot leave anything you have control over to chance, the experience to recognize where you have control and then the patience to take maximum advantage of every bit of precision your machine tools have to offer. All of this without us looking over our shoulder and seeing his boot headed our way and his hands holding the reins that said: whoa, let's think about this for a bit longer before taking away metal you can't put back.