The Finished Bolt and Front Sight Examination, Plus Lighting

Greetings and Salutations!
So, continuing my journey on rebuilding the FrankenMauser, I went nuts again and spent the majority of the night doing the remaining polish on the bolt. I wasn’t satisfied with the final finish, so I broke out a steel wool, and some stainless steel cleaner I use on my fridge.

I got a used KitchenAid fridge from a guy on Craigslist a few years ago that when he delivered it, and at the price he was selling it at, I’m pretty sure someone when they went to their rental property went in and said “Where the fuck is my fridge!?!” It was 5 years old at the time, but like new, and had the stainless steel front and black sides and top, which matches the aesthetic of the Casa’s Kitchen.

So I went nuts, turned on another movie, well call it a show, namely “Doctor Who and the Pyramid of Mars” (Tom Baker… the only Doctor IMO) and spent the night polishing away.

It turned out looking like new:

The lighting on this is a bitch to get right, but trust me.

There is not a single blemish on it. What you might think is a blemish is a shadow. As I said, lighting is a bitch. Speaking of which I’m experimenting using Gretchen’s lights:

I tease her and call them her “Influencer Lights” but she uses them on professional jobs doing the makeup for Women who’re going to be on camera or under studio lights. She’s done quite a few commercials and Professional Presentations, like for Disney’s folks one year in Orlando, and some other things.

So I’m trying to up my game for the pictures, and eventually the videos I plan to shoot. Now, back to the rifle.

Once I had the bolt done, and since I decided to replace the rear sight slider bar, I figured to tackle the front site. I punched out the pin:

As you can see, the hood is pretty beat on, and there was a lot of ‘crap’ around it. It was also as previously very loosey-goosey. Once I had the pin out and took the hood off, well… I found this:

The front site blade fell out on it’s own. The only think keeping it in place was the hood. It looks like it’s in good shape but I still need to clean it up before rendering a final call. And as far as the looseness? Do you see that hole where the blade slide in?

There’s a brass screw in there, that too was loose as all get out. It’s the site band screw as far as I can determine, and why the whole thing to include the band and blade was loose. And the crap?

It looks like at one point in it’s life, someone squirted glue into it to get it to stop wiggling. The detent hole the screw goes into is filled with is, and the solder can be seen where it’d been originally brazened on there probably 100-years ago. The nice thing is the brass screw is in great shape, and doesn’t need replacing, and once I acetone all the old glue or whatever the Hell that crap is off, I can then see if the piece/parts are salvageable.

That’s for tomorrow’s schedule as the carpal tunnel is screaming at me for the work over the past 5 days +/-. I’m taking a break, then I’ll see what I have to deal with. I am confident that I’ll be able to get this back together without too many issues, and I’ll then see how it does.

Add on that unfortunately the majority of available replacements look like they’re in far worse shape than the one I have on hand, and they want a hefty premium, so it is what it is.

Now, lastly.
Got a personal peeve, and don’t care which “Chief Executive” fixes it. I know whomever does, they’ll be remembered for it forever. And the thing I want rescinded?

That fucking retarded ban on Good Old Fashion Luminescent Light Bulbs. No Joke.

I’ve had two bulbs go bad in the past two weeks here in the Museum of Mayhem, and last night as I had discussed earlier, I realized that when Bulb #2 shit the bed like Biden, that my lighting for my pictures was now compromised. SO I broke out two om “My Precious”:

Two gen-you-wine ACTUAL 75w Light Bulbs.
From a very diminished Secret Squirrel Stockpile mind you.

I got out my footstool, in this case a 40mm Ammo Can that holds commo gear, and got up and removed the offending now-deceased dim bulbs:

oplus_0

Just wow.
The one on the left is a LED Bulb that was made in 2019 according to the markings on it. Dead as Biden’s Brain, and lasted about as long. VERY annoying.

The other?
The markings were faded. Badly.
But no joke, as I recall from the memory banks that this particular bulb and all it’s friends were replaced back around 2006. Almost 19 years ago

We had a power surge as I remember and the chandelier that one was in blew like 5 out of 6 necessitating a full swap out just for good measure.

Whereas that LED POS died within 4-5 years, as because it was made in 2019 doesn’t mean how long since it was installed and used, whereas this other one, lasted for-damned-near-ever.

So yeah, an Executive Order letting us be able to buy the ‘good bulbs’ like we used to? In light (bad pun) of the proof that the rationale for making us stop using them is now proven to be MOAR fake and ghey contemptible bullshit? “LEDs have a much longer lifespan than filament bulbs!” Gah! What a steaming pile… Let US the consumer decide what lightbulbs we want.

It’s not much to ask these days IMO.
So that’s all the outrage I can muster for tonight
More Later
Big Country

27 thoughts on “The Finished Bolt and Front Sight Examination, Plus Lighting”

  1. That looks great – thanks for sharing the process.

    Could you use some smaller dental instruments? I have some that are too worn for regular use but would still be useful for cleaning screw threads and the like. Throw me an email regarding

    Coelacanth

  2. Saw a video about a fire department station that has a light bulb which has been burning for over 100 years; an original Edison carbon filament one, I think. The video said the secret is that it has been on more or less continually the whole time and it is the “on and off” cycle which causes incandescent bulbs to eventually burn out. Probably only light bulb manufacturers know for sure.

  3. a good cleaner is Comet. I used it on car/truck windshields and kitchen stuff.
    even some some metal parts. very mild cleaning powder with plenty of elbow work does a great job.
    I have not bought any “branded kitchen cleaner” in years now and in time, the wife has even started to use it. learned it from a guy who sold “used cars” back in the army. or rather he came from some small town in Tenn. that redid cars for resale. kind of weird though. watching him take a 5 gallon bucket and a
    cup of Tide , warm water and get the whole inside of the car clean. then he would open all the doors and
    just let it air dry. and with that bit, a smoker’s car became fresh again. he used the Comet stuff on everything. Bumpers, door handles whatever he wanted to be shinny again. 1970’s, we still had steel bumpers and chrome !
    works better than the wife’s 5-6 buck glass cleaner for the glass top stove. and at less than a buck per can, why not. I used it to clean up a old shotgun barrel bore even. made it look like new again.
    there a reason why the “old guys ” did things the way they did , it worked.

    1. Barkers Friend is a lighter version of Comet and puts a nice polish on whatever you clean

  4. Just so ya know, autozone sells “work bulbs” for shop lights. Real incandescent bulbs. 2.99 for a pair in my AO. 75 watts. Hope everybody doesn’t catch on cause I want to stock up.

    FC

  5. Ditto on the conventional bulbs… I use them to keep the well house from freezing!
    Putting a heater in there, even a small one, makes it all too hot and costs a ton of money. But a simple light-bulb is enough to keep the pipes from freezing.
    Funny innit, how the government can make the problems in your life out of nothing, then get branded a hero when they ‘fix it’?
    Hegelian Dialectic… it’s not an accident.

  6. The light temp (color) from the incandescent is more pleasing and the pulse from the AC power is not noticeable. Florescents fail that badly and the LEDs are only marginally better.

    One of the worst things is that we make no household light bulbs in the US. Making traditional bulbs illegal immediately closed every factory.

    But hey, we saved….. Something

    1. I believe elimination of the “Murican jobs was the primary reason for the change to the mercury bomb bulbs foisted by O’BloMe.
      Due to the toxins involved, they had to be made offshore.
      No doubt the loss of jobs to the CCP broke his little commie heart…

      Onward, Christian soldiers!

  7. Tom Baker IS the only Doctor 😉 He really brought the character to life, all others are mere imitations supported by a bigger special effects budget.

  8. Retired traffic signal electrician here. We used to replace all the light bulbs in the signals every year as a PM measure to save on overtime service calls. I saved the best looking ones. They are an odd wattage, 69 watts and some 110 watts, but they last forever being designed for rough service. I have over a hundred bulbs, more than enough to last until I leave this earth.

  9. For the ring light, you want to take the photos through the light. Camera lens goes right in the middle of the light. It works just like the crime scene flashes that they use, because the ones on the crime scenes are supposed to get rid of any shadows (from the perspective of the camera.)

    https://www.ga.com/detection-and-imaging-products/crimecam-examiner

    Honestly, I don’t think the crime scene aesthetic is incompatible with what you have and want to have.

  10. Lighting in photos is a motherfucker. I got into photography as a hobby. On camera and off camera flashes take it to another level.

    Two points:
    1) the size of your light source relative to the object makes all the difference in the world. While the sun is physically huge, compared to a human, the relative size is small, making it a “harsh” light source for photography. Diffused light works wonders, which is why cloudy days are ideal lighting for photos since the size of the source is much larger relative to a person. That’s why studios use the umbrella diffusers for portraits, they’re huge compared to a person’s head.
    2) in keeping with the theory above, you may want to consider a light box for photos of your parts/pieces. You can DIY one with some 8.5×11 paper and an old cardboard box. That’ll diffuse the light sufficiently so you don’t get shadow, etc. Might be difficult for a full photo, depends on how many ring lights you have. Lots of DIY videos on making these on the tube if you’re inclined.

    To go a bit deeper: If you’re using a digital camera, learn to shoot manually. f-stop (aperture), ISO (sensitivity) and shutter speed all influence your finished photo. If you’re shooting on “auto” mode, it will try to balance things out, but the results might suck. Depends on what you’re trying to capture. Once you learn manual and the effects each side of the exposure triangle have, you can almost instinctively set your camera and go to town. Aperture has to do with depth of field. Shutter speed is all about motion blur. ISO is grain in the photo.

    Digging the projects, interesting showcases. It all makes me want to try my hand at it, but the other half… she is more interested in obtaining canned goods and spare widgets for non-museum pieces.

  11. Saw the writing on the wall and bought CASES of the incandescent bulbs. All of the livestock automatic waterers use 100 watt incandescent bulbs to remain unfrozen, even here in the 5th circle of hell, north central Montana.

  12. Incandescents, BTW, are actually good for your health by providing a broad spectrum of beneficial light wavelengths that your body doesn’t get from fluorescents and LEDs.

  13. A good source of incandescent bulbs is estate sales. When I get low, hitting two or three will get me anywhere from three or four to way more than I need. One I hit had two beer flats full. Two bucks for the whole bunch.

  14. Got my hands on some construction grade bulbs. They are used in trouble lights and can take a bit of rougher service. I picked up cases of them bulbs at garage sales when it was the rage to change them out.
    I found that real toluene can melt most glues. Contact cement thinner. When all else fails try toluene.

  15. Yes, real light bulbs again.
    I built my house in 1993. 4 bedrooms 3.5 baths, 3700 soft. Lots of light bulbs required. 19 flood lights. Somewhere north of 50 regular incandescent. I found them on sale at a lighting shop. They were made in Poland of all places. I didn’t expect lots of life but they were so cheap I bought 3x what I needed.
    In 32 years I might have replaced 6, one empty pack.
    The wife talked me into putting some awful CFLs, they are good for a year. Then on the outside lights I leave on all night we tried LEDs. Three outdoor lamps. One LED failed in 30 seconds. Its replacement lasted 2 months.
    Now I am back to using my cherished Pollack lights. At this rate they should last my lifetime. They literally never just burn out, but power flickers took out two once.
    But 6 bulbs in 32 years and most are used daily, bathroom vanity lights, closets, hallway and accent lights on the bar.
    Seriously these light bulbs are amazing. I can’t see a brand on them just “Made in Poland”.

  16. I went and had a look–I still have 6 flats of 60W incandescents. I turn 60 next month; I think I’m probably covered for the rest of my life.

  17. Make sure to check firing pin protrusion.
    Many of the Spanish had soft ones to keep from breaking on unload drop that they do peen.
    My Destroyer Carbine perforated primers until I took 50 thousandths off the length…

  18. I’m with you on incandescent bulbs. The LEDs have ghastly color. Incandescent look like candles or oil lamps. I bought a stash when they were banned, and hope they last me a good long time.
    Was horrified when partner had a contractor friend over while I was at work, and he did me a favor by swapping out ALL my incandescent bulbs in the house with those hideous LEDs. I wept. Replaced them all and told him he was banned if he ever did it again.

  19. Good news re light bulbs
    Executive Order signed today: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/unleashing-american-energy/
    Excerpt: (f) to safeguard the American people’s freedom to choose from a variety of goods and appliances, including but not limited to lightbulbs, dishwashers, washing machines, gas stoves, water heaters, toilets, and shower heads, and to promote market competition and innovation within the manufacturing and appliance industries;

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