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Horror Business

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I believe you are a bit younger than me, not sure if you are into vintage bmx. Tioga made a very famous front sprocket called the compact disc, late 80’s maybe early 90’s, your version is just like it! Cool to see.
 
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trytochaseme

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I believe you are a bit younger than me, not sure if you are into vintage bmx. Tioga made a very famous front sprocket called the compact disc, late 80’s maybe early 90’s, your version is just like it! Cool to see.
Ha those are rad!

Everything comes back in style. The solid rings are currently pretty in right now as in the gravel/road world they market them as "aero" so its the hot thing. Ive been running this style for a few years now as I just think it looks cool.
 
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trytochaseme

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Had my first race of the year this weekend. It was the Dirty 30 Gravel Race in Saranac, MI.

Since I hate riding on the trainer and weather has been pretty crappy this year I have only ridden about 350 miles going into the race.
My goal was to finish in 1 hour 30 minutes but that was going to be a big ask. If I could get close I would be happy. My first mistake was not getting to the start line in early enough. I tried to walk through the crown to get as close to the front as possible. Although I made it 50 feet front the front line, as soon as you start moving it all gets funneled down and stretched out.

I put down some power to make a lot of passes right at the start, I didn't want to expend to much energy but if I could make it to the lead group it would be worth it as that would also save a lot of energy to stick with them. A little past the 1st mile I had the lead group in sight but over the next few miles I could not get them any closer and it was costing me a lot of energy. I really focused on my fueling for this race, loaded up on some fruit and food before the race to get calories and carbs in my body. During the race I had 2 bottles both with 75g of carbs and 300 calories in each. This really helped me to keep pressing.

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Around the 10 mile mark I ended up finding another guy to trade pulls with. Over the next few miles we gathered up a group of about 6 guys that all worked together to keep moving forward.

In the end I crossed the finish line at 1 hour 35 minutes. Finished 5th in mens 18-29 and 84th overall.
Little bummed I did not get a good start, another buddy finished in 1 hour 27 minutes and he had a lower average power then me since he was able to stick with the lead group from the start. Oh well, I still set a handful of new PR's for average power so I am happy about that.

Next race is in June and is a XC MTB race so I am really excited for that one!
 
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trytochaseme

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Over the weekend we finally got the shower glass installed

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Although went to finally use the shower last night and couldn't get any hot water. We tested it before so need to pull the valve apart and see if maybe it got a clog or something. Could get hot water out of the sink.

Also got the closet installed. Terrible pic as my wife was going through all her clothes to fill it up before I even could get all the rods installed.

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I've been eyeing a pellet grill for a few years now. Finally bit the bullet last week with this new Weber Searwood 600.

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So far I am loving this. I was going to purchase a cheaper one and either buy a new gas grill or give a little love to my late 90's Weber. I decided to just get the searwood since it will get up to 600 degrees and could be used for regular grilling too.


Here is the current deck setup with the searwood, the ol Gensis, the blackstone, and the ooni.

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I am not going to get rid of the old grill but I think its gonna get put in storage so free up some deck space. Could really use a cabinet/prep station. I would like to replace the blackstone with a Weber slate sometime this year as well. So excited for the deck space and grilling out all summer. Tested out the searwood a few nights last week with some drumsticks, brats, burgers. Over the weekend I did some steaks. My in laws have some beef ribs I am going to do next weekend.

On the bike side of things I had a crash last weekend that left my Epic with a small crack.

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Its mainly cosmetic but It is pushing me to get going on a project I have had in mind for awhile. I picked up a new rear end for this bike a few months ago with the plan to make my own front triangle for it.


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I already have the tubing and being able to utilize a tried and true rear end/linkage makes it a lot simpler. I made some small geometry adjustments for this first one but have plans for a second one. Id like to make a longer travel version that is 130mm rear and 150mm front that uses my own rear end but a very similar front triangle.

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One issue is I don't have time to machine the lugs myself right now. I had a manufacturer in china I was using for prototypes as my budget is very limited. The tariffs closed that door and I can't afford anyone in the US that I have gotten quotes from sadly. I found a few manufacturers in Taiwan that I am waiting for quotes from. I am really hoping I can get it down to a price I can afford. If the quotes come back in my budget then my goal is to have a frame together in 4 weeks. I have my first MTB race June 15th, in about 5 weeks, and I would really love to race it on my own frame.
 
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trytochaseme

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heres a better pic of the shower. Adjusted the blend valve and we have hot water now. So that was a nice easy fix.

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Better pic of the closet

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On my way to the dentist yesterday the tacoma decided to blow a u joint.
I guess I now know what the vibration I've been chasing was.

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Need to tie up driveshaft and see if I can put it in 4wd and limp it to my buddys shop a few miles away. Ontop of that I found a massive hole in the frame at the leaf spring mount, its really bad. So even once the driveshaft is replaced I don't wanna drive it much so I need to get the GTI back on the road.

I haven't touched the GTI at all, just a lack of time, motivation, and money. But now It has to get done. Most of what I wanted to do is going to have to wait. I did get the new shifter installed last night. Not an easy install lol.

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trytochaseme

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Here is first mockup with 3d printed lugs

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Got some quotes back for having the lugs machined overseas and not sure if i am going to be able to swing it right now. With vehicle issues and house stuff its a little much to spend. Might have to resort to making them myself but its gonna take me a long time as I will only be able to do a little bit each week.

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I think I have the design just about finalized. I sorted out kinematics for a custom billet rear end that would increase rear travel from 100mm to 135mm. Would also need a different linkage and shock. Would run that with a 150mm fork but would use the exact same front triangle.
 
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trytochaseme

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well the Tacoma is worse then I though...

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The leaf spring mount has completely rusted off. You can see in this pic that the bottom half of the frame is rotted out completely and so the leaf spring is now sitting 2" higher then it should be. If you pick the truck up off the ground that mount will fall down.

So I am full on getting the GTI back together and then we will give the tacoma some love. I ordered some nice APR coilovers which should let me get the GTI back and running. There are some other things I would like to do but not necessary for now.
 

jbmatth

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That is insane to see for me, being from southern Mo, Ok, and now southern Ks I have never had to deal with something even close to that bad. Good luck getting them both back together and on the road.

JB
 
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trytochaseme

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That is insane to see for me, being from southern Mo, Ok, and now southern Ks I have never had to deal with something even close to that bad. Good luck getting them both back together and on the road.

JB
haha you can tell where someone is from by their reaction to that photo. I had a buddy from the north and he goes oh thats not too bad. We can weld that easy enough. :ROFLMAO:

Slowly plucking away on the GTI

Shifter is all buttoned up

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New coilovers going in. Front end is almost back together.
Can kind of see the new aluminum subframe and heimed control arms.

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trytochaseme

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Had my 2nd race of the year and my first ever XC race over the weekend.
Life has been pretty busy over the last few weeks and I also ended up with a few injuries. These resulted in me barely being on the bike the last 4 weeks and going into last week I was unsure if I would be able to ride.

Thankfully was feeling a lot better by the weekend so it was on. The lack of prep was very much felt during the race, I did not hit my goal for the time like I hoped. I was also bummed about my starting position. This race the start order was determined by the order of sign up. This meant I was to start 36th with a rider being let off every 30 seconds. I knew I could be close to the top so I was worried about passing and getting held up.

Quite a few people did not show up, so many infant I ended up starting in 22nd. Within the first 2 miles I had passed 5 people. I got around all of them pretty well but each one is a few second delay everytime.

Towards the end of the first lap I was trying to take a drink from my camelback, i'm still not clear on what happened but I went over the bars and landed in some thick brush. I quickly bounced back up and was covered in the little pricker balls. Hoping back on the bike I realized my bars were twisted a bit but at that point I was just going to go for it.

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I ended up passing a total of 16 people and finished 1st for mens 19-29 and a 4th overall. What bummed me out was I was only 17 seconds back from 3rd and 33 seconds from 2nd. The top 3 guys all were at the front for start so all that passing and the crash definitely hurt me a bit there. I was just a little over a minute off from 1st so hindsight I wish I charged just a little harder, I know I had it in me. Oh well still had a lot of fun and first time finally making it on the podium. I've ended up 4th in so many races its cool to finally make it on the steps!

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I just did the sport class but I think next year I will probably do the Elite/Expert class. I was on pace for a top 10 finish there but that class does 3 laps verse the 2 that sport does.
 
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trytochaseme

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My dad is a big golfer, I golfed a lot when I was younger 10-12 ish. Played here and there up until about 16 and haven't played since.

Got back into it this summer and am pretty hooked. For years I've thought about making a putter but now that I am playing again I finally made it happen. The L.A.B. putters had me really interested so I figured I'd make my own.

Here is the iterations so far.

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The latest 2 on the end, one with a plastic insert and one solid aluminum. Also added hole to pick up the ball which works a million times better than trying to scoop them up with the previous version.

So far I am super happy with them. This weekend I had my best round yet, a 45 on the front 9 and got a birdie on the 11th hole. On track to break 90 till I had 3 triple bogeys in a row. Ended with a 95, Thats the roller coaster of golf.

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All my buddies are asking for one so prob knock out a batch of 20 or so. Would like to have the heads hard anodized but may cerakote some too.


Another plus of getting back into golf is my brother in law works at Agusta National so I can get into the Masters. I went about 10 years ago when he first started working there but haven't been since. My parents go down every year for it so going to try to make it next year.
 
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trytochaseme

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continuing with the golf fever I've gotten some more putters knocked out.

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Have a few guys running the big guy in blue now and so far everyone is loving it. Came up with a middle size and a smaller more blade like one as well. To get a good weight the blade has 2 carbide inserts. The middle size has a large plastic face. Going to also make one with a copper insert to try out. Still in the testing phase but have had quite a bit of interest in them. Want to polish them up some more then make a batch to try and sell.

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trytochaseme

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I am really liking the middle size putter. I am calling that one the Scoville 2nd degree. The large one is the 3rd degree and the blade style is the 1st Degree. Making a final polished version for myself with a bronze face insert. I gave it to our painter at worker and told him to go wild with it. This is what he brought back to me.

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I told him it was going to have a white shaft and copper face so he used those colors in it. Although I have since changed to a bronze face as I was worried about the copper not looking great once it patinas. I am still super stoked on it.

Just got the face insert done so I can epoxy it up tonight.

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On the bike side of things Its been a pretty lackluster summer due to injuries. Finally starting to get back in the groove though. Have 2 wheelsets for the crux now, one for road and one for gravel. Here it is in road mode with some big 38mm Shwalbe pro ones, got the first ride on them last night and super happy with them.

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trytochaseme

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The GTI finally lives... kinda

Gotten a few days over the last month to work on it and made good progress. Did not end doing all the upgrades I wanted but its not a big deal I just need the car on the road so the tacoma can go under the knife.

I started it up a few weeks ago for the first time since December. It started up right away but after idling for a minute started running really rough. If I revved it a bit it would mis fire so bad it would barely keep from stalling out. I have not touched anything related to the motor in all this so my hope was it was just bad gas. Last week I drained the tank and put some fresh gas in it. After running for a little bit and getting the old stuff out of the lines it seems to be running good now.

I got all the suspension wrapped up and the car back on the ground yesterday. I had done a quick bleed of the brakes but it needs to be done again. I am waiting for new brake pads to come in and then I will re bleed the brakes. Waiting for exhaust brackets show up, the new exhaust is currently being help up by zip ties. Once those come in I can get the back end back together.

Last issue is the shifter, I installed the motorsport tower short shifter but I already had a short shifter on the trans side. I found out this is a terrible combo, you can infact have to short of shifting. The difference between 1st and 3rd is literally 2mm. Ofcourse I did not seem to keep the oem shifter linkage and its not an easy part to find onlline. Hoping I can find a local junkyard with a mk7 I can go rob that linkage off of.

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Once all the mechanical stuff is wrapped up I need to get new tires for the BBS wheels and paint them silver. Will also most likely lower the front a little bit more. I think I am happy with how the rear is sitting but new tires could change that.

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The garage is an absolute mess at the moment, I was just rushing trying to get the GTI done. But man does it feel like I have way more space now! Time to finally get a couch and TV set up in here. Will be using the barn to store/work on the vehicles from now on.

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trytochaseme

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GTI is on the road and the shop is cleaned up.

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I had been debating for awhile selling the GTI in the spring and buying a GR Corolla. I've decided to just keep the GTI though, I really love this car. It is so much fun and going into 5 years of ownership now. I've never kept another car more then 2.5 years. My dream for the GTI has always been big turbo, AWD, and widebody. I've been collecting parts to do the AWD swap and now I just purchased half the parts needed for big turbo.

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I got a full fueling upgrade package for a pretty insane deal. Being that the 2.0t gen 3 is a direct injection to make power you need to add in port injection. This kit includes the intake manifold, fuel rail, injector, fuel lines, sensors, RS3 brushless pump, pump controller and wiring. Putting this kit together brand new cost more then the turbo and tune. I got it for 1/3 of the cost.

The turbo I want is the EQT Vortex, it is a stock turbo that has been bored out. On pump gas it will make 450whp and up to 530whp with a flex fuel tune. I think the kit I got may have the flex fuel sensors in it which would be sweet.

Stage 1 for this build will be the big turbo. If all goes well I'd get that done this winter but I need to get work done on the tacoma first so I am not holding my breath.

Stage 2 will be the AWD swap

Stage 3 will be the Wide body

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I have no time frame for any of that but eventually that is the goal. 2 years, 5 years, 10 years? who knows.
 

jbmatth

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Out of curiosity why not just sell the GTI and get a Golf R? A friend of mine near STL has a mk 7.5 with some upgrade putting around 500 to the wheels and that thing is brutal for a daily driver.

JB
 
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trytochaseme

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Out of curiosity why not just sell the GTI and get a Golf R? A friend of mine near STL has a mk 7.5 with some upgrade putting around 500 to the wheels and that thing is brutal for a daily driver.

JB
Im pretty set on wanting a 2 door and we never got a 2 door mk7 R in the states. For the most part an AWD swap on these isnt too bad. pretty much everything bolts in and then just need to so a little wiring.
 
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trytochaseme

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I mentioned earlier that I got back into golf this year. I felt like I've kind of plateud a bit with biking. To take my riding to the next level at this point would require a huge increase in hours a week. Besides doing a race or 2 a year I just ride for fun, but I do really enjoy the aspect of getting better and improving at things. I think thats why golf has really become almost an obsession this year for me. Its such a challenge against yourself and by no means a sport thats easy to get good at. My first round this year I shot a 112 on a relatively easy course. I'm now down to shooting mid 80's regularly. 2 Weeks ago I had a glimpse of breaking 80 but choked on the last 2 holes with a bogey and double bogey for a 81. My handicap started around a 24 and as of right now am sitting at an 11.

Our winters in michigan don't seem to get much snow anymore and our lack of mountains really kills my desire to snowboard much unless I am going out west. I need something to do during winters though or else I go insane. For a few years I did a lot of rock climbing but all the local gyms are 30 minutes away from me and I got sick of making that drive in winter. I've tried biking on an indoor trainer but I rather watch paint dry, words can not express my disdain for it. I used to play video games in the winter but I just don't have much of a desire to do that anymore and I much rather do an activity.

That leads me to my plan for this winter - Golf sim in the garage.
Earlier in the simmer I picked up this net and impact screen for very cheap. I also got a Garmin R10 launch monitor. Ive just been using it in the backyard to practice but now that its getting cold I moved everything inside. I think Its going to get a lot of use so I would like to make this setup a little nicer.

Here is how it looks as of moving it inside this week.

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One problem I have though, is how much room it takes up. It needs a lot of space but I'd also like to have a more permanent solution so I can use it year round. I went to a sim quite a bit this summer and used the net in the back yard just about every other day. But I also need to be able to use the garage door to bring stuff in and out as well as use that space to work on things.

Here is your plan

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I am going to get rid of this frame and net completely. Its also tweaked and really driving me crazy cuz it looks so off. My plan is to pick up some large black out curtains and hang them next to the garage door rails. These will easily be able to slide out of the way or completely removed if need be. I will also add a net or something over the top of the rails so a ball can't go flying into the ceiling.

The one part I am not sure how I want to do yet is the impact screen. Im debating trying to make a solution to mount it to the garage door itself or building a frame to mount it to that can pivot up and out of the way to open the garage door.

Then I want a larger turf section that I can remove floor tiles and put in so its more flush to the floor. The last piece of the puzzle is putting up a projector and getting a couch and TV. Then I can have my buddies over this winter to hang out.

Heres how the rest of the garage is looking at the moment. Planning on picking up some more cabinets soon. I have a lot of **** I need to put away somewhere in here with no where to put it lol.

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trytochaseme

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Had my 308 redone. Stoked on how it came out.

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It is a little bittersweet though as after this month I will no longer be working at gun shop. I have accepted a new position, will be working as a project engineer in a completely different industry. No more guns but it is a 30% pay increase with 3x the PTO and full benefits (currently receive zero benefits). I am ready for a change of pace too so little sad but also excited to move on. I did tell them I will keep doing design work for them as a contractor if they want but we will see, right now they seem pretty mad at me for leaving but when I haven't gotten a raise or any bonuses in 2 years and still only 1 week of PTO after almost 5 years. Its starts to get hard to find reasons to stay.

In bad new I hit a fat racoon with my GTI and it took out the front end. The AC condensor, radiator, intercooler all got jacked up.

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jbmatth

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Dang, that raccoon did a number on your car.

Sad to hear you are going away from the firearms side of things but completely understand the pay side of things. Companies more often than not seem to value new talent more than existing and don't do what is needed to keep them. Enjoy the extra money and PTO, both are very nice to have.

JB
 

HogDude

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Had my 308 redone. Stoked on how it came out.

IMG_6597-EDIT.jpg


It is a little bittersweet though as after this month I will no longer be working at gun shop. I have accepted a new position, will be working as a project engineer in a completely different industry. No more guns but it is a 30% pay increase with 3x the PTO and full benefits (currently receive zero benefits). I am ready for a change of pace too so little sad but also excited to move on. I did tell them I will keep doing design work for them as a contractor if they want but we will see, right now they seem pretty mad at me for leaving but when I haven't gotten a raise or any bonuses in 2 years and still only 1 week of PTO after almost 5 years. Its starts to get hard to find reasons to stay.

In bad new I hit a fat racoon with my GTI and it took out the front end. The AC condensor, radiator, intercooler all got jacked up.

IMG_6621-EDIT.jpg
Rifle looks awesome. Reminds me to get out and shoot a little.
For the career change I'd say that you handled it very well. Either they will come around or they won't. You did everything you could to be professional and considerate with the offer to contract for them. Well done young man. Best wishes in your new career.
 

Mr.zippy

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It sounds like over the years you have saved and helped the company with product development, as well as quicker processing. They failed at recognizing that.
My bet is they will see the error in their ways...but much too late.
 
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trytochaseme

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Thanks guys appreciate the words. Here is my final project I am trying to get wrapped up.

Been working on our first bolt action pretty much all year. There is a handful of different models we will have ranging from a plastic lightweight stock to a billet precision chassis. The injection molded stock has taken up a lot of my time this year but its finally getting passed into mold production. We got the first actions machined 2 weeks ago so now I am getting the billet chassis going.

Here is roughly how it will look except it won't have the billet stock. It will except a buffer tube to run any stock on. The way I designed it is they could also make a billet stock to fit in it or an adapter for a pic rail.

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I designed extrusions for the scope mount and forearm. I will have the forearm done and programmed next week. The main focus is on the main body of the chassis, that itself is a lot of work. I do not think I will have it done by the end of the month so will most likely be coming here after hours at the new job to get it done.

Here is the fixture I just got made this week for the first setup.

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Now to get the programming wrapped up for this OP then onto the fixturing for the second OP.

As for the GTI all the parts should be here in the next 2 days so hoping to have it back on the road this weekend.
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And here is a little golf project I am working on. I am gaming a set of Taylormade P790s but I do really enjoy but there are some things I don't like either. For 7-9 I really wanted to try out something smaller as I don't like how fat the sole and top line is on the 790s. I picked up this little older set of Titleist 712mb for pretty cheap and most of the faces looked untouched. They had some scratches and scraps from wear.

I played them a little and liked the feel of the head but not the shaft. On the 790s Im running MMT 125 S shafts and am happy with them but kinda wanted something a little lighter. I think a 105 shaft might be perfect but I found a set of MMt 85 S shafts for pretty cheap so picked them up to toss on the 712 heads.

Here are the heads pulled

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Decided I would give them a little blast

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here is a before and after, I prefer the less shiny look personally. Im waiting for paint to come in to redo the paintfill.

Here is the 7-P with the new shafts all glued up and drying.

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Really excited to try them out and see how they feel. The bad news is it looks the outdoor golf season is done for. I got to walk a quick 9 after work yesterday but we have snow forcasted as a possibility this weekend. Might be awhile before get to play outside now.

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trytochaseme

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Here is how the chassis will look after OP1. This was the first one testing out some programming

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Does some of the grip area about the back side. Waiting on some very long holders to come in so I can drill the grip bolt hole. Need a 14" long holder to reach past the hole tombstone and get it in there. In this pic you can also see the tri-lobe feature I put in the buffer tube hole. My thought behind this was if they end up wanting to go along with a custom billet stock like I originally wanted to do it can slide in to that tri-lobe and be perfectly straight. No need to worry about threading it in, this will look much cleaner. There is a set screw that sits under the grip to lock that in. Feature that may never get used now but I think its still worth including so if they do add a billet stock down the road its backwards compatible with all produced chassis.

Here it is after sorting out all the tool paths, programming in a loop system with subprograms and macros (will come in handy once I add in probing to make sure parts are seated correctly. Will also be used to determine if it is a short or long action chassis to be machined).

IMG_6665-EDIT.jpg

That is OP1 about 85% done, Ready to move on to the second OP, but I am waiting for some clamps to come in.

My plan is to remove the vise and on the back side of this tombstone it will look like this.

Screenshot 2025-11-07 at 12.45.16 PM.png

Going to machine the first test piece for this fixture idea, the clamps should be here monday to test out.

Well I am waiting for the clamps I decided to get going on the forend. Here it is after first few test cuts. No issues so far, just need to add last few features and should be good to go.

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trytochaseme

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Here is first test setup for the OP2 fixturing. Only has 1 clamp in this pic but there will be 3 of them.

IMG_6684.jpg

Here is how the part fits on it from OP1. It locates on 2 dowels off the Action mounting holes. 2 clamps push out on the magwell to hold it and a 3rd on in the trigger pocket. I drill 3 holes all the way through the stock in OP1 so that I can reach an allen in to tighten the clamps for OP2. In this pic the holes aren't all in the right locations but you get the idea.

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Then after some quick programming here is how the first one is looking. Having to use some really long holders and its always sketchy when the pallet is rotated away from the window and you can't see anything thats going on. Thankfully no crashes so far.


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By no means perfect but a solid starting point.

With it all machined you can now easily see the 3 wedge clamps that are holding the part in place. Well you can easily see the 2 in the magwell. The 3rd one is in the trigger pocket behind the little slot there. The Middle clamp is the largest one and will actually pull the part down well it expands. So that one helps keep the part stuck down to the fixture and then the other 2 just kinda give it a little more sticking power to help with chatter and vibration.

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trytochaseme

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Here is my personal 700 Chassis mostly put together now.

Screenshot 2025-12-29 at 9.26.18 AM.png


Also have finally started cranking out on the barn. It was pretty full of **** so we got emptied out, put coat of paint on the walls. Got new LED lights up, pulled down all the conduit so we can run it more neatly/less crooked, and started the floor.

He was last bit of work before we started blasting the floor
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Here is first little bit we did with the blaster

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The goal was to get it all blasted Saturday and then do the epoxy on Sunday but that didn't work out. I think my father in law was going to try to do the epoxy today well Im working.

We also found out we do technically have 3 phase in the barn as well. I say technically because we don't have 3 phase service but there is 3 legs of 208 I think? I don't remember exactly, somehow its not quite full 3 phase well still being enough to run our little machines without a phase converter. So that's sweet.

Not sure exactly how we are going to do the walls. I think it's going to be a mix of steel and slat wall but hoping we can get the CNC's moved in here before spring or around spring time.
 
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trytochaseme

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1.5months in at the new job and so far so good. This company is local to me but was purchased by a huge danish company about 2 years ago. Our parent company wants to start sourcing more machined and fabricated parts in the states, especially for customers in the states, and that's a large part of my position. I got an email about a week ago at 2:30pm on a Friday, they asked if I could source a replacement shaft for one that broke in a machine, and they needed it in exactly 1 week.

I wish I could post the print of this shaft but sadly you will have to use your imaginations. It is a 1,200mm (47" freedom units) shaft with its main diameter being under 12mm. It then has grooves every few inches that go down to 6mm diameter and it has to be food safe so it's made out of a nice soft 303ss. It also has some ratcheting teeth milled into it.

The print I was sent was very confusing and it made it look like the teeth were machined along the entire part! In reality they were only machined along 2 5mm sections. I asked for a CAD file right away but they said not to get my hopes on that.

I started reaching out to a bunch of shops I have used already and some new shops. Immediately start getting replies that my deadline is not possible, I would ask what a deadline is they could make the part in and they would tell me its a no quote. 15 shops no quoted me on this! not a single shop would touch it. Tuesday I had a quick call with our parent company to talk about this, they then informed me that this Is for a very large and well known candy manufacturer and that they have kinda dropped the ball on this part. It has needed to be replaced since last April (9 months ago) and the manufacturer is rightfully upset about it, so much so that if they don't have this part by the line shut down date (the following Monday, aka 4 business days away now) they would likely lose them as customer.

They also clarified some details of the shaft that were unclear in the print and let me know they did have someone working on a cad model and were hoping I would have it that same day. Wednesday morning comes and the no quotes from shops are still coming in and no cad model to be seen. I let them know time is running out, if I can't get a cad model today our chances are going to go from almost 0 to 0.

Around lunch time Wednesday a cad file finally hits my inbox but it is a eDrawings file which is basically just a picture. You can look at the part but you are not able to actually take measurements or anything of it. Thankfully within 30 minutes I was able to get an actual step file and I was back to the races.

I reached out to a shop I use to work at, I talked to my old boss who had already no quoted this. I told him if he can do the turning I will handle all the milling here in house but I need it done by Friday morning so that I can finish it Friday. I told him that is any way possible for him to name his price and we will pay it, not having the part isn't really an option. He told me he would knock it out himself Thursday evening and then I could pick it up first thing Friday morning. Perfect!

10:30pm Thursday night I got a call from him.... He was un able to make the part, he went through the material I supplied and some he had in house. $#%^$

Only option now was to make it myself on machines I'm not familiar with.

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It wasn't the easiest but it wasn't as bad as I thought either. Made a couple small mistakes that I wish I had the time to make a second one but they said it will work.

I just did a few inches at a time, It was crazy how much it would sag when I would remove the tailstock. After 43" I flipped it to finish the other end. I was very worried about it bending in the spindle and it would not fit in just a standard sleeve. So I printed up some pieces that would fit on it by locating in the grooves. I split it into halves and then made a collar that would slide over to hold it together. Quickly printed it Friday night so I could finish it up Saturday.

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Somehow worked perfectly. Lastly was the ratcheting teeth, I made a clamp that had 7 sides so I could locate off it for the 7 teeth. Put one on each end so they were in line with each other.

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It all worked out, the part was hand delivered yesterday morning and hopefully it fits and works ha.
 
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