What did you do today?

[danlb]

...and then they were gone. Never seen wild turkeys here before, and we've been here for 49 years. Big birds, all right.

-js

They are much more common than they used to be. A local hospital (San Ramon Regional) has a flock that live in the area. I went in for an early morning appointment and had to dodge the males who were "guarding" the door to the pre-op entrance. A big stupid male had driven 5 females up a small (10 foot tall) tree and was circling it like it was a proud achievement. He charged anyone who came near his tree of concubines.

They won't let us trap or kill them.

Dan

[Tim Clarke]

Not today, but yesterday I was salmon fishing on the Oregon coast

[Bob Engelhardt]

Not today, but yesterday I was salmon fishing on the Oregon coast

I can tell it was a very good day because of the big smile without a big fish.

[mattthemuppet]

beautiful part of the world there Tim, that's for sure.

We saw a big family of wild turkeys driving through the Black Hills in South Dakota. Pretty neat. Less neat is when you're resting under a tree on a night mountainbike ride and the turkey in it decides to give you an ear full. Very nearly literally scared the crap out of me.

[lugnut]

yesterday I was salmon fishing on the Oregon coast
Tim, was that in Newport? it looks like the South jetty in the background.

[Tim Clarke]

yesterday I was salmon fishing on the Oregon coast
Tim, was that in Newport? it looks like the South jetty in the background.

No, it's the north jetty of the Siuslaw, about 1/2 mile from the bar. It's been awhile since I was in Newport, but it does look similar.

[Dan Dubeau]

Finished machining this (5 of 8) mold half tonight


Still felt productive when I got home so I decided to start and finish painting this perch swimbait I made almost a year ago. I've been too scared to screw it up, because this is only the 3rd time I've ever airbrushed anything, but I don't think a muskie or pike will be too critical lol.

Will give it a proper clear coat sometime in the next couple days, make some eyes, then put it together and hopefully use it shortly.

[Dave C]

Looking good Dan. It's been a long time since I've done any muskie fishing.

[Dave C]

Finally got around to making a knob for the valve on the jack for my hydraulic press. Was supposed to be a ten minute job, but turned into a several hour pita.
Hand filed the stem from oval to square to fit the hole in the knob.

Held the stem by it's threads between two pieces of particle board in the vise. Forgot to make a pic. but got it to fit.


I thought that was the hard part, but now had to come up with a way to hold the thing in the lathe to drill and tap 8-32 for the knob retaining screw.
couldn't find a nut to fit, so resorted to the metric tap and die set. Got lucky and found a M10 -1.0 die that fit, and drilled out a 3/8 washer to stop against the stem's shoulder.

[Dave C]

Chucked in the lathe, drilled 1/2" deep, and tapped 8-32. Kept the tapered shank just loose enough in the quill to allow turning the drill chuck by hand,

Done and the jack is back on the press.
Wahoo!

[Arcane]

This morning I made a trip downtown to pick up a new telephone handset cord.

My dog chewed through the previous one while I was on the phone!

She's never showed any interest at all in any other cables or cords so I was taken by surprise when she did that. I put it down to it swinging back and forth as I talked and that got her attention.

BTW, I quickly forgave her.

[Tim Clarke]

This morning I made a trip downtown to pick up a new telephone handset cord.

My dog chewed through the previous one while I was on the phone!

She's never showed any interest at all in any other cables or cords so I was taken by surprise when she did that. I put it down to it swinging back and forth as I talked and that got her attention.

BTW, I quickly forgave her.

Okay, I just GOTTA ask: on your avatar photo, which one is you, and which one is she?

[Tom S]

Sent out the metal brackets from the bench for the Cataract I'm rebuilding out for sandblasting, came back today. A couple of them have damage, but it's nothing I can't work around. Gave them a coat of paint before they could start rusting.

[Tim The Grim]

Finished my 4 day 20 hour stint in a die shop. Feet and calves having a hard time. Great cushion mats, arches in my safety shoes but if I do it again it’s no more than 3 days straight.
I got him caught up and got paid.

The local purveyors of fine spirits get my business tomorrow. 🥃

[Dan Dubeau]

Looking good Dan. It's been a long time since I've done any muskie fishing.

Thanks. I haven't done any "intentional" muskie fishing in a long time either. Seems I've always caught more by accident than on purpose lol. Fish of a thousands cast they say....

Glued it all together tonight, and put the fins in. DONE. Too scared to throw it now though, but will try to get out this weekend to at least swim test it. I got a little epoxy on the tail hinge so hopefully I can scrape that out to free it up when it dries. Rookie move. This was the second lure I ever carved, then put it on the shelf and made a few more before getting back to it. Lots of fun but I would like to make another one with a couple changes I didn't like. I just finally picked up an airbrush compressor the other night so that got me itching to get back to learning how to paint.



Perch are a big baitfish around here and you can almost never go wrong throwing a perch pattern. I've been chipping away at 3d modeling a "master" perch body that I can cut up/scale into a few different lure sizes for both soft plastics and hard bodies, and have quite a few ideas on how to milk the platform. I'll get back to some 3d printing of molds and masters shortly. And hopefully some aluminum casting again soon.