When the color drains away....

Have you ever caught yourself looking at the sky, wishing you were almost anywhere else?  I went there today...

yeah, it's dark and cold

Got some not so great news, and it just drained the color out of today.....  There were wisps of smoke coming from that direction, some rumbles...  But this was......

I spent all day on the run today, 170 miles to the first stop, then back down south 140 to the next one, then 130 miles home.  I was bushed, but I NEEDED some therapy... 

And I have a loaner tap, so lets get out to the shop and work on that float lock vise.

I relieved the hole from the back of the jaw about 0.5" so I didn't have to tap the whole thickness of the jaw.  Used a 2 flute .5" endmill at about 1000 rpm.  Just dipped a bit and out, lube, dip, out, lube, dip, out...  The rhythm was nice.  No thoughts needed.

I dug up my smaller tap wrench.  Don't want to twist another tap off.  Just barely take a cut, then back out to break the chip, then in and back and it's stuck, okay a little more cut, then back out... okay chip broke off, great!  flush with WD-40 and some more Tap Magic, then in again, then back up..... over and over for an hour.  Good rhythm.

This stuff is GOLD.

Till the tap dropped through, and I was done.  I felt relief, but not much elation. 

Test fit the ACME threaded rod.  And it's a good fit for a vise.  A little slop, but not too much.

The rod is waiting in the Logan. 

Hey Mac, lets get on with it!

Next step is cutting and polishing the .500 cold rolled rod. 
Then the handle and pivot cap.

I can hardly wait to get this in the book and get on to the next project. 

I gotta go roll off a burden.  Ya'll take care.  See ya soon.