Posts Made By: James C Chandler Jr

Am ignorant of most everything including AR-15 type rifles, but was studying Herb's stock of Sig 556 rifles and pistols. Also hunted up some youtube videos on em.

Most of the Sig 556 rifles appear to be 16" barrel (with some longer barrels available). The Sig 556 pistol has the 10" barrel and slighly shorter fore-grip.

Hard to tell perfectly from the pictures, but the pistol's 'pistol grip' seems to be shaped a little different than the rifle's pistol grip, but not radically different.

The shape of the pistol's receiver looks very similar to the rifle's. In fact, where a collapsible stock attaches to a round port on the rifle, is what appears to be an identical round-shaped fixture on the pistol.

So is the rear fixture on the pistol functional, just filled with a plug? If one wanted the option of turning the Sig 556 pistol into a very short rifle, could one just attach a sig collapsible stock? Is it just a matter of twisting a few screws, or is it more complicated?

Similarly, how difficult is it to remove the collapsible stock from a sig 556 rifle, and would that somehow break any laws? Gun law is so 'non-intuitive'. Admittedly a 16-inch barrel pistol might be too front-heavy and cumbersome, but if one had a sig 556 rifle and wanted to experiment with it as a pistol, would that be an easy option?

Have never dissasembled an AR-15 type firearm. Is it a quick job, or a frustrating techie job, to swap barrels?

Guess you can see where this line of questioning goes. I like tinkertoy gadgets, and was wondering how idiotic it might be to get a few spare parts and have the option of either rifle or pistol, depending on one's whim?

It is surprising that Uncle Rod did not mention this exciting (g)astronomical event:

http://www.volunteertv.com/news/headlines/35466029.html

"MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - Mobile will ring in 2009 with chocolate, graham cracker and marshmallow.

Partygoers at the city’s New Year’s Eve celebration will dine on the world’s largest Moon Pie, courtesy of the Chattanooga, Tenn., bakery that’s been making the treats since 1917. The dimensions were not immediately available, though company officials have talked in the past about making a 60-pound, 4-foot-diameter pie for the city."

http://www.cato.org/special/stimulus09/cato_stimulus.pdf

Watching off'n'on with the sound off. I want some of what Pelosi is smoking.

Am beginning to learn about .223 AR type gadgets, so perhaps will ask multiple dumb questions soon.

For starters, is there a difference between .223 Rem versus 5.56mm ammo for these things?

I could google rather than asking, but one time it took a bit of searching to confidently determine that .380 Auto is the same as .380 ACP, so a dumb question may be quicker. Sometimes experts assume that everyone knows the answer to such trivia.

Dunno about the misery thang, but if just looking for a boring place...

Long ago spent a month in Abilene TX. It wasn't a bad burg as far as I could tell. However, the locals I met did not consider the home town especially exciting. It was the first time i heard the expression, "The most exciting thing to do around here is watch the cars rust." They had some pretty nice restaurant steaks, tho.

For the blue dogs, the tax and spend may be causing election defeat nightmares.

In my neck of the woods, to have a chance at the polls, a democrat has to be conservative enough to make northern republicans look commie. PERHAPS the tax and spend will hang targets on blue dogs' backs.

Listening to NPR news, Monday or Tuesday, there were some audio clips of congress grilling of Geithner and Bernanke that didn't sound good. I googled today, and must have been using the wrong search terms because couldn't find corroborating text.

One line of questioning (I think of Geithner) was, (paraphrased) "Is there a limit to how much the government can borrow, before people quit loaning us money? And do we know how close to this limit we have reached?" And the response was (paraphrased) "Of course there are limits, but we don't know what they are."

A question of Bernanke was if the bailouts are gonna work and if Wall Street will buy it. Bernanke replied in the ballpark, "I was criticized when I took this job because I'm a college professor and not a Wall Street guy, so I really don't have any idea if this is going to work."

Eeeek!

Bones McCoy: "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor not a bricklayer!"

Maybe this is old news, but found a local fellow's site which has scans of some charming old gun magazine ads and articles.

http://www.mouseguns.com/blast/blast.htm

This one is a favorite:

http://www.mouseguns.com/blast/bigguns.gif

I would buy the semi-auto 20mm anti-tank rifle rather than the 25mm cannon, because it is doubtful that the 25mm cannon would fit thru the fence gate at the range . The ad copy is well-written and funny.

I think Obama should spend more time with vintage R&B parties in the white house, learning to bowl, and celebrity TV shows. There are many that deserve attention-- David Letterman, Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show. Possibly some guest appearances on "24". In addition to the obligations of wining and dining numerous foreign dignitaries.

Am not singling out Obama. It would have been better if Bush and Cheney had spent more time with such distractions, and I'd love it if Nancy Pelosi would spend a lot more time visiting with the Pope. It would be worth every tax dollar spent on her sabbatical.

It is just an opinion that the best govt does little or nothing. The busier O can be with TV shows and personal appearances, the less time he will have to 'help' us. Keep up the fluff, PLEASE!

A generic question re accurate vs inexpensive measuring tools. Encountered a problem this weekend measuring bullets, but the same issue impacts anything requiring accuracy, including telescope parts.

I don't have expensive measuring tools. Have an Ace Hardware ancient made-in-usa 1" micrometer that did not cost much a long time ago. Also an old made-in-switzerland nylon-fiberglass 6" dial caliper, and a newish Harbor Freight 8" digital caliper that is built impressively good for the low price. And a couple of inexpensive dial gauges.

Maybe the nylon-fiberglass dial caliper and steel digital caliper have drifted with time, but I usually use them for relative measurements where repeatable numbers are more important than absolutely accurate numbers. The dial and digital calipers are both quite repeatable. I thought I was getting better numbers out of them in the past, but maybe I never checked closely enough and they have always been off.

Was measuring a nice bullet from a reputable manufacturer that is supposed to be 0.355" dia. The HF digital caliper kept telling me 0.350. The swiss dial caliper kept telling me 0.352. So I dug out the ancient cheap slightly-corroded General/National micrometer, which measured EXACTLY 0.355. Not 0.3545 -- Not 0.35525 -- Exactly 0.355 as was the spec on the part. Spooky close to the expected value that probably is not an accident.

Spent awhile web-searching. Most comments from machinists say the Harbor Freight digital calipers are about as accurate as more-expensive Japanese digital calipers (perhaps the same factory nowadays). Guys who had directly compared HF digital calipers to their pricier calipers and got the same readings within 0.001".

Couldn't find any web info on how to calibrate a capacitance sensing caliper. Took it apart, blew it out, reassembled and messed with the physical tracking adjustments, but it remains consistently 0.005" off.

If the distance is 0.1", it measures 0.095. If the distance is 1", it measures 0.995. Repeatable as you please, just 0.005 short on every measurement (compared to the old micrometer which appears dead-on).

Assorted questions come to mind:

1. Since this HF caliper looks spookily similar to mid-price Mitutoyo calipers, does anyone know what calibration procedure would be performed to fix a Mitutoyo with this problem? I can't find web links of ANYONE having this issue with HF digital calipers. Web reports give the impression that they are either accurate or they don't work at all and you throw em in the trash.

2. Would one buy the same problem (or worse) with mid-price stainless dial calipers? How much would you have to spend to get a stainless dial caliper accurate at or below 0.001" absolute? Reckon anybody but China makes calipers nowadays? Read web reports that some recent Mitutoyo calipers are Chinese nowadays. I don't have a beef with China or any other nation. Would just like to get an accurate caliper . Preferably without spending a fortune.

3. Are modern mid-price micrometers likely any better? There are relatively inexpensive micrometer group sets nowadays (my lonely ancient micrometer only goes up to 1" max, and would at least like to measure 8" occasionally).

My old rusty micrometer probably cost less than $25 a long time ago, and seems dead-on accurate to at least a thousanth. Would a modern similarly-cheap micrometer be likely the same accuracy, or would it be the same crap-shoot as with modern inexpensive calipers?

Maybe it isn't a crap shoot and I'm the proud owner of the only inaccurate digital caliper in the world. Am hoping to avoid becoming the proud owner of MANY inaccurate measuring tools in the search of something better .

Thanks!