DCB, fwiw i wasn't implying that you should post more and keep us "free readers" informed!!!  Good grief man, you're up at 4AM working!

I was just sort of surprised not to see any comments on FAL vs AR, politics, nukes in the Sinai, good books,etc!

Keep on keeping on!

Yep, Keep On Keepin' On Mr. DCB!  Most of us here (I can only truly speak for myself) are patiently and quietly waiting for you to shut off the steam to the Automatic Comma Hammer, put down the Jeweler's Files, set aside the Buffing Cloth, step back and say "It IS Finished!  Look Upon What I Have Wrought!"  Then, and ONLY THEN will we do a Collective Happy Dance!



Until then, some of us will lurk, some will poke and prod when we can no longer stand the silence, and some will do both!



Thanks Again DCB!

I just found the link to this story.  Has it been published for sale yet?   I didn't find it on Amazon.  I do like it and saw some of the comments about Injured reserves and bought it.  Was hoping to finish this story first.  I'm willing to pay full price.  This is a great story.

No, it hasn't been published yet on Amazon. DCB will give us advanced notification here before it's available on Amazon. Read IR first as it sets the stage for the Gehriverse in The Soldier's Son.

General Note: present.  Making/forcing time.  Editing/filling.  For instance,

who might remember a plastic vase, filled with plastic flowers, that Billy found

on the road/scene of his father's murder?  That looked as if it was placed by a child.

Her name is Pilar.  She was a victim of Tim Bassinger's, who escaped.  She will

be important someday....fitting her in now.



General Note: with no promises, time forward is 'compressing' towards finish/

publication.  Absent a resume/publication history, very much understand ongoing

concern that this will not be finished/etc./etc.--so I will repeat, short of death, this

is what I have planned as on occupation/job/identity for 'many years'--and short of

death, will do so.  And I'm very healthy.



--Piddler, no harm no foul on comments.  This is the one task I have which does

not tolerate multi-tasking, but multi-task I must, for at least awhile.  I hope some

of your questions .re FAL/S/AR15/other platform were addressed.  On nukes: there

is, as all here must assume to be true, vast/infinite/ongoing 'gaming' at the highest

levels for any/all conflicts/conflicting parties.  There is a very strong 'spike' of probability

in many scenarios that the first 'nuke' will be a demonstration, as opposed to a 'test'--

the Norks 'test' as a 'display' activity (same as wearing a football jersey, or chimp vocalizations)

the key marker of first demonstration is 'cross border' activity, not fatalities/property damage.

A real hit on occupied/city/port is probably not recoverable.  A strike on unoccupied but

cross-border territory is the last step before a real exchange.  This is the scenario I am

addressing: escalation, with many many steps along the way.  On reading/good books/etc.

I will point back to anything by Le Carre, Churchill, and perhaps the best of all, any version

of "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom"--in all these texts, the Devil (and The Angels) will be found

in the details.



--GreenGiant, understood, and very much appreciate the poking and the prodding.  So far this

has taken a bit more than twice as long as I thought it would.  Book is also about 40k words

longer than I had originally assumed from my notes/blueprint.  So I am very grateful for every

one who has stuck with this.  Comma Hammer and Buffing Cloth I'm afraid need to occupy

my mind and hands for many years.  And chisels.  And tweezers.  And regardless, it is my nature

to see only tone drops, missed opportunities, and so on...



--Flash57, very pleased to see you.  A new mind who has found there way to the end of a two

year thread.  I see below that mnmiv has responded to your question, and he is exactly correct.

Flash, on Injured, if you are comfortable doing so, please post a brief review.  The 'star' rankings

are very important.  Injured has two 'one star' reviews from individuals who 'severely were

at odds with the material'--it takes about twenty five star reviews to undo the damage of a

single 'one star' review.  Absent those two drive-by reviews, Injured would be the top-ranked

Kindle Single on Amazon, a position it held once....for about a week.  Absent those...and if

pigs had wings...



General Note: off Flash57/mnmiv--given my many failed predictions, I will do a rough count-down,

but PUBLISH BEFORE I ANNOUNCE IT HERE, by a matter of a day or two.  This has to do with

checking formatting as published/other issues .re the Amazon platform, and so on.  In other

words, given my history, when I say "IT IS PUBLISHED" I will already have downloaded a

functional copy for myself.  But we are talking only 24/48/s lag here, at the most.



-mnmiv, exactly, and thank you.




GENERAL NOTE: much thanks to those of you who find search phrase:

Cant wait for the release. Keep the great work going.

--zoe17, you crack me up dude.  In the best way.  And a handshake for all the other night-owls.

And zoe17, when you post, would be awesome if you might cite whatever you are reading.

We all look forward to every post brother.  Keep up the good work.

DC,

Eagerly anticipating the finished product.

As much as I hate to say it, take your time; get the story to the point that you'll have no regrets. It will never be perfect in your eyes; but you're the sculptor, you'll know when it's complete.

Maybe we can all chip in on a pneumatic comma hammer, you can leave it running while you sleep. No rush though.....

Keep on.

Yup...

Just checking in to say hello and wish you well DCB and group.
Trying to do my part for the cause while you're all doing yours as well.

Just a quick word of Hello and wish for all the best of this still relatively New Year to all the participants of DC's story. All of your comments are part of the weave, the iambic to his pentameter, the backbeat to his lead guitar.

I've been a bit busy, travels and journeys (not always one in the same). Looking forward to catching up (I see some chatter about FAL's - thank you stimpsonjcat!, so you know my interest is peaked).

As the Black Swans proliferate and liars get more frantic remember -

"The Season of Failure is the best time for sowing the Seeds of Success" - Paramahansa Yogananda

---TEXT REMOVED 01072019 .RE EPUB TOS ETC.----

Outstanding. The refinements have done your story well. I especially like that The Soldier calls Gabriel by name. Also, the section titles are a great addition.

Great job, glad to see the comma buffer has been put to use.

Keep on.

Thanks, DC.  Can't wait to see the rest of it.

I guess I should have asked this over a year ago.  I also feel stupid asking now.  Aren't Big Gulp cups red and white and made of styrofoam? Living in a town so small we have to pipe in sunlight, I can't run down to the corner 7-11 and check it out!

an ancient bench top Bridgeport lathe would be more accurate than a Briggs and Stratton (B&S were/are small engine and costumer goods manufacturer)

--heron, (UPDATED JAN. 31/06) MUCH THANKS and correct on Bridgeport lathe--a correction made

earlier here (years ago...ouch) by an astute member.  Used to be Derbyshire watchmaker's lathe.

Briggs/Stratton is precisely kind of mistake I make writing/remembering "sound" and not "content."

Very irritating to see this (false) substitution make it this far into an edit.  Hopefully there are not

too many of these...



MORE LATER/SOON COMMENTS AND UPDATES--

IIRC it should be "Chinga tu madre" or Chingate

Comments and comments of previous comment PFfunk, Field/MP, Piddler, et al.---




--2T2/Crash--oh man.  Chica/girl--chinga--well, there we go.  Writing/reading for sound as


well as content I miss dozens of these.  Most fortunate--main proof reader is a kind of savant--


she proofed Injured, short story: Injured is accepted by Kindle Single editor--supposed to be


yay yay yay!!--ah, well...no.  Main topic of conversation: proving I was not published writer using


Kindle Single program to launch/create a new pen name.  Why?  Because Savant Lady proofed Injured


into a zero error doc., which he had never seen outside of publishing houses, and never ever ever

from an indie/unknown writer.

So much fun!


I am sure Proofing Lady Savant will be tearing her eyes out when she sees this. And that will


be pretty soon.  Much thanks, 2T2/C.



--PFfunk we are full squared, more shortly.



--Field/MP much thanks and getting close at last.



--Piddler no stupid questions here not at this level of dialogue--branding/nomenclature/all included--

Big Gulp used here as generic "big soda" same same tampax/tampon, the brand becomes the object.

Might be an error.  Not sure but pretty sure: big yellow huge plastic soda cups seen/used at 7/11.



GENERAL NOTE: and now, looking behind the curtain, everyone can look at the micro-fiddling of an

edit, and why it never ever seems to properly....DONE.  Just FFFF.

No problem! I am pretty good at cursing in at least six languages.

The Briggs and Stratton was a wow for me.  I was thinking I didn't know they made Lathes.  But I also shined it on as maybe they made them to help ramp up the arms industry during WWII. Like when International Harvester made Rifles.

DC - I see a lot of question marks where I don't expect them to be. Is that an issue of formatting not lining up in a copy and paste or are they there on purpose? I am not the most literary guy so there may be some creative aspect of their use that I'm not understanding...

I could be completely off base here, but I do have a little bit of time around a machine shop, and much more time tinkering with mechanical things and fabricating things. I cannot think of a reason that a person would use a lathe to build sights for a pistol.  Unless he was using a milling attachment for the lathe, or it was a combination machine, a mill makes a lot more sense to me.  I don't know of a good reason why someone with the resources that the Gear's(Gehr?) Have would want to use a machine that isn't ideal for the job.

Sorry if I'm wrong, or ignorant, but the lathe thing jumped out at me.

I agree.  A Bridgeport Milling machine makes more sense for making sights.  

Comments, and a proposal on Bridgeports/mills/lathes/other!





--PFunkk much thanks and more on the way!





--Field/MP thank you as well, and yep, almost.....almost....done.  And then the next....





--Piddler, I'm gonna go agnostic on the cups.  I swear I had a huge yellow Big Gulp somewhere....also


Piddler, will post a pic soon of your book "ingredients/components"--leather covers (black), silver dollar,


empty brass and so on.  Hoping to make some kind of artifact.  Will be my first 'book'--but I like fiddling


with stuff, hand tools, and so on.





--heron, see below, need to figure out this lathe/mill thing.  And now we all observe why edits, detailed


edits, are 'never really done."





--2T2, squared on chica/chinga--outstanding.





--Trapshooter, Briggs and Stratton DID make lathes, including bench top--but the phonetics/association/


subconscious is 'lawn-mowers' and therefore dissonant in this context.  More below--





--greyguy good to see you and could you copy/past BRIEF example of question marks/formatting issue?


Would like to know, and might need to know.





--DFARM, and CURRENTLY, would love to get final take on this lathe/mill issue.  My original draft had a


Derbyshire watchmakers bench top lathe, because I actually saw same being used to cut/mill sights


and trigger parts long, long ago.  Another comment suggested "bridgeport"--so long ago on this thread


that I fear to find it.  My phonetic brain transposed "bridgeport" into Briggs Stratton (un-good).





--SO.  WHAT WOULD BE IDEAL BENCH TOP MILL/LATHE for Pop Gehr?  He would use a functional antique.


The older, the better.  He wants brass and Victorian script and he will regrind the beds/gears/everything


to make it last forever.  As a Chief Librarian he prides himself above all else in finding value in the past.


What would he use????



--Stay with "Bridgeport Milling Machine"--???





--StimpsonJ, if you are around, I am pretty sure you have a solution here?





Ok, back to work!





DCB

 

Were I work at they have an old Bridgeport mill. They added a few modern day gadgets to it. I bet this one was made in the 40s
Trust me on this the guy that runs the shop thinks the money to buy tools is coming out of his pocket,  so he bus old stuff that nobody wants anymore.

it looks like it has been around the block a time or two.

Just from a quick search, the Pratt and Whitney stuff looks like something that a person interested in working antiques would have around, perhaps with some custom conversion to electric drive.

http://lathes.co.uk/prattwhitneymiller/

These look as cool to me as my 105 year old sewing machine that I rescued from a woman with no respect for good tools. Lol

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratt_%26_Whitney_Measurement_Systems

the pratt and whitney would be my choice - google that and you will see some real masterpieces...

here is what I picture as Pop Gehr's set up:

Bridgeport mill is fine.

They are the Garands of the milling world...they last forever if cared for.

I have a crappy Enco 10x54 that had a bird-nest in it when I got it.

--Trapshooter12 I see you/all on the Bridgeport, (money coming out of his own pocket, Trap you mind

if I borrow that????) more below:



--DFarm, the Pratt/Whitney NAILS IT!!!!  And on the sewing machine, well we are all librarians here,

of books and ideas and tools, and some/many have never been improved...."...Billy's Father and Grandfather

had cut the sights on an antique Pratt and Whitney bench top mill the size of a dollhouse, or a Victorian

sewing machine..."



--DFarm, yes, closing in...Pratt and Whitney, more below....



--heron163,....PERFECT!!!!  A sight as pure as purest snow, first icicle in a new winter...flawless.

So, a story: a gunsmith, who bid/broke up/hunted down the shops/materials/artifacts of his ancestors.

Long ago I saw his shop.  He had sourced and repaired an original Pratt and Whitney 'spline' barrel

cutting machine from  WW1 or WW2, does this exist, don't want to google. He kept it under cosmoline

and wax paper, too expensive to cut barrels against modern button rifling/hammer forging/other.

An artifact, a piece of impossible history.  A book, in a library...I wonder where it is, now....



--StimpsonJ, can we settle, all and one, on the Pratt and Whitney?  A peak behind the curtain, and 'writing

for sound' as well as meaning...Pratt and Whitney stinks of our collective past...



Ok, back to work.



DCB

I have to cast my vote for Brown & Sharpe.

Bridgeport is too new. It is a post-war product.
Browne & Sharpe was the leader in machine tool technology from the late 1800s up to WWII. They invented the modern milling machine in 1861.
They also produced all other manner of machine tools including lathes, surface grinders, screw machines, etc.

When I think of antique machine tools that are timeless I think Brown & Sharpe.

Disclaimer: I'm just a hobby machinist, but I did spend 4 hours on a milling machine today making freedom.

--airsix, good to see you!!!



--Browne and Sharpe...I feel our collective pain...a perfect name, deeply obscure...and accurate...

now does the collective us see why a proper edit, composed only for us???  Can take forever.



And properly, should, take forever.



But we do not have forever.



Events press against us.



And our job is to stay ahead.



And warn.



--airsix, might I remind you that the comments here are the footnotes, the proper expansion, extended

to infinity, of this story?  I am only writing what we all know.  My only distinction is that I have made

the time, and have sourced (some) of the proper instruments.



Hello, airsix.



DCB

DC you can have what ever I say.  

This guy is with money is tighter than a Frogs ass in a pond. He steps over Dollar bills to pickup nickels and dimes.

Dating myself a bit here.  Back in the 60's when I was in grade school I remember them showing a movie on how they put rifling in barrels in the 1600's. They had a two handed drill with a stem longer than the barrel and for each successive pass they added a paper shim under the cutter.
That's a bit older than what your looking for, but I thought that was cool way back then.

 

Did watched most of that, really cool link. Thankyou!

I try to watch that one every time I start to feel like craftsmanship is dead.  Happens when I handle new production guns.  I pull out my old Garand and my 1911 and watch the Gunsmith of Williamsburg.  

GENERAL NOTE: We have all been very careful about commenting on specific current affairs/politics/world events,

which I hope continues, and for which I am grateful.  But believe me when I say: MUST WRITE FASTER/FINISH

THIS/AND OTHER STORIES ASAP, when I look 'out the window.'  Just....wow.  Across the board.  



--Trapshooter, yep your paper shim, and video below, are exactly correct.  It's over a year since posting,

but in the Gehr Waffen "Old House"/Workshop, Brian Distrop identifies a relevant barrel-boring machine.



--DesignatedM, that video is just insane.  I think there is another video, many episodes of an hour plus, of

the one you refer to?  Gunsmith of Williamsburg?  Just stunning stuff.  They basically start with a mound of

dirt/slag/coal/ore, and a piece of lumber.  The barrel 'drills' blow me away.  The bits/head so clearly hand-made

/asymnetrical/etc.  Just stunning stuff.



--2T2/crash, yes awesomeness!



--Designated/M, I'm guessing you've seen the Holland and Holland/other related videos.  Craftsmanship not dead,

just an outrageous luxury.



Ok, back to work.  Got a big chunk of time tonight.



DCB

Having achieved much and fallen flat on my arse several times in this life, one of the few things I look forward to outside the circle of "family" imperative, is looking DCBourne in the eye an asking him about the genesis/creation of this alternative (and quite possible soon to be) reality which he has created.

I know what it takes to see the forks of the future ( I carry the curse myself...) But to feel the need - and to have have the skill. art and talent, to sound the siren required - is what fascinates me...

One of the things that snares men of "conscious" is that occasionally a poet or bard comes along and calls us to be better than that we are safely, comfortably, currently capable of being.... Do we exceed our comfort and heed the pipes and drums of our blood, or do we turn and toss in the disturbed darkness and slumber on?

DC, you have some 'Splaining to do.


If this is a blessing, it is certainly very well disguised.
Winston Churchill

DC,

With all due respect,

Hurry the FFFFFFF up.

GENERAL NOTE: Repeating, because repetition is the mother of...of...something useful: making progress.

Given my intrinsic and well established tardiness, I will simply....repeat....that finishing/publication etc.

is very unlikely to be measure in 'months.'  Stepping lightly, here.  And a further note on the 'get this

FFFFFing done!!!!!' prompts below--WHICH ARE MOST WELCOME!!!!!



--Radiohack, yes the hand will be offered and taken, and there will be much to say.  You will understand this

prologue: life has been very very interesting, but not particularly 'fun.'  On the other hand, 'being happy'/joy/

pleasure etc. are not values.  I will choose 'interesting' then, and always.  If there is talent here, it is accidental.

A consequence of other habits.  More later.  Within six months, I expect.  A year at the outside.  Still have a few

obligations to park. Churchill "If this is a blessing...."  Brilliant, Radio.



--PFunkk, understood, and appreciated.  If I fail my standards, and time presses, there is a 'brute force' version

of this story which could be published....yesterday.  We shall see.



--trapshooter12, much thanks and same same PF and see below:



GENERAL NOTE: off PFunkk/other prompts: it has come up

a number of times, here, elsewhere, in IM's, that attending to the comments here might slow this process down.

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT THE CASE.  The correspondence here, 'oh, some smart folks/peers/readers/self-made

librarians ACTUALLY LIKE THIS STORY' is/are literally the ONLY positive feedback I have at this point.  Being a 'successful'

writer is still a total abstraction.  Injured Reserves makes about a dollar a day, Kindle Singlehood is completely meaningless

.re 'success.'  So you guys are it.  All I have.  And the louder you shout, the more the whip cracks, the faster this

will go.  It takes pretty much every ounce of willpower I have not to, let's say, extend a Lyle Bass or Pop Gehr conversation

into a fifty page monologue on Toqueville, Bastiat, Bernay, Orwell, etc. etc. etc.  Oh yeah, and a little cultural anthropology.

Oh yeah, and maybe some neuro-linguistics, and and and...Ok,  everybody knows what I'm saying.



GENERAL NOTE: this might be...helpful.  There are some extremely 'useful' texts in the public domain.  Call them a kind

of source material, NOT FOR THE PARTICULARS OF THIS STORY, but for 'how people think' and 'how (some) institutions

work.'  Just some starters: 1. 'The Little Drummer Girl' by Carre, 2. "Every Spy a Prince"  These are 'stories'/histories of extreme

depth.  There is/are ZERO concession in these texts to contemporary reading expectations.  Oh, and if everyone here

can muster some sympathy for my...ah....lack of progress?  Understand that I have masters above me, far above me,

Le Carre a prime example, and I am just smart enough to know what they did?  But cannot do it myself.  Makes me...

testy.



GENERAL NOTE: much thanks to those of you who find search phrase:

I said this about Eight months to a year ago.  At some point the story must end.

Some people are amazed at some of the things I say and point out, but many others believe I am nothing but a Heathen and I tend to agree with them.

The thing about your story is it is a down and dirty, root hog or die.
Don't't let it be the never ending story in the first book.

Your not controlling your fourth dimension of time.

Now I will go back and hide in my Corner.

--trapshooter12, no harm no foul.  Yes it is a pretty grim story, going to get a lot more grim.

Last count is 130,000 words, pretty solid.  About another 8-10, not quite so solid.  Amazon count

we're somewhere around 500 plus pages.  A fairly long book.  The best effort/price ratio in this genre

is 150-200 pages at 2.99.  There are dozens of such books in my 'also read' on Injured.  But I don't

like short books....I digress.  To not finish this I would literally

have to die.  I am...extremely healthy.  Understand your/all concern, believe me.  More frustrated

than you/the collective us can imagine.



And yes, I am not controlling my fourth dimension of time.  The fact is, I have almost no control

over it, at all.  That will be a long battle. Which began over two years ago.



Hello, heathen!



DCB

How do you want this story?

Good?

Fast?

Cheap?


You only get to pick two.


I would pay top dollar for this story if it meant our esteemed scribe could work on it full time.  As that doesn't seem to be an option, I'll take good over fast.


Y'all chill.

DM
I might be wrong but in my mind I would rather have a hundred people telling me to hurry the F&$@ up I want to read your book vs a couple people saying take your time I don't care if it ever gets done.
Which group makes you the money.

But that's just me.

Some days the fire is only to keep the bugs away.

Some days it is not enough to drive away the cold.

Some days it rains.

Still, we keep making the fire.

/throws another log on...

Just checking in.

/pokes log Stimpy just threw on fire to see if it will burn faster/



Fire + Boiler = Steam for ACH!