Trump is "Pissed Off" that Putin did not honor a cease fire.

 Well .... Obviously.

Trump is actually smarter than that. I think. I hope. So the question is, why does he say things, make statements, and take actions (birth right citizen ship comes to mind) that he knows are false and won't stand or work out? Sending a message to his constituency? But is it worth the collateral damamge, even from his perspective, given that he is already elected? Does he believe it will help in the mid-terms? Such actions puzzle me. I can only guess this is descended from a pattern of business and personal behavior that has worked for him through the years. Sad. The Presidency is different.

Or perhaps it is just that arrogance can be a real stupid-a-fier. It has been for me over the years.

Is The World Order Changing?

 Half the people voted for Trump. If you did, is this the world you foresaw?

• He wants to be King. They could have guessed that. They should have known he only cares about one man and one man's view. Obviously. But others share parts of the view. But do you share all of it, because you no longer have a say.
  
• He wants to add territory so that he can be remembered as a conquering hero. Of course, if you read history books, those empires didn't last and the conqueror was usually killed.  Alexander the Great is remembered as a destructive despot that left a mess for others to clean up, not as a good man that moved the world forward. Just sayin'.
• He believes that the super powers (US, Russia, and China) will and should divvy up the world.
• NATO will be irrelevant. Treaties will not be respected. He does not respect them.
• As the Northwest Passage becomes more important, Greenland and Canada become vulnerable to aggression. Russia will not respect NATO. Well, of course not, if the US withdraws. And then he will argue that Canada and Greenland can only be safe if they become part of the US, which Russia would not attack dirrectly. Twisted logic for certain. In fact, NATO with Europe and the US has more than twice the money to ward off assault than the US on it's own. We certainly do not have enough money to handle China and Russia. We need help. The west is stronger as one voice. The Ukraine has been a good wake up call for Europe, but Trump heard only the message he wanted to hear, the one that could make him king.
  

• And he believes, following the Russian model, that out economy would be better off on its own.  That's just stupid and will lower our standard of living. I suspect he believe the US oligarchs will be better off. Why else would Musk be there? Obviously? There cannot be another reason. It's not government efficiency, it's privatization. Anyone who thinks isolationism and tariffs solve competitiveness problems is hopelessly closed minded; if you feel your are falling behind, dig in and get going. Figure out where your strengths lie and play to that. One of our strengths, over Russia and China, has been trust. It's hard to accomplish anything great without trust. I guess we're blowing that. 

 

I hope we can earn back the trust, as a beacon of light and a country you can safely do business with. But that will likely take 50 years. No kidding. 50 years. We still look at Russia and Germany a certain way. 50 years at least.

Note that I have skipped human rights and climate change. That's important too. But you can see the hot mess we're creating without the home front issues.

I think the above is the product of a very short time view and a egocentric mind, but I also think that the dementia is catching. The exact opposite "making America great," he is weakening the country. Instead of the leader of the greatest non-imperial empire the world has ever seen, we will soon be isolated. The accomplishments of WWII, paid in blood, and the many leaders that followed, are being washed away by a flood of blind ego. Many great Republican presidents are weeping.

We can fix this, a least some of it, in the mid-terms.

Have a Portable Band Saw? Make a Table.

 I should have done this 20 years ago. 

I was surfing the net on a business trip and came across a super simple table for a portable band saw that I could make from a scrap under my porch. The scrap even had the bends I needed. To use it, you clamp the edge in a large machinists vice. Unfortunately, although many people manufacture these and variations, my saw was too old to be supported. DIY time.

 First, I made a very slightly larger rest for the band saw. I had realized that if I just clamp the band saw in the vice (soft jaws) a slightly larger rest would allow some delicate part trimming without mounting the table. That could be handy. Also, it would give me something to screw the larger table to. The screws holding the original rest came loose chronically, and I wanted to take this opportunity to lock them down tight and use red Locktite. I knew that using them repeatedly to mount a table would eventually result in stripping ( I could re-tap them larger, but it would be tricky to drill the hole without complete disassembly of the saw).

I then took a sheet of heavy cardboard and did a few quick mock-ups.  Simple. Clamp the band saw in the vice to do the trimming of the table. Four 1/4-20 flat heads tapped into the new rest hold it down. A cable tie holds the power "on" and a switched outlet with switch 30 inches away provides control. (Some prefer a foot switch, but a conventional shop band saw just has a switch--I like being able to adjust my balance and stand on two distracted feet.)

I used this table, clamped in the vice (rotate the vice 90 degrees) to cut four trapezoidal backing plates out of bronze for a fellow sailor. It was like cutting paper with scissors. Also perfect control; I could keep the blade on a penciled line, neatly erasing only the line.

So I made a stand. Too often you need the vice and the band saw alternately.  There are dozens of designs on the net, made from whatever scrap is on hand to fit the saw they have. The most common threads are a fork at the top to hold/grasp the top/forward handle, and a cradle for the back and bottom. Mine was welded from lightweight 2-inch angle and 3-inch channel, but there are no-weld designs out there. You could manage with an angle grinder and drill. Keep it simple.

 The band saw just drops into the stand, no clamps or bolts required. Just gravity and a good fit. It sits stably on the workbench, but if it is in the way it is easy to pick up and move. Portable enough to take to the boat. You could use it sitting on the ground (you would need some sort of remote switch, if just a power strip).

 If you have a portable band saw, make a table and stand, or buy one if available to fit. Really.

 

 

Finished

 The barrel and hardware were phosphate conversion (Parkerized) treated. This protects against rust and also provides a more authentic color without the gloppy thickness of paint. I like still being able to see the tool marks. Cannons were lumpy.

 The carriage was made from some 100-plus year old oak I had laying around. I made square nuts for the tie bards from hex nuts. The iron bands on the wheels are 3/4-inch conduit with the galvanized etched off and Parkerized.

In principle I could fit it with  the aiming and restraint ropes, load it, and fire something. It's bored through to the touch hole about 0.27 inches, if I recall correctly. The breach also opens, because I turned the knob as a separate piece and threaded it to the main bore. The elevation wedge is functional.

 

 I wanted some lathe practice. I think I also wanted to demonstrate that a Vevor lathe can turn steel. You just have to tune it up, use small radius tools, keep them sharp, and take thin cuts. Much of the materials was removed using power feed. I suppose it is old school, but I have some Stelite bits that I really like. They hold an edge longer than HSS and can be sharper than typical carbide tips.

A Tiny Cannon

 Most machining projects have been practical. Time for something impractical.

 This started out as a rough 1-inch iron bar t6hat I found rusting under the porch when I moved in. Probably not a very good grade of steel, something from concrete work or surveying. 

 I

 About 5 inches long and slightly more than 22 caliber, which would be about 1:20 scale for a 9-pounder. Basically, I scaled it off the lump of metal I had. I'm not that particular a modeler. I really just did it for the lathe practice.

 I've read many places that the the Vevor-type  lathes won't turn steel. In fact, it's about the tuning and about the tool grinding.  Any deficiencies in finish or precision are more a result of my inpatients than machine limitations. Machine rigidity is an issue, but flex of the work itself and chucking challenges are actually more important. Most of this was turned between centers, much of it using power feed and light cuts, about 10-20 thousandths at a time. Sharp tools help.

 

 I found  number of drawings of Armstrong-pattern guns. They were common for about 150 years, through the Napoleonic wars through the Civil War, with many variations based on size and which foundry they came from.

 Now I need to build the carriage. I have some old oak, steel sheet, and black safety wire.

 I wonder. Should I leave the cannon as polished steel, or should I Parkerize it or otherwise turn it black? I think black, including the steel hardware on the carriage.