Tag: making

How to Make a Mini Apple Pie
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Today we make mini apple pie. On a whim I bought the little pie maker set pictured here and started messing with making pie dough and lots of pies. I am new to making pie crust, but I should have gotten into earlier as much as I like tomato pie.

My son was pretty exited about making mini pies, he wanted us to eat them up, but he had to give permission to specific people who could eat them.

This isn’t a recipe or a review, We are just showing the little silicon pie crusts and how they work.

I am sure that if you made a lot of pie crust you would make better pies than I do

This is a pretty cool thing to do with a kid, or if like me, your wife does not allow whole pies into the house due to being “non-supportive” of her diet.

But I will show you the apple pie filling:

Ingredients:
- 1 large granny smith apple cored, peeled, and chopped into pieces
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
Procedure:
- Mix all the ingredients
- Spoon into mini pies and fill about 1/3 full
- Add egg wash to the top of the dough and then add the tops
January 20, 2017
How to Make a Nightstick: Perfect First Lathe Project

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I bought a cheap craftsman wood lathe from craigslist. It was cheap because it had problems. The tube the tailstock and tool stand rode on was torqued out of place placing the tailstock 45% off center. It was rusty, and did not have a belt.

An afternoon of work brought it back functional and while I still need to build a stand and tweak it a little I am happy with my purchase.

I was looking for an easy first lathe project so I decided to make a nightstick

So far, the only thing I can do is turn nightstick shaped objects. My goal is to turn wood bowls, but right now all of my disposable income (and some that is not disposable) are building AR-15‘s in the event of another attempt at gun control that only makes guns more expensive.

My lather skills are non-existent, but my boy likes playing with the objects I have made.

October 27, 2016
Bulletproof: The Making of an Invincible Mind

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Bulletproof: The Making of an Invincible Mind is vital to developing a warrior mindset. It helps you learn how to become resilient in times of disaster so that you can do what you need to do in order to protect your family and survive.Keeping a resilient mind is probably the single most important factor in survival.

You can have all the fancy gear and still panic.

Training is useful, but I have seen trained people freeze or panic. However, history is full of examples of untrained and unprepared people survive all manner of hardship by having a strong mind, but it is also full of lottery winners, If you want to increase your odds, then you need to train.

To me mindset is more important than expensive gear, which is why I have so many articles on it like Cooper’s Color Codes and WIN.

The longer I work in the correction field the more I see people with the proper attitude win against individuals that are stronger or meaner or tougher. In my field we call it command presence, but its nothing more than proper attitude and confidence.

This book is a great one to get you thinking about the topic – I would start off with Grossman’s work On Combat and everything by Cooper, and then finish up with this one.

There are a lot of books on the subject, but make sure to pick ones that are written by those that have actually done what they are talking about.

September 1, 2016
How to Punch Square Holes in Metal
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This is one of those posts in which I expect an expert to rip me to shreds over my technique. I would deserve it as this is a precision machining technique. However, I butcher it with hand tools and a total lack of precision.

I am going to show you a rough approximation of the machinist technique called broaching. You broach in order to make square holes in metal. Its not limited to square holes either. You can make all manner of shapes. This is most commonly done in making key-ways. However, the magazine well of an AR-15 is commonly made by broaching.

According to Wikipedia:

Broaches are shaped similar to a saw, except the height of the teeth increases over the length of the tool. Moreover, the broach contains three distinct sections: one for roughing, another for semi-finishing, and the final one for finishing.

Broaching is an unusual machining process because it has the feed built into the tool. The profile of the machined surface is always the inverse of the profile of the broach. The rise per tooth (RPT), also known as the step or feed per tooth, determines the amount of material removed and the size of the chip.

The broach can be moved relative to the work piece or vice versa. Because all of the features are built into the broach no complex motion or skilled labor is required to use it.

Making a Broach:
- Take a square length of tool steel that is the diameter of the desired hole.
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- Remove material to taper the ends – the length of the taper is longer depending on how large the hole is to be, the depth of the material to be cut, and the hardness of the metal to be cut.
- Cut teeth in the bar stock – start with shallow teeth, get deeper teeth the closer you are to a finished cut. continue the teeth as you get to the finished dimensions.
- Harden and the tool. I find case hardening compound, like the type pictured really helps.
Using the Broach:
- Drill a hole in the metal, close to but smaller than the finished hole size.
- Insert the broach and ensure it lines up at 90 degrees from the work peice or the hole will be crooked.
- Use a hydraulic press to gradually and smoothly increase pressure until the broach is forced through the hole cutting material and forming a square
- Use a good amount of cutting fluid as you perform this operation and wear safety gear as there is a lot of stress on the tool.
July 30, 2015
How to Make Slaked Lime With Fire and Limestone

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April 17, 2014