peejman

    7am?  It's only 50 miles from one end to the other.  You could ride to Robbinsville and get back to Tellico while they're still serving breakfast.  And it'll be really cold up high.            Meh.  It's a road.... there's left turns and right turns, some uphill and some downhill.... ride a comfortable pace, keep it between the lines and you'll be fine.  It might take you 30 minutes to get from one end to other, but that's better than a helicopter ride.    Relentless is a good description.  The more difficult turns are typically marked with a big dot painted in the road and/or "SLO".    The skid marks that lead off in unfortunate directions are also a hint. 

Welcome!

I can't even find one for my wife to lay hands on, much less actually shoot it. 

    Yep.  Skydiving planes... they have gauges, sometimes a few even work.           Yep.  Walnut shells are a common blasting media used to clean parts.  Trouble is, the media gets in every little nook and crevice in the part and tends to require considerable effort to ensure you remove all of it.    A little google-fu tells me the pinion bearing in the forward rotor transmission failed due to lack of lubrication.   The oil nozzles were clogged with walnut shell debris that wasn't properly removed when the transmission was previously cleaned.   https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/769/769.F2d.115.84-1446.html

Note the date on this story is June.

We were up at Indian Boundary Sunday.  There's some color but certainly not peak yet.  The weather forecast has it pretty cold through the weekend which should help bring the color out.  It'll be plenty chilly at 5000 ft.  I'd be up for it but I my son has a b'day party saturday.     And if, by chance, you're poking along at 30 mph in a 45 mph zone passing pull-off after pull-off and the guy in the mini-van behind you starts getting annoyed....   finally taking a pull-off without using your turn signal, rev'ing your motor, nearly hitting a parked bike, and giving him dirty looks when he goes by really doesn't make you look cool, regardless of how much black leather you're wearing.  It just makes his wife laugh at you.  Just sayin'....

    No.   A commercial aircraft is about as air-tight as your house.

    The only bobcat I've ever seen in the wild was chowing down on road kill on the side of I-26 late at night in Unicoi County.    As for aging them?  Can't really do it visually once they're full size.  I think teeth are the best measure but if you get that close a live one, you've probably got bigger concerns.  :)

    Sounds like you're in good shape then.  I just didn't want you sitting alone in front of youtube trying to learn it (like I did).      Wish I could find more time to play.

Nice work!

My wife took banjo lessons for a few years and got reasonably good at it.  Then we had kids...   I strongly suggest you take a few lessons before you get too far into it.  It's a whole lot easier to start out with good technique than it is to fix bad technique later.  AMHIK....

I've had shoulder problems, my left in particular, ever since high school wrestling.  While I've dislocated one several times, I've never done it while sleeping.  Over the years I've learned simply to not do some things, be real careful doing others, and I've learned some exercises that help a lot with regard to joint stability. 

My 552 Speedmaster has feed issues with most any unjacketed lead bullet.  They jam up when loading a new round and it mashed the bullet enough that it's useless.  It aggravating, but I've learned to look for only bullets with some coating or just live with it. 

Decorative nickel plating is probably 0.003" or less thick. A friend of mine has a home plating kit and has done a handful of small car parts. According to him, just follow the directions and it's pretty easy.

Good thing it wasn't a hate crime.... Lock the doors and stay in the car. The gas pedal is your friend.

Get Spots or one of the other home forgers to make one for you. It'll most assuredly be one- of-a-kind.

Call Predator Custom shop.

An aluminum receiver in the raw is a bad idea. It would get dinged up easily with use and look like hammered hell in short order. Relatively speaking, even 7075 isn't very hard. There's anodizing and there's hard anodizing. One makes it pretty, the other makes a relatively hard, wear resistant surface. The surface treatment is super thin, 0.001" or less typically.

What Leroy said... It's a worn spot and isn't easily fixed. You'd have to replate the whole thing. There are kits for electro-less nickel plating at home that work pretty well, but I'd leave it be.

Welcome!

  Me too.  Had to wait for the CC to roll over. 

Ok, perhaps it would be reasonable to start with the belt sander...  and several belts.

Belt sanders are great, just be aware of how fast they remove material.  If this is a one-shot deal and you can't afford to bugger it up, be further aware of the difficultly in putting material back on...   just sayin'.    For the open center, you might consider some dowels or a biscuit to help hold the halves together. 

We had the same problems when house shopping, and I share your opinion of pools.   Find another house.  Or if you love the house... salt water pools are much lower maintenance than chlorine pools.  Depending on the type of pool, they can be converted.   If that's not an option and the pool is in disrepair, you can included the cost of demolition in your offer. 

Obviously I'm not in the know regarding .308 AR's.... I assumed $1800-ish was the norm.  Regardless, its' way outta my league.