The 'sicle' that got away!!

[Richard Flanders]

So, I've been restoring a 12ga field-grade LC Smith for a friend for the past year. The guys on the LC Smith website have been a tremendous help in the process. I took about 20 dents out of the bbls, installed a new butt plate and screws, had Tom Carter make new firing pins from specs gotten from the LC guys, dismantled and thoroughly cleaned and inspected the innards, fixed 4 cracks in the inletted area, and refinished the stock. You think Parkers are difficult to reassemble?? They're a pc of cake compared to an Elsie. At any rate I finally got it together this afternoon and after test firing it delivered it to the owner. It's the test firing that was a lesson. After a careful stalk that would make even COB proud, and wearing hvy leather gloves, a tough Carhart jacket, Peltor shooting muffs and a face shield I leapt onto the outhouse seat, drew what I thought was a careful bead, and gave the offending sicle one barrel after the other in quick succession. I had it dead to rights, or so I thought! When the smoke cleared a look at the resultant mayhem revealed that I had only "wounded" it!! I missed most of it from 2ft away!! How can this happen?! :crying: The lesson: Stick to Parkers for that most important hunt from now on. Things will be different next time.... now where did I see the data for those pigeon loads...?

[Dean Romig]

.................................:biglaugh:

[Dave Suponski]

Rich, Serves ya right for using a Smith gun!........:rotf:

[Daryl Corona]

What Dave said.:)

[Dick Miller]

Who won the Southern last year---and with what ??????

[Daryl Corona]

Who won the Southern last year---and with what ??????

Ouch!:shock:

[Dave Suponski]

I think I will just leave that alone.....:)

[Joe Dreisch]

I have let go of many guns over the years that I "couldn't hit sh*t with"!!

[John Dallas]

Is this perhaps a job for a unplugged, 5 shot, plastic stocked, duck gun?

[charlie cleveland]

they are cutting that smith pretty low rich..i bet you closed your eyes when you pulled that trigger i woulda... charlie

[Rick Losey]

maybe you should start out with something less dangerous -

like a Dr Pepper can

:draw:

[Rich Anderson]

I smell a flinch:rotf: Maybe you need larger shot and a focal point like corn:rotf:

[Richard Flanders]

I have to admit it was a one-handed shot and I was leaning back from the hole a bit.... this was afterall a gun I knew nothing about; it looks fine...... but it is an LCSmith. I've never shot an LC before. Pretty cool 3-position safety though. The rear most position takes it off auto-safety mode. A tad dangerous I suppose but once you got used to it....

Maybe it was that I used #8 shot...! You think turkeys can carry some lead and escape? :p phphphph..

[Rich Anderson]

I would think nothing smaller than #6 shot for the sicle. I'm a big believer in matching the shot to the target.

[Harold Lee Pickens]

Hated the 3 position safety on my Smith 16 field. I used to put duct tape to keep it from going back,
I traded it for a 12 ga Francotte that got traded for an O frame GH 16 Damascus that I am keeping.

[David Hamilton]

We , that is, those of us who have been reading this forum for 6 or seven years are deeply indebted to Mr. Flanders for keeping the winter doldrums from making us blue and by introducing a line of humor that has produced some of the funniest material that has ever been on this forum. I salute you, sir! David

[Jeff Kuss]

With that in mind, we have a lot of new forum members who have not seen the proper form for shooting sicles. Please repost the picture of you and your 10 parker.

[Richard Flanders]

Can't readily find the 10ga shot but here's my 2009 hunt with my 1883 12ga hammer gun, which resulted in a good clean kill....just the same, I abstained from having a "head mount" made...

[Gerald McPherson]

I also once owned a smith with that safety. I never felt good about it while hunting as I could not get it off my mind. I have looked down the barrel of too many of my friends guns while hunting quail through the years. It is a very nice ejector gun but simply does not compare to a Parker IMHO. He said he probably would not ever use it and if I am with him I hope he doesn't because I don't think I could get it off my my mind even now.Thing do happen. Gerald

[Jeff Kuss]

Thanks Richard,
That is the picture I was referring to.
Jeff

[Rick Losey]

http://parkerguns.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=29828&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1389035432

roto rooter - Alaskan style

:eek:

[Rich Anderson]

I can't imagine wearing all that crap to go take a crap:rotf:

[wayne goerres]

That's just scary.

[Fred Verry]

Is that the low gun mount I've read so many the old pros used? Richard is definitely keeping his eye focused on the target. Just remember to follow through. :)

[wayne goerres]

I think I would be more worried about getting out of the way after I pulled the triger.

[Bill Murphy]

How many shotguns have you lost with the "One hand hold"?

[John Dallas]

Tell us about all the Stuff on the walls. Brings a new meaning to the words "Man
Cave"

[wayne goerres]

Probable emergency supplys in case you get froze to the toilot. Everything is within easy reach. Should be able to survive till the spring thaw.

[Fred Verry]

Richard, I couldn't help but notice the location of the dutch oven and teapot / stove? Is this an Alaskan adaptation for multitasking during the polar night season?:rolleyes:

[Richard Flanders]

My outhouse is full of interesting old stuff. The dutch oven is out here because it's bigger than I ever need -my grandmothers #8 Griswold is in the house and all I ever need. The tea pot next to it is an old one that got burned dry and the tinned copper bottom ruined, unfortunately. The dutch oven is sitting on two 100# cases of 6# nickel babbit bars. I put a lot of trinkets out there that I don't have room for in the house.... stuff that falls into the "dust magnet" category. I'll see if I can post some pictures of some of the stuff and we'll play "stump the chumps" to see if anyone can ID some of it.

[Rich Anderson]

What is a babbit bar?

[Richard Flanders]

It's the material used for poured bearings Rich. Here's a few pics of my outhouse museum...

[Rich Anderson]

Thanks. You just never know what you can learn here:bowdown:

[David Noble]

Wow Richard, you've got quite a collection of cool sh!t in that outhouse! :rotf:

[charlie cleveland]

just lovely..seen lots of things ive never seen..and how about your own constipation pilss..richard you are prepared my friend... charlie

[Richard Flanders]

Who can tell me what is shown in pics 5 and 6 ?? Especially #6 which is a very cool item and has a very sad story. And pic #9?? The nickeled item in the middle. And Rich, that's a bar of babbit material in the background, the "Magnolia Antifriction Metal", and that's a very unique cool bar of it. Most bars aren't that artistic.

[Jim DiSpagno]

Rich, #5 looks to be a pressure cooker of some kind but its use is a mystery to me. No idea on the other 2 items although #9 looks like it could be set to get center in a cylinder. Jim

# 6 looks like it has some sort or electrical connection on top and conductive zinc or lead on the arms.

[edgarspencer]

6 is the top and anode from an old Edison battery. Or, maybe it's a Samson

[Dean Romig]

Holy Cow!! Lydia Pinkham set up business in Lynn, Massachusetts sometime in the 1800's. My brother Jonathan leased space in the old Lydia Pinkham Building when he set up his pottery business in his hippie days in the '70's. He is still listed in the area telephone books with that address tho he moved to a commune near Big Sur in about '76 or so.

Hey Rich... Save your ammo and dump those pills down the hole for instant relief.

[wayne goerres]

No 5 looks like some sort of natural gas cruisable and edger is right about no 6 dont know about 9 but looks like some sort og an old fire extingisher in the back.

[wayne goerres]

Pick out some more stuff this is fun.

[Richard Flanders]

Wow, only Edgar would know what that battery is! I found a bunch of these Edison-LeLande batteries in 1982 at a long abandoned mine north of Nome, under the eve of the roof so they had filled water and shattered when they froze. I found one that had all the pieces and brought it home and had it in the basement all wrapped up with flagging to hold it together. I went to the Henry Ford museum in Detroit in about 1995 and saw that they had an Edison display and figured I had finally found a home for my battery. I also have a small mostly full bottle of the "Edison battery oil" that was used in them for some reason. At home I got the battery out from the back of a shelf and laid it on my big work table, turned my back and it rolled off and onto the concrete floor and blew up into a million pieces. I could hardly speak for hours I was so distraught that I had done that. Bad. All that time and I blew it. I soooo badly wanted to preserve that unique item. So, no one's close on anything else except that brass item in Pic 9 is likely an extinguisher; I'm not totally sure on that one myself. What is the set of tools in the front of that? Jim has the right idea on #5 also, but it has a very specific use. That's not the correct lid though. Too small.

[Richard Flanders]

What are the red and white tubes in pic #7? And what is the T-shaped thingy in pic #1 that looks like it's coming off the right side of the lantern? That's an easy one. Edgar will know that one in a hearbeat. There's another of them, much smaller, mounted on the windowsill to the left of the lantern. Everyone I'd guess knows what the funnel like things are on the wood handles. They work sooooo well!

[Fred Verry]

Richard, is pic #2 a fire grenade? Is the T-shaped thingy in #1 a tool guide? No Parker Pages in the pile of reading material or is that the tp supply?

[Richard Flanders]

Close Snap Cap, and it actually could be designed to also be used as a 'grenade'. It is a fire extinguisher and has a spring loaded 'hammer' that you can't see that has a lead link that melts when exposed to fire to release it. The hammer swings up and breaks the glass, releasing the chemical, whatever it is. I found the glass part one year and the mount years later and somewhere else far away and somehow recognized what it was for and reunited them.

"Tool guide" is close also but not quite. Keep trying. A better picture would help. Maybe tomorrow. It also has a very specific use. There are several Parker Pages in the pile also; you just can't see them.

[edgarspencer]

The hammer swings up and breaks the glass, releasing the chemical, whatever it is.

Carbon Tetrachloride.

[Rick Losey]

Carbon Tetrachloride.

that stuff may have eventually killed as many fireman as fires

[Bruce Day]

Rich

[Richard Flanders]

I knew I could count on Edgar to know the chemical. I remember that now that you remind me. My last can of Carbon tet ran out decades ago. Sure works well for cleaning parts.

Are we done guessing what these things are??

[edgarspencer]

What is the set value of the pop (safety) valves in #7, and are they air or steam? I keep small drills in one of the replaceable element fuse shells
Are those core samplers in #9 Those are nice mercury rectifiers in the Dundee crocks
Is the vacuum tube next to the shelf with the pressure gage, insulator and crucibles, a 6L6 ?

[Richard Flanders]

The safety valves were, I think, steam. If I could remember for sure exactly where I found them I could make a better guess. A lot of old mines had wood fired boilers that either directly drove or drove a compressor to drive pumps, saw mills and drills. I'll get you the settings next trip out there, which will be soon. I've found hundreds of those over the years; these were just all in the same spot and begged to be collected. I'll take a pic of my coolest brass apparatus off a steam system that I couldn't resist; it's hanging in the basement rafters. I also have a lot of the glass level tubes and the valves assemblies that hold them + a very cool tool designed to cut the tubing to length - very cool. It works too. Close on the tools in #9 - they do make a core. It's a set of punches, I think for belting, such as on conveyors. Every punch will push out the plug on the next biggest size, which keeps them from getting plugged when you're punching multiple holes on thick belting, and they store nicely when nested. I still use them occasionally; they work well on leather if I clean and sharpen the punching end. You likely know that the nickeled pump behind these punches is for the old lanterns, which are all scattered all over at the old mines. Not sure on the vacuum tube; there's a bunch of them out there; I'll look. Two of what you see in the Dundee crocks(my grandmothers)are light bulbs. No one knows what the 'pressure cooker' in #5 is ???

[Richard Flanders]

Most of the numbers on the old RCA vacuum tubes are worn off or never existed. There's 807 with a white ceramic base, a few with 31, a 231-31x. The one you were referring to has no numbers left. Two of the safety valves are set at 196#, one at 241, one can't read These numbers indicates steam to me vs air. A few more pics, one of the 'tool holder' - certainly someone knows what that is?? I guess I'll have to post a pic of the tools that are used in conjunction with it (first pic here). One pic also of the smaller variety that is at least mounted in the proper orientation - my high school slide ruler is behind it. The Cone "Glocoils" are quite the item. I can tell you those buggers get VERY hot when you power one up. I found a huge stack of these somewhere and brought two unused ones home.

[Robin Lewis]

A saw tooth set and saw vise

[Richard Flanders]

Correct Robin. I thought that one would be easier than it was. For anyone who uses hand saws and does not sharpen their own I'd highly suggest getting a saw setting tool and trying it. It doesn't take long and it's impressive how much you can improve a factory sharpening job yourself.

No one knows what #5 is, eh? Ok. It's a mercury retort. At a gold mine you have a copper plate that is wiped with amalgam of mercury and silver. The very very fine gold gets grabbed by the amalgam as it washes over it in a thin sheet of water and when you clean up you scrape this all of and put it into this iron retort, crank the lid on tight and put it into the blacksmith forge. A pipe connects to the lid and goes into a bucket of water. When the mercury vaporizes off it goes down into the water and condenses to a harmless liquid(or solid depending upon who you ask) again, preventing the breathing of mercury vapors by the operators, leaving the gold in the retort. The gold if melted is then either poured into a dore bar or if not melted and is in "sponge" form, is put into a crucible in an oven for final 'cleaning' and poured from there. This is a very small retort and the lid goes to even a smaller one. I have a much bigger one in my blacksmithing pile and at the mine we have one that has an 8ft long two-man handle set blacksmithed from drill steel on it and must weigh at least 100#. Small retorts like this are also used by folks who pan gold and put a bit of mercury into the pan of gravel to pick up every tiny speck of gold.

[edgarspencer]

The funky brass thing in 5, above, is a hydrostatic lubricator, used on steam engines. as condensate enters through the top connection, it displaces cylinder oil, which flows out the side connection. Engines running at higher pressures need cylinder and valve lubrication, but at lower pressure, the steam is 'wetter'.
The resistor coils are most commonly used for space heaters. but they are also used in generator field controls.

[Richard Flanders]

Edgar: I think that where I found the Glocoils they were as you suggest used as in a load bank mode. If I remember correctly there was at least 20 of these mounted openly on some kind of asbestos like board in the genshack. They sure wouldn't have needed heat in there.

I figured you might know what the brass thingy was. I only knew that it came off a boiler system.