god damn winding stems
I blew it. But so did everyone else. The steel has a property we didn't know about, or want to believe. The soft sandvik steel stretches out when we subject it to our ancient threading die. The die (the one remaining die out of I think four that doesn't destroy our pieces, they don't even make them any more) squeezes it and it stretches the threaded portion by, let me do the math, 2.3%. That ruins the shit out of the piece. So now we have to just cut the piece short and hope like hell that when it comes time to thread, it stretches to the right length. Like hardening, we have to just pray it works, which, for someone who understands well the effect of prayer on steel and everything else, empty set, is aggravating. This method of making stems is the equivalent of a Harley-Davidson, only worse; instead of spending money on the best 1950s motorcycle technology money can buy, we've regressed to the twenties.Good News On Hardening: I have found that by heating the piece slowly, it warps less. This is the best news since Poland decided to get its troops out of Iraq.
As a result of the delirium/fatigue induced by this examination, I have resorted to involuntary singing in the late afternoons. People think I do it to entertain them, but it's automatic. I didn't know I was going to sing it, but I sang to the famous tune by the kinks: "So tired, tired of making, tired of making steeeeeeems." This got a chuckle, but I wasn't done.
To the tune of "wishin' and hopin'":
All you gotta do is measure, and polish, and harden, and temper, just suffer, and file, and cut, and threaaaad", and the class liked that, too. I like when people like me, I won't lie. And by four o'clock, we've all had enough for one day.
Back again. To stems. Until I'm finished. [Thousand yard stare.]
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