LongWayToFall

Definitely, you have some good points. This was why I was thinking that maybe it could beep for range and closing speed, and you could also make some changes based on altitude. For sure this is just a tentative idea, and not too practical, but I thought it was worth bringing up just as a point of discussion, and I could let people smarter than me hash out the technical details of it all.... hahaha

Billvon: Having lots of time riding motorcycles, specifically splitting lanes, has instilled in me the importance of predictability, namely on the part of the drivers ahead of me. As long as they don't do anything crazy, unpredictable, etc then I can handle just about anything that comes my way. How this applies to your question, is this: I would do nothing (In terms of canopy input). I would not stab a toggle, or make any sort of radical avoidance maneuver... I would sure be breaking my neck trying to locate the other jumper though, that is for sure. Hopefully it is just someone who is trying to pull along side of me to wave or something...

dthames: I have made a complete fool out of myself enough times on this forum that it doesn't bother me much anymore.. hahaha Also, some of the best thought-provoking threads I have read on this forum have been when people bring up random ideas.... Most people have a good grasp of topics that are frequently discussed or things they deal with often, but it is those outside of the box ideas which can save lives... I wanted to add another idea I had pertaining to this device: What about having a small speaker in each ear, and if the system could detect not only the range, but the direction of other devices, it could beep in a stereo mode, so you could know which side to pay attention to... Also, the beeping could have 2 different changes, one being volume, the other being frequency, or maybe tone. That way, you could tell that not only someone is close to you, but how fast they are coming towards you. This would help when you get down to the landing area, hopefully even though people are going to be close, they shouldn't be closing in at breakneck speeds unless you have already landed and a swooper is landing next to you or something. I figured that maybe the best place try out this sort of device would be at big way events. People participating are already dropping a fair bit of money to be there, and if it was only a few more bucks hopefully it wouldn't be a big deal. Also, giant multi-plane loads have the most packed holding and landing areas of any skydiving situation, which would make using this device the most helpful.

In an incidents thread, there was some info posted about canopy collisions. Granted, lots of times you cannot do anything about it, and this wouldn't be an excuse to be lax about looking around under canopy, but what about having: A device which could detect other devices like it in the air, and when one of those devices gets within a set range, say 300ft, it would beep with increasing frequency as the range decreases. It would help to make sure you know that someone is above and behind you, or maybe that someone is opening up right next to you... In order for it to work, everyone would need to have one, and they would have to be cheap, but with electronics dropping in price and technology advancing, it wouldn't surprise me that this could become possible in the not too distant future. Anyways, just a thought. I think often about how advances in technology might be able to help skydivers and bouncing those ideas off of other jumpers is key to getting people to think and just maybe making a difference.

He didn't say by force, with enough ammo you can trade for just about anything.... I am sure the next camp would prefer to loan their doc for a day in exchange for a couple boxes of ammo, UNFIRED. Hahaha

Haha! Hey we have plenty up here too.... About the dangers of making black powder... It is actually very safe. In the world of pyro, there are not many things that can be put into a ball mill except individual ingredients, but black powder and formulas that use those same 3 chemicals are almost always mixed in them. You just don't hear of people having problems while making BP.... Obviously you need to read up on safety, work in a low static environment (humidity is a giant help), etc but it isn't dangerous....

I would be careful with the solvent, you might make it rust even more if you leave it without getting oil on. I was told to use oil instead, and rub it all over the rust, then wrap the gun in ceran wrap. This prevents the oil from drying off. Nice rifle! If you do decide to refinish it, you can reblue at home with some great results. Check out "Rust Bluing" it is suppose to be the proper way of bluing a rifle, hot bluing is sort of a faster shortcut. Take care of that thing, it should provide great service for many generations.

Here is a cool video worth checking out: http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-turn-cotton-balls-into-smokeless-gunpowder-196742/view/ Sulfuric Acid and Nitric Acid as a bath for adding various things is very common in making explosives, namely nitroglycerin. Because of this, Nitric acid is hard to get a hold of, as far as I know. I believe you can make it though, using KN03 (the same saltpeter that is used for black powder) along with sulfuric acid, when mixed in a glass container. I think you collect the fumes, which is nitric acid. In a SHTF situation, Nitric acid will be valuable... So, it looks like making smokeless powder will be quite easy, actually!!! It would sure be fun to make some as shown in the video, and test it in a real gun. Fortunately, sulfuric acid is easy to come by, and if the soil extraction works for KN03, then making it yourself will be a real possibility. Edit to add: DO NOT use any of the info I have provided to do anything illegal, or dangerous. Knowledge is power, but lots of times it is best left in your head than doing something you might really regret. Just to clarify, I have not, and do not have any plans to, make any sort of explosive or do anything illegal. *BATFE please don't kick my door in!*

Wow that match head idea is very cool.... Where can I find more info about that sort of stuff??

Diesels can also run on: Kerosene, used motor oil, veggy oil, Jet fuel, etc etc. I agree, a mechanical pump diesel would be my first bet. About black powder- It can be made very easily. Good quality hand made BP is significantly more powerful than commercial stuff, like 2x or more... Charcoal: Balsa, Willow, and some pines. (Listed in order of preference). Put into a paint can, seal the lid, place in fire until it is charcoal. Sulfur- You may be able to extract from fertilizer, or find in a pure enough form. It isn't soluble in water, this may be enough to extract. Potassium Nitrate- Naturally present in soil. I read that it is the only thing that should dissolve in water, so mix a lot of water and soil and filter out the water, let air dry. You will need a ball mill. Lots of grinding later, you have some nice powder. About semi autos with black powder, I bet you could reduce the spring strength and get things working with a bit of tweaking... One last thing: Black powder works well without being contained, but smokeless powder needs to be contained to work correctly. Edit to add: Poke a small hole in your paint can lid... haha

I loved my stick toyota pickup... driving an auto now though. Would prefer to be in a stick though. After driving my pickup, I hopped in an auto for the first time in a long time, and at the end of my street my head almost hit the windshield..... I had smashed on the brake with my clutch foot hahaha. Def took a minute to get used to it...

NICE. I have an offset side box as well, like it very much. If you have the room for it, why not build a brick vertical smoker?? Now THAT is the real deal... Get a shovel and fire pit ready, and throw the coals straight in...

See that is just it, a crock pot takes even more time. No chopping stuff up to add to the pot, all you do is take the meat and place it in the smoker. Wait the right amount of time, take it out and eat. It really couldn't be easier. I know I know, I am really pushing the smoker idea. I'll stop. Really though, if you can't use charcoal or even gas, then any outdoor grilling option will be identical in flavor to something you did on the stovetop... I don't see the need for a whole new device.

Seriously, if all you are making is burgers than do it indoors. If you want some real bbq, then take the time to do it right. Hands free electric smokers let even the most lazy and ignorant chefs make a good meal. Get up early and fire it up, when you get home from work you are good to go.

Nice! I bought an old mauser that I will be installing a scope on. Rifle cost: $125 or so, scope cost: $150 on sale (regularly $300ish) drop in aftermarket trigger: I forget how much, less than $100. So for less than $400 I will have a hard hitting rifle (8mm is almost identical in ballistics to the 30-06, which is a fairly large round) with a great trigger and a nice scope. Should do well for pig and deer, and maybe elk at 250 or less yards. I have heard great things about the savage rifles, in regards to being able to modify them. Do some reading on building a cheap 1000 yard target rifle, I found a great article that used a savage rifle as the base gun. If I buy another bolt gun it will probably be 300winmag or bigger, just in case I head out with my buddy to elk hunt. Otherwise, most of my gun funds are being dumped into my new 450 bushmaster AR (still need to buy an upper) and various AK projects. Does anybody want to buy an FN FAL?? California legal...

I sure hope it isn't bad, otherwise I am screwed! About not being able to pop twice in a row, I have a couple toes that I can pop non stop for as long as I like. I guess my bubbles dissolve abnormally quick in that particular joint... haha

I agree 100% on the electric smoker idea... Pulled pork is the bomb!!! I am going to be using one of the auber instruments PID controllers to run my new brewery setup, and have done quite a bit of reading into it, they seem very simple to use, and quite accurate. If you aren't grilling with charcoal, it isn't worth it. Go the smoker route, and do some real BBQ!!! Besides the pork shoulder (my fav bbq food) check out beer butt chicken. Easy, and very tasty. Get good with the pork, then chicken, and by then you should be ready for the holy grail of bbq, ribs!! Pork shoulder is the best thing to start on, due to the high fat content. If you have a hard time controlling the temp the fat will act as a buffer and you won't destroy the meat like you would with ribs. A light rub, a little basting (I usually do apple vinegar and oil, maybe a little bit of the rub thrown in) is all you need. 225f for approx 1.5 hours per lb (it will take a long time, but luckily it will be really easy with the electric!). To get the pork perfect for pulling, make sure you get a final temp of about 200-205f. Any less, and the tissue won't break down fully. Good luck!

Man lots of people are really ripping this girl a new one. Fact is, nobody knows her, or what exactly happened. She could have been completely functional in society, so saying she is useless is your own opinion. She may have OD'd on methadone, trying to get off of other stuff. You just don't know. So how about showing just a little bit of respect, huh?

Some builds are much harder than others. The simple ones can be done in a couple of hours with simple tools, even by a first timer. You can save a lot of money building yourself, and it is a fun project. Also, those who have no interest in the government keeping track of gun ownership have the ability to build a gun without having anything go through a FFL, or fill out any paperwork. Find a local forum for guns, and go to an AK "build party". You just bring your kit, a receiver flat, and your 922 parts and someone there with a press will help you build the receiver. I plan on building another AK over the winter holiday season, and hopefully buying the mg42 kit as well. Good times!

That is a scary story!!! Boy I am glad that at your age, you were comfortable with and trained to use that 30-30... You never hear these kinds of stories... Sort of like you never hear about car crashes. The shootings, like plane crashes, are all over the news because that is what people want to hear about...

Yes, I am 922r compliant with my FAL and I have the parts for the AK when I build it. The yugo is an m63, with milled receiver. The m70 is a stamped receiver.... quite a bit easier to build though. My barrel it pretty shitty and depending on how it looks after a few rounds I may end up cutting the barrel, drilling it out, and pressing in a regular press in barrel. The m63 has a threaded barrel and nobody sells new ones (or even good quality used ones) but you can make the threaded portion a sleeve to accept a press in standard barrel (lots out there for cheap). If mags are no good for 922r compliance, it is news to me! A ton of people will be completely fucked if that is the case, because you get 3 parts from just the mag. If they don't count anymore gun builds will go WAY up, because people will start having to replace barrels and other expensive pieces. So,,,, I think instead of an SMG, (or maybe in addition to?) I now want to build an MG42.... (well, it would be a M53, same gun but made in Yugo). It would be semi automatic obviously, but what a rad peice of hardware!! Check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wipVRs7r5Wk

Sorry, I should have been more clear. A typical parts kit is an imported military firearm, usually fully automatic, that has been de-milled by cutting the receiver and recently, the barrel too. Besides this, the gun is usually complete, and there is a variety of ways to get them going again (in a semi automatic version of course). For my FAL, I bought a complete receiver and installed the parts onto it. For the AK, I will be rewelding the peices together. The most common is probably the AK, and one cool thing that lots of guys do is buy a partially built receiver, and complete it themselves. You don't even need to put a serial number on it unless you plan to sell it! You can get the receiver in "flat" form, with all the holes already drilled in it, and you bend it into shape, or buy a receiver already in the proper shape and drill the holes yourself. About ARs, I am in the process of buying the components for my first AR build too! It will be in 450 Bushmaster, I can't wait.

I have built an FAL, and have the parts and am planning to build an m64 yugo underfolder (AK47 type, milled receiver will require welding back together). Can't wait to finish the AK! I think for my next project, I would like to build some kind of (semi auto, obviously) SMG type rifle. The Suomi M-31 and KP-44 look pretty cool! Here is a neat website that shows some pictures: http://www.gunbuilds.com/ Click on Photo Gallery. So, has anyone built anything from a parts kit???

Man. If they really had gel that cools with light, I would start putting it into sunscreen!!

Well, I'll be the first to say, glad to hear the whole situation is concluded. I'm sure it is nice to not have to worry about it, even if you did chip in a few bucks.