The Broken Rifle
Copyright© 2024 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 17
The garage isn’t a place to store cars ... the garage has wonderous things.
Like: Knee mills, Bridgeport, commercial 32” planer, two table saws, wood lathe, metal lathe, two bandsaws, grinders, polishers ... stuff he didn’t know what for or how to use. It was there when he bought the place and its condition offended him. Twenty years of spiff had produced working tools he didn’t know how to use but they were pretty.
Learning how to keep a blade on the bandsaw took a week. He was still working on the guides.
One whole bay was assorted wood that he had no idea but knew it was banned, outlawed, proscribed or beyond rare. Showing up with a piece of some of it was a sure way to meet the local federal alphabet. He was also sure that “I don’t know” wouldn’t keep him out of jail.
The elephant tusks would insure that.
Marion suddenly knew what he meant by ‘keep a secret.’ This was similar to knowing the secret tunnel to Fort Knox ... or having found the Lost Dutchman mine ... twenty four thousand ounces of gold per ton of rock ... and couldn’t tell anyone or mine an ounce. The origin of gold ore can be sourced.
Mums the word, Marion.
She hiked her Santa Fe kit on to the bench. She immediately started reading the directions. What is in the box was first.
There was a spotless white patch and she put her parts on the white arranging them exactly like the photo of the parts. If the directions said ‘four small screws’ she found four small screws or hunted the cracks until she found four ... THEN and only then ... did she move on to the next part.
As she found and placed each part then did she check the box in the list. Laid out as per illustration she read on.
Check for discrepancies
Marion had a loupe in her purse.
That took some time.
Satisfied ... or not ... step three was: Check for fit.
By the time she was there, he had run the plank through the planer and jointer. Square on four sides, the ends were sent through the crosscut table saw. The lines taken off the halfstock .53 caliber J&S Hawken had been sketched on the plank, finalized, and run through the bandsaw. He had the barrel channel laid out, chisels sharpened and the first router roughcut done.
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