Already did it with the center punch but that thing looks nifty. I was thinking about it after and honestly, deforming the shell by using the punch was probably the least of my worries. It's all assembled now actually, and I'll get the pics up tomorrow when my phone isn't dead. If I had to do it over again the only things I'd change would be to move the lugs 1/4-1/2" closer to the center of the shell (there's just barely enough clearance to keep the hoop around the edge of the drum head from contacting the lugs when it's tuned up, and if it did hit I wouldn't be able to actually tune it), and probably lower the snare strainer a tiny bit. Those are the sorts of things you're not likely to realize on a first drum build anyway, and worst case scenario I would have ruined a $120 drum shell and just asked my parents for another one for Christmas, or bought myself one next pay cheque or something. But it's tuned up now, everything seems good overall, and it does look pretty snazzy. I'll be giving it a good test run tomorrow after school.
I'm not sure how likely it is to dimple if you're using a regular punch with a hammer. It might be a concern. With out knowing more about how strong the material is, I'd recommend an automatic center punch to be safe. I use one at work when I'm making gauge and switch panels and the material I'm drilling into needs a punch mark, but I can't lay it flat to hammer it for what ever reason. Maybe because it's contoured, or because I already have it mounted in the car. The auto punch gives enough of a smack to make a good dimple to drill a pilot hole, and then I can follow up with bigger bits as needed.
Sounds awesome. The drum build is good. The tailors tape measure I had wasn't accurate enough since the lugs I bought are machined aluminum and need to be a bit more exactly spaced than lugs with brass inserts that have more play in them. Gave it several tries but the spacing was always a bit off between the top and the bottom. I seem to have solved that by lining up the bottom hoop on the drum and using a combination square to draw my vertical lines by lining it up dead center with the middle of the holes in the rim. Seems to have worked for the first couple and was easy enough to double check by putting the top head and rim on to check alignment. Going to get all of the drill points marked and try to drill it this weekend. The nice thing is once it's drilled it's done. I am curious about something though and you might have the experience to lend some knowledge. I was planning to use a center punch to dimple it for the drilling just to make sure the bit doesn't slip out or anything. The shell seems really strong but I've never used a punch before and was wondering if there's any realistic chance of warping the shell? I doubt it since I doubt the aluminum is that soft (if it was I'd question its durability as a drum material to begin with), but I figured it might be worth asking.
Hey broski. We're wrapping up the visit to see Michael. I'll be sad to go. Other than that it's back to getting the new house fixed up, and picking out your surprise (I have not forgotten!!). How's the drum build coming along?
'sup home skillet?
God I love snipers. They are glorious bastards.
Laaaames. My favorite moment was my revenge against Exalt a few missions later. I'd just climbed my sniper on top of the back of a truck, so it was only half cover, but I had the "full cover" ability. She had her shiny, brand new plasma sniper rifle. She had two sides of a building covered. I sent an agent through the inside of a gas station, and it triggered three Exalt cells at once. The all came rushing into his view (around 9-12 agents? 3 to 4 per cell as I recall), and that's when all hell broke loose for them. Because of her squadsight she saw every enemy my other agent could see, and they were in the open because they were running up to a wall that faced him, but remained open to her from across a parking lot. Because she had "damn good ground" and was above them (barely, in a truck) she has a plus 10 to her aim. She also had bionic eyes and scope, so her aim was up there. She also had "opportunist" which eliminated aim penalties to action shots, and I'd just earned "in the zone". Since they were flanked by her and the the other agent, and they got caught running to cover they were flanked and out in the open. She took them all down in a single round with all headshots. I sent another agent into the other direction inside that building, and he set off the final cell. They came running out to get into cover to attack him, and the same thing happened again. Mission over. It was beautiful.
New proudest XCom moment: having the game freeze when I got to the Ethereals on the last level and not throwing my computer out the damn window.
2009 Hyundai Accent actually. So almost a Kia, but not an Optima. And I have no idea what my proudest Xcom moment is. Right now it's that I have a Sniper named after myself who hasn't died probably. It's Vivi22 number 3. Vivi24 if you will.
Yeah, I'm still thinking of something good. I don't have a Kia Optima to mess around with, or I'd try to think of something cool to do with it. I still might. What car do you have specifically? Isn't it an Optima? What's your proudest XCom moment?
