Religion - The Art of Ministering

This post is going to be one long post, and it will be edited over time.  Today (inside the walls of our church), we were given the task of re-reading a book of scripture (3 Nephi) and researching all of the instances of "ministering".  Our greatest examples of ministering come from Jesus Christ, and with as much about Christ as is written in 3 Nephi, this could become a long post.  So here we go.

The first chapter starts out with a description of the then-current social norm - anything Christian was considered bad.  At this point, the descriptions of the civilization can be broken into two groups - those that followed the prophecies about Jesus Christ, and those that despised them for it.  Essentially, according to the backdrop, there was a targeted day on which the anti-Christian would kill the Christian if the prophecy of his birth had not occurred.  This alone strikes me as similar to current social norms - if you don't subscribe to the current ideology (we can call that a theology, it's the same thing in this case), you are likely to be "socially assassinated".  This is the backdrop for how this story begins.

After describing the scenario, the commentary immediately describes a prophet who "went out, bowed himself down", and "cried mightily" for his people (3 Nephi 10-11).  This simple act of prayer is the first directly reference of ministering.  Before any action happens, before any plans are made, it always begins with prayer.

This prayer then resulted in the second act of ministering - it was answered, "this night shall the sign be given".  The astonishment when that sign occurred was strong - the anti-Christian group even fell to the earth.  This was then met with fighting against what had been documented.  Arguments, lyings, and deception ran rampant in an attempt to discredit.  Despite this, there was a strong effort by the ministering angels of the time for peace (peace is a result of abiding by the moral teachings of Jesus Christ, so the entire list of repentance comes into play).  The big thing

Summary

It appears that there are some steps to ministering.  As this post is compiled, this summary will also be compiled.

First, ministering begins with prayer.  Before someone acts, there will be a prayer - even if no god was involved.  Our thoughts and hearts have to be in the right mood to do it.  Not always are these prayers answered at the time we think we need it, but they are answered.

There will always be opposition from people that do not take time to understand, or who desire to find the negative in an attempt to discredit efforts.  This happens even today (a former church member trying to identify missed taxes, etc).

CentOS and choqok

Trying to get a twitter client on my desktop, they all seem to be python.  I'd rather have a real package, and set out looking for choqok (I'd used it before under Fedora).  Unfortunately, CentOS doesn't release an RPM for choqok.  Here's how I got it installed.

First, install a few dependencies :

yum install cmake kdelibs-devel qjson-devel qca2-devel qca-ossl qtwebkit

Then, we have to install qoauth.  Since CentOS doesn't have a native package, we need to install both qoauth and qoauth-devel from something else, along with a few other dependencies that didn't exist in CentOS 6.  I grabbed them from the fedora 15 (anything more recent and you'll have a KDE version problem since later fedora's work with more bleeding-edge.  Here are the packages you'll need :

rpm -ivh /home/jlewis/Downloads/qoauth-1.0.1-2.fc15.x86_64.rpm /home/jlewis/Downloads/choqok-1.1-1.fc15.x86_64.rpm /home/jlewis/Downloads/choqok-libs-1.1-4.fc15.x86_64.rpm /home/jlewis/Downloads/attica-0.2.0-1.fc15.x86_64.rpm

9 distribution (e.g. http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/20535356/dir/fedora_19/com/qoauth-1.0.1-5.fc19.x86_64.rpm.html and http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/20535358/dir/fedora_19/com/qoauth-devel-1.0.1-5.fc19.x86_64.rpm.html).  Then, I ran :


rpm -ivh qoauth-1.0.1-5.fc19.x86_64.rpm qoauth-devel-1.0.1-5.fc19.x86_64.rpm


Once complete, you can then install the client.

Auto Parts Lathe

I wanted to start building my own machine shop.  Again, I'm cheap, so I don't like to spend money on things I'd only use once in a great while, and I still wanted the full capability.  I looked at Harbor Freight lathes (seriously, don't even bother with them - they are tiny, and not as accurate - if you need accuracy, buy a big one).  My father had a book series by David Gingery about building your shop from scrap.  I could easily start that, but I had a need for a lathe in pretty short order.  I didn't need one I could put stock through the headstock for cutting things off (I could easily use a saw to cut and then surface if needed).  That gave me more options, and, since I had access to a few left over auto parts, I thought I'd put something together.

First, I grabbed the two rear hubs that had been sitting around waiting for my father to build a trailer.  (He donated them to the cause.)  Additionally, I had some pulleys left over from a small block rebuild I had finished up a few years earlier.  This gave way to the auto parts lathe.  I threw down some ideas on paper :

I toyed with the lay out a few times until I had something I thought worked, then started over when I realized the rear hubs I had were not driven (they were from a rear wheel drive), so I couldn't be turning the hubs on top of the spindle.  I needed to anchor the hubs down because they can take some serious lash (this is why I went with them - the bearings are perfect for a headstock).  I revisited until I had the above design (there were three different designs before I settled).

Next up, was to dismantle the assemblies.  It took a blow torch and a hammer to break the drums from the hubs, but once freed, I could remove the spindle nuts and bearings and separate the hubs from the spindles.  This is IMPORTANT, because the bolt holes on the back of the spindles are NOT SYMMETRICAL!  (To illustrate why that's important, think about the vibrations in a washing machine that is unbalanced - it is NOISY, and that is also after the vibration cushions have removed the bulk of the unbalanced load - imagine spinning it even faster with some serious weight - it gets dangerous).

So, once I had the parts apart, I could mark where the symmetrical holes needed to be bored.  I put the two spindles back-to-back, and by identifying the larger-spaced holes on opposite sides and getting as close to centered as possible, I sprayed some spray paint into the holes and let it sit for a minute.  When I pulled the spindles apart, I had BOTH sets of holes marked.  If you only get one spindles holes marked, then you have some amazingly tight spindles.  Odds are not in that favor (which is good for lazy people like me), because of rust, time, and the fact that the spindles didn't need a perfect balance because they weren't the parts spinning while you drove down the road.

Once the holes were identified, I had to transfer those marks to the OTHER side of the spindle flange, because my drill press wouldn't work from the back side using a caliper and a scratch awl (it's a cheap, harbor freight, 8", bench top drill press).  With the marks on the upside, I could then drill them out.  I found the drill bit that matched the already-existing holes, clamped the parts down, and began to drill them out.

You will note that, once the holes are drilled, you will end up with four sets of close holes.  Before starting to assemble anything, grab a spare, used, Chevrolet small block pulley.  I had some aluminum pulleys left over from a previous engine build, so I had something light to work with.  Mine had a lip on them, and before I thought about it, I had started to grind off the lip on it.  You don't need to do this, because that lip will be machined and well balanced.  What you really need to do is center one spindle on the pulley (on a side that is flush, preferably), and mark four symmetrical holes from the spindle to the pulley.  Separate them, and drill the holes out.

Once drilled, you can assemble the bulk of your headstock.  First, obtain some bolts that are just long enough to go through both spindle flanges, the pulley, and have just enough room for the nut.  Any longer, and you can run into interference from the hubs that are going to be put back on.

Lock those bolts down solidly - your life depends on it.  Then, reinstall the hubs onto the spindles:

Once complete, you have the basics of a headstock.  The pulley should turn independently of each hub.      The only things left to do on the head stock are :

• Build an assembly that will attach to the spindle and allow a faceplate with clamps.
• Build braces for the hubs to bolt to the "bed".  These can use standard angle iron, or you can use a length of a cars frame.
• On that note, don't forget to build the bed.
• And you will need a tail stock.

The braces can be built from angle iron welded together.  I have yet to do this part, and likely never will (I bought a lathe).  Sure, the theories are good, and I'm leaving this post here because someone could use this in an emergency.

Craftsman 534.0601 Replacement Tailstock Clamp

I was turning a new tool handle a while back, and in the middle of turning, my tailstock clamp broke.  I suppose I had tightened it a little too much, and cast iron isn't "strong".  It is brittle.  I looked eBay over for a few months and found very little, and last Saturday, I thought I should go through my scrap bin and find some steel to mill a new clamp.  Luckily, I had a spare to finish (a second lathe) the tool turning, and I used that to measure for the new part.

I grabbed a chunk of steel, and virtually squared it up (technically, I left the large surfaces alone because they'd be close enough).  I did this one slightly wider than the original (more meat equals stronger part, right?).  With the stock squared, I milled the mating surfaces to match bottom of the bed (just like the old clamp, about 0.08" down from the top surface).

I then flipped the part, and milled the slot for the through-bolt and it's head.  Here's the broken clamp (right), the spare I used as the measurement in the back, and the new one in the front :

Now I have the spare headstock put away (with it's clamp), and I have the solid steel one in place on the bed.  I dare not tighten it too much because I don't want to snap the lathe bed.  Since the part was a cast iron part, I made the choice to stamp it with the original part number (L2-7).  This I did in case someone needs to replace it in the future - they can look up the part number along with the model and know what they need.

I installed it, and it works as it should!