ADA: Ask Doc Anything!

[DocsMachine]

Can’t wait looking forward to the progress. Stinks we lost the build thread. Edit: Wait no we didn’t you Hosted that.

-Well, we haven't lost the photos, as you're right, I host those myself, but yeah, we lost a 20 or 30-page discussion on it.

Either way, lemme get some progress going on it, and I'll restart a new thread on it.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Any chance you could repost all of the things no one's going to want?

-Planning on that very thing, though I'm at the moment sold out of several of them. If you check out my store (http://docsshop.storenvy.com/) you can see what I have and don't have in stock. (Though I just noticed that it still shows both my Flashpoints as in stock- I'm actually out of both of those, though I have a fresh batch on the way.)

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

In a video from last year, Bacci is talking with Sergei Levkov about the Fastback autococker. He basically says that the design was his, that he did all the milling, and shipped the guns to you for assembly and sales. Is that true? I was always under the impression that since they were called "Doc Nickel Fastbacks," that you designed, machined, and sold them.

-Nope, that's pretty much the case. In 2003, I came into a bit of money, and started shopping around for a CNC shop to start producing some of my products. One of which was the Automag barrel adapter, another was my flat-top 'Cocker bolt, and a couple other minor ones.

While Sergei and I were talking about some of this, it came up that he had a big batch of mis-machined 'Cocker bodies. Like 50-60. For some reason, he'd machined them to a standard 9/16" fine, which was something like 9/16"-20, rather than the WGP nonstandard thread, which is 9/16"-24. The customer he made them for refused them, and so he had 'em laying around gathering dust.

They weren't worth his time to rework, so I offered to buy them. I cut them down to mini size and rethreaded 'em to normal 'Cocker front-block thread. (Though a few were sold uncut.)

A couple of those I converted to halfblock, since that was the new and happenin' thing at the time. My setup was closer to a Racegun than a TurtleCocker, and I suggested it to Sergei to see how much it might be to have a run made. Sergei countered that he'd already been working on a halfblock, and sent me a sample- which was of course what would become the Fastback.

I said "screw mine, let's make yours!" It being by far the superior design.

So he made a run, I suggested the name, which he loved, and I sold them. I don't recall the specifics, but I believe for some reason he wasn't all that worried about having his name attached to them. Maybe he was just trying to help me get off the ground. I dunno. I'm sure part of it was he knew that lots of buyers would want to have a full gun built- which was true- and he wasn't set up for assembly and testing.

Why didn't we have more made? Money, mainly. Sergei is a professional CNC shop, and naturally wants to make big batches of parts- that's where you get economies of scale. Make one part, it might cost you $2,000. Make 2,000 parts, they might cost you a dollar each, etc.

As an example, after the first batch of Automag adapters, which was only like 250, he wanted me to do a run of 5,000. Even though that would have dropped the price to like $5 each, that still meant putting out $25,000. I couldn't even hope to afford that, and knew that at the usual rate of sales, it'd take me a decade to sell that many. (And that's been a problem ever since- most of my products don't sell well enough to make buying a multi-thousand-part run produced, and very few machine shops even want to talk to you over runs of less than a few hundred parts.)

So yes, while they were "Doc Nickel Fastbacks", they were 100% designed and made by Sergei. I was basically just the dealer.

Doc.

[dartamon]

-Whoops, no, I don't. That email is the other stock guy. Please send me a refresher/reminder email and then we can go from there.

Sorry about that.

Doc.

Email sent, I'm not in a hurry.

[Rusty Brass]

Any chance you could repost all of the things no one's going to want?

[Magmoormaster]

I got one for ya.

In a video from last year, Bacci is talking with Sergei Levkov about the Fastback autococker. He basically says that the design was his, that he did all the milling, and shipped the guns to you for assembly and sales. Is that true? I was always under the impression that since they were called "Doc Nickel Fastbacks," that you designed, machined, and sold them.

[DocsMachine]

Found your email, I'll type you up a reply this evening and we can go from there.

-Whoops, no, I don't. That email is the other stock guy. Please send me a refresher/reminder email and then we can go from there.

Sorry about that.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

I wanna know why we park in in driveways and drive on parkways?

-Easy. The main thing to remember is both terms actually predate the car. A "drive" way was basically a short private road giving access to a property off a public road- 'drive' being a term far older than we know it today. As in drive a herd of cattle across the state to the new ranch. The original meaning had a lot more to do with the access a wagon had past the house and towards the barn out back, and the term naturally evolved to include the short bit from the house to the garage.

And a "park" way was just as it sounds- a road through a park, basically meant to be a scenic route. That, too, evolved from the old horse-and-carriage days, with the original term basically meaning a wide road through a scenic area. It later evolved to include wide highways (multi-lanes, etc.) that were also somewhat scenic- think Route 66.

What I still haven't figured out is why there are interstate highways on Hawaii*.

Doc.

(Actually, that, too is easy: An "interstate" is a specification, the road is built to interstate standards, not that it's actually connected to multiple states.)

[DocsMachine]

I was the raw P-stock, raw Tanto, howie glass guy! And now that I own a cocker, maybe even more.

-Oh, right. That guy.



I thought I got back to you on that, but then, some days I'm lucky to remember pants. I have the raw P-stock, but I'm out of raw Tantos. I can sure send you an annoed one, or if you're not in too much of a hurry, I have a new batch of them inbound, although probably not for another two to six weeks.

For those of you interested, I'll also have some of the new, as-yet-unannounced 12" Tanto XLs, that take the XL inserts. Shhhh!

No hard ETA, but we are working on them.

Found your email, I'll type you up a reply this evening and we can go from there.

Doc.

[Third of Five]

Wow! seems like we are all virgins again with a Join Date of Jul 2020. I wanna know why we park in in driveways and drive on parkways? Seriously, so freakin glad you are here despite coming home to some seriously f'd up crap...

[dartamon]

-If I haven't already, I meant to, and if I haven't already, I'd like to. I know I was behind on three or four PM conversations on the old board, were you the stocks, the stocks and gas-thru, the 'Cocker halfblockery or the 10-oz tank ring guy? (Sorry, my encyclopedic knowledge tends to end at screen names vs. email/shipping names. )

Doc.

I was the raw P-stock, raw Tanto, howie glass guy! And now that I own a cocker, maybe even more.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Can’t wait looking forward to the progress. Stinks we lost the build thread. Edit: Wait no we didn’t you Hosted that.

[DocsMachine]

I need a run down on the car projects, what is the car scene like?

-If you've read my website, you've seen 'em.

My "fun" car is a '72 Olds Cutlass, just an "S" model, but currently (cheaply) painted to look sort of 442-ish. Was given to me as an engineless beater (as I said, this is a recurring theme) which I got running on a shoestring, and have been upgrading as time and money allow. Pretty decent driver, safe and reliable, but still needs a lot of work.

Another is a '66 Olds Toronado, the first of the front-drive battle barges. Could be daily driven today, but needs a great deal of niggly little work which I can't really afford nor have time for. Cool car, in my opinion, 30-over 455, front-wheel-drive, room for eight inside, etc. But I just haven't had time to really do much with it.

And the last is a really fun one- a 3/4-ton 4WD '65 Corvair. It's basically a '77 Blazer with a different body- really, only the sheetmetal is Corvair. I built and drove that (it has about 16,000 miles on it) back in my oilfield days, but once I started this biz, I couldn't afford the insurance or the 11MPG mileage. Years ago, I started thinking I'd like to refresh it, as I'd built it back when I had virtually no tools. (Every hand tool I owned would have fit in a 5-gallon bucket with room to spare.)

And about... I guess around three years ago now, I found a 2014 GMC 2500 frame, with the 6-liter, 6-speed, IFS front and 14-bolt rear, complete running gear, with only about 10,000 miles on it, and for dirt cheap. I bought that, and the plan is at some point- if ever- I'd like to roll the frame into the shop, chop 4-1/2 feet out of the middle, 4-link and coil the rear, and plunk the 'Vair body on it.

And this time, with far better welders available, plus, you know, machine tools and the like, I should be able to do a WAY better job.

But, again, that's the kind of thing that would eat eighteen months to two years of dedicated work, and likely a good solid $20K in raw cash. Needless to say I don't have either of those, so no idea when- or even if- I'll ever be able to get to it.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Don't worry, the day off bit was tongue-in-cheek.😁

-Tongue in cheek or not, it's actually a point I like to make.

On one hand, I love working for myself. I'd have to be in pretty dire straits before I went back to work for The Man. But on the other hand, that comes at a pretty heavy cost. I have zero social life, I literally work, one way or the other, an easy 12 hours a day, AND for that 12/7/365, I barely make decent fry-cook wages.

The only thing that keeps me at this, is the fact I truly enjoy fixing and building things.

But man, there sure are times I'd like to put the tools down, shut off the lights and go do almost anything else for a couple days.

I always figured Doc from TWB to be a fan of GBH, Subhumans, Major Accident, Ramones, Iggy and the Stooges, Maiden, Megadeth, and so on.

-Apart from the last two, whom I haven't listened to in a very long time, I haven't even heard of any of those.

But no big, I'm no music snob. I don't go around telling people they should be listening to what I listen to, etc.

And "growly" metal is awful.

-Yep. It's a thing, people like it, but it ain't for me.

The only part about it is a hate looking up new music on YouTube, finding a band I'd never heard of, and trying one of their songs. A good one-minute intro that has great guitars and an amazing baseline, but then the vocalist starts up, sounding like he's trying for the lead role in the remake of Cujo, and just ruins it.

Doc.

[Paintslinger16]

I need a run down on the car projects, what is the car scene like?