Getting my Russian shop set up

[jdurand]

Just an update on our adventures...

Ever since the SMO started business visas became very hard to renew in this region, so we had to switch to being tourists which meant living at home for a bit, then living abroad for a bit.

This summer we were finally granted "quota" which allowed us to apply for the equivalent of "green cards" and stay here as residents.

GREAT! We were about to head home to start the paperwork but... (there's always a but) a new law came into effect to put more oversight on who could actually apply for residency. You have to have entered the country with a special visa by invitation.

We applied for that and after a month, we were granted it through the consulate where we were currently staying (Armenia). We had 4 month visas which qualified us to use that consulate as temporary Armenia residents.

but wait... when we went to the consulate they told us there was another new law, not yet published but they were enforcing it, that we now needed SIX month Armenian visas before the consulate would see us. Unless... we provided the original copies of our "quota" paperwork.

That paperwork is only released to people IN PERSON. sigh. Ok, we flew home (glad it's not far or expensive), collected our paperwork and applied for visas to return to Armenia. My wife got one right away as expected, me... rejected. ???

After a trip to the Armenian embassy we found that someone I met in Armenia reported me as being too anti-American and got me black listed.

At this point the national TV news stepped in and after a bunch of help from them and others we were granted the special visa without having to leave the country. Our green card paperwork is in progress (it takes 6-8 weeks) and we're back to working on the house. Painting, tiles, and building our greenhouse.

We can't reopen our business until we're actually issued our residency paperwork so we're using the time to get other things done.

So far we've had 4 magazine interviews, 3 published, and one TV news interview. The immigration service also used some of the news footage to release their own short bit on us.

Hopefully I'll have interesting things to post here in the future. Mostly things are just on our blog.
https://t.me/Becoming_Russians/10

[mr mikey]

Wishing you the best.

[jdurand]

Wishing you the best.

Thanks. We didn't plan to constantly be the exception to rules, but it seems to be what happens.

Going way back in our history we've seemed to be the exception in lots of things, like finding bank statements that don't balance. "Nobody's ever noticed before that the balances are crazy numbers (deposit $100 and the balance drops by $60,000)"

[jdurand]

We got to the point where "we need to make a hydraulic press someday" got to "we need one now". So, my wife and I started working out how we wanted to build one, maybe something like the one we had in California only less wobbly.

Well, she happened across a press kit on sale for a price that looked like "maybe we'll buy the kit" instead of calculating and ordering the steel profiles. Around here there's lots of basic hot rolled steel, anything else is special order or poke through the scrap yard at one steel place.

5 star rating, looked like our April 10 ton cylinder would fit fine, made here and not China. Ok, ordered.

Interesting design, made like the laser cut plastic and thin wood used for various maker stuff. Only this is made of 6mm steel in the verticals and 8mm in the cross pieces. Grade 10.5 bolts.

Seems strange to make it this way, but we'll see





The box arrived a few days early, over 30kg. We took a hand truck to pick it up.


Looks nice, powder coat paint, very clean design.

Small problem, the rectangular holes for the pins are too small (after the powder coat paint) so I employed a hand operated persuasive device.


The rest went together with no problem. Here it is assembled with the April cylinder in place.


It came with the X plates, they only have two cutouts each but that's ok. The backs have a vertical plate welded on so you can bend/straighten things in them. The side legs of the press being two plates leaves a nice gap if you need to feed something in from the side.


First use, fix my ^%%$#! office chairs, both of them wouldn't stay up for long. The gas springs on them are replaceable... if you have a press for each end. So, here's the first one being popped out using the official press spacer of a 12 point socket.


I haven't connected the gauge to my pump yet, I've been using the cylinder for construction work and didn't need it. But, it felt like a couple of tons of force based on past use.


Since the X plates only have big notches in them, I found the adapter I'd made to press the spring back in my hammer drill worked perfectly. Never toss out scrap!

Looks good, overall pleased. The hole size is a beginner mistake, they forgot paint thickness. But this method of assembly makes a strong, wobble free press.

Anyone with access to a laser cutter might consider this funny looking but functional way of making things.