Trials and Travails with assorted Crimson Trace laser sight products

Of the 10 various CTC laser sight products I've had or still have, EIGHT OF them (now 9 malfucntions as of May 9 2023) had functional issues!

 Of the 3 CTC products on 2 pistols I still have, 2 were faulty. and 1 can be zeroed but will go a little off when firing! 

To keep using the three I have now,  I rebuilt & reengineered the switch on the LG-431 and had to return and get replaced my  CT RAD Micro Pro which wouldn't zero out of the box and a CMR-207(which quit working altogether today after about 1 year of occasional use it just quit coming on anymore with new batteries installed)  before today it also had trouble keeping  zero  because the mount screws are too far forward toward the very front of the clamp, which is not robust enough to keep the unit in place perfectly on a weapon!

Previously, I've successfully used 1 of 3  CMR-205s, all which came with bad switches, and then sold it, BUT ONLY AFTER I learned to reengineered the paddle switches myself. So based on that, I bought a used CMR-205 for a new compact pistol, knowing it would have bad switches taht I could fix, and it did and I fixed it. Only problem with this one is that it was the first one, new, refurbished or used that ALSO WILL NOT ZERO, which I found out the other day the first time I took it to the range and shot with it.

So why is CTC still in business? Because most people don't know their shit don't work because they don't know how to sight weapons or shoot them accurately in the first place. So CTC can churn out expensive, shoddily manufactured pretty craps and sells it to most people and they never know the difference!

The only people who know whether their sites are good or not are ex U.S. Marines like me, who are the only people who know how to sight in and shoot firearms.

A synopsis of the issues I've had with CTC products over the years:

1 new 2 refurbished CMR-204s all had bad switches; a used CMR-205 (won't zero, bad switches); 2 LG-431s,1 used that didn't zero that CTC replaced and the replacement on which the switched stopped working after a short time; 2 CT Rad Micro Pros (first 1 wouldn't hold zero second one worked). 

So I learned to reengineer the switches on the 204s and 205s, but to no avail in the last 205 for my compact pistol because it also doesn't zero and I can't fix that.

The use CMR-204 is  a used one I recently bought on Ebay that doesn't zero and all of a sudden Crimson Trace won't cover it, which HAS NOT been my experience in the past, as I have had a CMR-205 that they took back after the 3 year warranty was up. Not only that, their competitor Streamlight has no time limit on their warranty for factory flaws and didn't even ask for a receipt, speaking of which, failing to achieve or hold zero is, absent any external signs of trauma, is a manufacturing flaw. 

This is actually the first CMR-204/205 product I've owned that refuses to zero.

ON all the 204s and 205s, The switches don't activate the laser with a consistent pressure. sometimes it is very light, which is good, but gets worse over time, but most of the time they start out very difficult to activate, requiring undue finger pressure. and the pressure required for activation often varies significantly between the 2 activation paddles, which indicates imprecise manufactured of devices needing precise manufacturing standards. 

My fix that work in the cased of 3 of them so far, has been to extend the length of the tiny microswitch activation post(s) on the paddle(s) with drops of Super Glue cured immediately and hardened with baking soda. then I have to repeatedly reinstalling the paddles, check the pressure, uninstall them, file off some of the super glue extension and repeat until I get it just right. & 2 times I took new ones apart for the first time to fix them this way, THE SCREWS HOLDING THE SWITCH HOUSING ON the back of the lasers WERE LOOSE. but tightening them did not fix the issue. 

Details about trouble CT Micro RAD green: CT sent me the first one which wouldn't zero and they had to replace it.

 Trouble with LG-431pink: wouldn't zero, sent in and replaced. CT back then did they didn't check when or where I bought any of the products or seem to care, in fact, I had bought this one used on Ebay. So they replaced it and the new one worked for a couple years but then the pressure switch slowly started getting more difficult to engage until it wouldn't work anymore. At this point, I decided that I had to fix the issue myself because all I'd get from CT , if anything, would be another LG-431 with an inferior switch that went bad in a couple years under light use. 

This was my my repair for that one, which is really reengineering that is still working perfectly and activating with the same exact pressure 2-3 years later: Note that the materials I used to make the successful repair were arrived at after trial and error. The successful repair I did by reattaching the micro switch plate that had separated from the contact underneath the rubber pad that i had to remove and was unable to save. The tiny square plastic flexy contact plate is plastic and the 4 soldered attachment points that had come apart on the corners are almost microscopic. I cleaned them with alcohol and after many trials and errors, essentially working blind because of how tiny everything is, managed to reattach the contact plate in the corners with tiny dabs of Super Glue and check its operation.

 Then to re-cover it, i used polyurethane roughing caulk, because it is much tougher and much more adherent than silicone. But it still didn't stick well to the laser housing. Not out of tricks yet, i then used Por 15 Rust Preventative paint to cement the polyurethane to the shell. Por 15, I'd found out previously is the best solid slightly flexible epoxy adhesive I've ever used, which includes it being better than original JB Weld. It's especially good on plastic and works on polyurethane as well when NOTHING else will bond polyurethane caulk to anything except more polyurethane, if you rough it up or chemically etch it (which is easy to do). but roughing up the shell didn't make the polyurethane stick to it well enough. 

So there you have it folks, the many true ways CT either has become a bad company with bad products it refuses to back or maybe has always been bad, I don't know which. But I'm tired of having to reengineer their shoddy products to use them and am done with spending my hard earned money for their garbage."

weighing in on our Twitter addict POTUS

I think President Trump having an active Twitter account is terrific cuz I can tweet what I think of him and he probably sees it!

Goth or Emo for me? You Pick.

A letter to friend just now about art work for a web page she is doing for me:

Um, hello, color blind here! I'm sorry, i don't think you fully understand the extent of my disabilities in the taste/creativity/no discernible talent whatsoever departments.

But I would lean toward serious but somehow avoid black back ground & theme if possible because all the goths, all the tattoo artists, all the vamps, are doing black. So I definitely want something "different" so I don't blend in with a group or get labeled "oh so you're a...".

I don't like labels, especially the happily self-imposed types that everybody latches on to, it seems in order to avoid the one label that they should aspire to which is simply "woman" or "man" and associated labels like "mother, daughter, aunt, son,father", etc. Instead they avoid those like the plague, going for the ostentatious and pretentious, plastering all over themselves "Goth". "Emo" & others.

 It's all just so much "Mommy look at me! Mommy Look what I am doing" 2-year-olds looking for attention but coming from adults (in physical stature & age alone)

The latest Facebook wannabe: CNN

CNN has gone off the deep end trying to be a social network instead of a news network. Of all the contrivances the CNN programmers have come up with to try to become a social network instead of a news network, none is so wasteful and contrived as a the The "Choose The News"  segments where people get to text in and vote for one of 3 stories to be shown in the next hour.
        One problem is that the three choices are always legitimate, important and potentially interesting news stories that all should be aired. Another problem is that they show enough teaser of each that it is obvious that all three shows are produced, in the can & ready to go. Therefore, CNN could show all 3 if they wanted to. So the whole voting for the news thing is a contrivance and it appears to me that they are actually wasting resources doing it.
           Like I said CNN has become another lame social network instead of a news one. But MSNBC is just as bad, breaking into a  legitimate, important news story with "breaking news" about Lindsey Lohan in court. And MSNBC  (I think it is MSNBC or maybe CNN? who cares) has a new motto that is so lame: "Lean Forward" that it reflects badly on the entire network every time it is shown on the screen. It basically says about that  network "MSNBC (or CNN) is run by a brain-dead idiot who thinks this stupid phrase  is a "great motto."
      I don't know how intelligent people like Rachel Maddow & Keith Olbermann can stand or could stand to continue working at MSNBC.  I'm betting that if someone collected all the brains of all the programming decision makers at both networks and turned it into fuel, there there would not be enough fuel produced to power a pissant's minibike half way around a BB.
           If you want even less evidence of intelligence at those networks,  look the Rick Sanchez debacle at CNN. Here, I am not even referring to  the "final episode in the Rick Sanchez at CNN" story in which CNN fired him apparently for making comments about Jews and calling Jon Stewart a bigot. Sanchez, to me, with his total ineptitude & good looks was obviously hired as a token Hispanic minority (still white though).     
         He was  the anchor of a CNN supposed "news", airing in the prime time 8 p.m. slot weeknights, called "Rick's List" (that was awful). The problem is, though possessing a degree in journalism, he was no broadcast journalist (more like a game show host) by a long shot.
     In fact, if Sanchez managed to have a legitimate news subject during his show, he always obliterated  it so badly with his his twisted presentation & delivery style (not taught in any broadcast school) that you either had to turn your TV off or kick it in JUST TO MAKE IT (Sanchez) STOP!
           But that was not Sanchez's fault, I mean, to me, he seemed to be just some miscast spokesmodel (I thought until I researched him) that applied for a job (or was scouted) at CNN and got it. It turns out, though, he is a trained journalist who chose to deliver the news like a (bad) game show host. But it is important, before bashing him too badly, to realize that his employer approved of his work. Indeed his rotten show had to have the full approval and backing of the programming "geniuses" at CNN (or it would not have aired), who now bring you "Choose the News" and loads of other total obfuscative crap.
     My opinion of self-described news networks doing celebrity news is in this that I wrote earlier:
    Tongue in cheek I said "Lindsey Lohan, not (Charlie) Sheen is the best example of everything wrong" with television "news".  For instance, I was watching an interesting informative story on MSNBC and they broke in with "breaking news" about her court appearance: "Judge Says Lindsey Lohan Will Face Jail Time." Good for her! I'm happy for her!"
      The "news" networks & programs need to purge themselves of this garbage (their program directors too) that they are doing for ratings & concentrate on real news. Networks like CNN show all the time that their resources are limited by virtue of the fact that they routinely completely drop coverage of one ongoing world issue to cover the next breaking one. But the real pisser is when they drop stories about the Iraq turmoil to cover a "breaking story" on MJ or ANS. So it is  unconscionable for these networks to dedicate any of their demonstrably limited resources to any celebrity (other than a blurb saying they're dead). But they go on and on with feature stories on celebrity mishaps and relegate real breaking, important news to a little text stream underneath.
      In fact, if you watch the streamer at the bottom of the CNN TV screen, the news there is nearly always more important and more interesting than whatever they are broadcasting on the main screen. What is even more frustrating about that is that you are left with more questions about the streaming text stories than the answers CNN never provides.
      This celebrity garbage should be relegated to the half- hour celebrity news programs and networks like E! E! doesn't try to be CNN so CNN, CNBC, MSNBC should stop trying to be E! (and Facebook, Twitter &UTube, all rolled up into one giant crappy ball of stupidity) Or at least dramatically curb the coverage they are giving celebrities by putting them in the text streamer at the bottom instead of putting real news there.
     Celebrity news is for brain-dead sycophants who think the celebrities are better than them and somehow more exciting, interesting & important than anything real in their lives like their children or their job, etc. News programming is supposed to stimulate these stupid people into becoming more critical thinkers by presenting them with hard news and facts about their community and the world. Instead, the networks totally break their ethical standards by pandering to the lowest common denominator of their viewing public: the celebrity hound.
     News is supposed to inform and elevate the ignorant, not travel right along side them. I know this because I have a degree and experience in journalism. All cable tv news (& most local news) today violates nearly every principle and ethic that I learned. Let these celebrity hounds have their E! network. I demand real news and don't have anything!