Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Phinally; Photos!!

Get it? Phinally; Photos? Eh? Eh? See? Living here with all these right-brained artsy types is rubbing off! I'm just so edgy and hip!

(sorry)

Anyway, I know it isn't Sunday. It ain't even Monday. But hey; at least it's still 2007.

Our Sedona road trip is here.

I added the last couple rainbows I got pictures of to the Monsoon 2007 set. For a few weeks, they were a daily thing, but the monsoons seem to be blowing out now.

And just for Jen:

DSC03994

These are mostly harmless; they just like to get tangled up in people's hair.

Long week so far in the foundry; Monday I was assigned 102's which are a bit of a problem bell, but I've done them before, so I wasn't too concerned going in. Then my first mold split in half when I took the flask off. OK, still no need to panic. Then my second mold split in half. OK; panic!! I switched to a different flask and made a few changes in how I was packing the sand. Somehow, I got everything out on time. At least the majority of the bells turned out. Tuesday, I was on the grinder in the morning and did assembly all afternoon. Today I was doing 101's, which just love to boil under the best of circumstances, and having a rookie molding them with too-wet sand ain't nothing like "best." My entire first heat boiled: 100% failure. I shoveled an entire pile of dry sand into my molding sand and started packing the cores (the part that makes the inside of the bell) so light they nearly crumbled when I pulled the pattern off. That seemed to do the trick. I still lost 5 of the twelve bells in my second heat; I was on tail with the boss man as usual, but for some reason, we were like a couple chimps out there, slopping bronze all over the place. We scored a direct hit on three cores, which as I mentioned were already pretty fragile, double-streamed the bronze on one, and had an interruption in the stream on another. Bottom line; seven out of 24. Not good.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That bug is actually kinda cute. It's a pretty green color. It doesn't look like it would scurry around in the night plotting to crawl on me when I'm sleeping. I would let that bug live.....outside..lol!!!

Ric said...

I couldn't get it to show up in the photo, but when the sun hits them just right, they sparkle.

The only problem with them is that they are like June Bugs; they don't seem to be able to maneuver around obstacles like people. They just run into you, then sort of stick there.

A couple of us were sitting on the deck outside our room when one "landed" near us. (These guys make me feel good about my "landings" in Flight Simulator.) We watched him try to right himself for a bit, then finally flipped him over. He immediately flew into the nearest wall, then dropped back on the deck upside down. After repeatedly tipping him right-side-up only to have him crash into something two seconds after take-off, we gave up and left him laying there upside-down. Because this is a desert environment, the ants showed up within a half hour or so, chopped him up into little bits, and carted him off.

Anonymous said...

aaawwww poor little bug!!! I never have liked ants!!!