Scott NC

I googled alembic dome and you might have some left overs from a hemispherical dome formula. It looks more like a catenary dome to me. It might get you close. I've been wrong before though. Many times.....

Shoot Billy, sailors know how to party a little bit too. I have a fun story about lack of air conditioning on the ship, shore leave in St. Thomas and one of those El Grande size Snickers candy bars but I better not relate it here. Gotta blow off steam sometimes.

Hey, you asked... The upstairs guy in the video started it all. I think it would be louder if one would blow harder.

I would buy a tuba and practice day and night. The kind with the horn that points up.

That is a thoughtful and unique retirement gift. Well done. I really like the name/title you gave it too.

Good on you Randy, nobody wanted them in our neck of the woods. So we released them. Catfish were the primary catch we were after. Funny, we kept all the carp we caught and fried them up. Everybody seems to hate them. We even pickled them. Any body heard of the low life river skipjack?

If the shoe fit's wear it...

There's a lot of old formula books out there that have solutions/chemical mixes for coloring steel and iron. The chemicals involed put me off. Red flag... I have a book, "The Coloring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals" and it doesen't even mention iron and steel. It's pretty comprehensive. When I get home I will see what there is on enamaling on steel.... Probably dangerous too....

I have not checked out the link yet but gar like chicken guts, you thread the intestines over the hook and up the line. We used guts or crawdads for bigger catfish but pulled in gars too. We didn't keep the gars though. Like you say. I heard tales some nailed them to a tree to clean them. That was a long time ago. They used to serve it fried up at the airboat clubs annual wild game feed. Not bad.

I love one man bands and this guy is good. I wish I had musical talent of some kind. I might have shown him before.

I would say 3,200 lbs? I was kind of more interested in where it came from, what it was used for, etc....

That's a monster press for sure, to bad there wasn't a board describing the old thing in detail. Seems to me, I have seen an photo of it somewhere but maybe I imagine it... You didn't try giving it a spin? Your description of the whole place makes me want to visit. It kind of reminds me of a ghost town turned tourist attraction I visited in Arizona a long, long time ago. There were old stamp mills, mining equipment, blascksmith and machinery scattered all about. Great fun eyeballing it all. No rides though.

George, hot splitting would be best, and radially better. Head first is right.... Thanks. Anvil, I was just fooling around, trying to make a small prototype just to see how a larger one would look. I knew it was too small, but tried anyway...... I have to work on forge welding skills, I agree about the cool transitions. It's just that old quickie stick weld habits die hard... Thanks for the pics. We'll see what develops.

Hi Billy. The river was my favorite get-away for some solitude. We had a boat but sometimes I went on a smaller river, 12 miles out of town on the gravel roads then a hike across a big bean field and I went at night. Only an occasional freight train crossing the old river bridge to disturb. Good to see you post.

Sigh.... I was thinking of water valves and hydraulically driven linkage. You might need tank treads to move a V8 around and about. May chew up the turf a bit. Between Axle and Oakley an ammonite wouldn't stand a chance. I tried making 8 tentacles out of 1/2 rebar yesterday by sawing them horizontally with the hacksaw. Too small. Didn't go well.... Then I tried 4 and got good results until I over worked the first one and it broke off. . It was too hot out to be working. I think the idea about forge welding them is best. Or maybe cheat and stick weld them....

Glenn shared his wisdom, knowledge and generosity with us all, but he was also a man of suprises and ingenuity. I have the most beautiful strawflower growing in my garden that I grew from seed that he sent me last winter. I will save it's seed and it will always remind me of him. I will of course ring my anvil for him and my prayers and thoughts are with family and friends.

I treasure your imagination. Maybe you could add valves and linkage to make it move around to water the whole yard. No need for a tractor sprinkler.

Well? Do tell...

I found if you post just links, you get a bunch of ads to aggravate you. Here's a blast from the past. I might soon post some favorites from an old school Polka show by Moustache Joe and His Polka band. It's amazing how one can like so many different genre.

Any time I use a chainsaw, these days, I get the shakes in my arms and hands. Same with a weedeater. I don't know what causes it but it fades away after a few hours. I learn not to do these things before supper. Hard to operate a fork....

When I was doing railcar repair work I welded a 1-1/2" (?)× 16" (?) solid steel round bar onto a sledge head for a handle. The electrical maintenance man built up a bunch of heat shrink tubing on part of the handle to absorb a bit of the shock from hammer blows. We did a lot of plate and sheetmetal fitting and I spot welded the handle end to the plate to bring them into alignment through leverage for tacking. The sledge head was used for setting "hot tacks". It sure beat dragging around dogs and wedges, leverage bars, a sledge etc. But it wasn't as repetative as working at the anvil. That hammer is lost somewhere in the past, I wish I still had it.

Ok. That vegetarian comment came out of left field, sorry about that. It happens. I sure hope it doesn't deter anybody else from commenting and giving you ideas. I'm sure there are plenty. Scott

Depending on your skill level, you could forge small steer or hog heads and attach them to all kinds of things. Might not appeal to vegetarians but what would they be doing in a butcher shop anyway?

How about a paperclip shell for some complexity? Not really a recognizable ammonite form but an ammonite just the same. I already broke your "rule"...... https://www.google.com/amp/s/phys.org/news/2020-11-ancient-squid-like-creature-paperclip-shaped-shell.amp. Maybe Rainbird would be interested in that sprinkler design..