Frosty

Welcome aboard Warthog, glad to have you. She definitely looks colonial and in wonderful condition. If someone here doesn't have information you might try contacting "Colonial Williamsburg" they might have some information for you. Don't be surprised if they want to talk you into donating it though.

How does it work? How's the rebound? 

Frosty The Lucky.

Thank you Alex. Older dogs rarely have a chance once they hit the shelter, it can be a miserable frightened last couple weeks. I salute everybody who adopts older dogs and heck any shelter pet.

One of my best dogs ever, Bolo was at least 4 when I got him. He'd been handed around in a village up north and an old friend rescued him but couldn't get anyone to take him for good so I did. Bolo was so grateful to have a place more than a week he would do anything I asked. Great dog.

I got all carried away talking about gold panning in the other thread and forgot to say how much I'm looking forward to seeing more pics of the railing you just started in the stairwell.

Frosty The Lucky.

WOW, take a little breather and all sorts of things show up! Cool.

Davor: There are lots of good possibilities for a stable turn table for the table cart axle, a salvaged office chair is a good one and heavy duty versions are for sale though I don't know about there. Here I can drive to two large supplier outlets, Grainger and Fastenal and have a selection. Heck, it's hard to get out of either for all the shelf and bin browsing I find myself doing. 

Turning too sharp has always been a good way to dump a wagon. Maybe put a lower shelf on it so you can keep the weight low when you're taking it out to the BBQ pit or tables in the park, etc. 

Another good option is put a a couple stops to limit on how far it can turn.

That's a nice looking pick Billy, how far did you draw the temper back? Picks aren't really for rocks, they're for loosening hard soils and prying rocks out. I'd maybe give an old hammer head a smack on the face to make sure the pick deforms. It would be a real shame if it chipped and someone got hurt, No? 1045 is a pretty safe bet, much safer than spring steel!

Prospecting is always or usually fun, production or mining not so much. 

A nugget is placer gold, Placer is deposited in "soil" be it a stream bed modern or ancient it's loose gold particles in "soil," eroded from the veins where it formed. The other kind of common gold is hard rock where you follow a vein through the rock and remove the gold by whatever means is called for. That isn't to say you can't find hard rock gold laying loose or in a soil strata but it wont show signs of alluvial (water) weathering, it'll be in a vein in the pebble or boulder. If the rock is stream bed smooth it's placer.

Confused? Me too, I have been all my life. Dad knew more about rocks, mineral, gems, etc. than many holding doctorates and I heard about it from WAY back. He was that way about tying knots, I heard about tying a Bowline my whole life and it never took. Then one day we're in the field and needed to tie a knot properly, I'm looking at the rope I'm holding and there's Dad's voice and I knew how to tie a bowline. One handed and in a flicker of time. Do it slowly so the other guys could follow? Not so much. Dad couldn't tie one slowly.

We used to pan gold while we stream fished for trout. Turns out trout like to hang where gold drops out of the fast water as it swirls behind a rock, log, etc. Most gold is carried around obstructions rather than over. If there is a rock with water flowing over, pan in front of it too. It won't be as rich as behind but there will be a concentration in front too. Usually right against the rock.

I liked my old steel pans too, a little rust and plenty of scratches makes them work better. If you can find a new steel pan be sure to wash the lube off or you'll wash more fines through than recover. 

We panned with mercury and two different solutions to #1 break surface tension of water and #2 break the mercury's surface tension. 

An inventor friend of Dad's, call him "Woody" had an associate who came up with a really phenomenal solution that broke both so even the "colloidal sized" gold fell out of solution and could be captured by the mercury. Being struck with gold fever Woody's buddy never wrote the formula or process down and his memory wasn't as good as he thought so it's effectiveness fell off becoming essentially worthless. Analyzing it didn't do any good as none of the original existed and the new solutions were just stuff.

What I use anymore is a drop of the old phosphate loaded Dawn dish soap and a few drops of nitric acid. The old formula Jet Dry worked nicely but I haven't tried the new formula. I expect if I were running a production operation I'd just buy "Sodium Laurel Sulphate," it's what we used in the soils lab to cause complete wetting of every darned thing in the wash pan. Nitric converts mercury oxide to pure mercury. Call it a reducing agent.

Our part in the operation was making extraction equipment. The amalgamator caused any gold in the concentrates to form amalgam with the mercury which we extracted with the separator. 

Last and the one that scares folks the most was separating the gold and mercury. The old way that killed so many folk is to boil the mercury and condense it elsewhere. A favorite method in the gold fields was to cut a potato in half and cover an amalgam filled dent in a pan, heat the pan till the mercury had boiled off leaving the gold dust in the dent. The mercury was "captured" in the potato for reuse. All but the fumes that escaped that is. In it's pure form mercury isn't so toxic as it is far from water soluble so your body doesn't absorb it very well if at all. Mercury exposed to air on the other hand is covered with mercury oxide which is water soluble and boiling it fills the air with mercury oxide salts which WILL kill you in a while. 

We dissolved amalgam in nitric acid which left the gold at the bottom of the flask, we decanted the acid off for processing and reuse, rinsed the gold and weighed it in. Recovering the mercury was a simple matter of dissolving zinc which precipitated the mercury to out of solution for reuse. The acid would become saturated with zinc and got disposed of.

That's as far as I remember about the extraction process, I have no idea how the zinc saturated nitric acid was. . . (whatever they did with it)

Something that made me pretty uninterested in gold mining, even prospecting is how many gold crazy people I met at a young age. Gold was all they saw or thought about, often walking away from better money because it wasn't gold. Some would consider silver. . . maybe. We used to run around claims with the demonstrator units and run samples of their tailings after they'd extracted what they could. We regularly recovered more than they had after two runs through their equipment. 

Something we saw frequently in California gold country when break even was $22/ton, was "profitable" $25/ton (late 60s$) concentrates, maybe 1: 10 but an easy half the claims were recovering upwards of $50/ton in mercury. Break even gold or not there was almost always profitable levels of mercury.

Just panning in mountain streams (with mercury and a drop of magic juice of course) we'd regularly get WAY more mercury than gold. Put 1/2tsp of mercury in the pan and get back 2-3tsp. and coolest just panning for mercury usually recovered a respectable amount of gold. If 1/50 the value of the mercury.

Frosty The Lucky.

Cool, then I'll pester you about buying a new laptop every time you complain about writing long posts or other excuses for not posting now and then. Would you like me to send you "valuable offers?"

I'm sure the one I bought was obsolete before it went into production and I dearly miss my last laptop, especially the numeric pad. On the upside it's at least 1,000 times faster and 2k larger internal storage so I can generally not bother with storing my data in the China owned cloud. When my onboard memory starts getting crowded I have a stand alone DVD drive and a stack of printable DVDs. Getting it organized on the other hand is an issue for my dented brain. Not that I've ever been very good at organizing things except for the one time I had enough wall space for lots of book shelves. The owner said sure so long as I leave them or the brackets. That one time most of my library was organized with a version of the Dewy decimal system, labeled sections and all. 

I dream of having a proper library with modern rolling stacks and room for a nice large table so I can have gamers over for RPGs. D&D being the best known Roll Playing Game. A library with locks on the door so Deb can NOT turn it into storage!

Anyway, modern computers like this one are all solid state, there is no disk drive so it can take a pretty hard knocking around without problem even while it's working. I even have a carry "water proof" case with pack straps. I can see myself sitting on a log or rock on a beach in or near Ninilchik knapping the local jasper with one of Dr. James Dilley's how to knap videos running, stop and start when I need the advice. I have to keep it light but we can get a camping spot for the RV almost level with the beach so I don't have to pack tools or rock up and down a 150' bluff face. The bluff is where the jasper and chert weather out then wave action turns them into rocks, pebbles and sand. Lots of good flaking stock if I can adjust to the stone. 

Yeah, the adhesive strip for the window stuff is tough to get off without removing paint even some wood. The trick is get it really warm with the blow drier, it peals much better and you can rub the warm remains off with a finger or pink eraser. Happily out windows are all plastic so it doesn't damage them but it's still a stone bitch getting it cleaned off. Makes for a much warmer and more draft free house in winter though.

It looks like it might hit the low 70s today! mid to high 60s is inhumanly HOT enough but 70s? In APRIL!!!

Should be good beach combing and knapping weather though, I have a wide brim straw hat and an insulated mug for my iced tea.

Jer

It's hard for me to remember typing on a cell phone, I don't text. It took a little time to train my friends to call, email or get ignored. I talk on my cell. My laptop is pretty small, smaller than I like but it's okay and I can connect almost anywhere or through my Iphone. 

Have you considered a small laptop? They're really pretty cheap, are easy to view and touch type.

If I had to type on my phone I wouldn't be anything but a memory on IFI. On those rare occasions I have to reply through text, like doctor, etc. I have to type with one index finger. It pisses me off beyond the inconvenience. 

Beautiful day here, clear sunny closing in on 60f and even the crowd at Fred Meyer was in a happy mood. It's been so nice I'm toying with tearing the plastic winter covers off the widows. I can never remember what they're called, you stick them to the inside of the frame on sticky tape and shrink them tight with a blow drier.

Anyway, I think they're coming off maybe tomorrow. 

I'm seeing buds on some trees though nothing budding on the ground, we still have maybe 18" but it's going fast Fast FAST! We be RVing soon!

Jer

Makes sense Scott. I can imagine trains rubbing sounds pretty gnarly.

Frosty The Lucky.

Did you know a dash of coy sauce goes well in chow chow? 

Were there any farm produce stands? We were almost surrounded by truck farms and produce stands. About the only thing we never bought locally was olives in spite of living in a city named Sylmar, "Olive Sea."  There was a local dairy with a stand if you like REALLY fresh milk and home made cheese. 

Spectacularly good farm land and it's virtually all covered in subdivisions and pavement. <sigh>

Frosty The Lucky.

You probably surrounded by fields! The only "fields" around us were either truck farms, orchards or vacant lots. My graduating class was 1,013 and those were the ones who graduated.

Deb and I were visiting her Sister who lives about 6 blocks from where I used to work in Burbank and her son's girlfriend now wife graduated from my old high school, Sylmar Hi. Her graduating class was close to 3,600 but it had been split for the last semester and her graduation was held over 3 days. 

When I found out Thom the minion of Thomas, grew up maybe 3-4 blocks from where I lived in Sylmar I took a look at satellite pics of the old place and school. Sylmar high used to take up a 4 block lot site, in the mean time it had absorbed the park's 4 blocks and Olive Vista Jr. high's maybe 4 block site. And that was just N-S, it had expanded at least one block E-W too. 

IIRC my old high school was surrounded by 3-4 much larger than my old one Jr. highs and there are larger middle and high schools in the valley. 

It was really hard to grasp how much it had changed in the 53 years since I moved here. 

Anybody out there who wants a little shell shock check out your old neighborhood if you've been away a couple few decades! Heck, there's a good chance I used to ride horses with Thom's grandmother! 

Frosty The Lucky.

Yeah, making the front wheels turn like an automobile is more stable but holy COW is it more complicated. We used to build go karts in high school shop class and getting them to steer properly was always a challenge. I never built one of my own but I helped on a few.

A way to make the entire axle stable turning is to put bearing plates at the pivot point. One connected to the top (cart) and the other attached to the axle. A zirk fitting to give the space between a shot of grease every once in a while makes it pretty functional. 

Frosty The Lucky.

High school sure has changed since I graduated, field trips for us were an evening at the theater (The Mikado) or the athletic field to watch the school balloon club launch a package. Yeah, walking to the athletic field was counted as a field trip. 

Are your students in an exceptional group or are you guys just really lucky?

Thanks for the look Jono.

Frosty The Lucky.

Yellow jackets are a bane and a sting can put you on your butt sensitive or not. We had a number of nests around here but one day while clearing some ground near the house I found myself in a swirling mass of angry yellow jackets holding a running chainsaw. The smoke pushed them back a ways and they didn't come back but I was still in the swirl. While looking for a clearish direction to take out I noticed the ground nest maybe two steps back. I was less than 6' from a nest I'd stomped on with a tree and they were really angry. I'd never been stung by a wasp but "knew" that 25 or so can kill and I was looking at a couple hundred. 

Smoke from the saw was just barely keeping them off me but I was screwed. Then I had a brainstorm, took the bottle of mix gas out of my shoulder tool bag and squirted maybe 1/4c on the nest opening. They stopped coming out and any that landed near the nest went all quivery and died.

I knew of a couple more nests and tried a squirt of gas on them and it worked WAY better than wasp and hornet spray so that's how I've dealt with yellow jacket nests for the last 25 years. 

Ones that build a paper nest in a tree, eves, etc. succumb to a squirt of WD40 or another penetrating oil spray. Just get it on the nest and it dies quickly. Once again better than wasp / hornet spray.

Thinking you're going to die PAINFULLY makes you creative.

Frosty The Lucky.

The closest I've ever been to a screw machine was helping the people who bought Dad's shop building move their's in. Dad new them, heck he knew most everybody and I'd met the new owner a time or two myself. I've only ever seen one in operation in online videos and that isn't very informative regarding operating one. What I could see looked like a clockwork machine, lots of set up but once it's running, keep it fed and watch for problems.

Having set up work in lathes and mills I realized setting a screw machine up was WAY more demanding. Even if you get to kick back and sip coffee once its doing it's job, nothing is ever that simple. 

While I can find the front of my lathe and do basic operations I've never called myself a machinist and never had the job. Used a lathe at work yes, but never a machinist. 

Frosty The Lucky.

That sounds like a screw machine with electronic controls. When were they built?

I don't think any of Dad's lathes, punch presses, shears, etc. were designed in the last century, most were built before 1930 except the newest one built sometime during WWII. Dial indicators were new fangled but he was converting. I THINK I can still read a vernier but it's been quite a while. 

I'd love to have laser instrumentation but will probably not do enough lathe work to justify any. 

Frosty The Lucky.

You're trying to tempt me into finally cleaning and organizing the basement aren't you? It IS tempting, I'd love to get some of my texts dug out and organized.

Frosty The Lucky.

When you say one set of axles "can rotate," do you mean turn as in left or right so you can steer the cart? 

Like this? You can see the pivot the front wheel assembly turns on in the picture. By turn I mean the front wheel assembly itself, not the individual wheels. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I wish I had something like this a long time ago! I didn't open the link to check the price but I'd have to but into the unlimited version. I don't know if I have the energy to sort through the hundreds of boxes of books in the basement and then organize them so I could locate them. Still it'd sure be nice to know just what I had down there and on the book shelves.

Thanks for the link John!

Frosty The Lucky.

I have to agree with Larry, your sculpture conveys a sense of sorrow and misery in an attractive way. The rough welds fits the feelings well. 

I really like it Pedro, I think making the welds pretty would diminish the effect. That's just my opinion, it's your piece you should make it how you like.

Frosty The Lucky.

Starting with slices of pipe is so MUCH better than turning the wheel rims manually. Is the cart only for rolling in a straight line or do you have plans for a way to let it turn?

Frosty The Lucky.

You got it Billy, that sort of situation is probably what they're used for most often, another that comes to mind is reproducing antique molding. 

You use instruments good to a hundred thousandths! Thank you for reminding me I'm more than 50 years out of the biz!

Frosty The Lucky.

Which video? The one I watched made perfect sense but there are a number out there.

Frosty The Lucky.

When we start snow birding in the RV I'm sure we'll both keep our online friends up on where we're going. I'll be checking IFI when we're near wifi and I'll be my usual talky self so suppose everybody on the planet will know about where we are headed. 

All we'd need is room to park a small RV and we're golden. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Hobbieism, hobbielity, dishobbility? . . . Uh . . . Hobbangley, Hobbangler?

One of the how to videos shows it being used on H beam and that just works the one 90 angle so I imagine using it on angle iron would be the same. 

Better exercise a LITTLE control, I'm probably playing HOB with the mods.

Frosty The Lucky.

That would be handy alright, bummer I don't work with pipe more I'd have to get one. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Oh MAN, I'm a hobbiest, should I be sorry too?

Thanks for the video, I remember the things now but that was in high school. All we did in the welding school was run bead and study the book and that was to earn my pipe and structural cert! 

Frosty The Lucky.

ANOTHER place for the bucket list! I want to see Sturbridge too, guess we'll be close enough to see both and whatever's in between. 

Frosty The Lucky.