swedgemon Posted August 21, 2016 Share Posted August 21, 2016 In our home there is a nice large "window" that looks into the living room from the kitchen...DW has a goodly collection of stainless and daily user Griswold and Wagner cast iron, so a Pot Rack in the Window was a natural. The rod is 1/2" round, 54" long, textured on the power hammer and reverse twisted on a 4" repeat (hard to see). The leaves started out as 5/8" round rod, worked down to what you see supporting the rod. The hooks were 1/2" (or maybe 5/8" ?) round, formed into a ball, flattened and punched, then drawn out to form the hook...some of the later hooks were 1/4" round, tapered at each end and bent to the needed shape and length. Several mounts and dismounts were required to get the hooks in the right order and length(s) to get the pots and cast iron to properly nest. The finish is wire brush and a few coats of clear satin acrylic. As you might guess, I am one well-fed and happy metal mangler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 21, 2016 Share Posted August 21, 2016 Nesting the pots and pans on the rack never occurred to me, guess that shows how much experience I have making pot racks. I like it. Nice sign, I like sausage too. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swedgemon Posted August 21, 2016 Author Share Posted August 21, 2016 Glad you like it, Frosty !! If you turn the pots 90 degrees, not many would fit up there...many years ago (1968) I learned to freeze professionally while I was stationed at Ft Richardson. I had Mountain and Glacier training (80-year old Hans Wagner was our primary instructor - the guy was tough as nails) at Eklutna Glacier and various aspects of being an Arctic trooper with a week of -40F (and lower) outside of Ft Wainwright, playing soldier in the snow in early 1969. Got to be pretty good on cross-country skiis but leave it to the Army to provide irony - a month later I was getting off the airliner in Ben Hoa, RSVN, at 100F in the shade so the other guys could shoot at me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 21, 2016 Share Posted August 21, 2016 With that much cookware turning them would be like parking a car sideways in the garage; Silly. Ah yes military logic is . . . interesting. A friend of mine got a couple weeks of water survival training immediately before getting sent to Afghanistan. Did you guys do any climbing or fast rope work on the cliffs in the Eklutna gorge? I love taking visitors there, stop in a wide spot in the road and walk about 75'. The sky lightens as the trees thin out and suddenly you're standing at the edge of a 260' vertical rock wall. It's good for getting a hug from the girls you know. Well, grabbed hard enough to leave bruises but what the hey. Elmendorf AFB and Ft. Rich were integrated a couple years ago now it's Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson or JBER, commonly called JBear. You were here and gone before I came into the country in '72. Been some changes you know, though they're still giving the boys in uniform good COLD weather training before sending them to the desert to fight. You know I bet a set of military scuba tanks would make primo, Kabob roasters, long and narrow to lay the skewers across. I KNEW there was a good reason for the frankly weird training. I'm almost bummed I missed out. Thanks for serving, we owe you. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swedgemon Posted August 21, 2016 Author Share Posted August 21, 2016 We did all the basic climbing, rappelling (sp??), rescue with a Stokes basket, getting hit on the head and shoulders with the rock falling off the cliff, glacier walking roped together, crevass (sp??) rescue...a good time was had by all, except the kid we had in the Stokes basket. A few of us were even dumb enough to walk up into the mouth of the Eklutna River in the ice cave...we were about 50' into it when we thought it to be a bad idea so we turned around and got out, just as about 150 tons of ice fell out of the ceiling where we had been...I had been saved for another day or two... While I was there the major who lived in the quarters next to me worked in the tactical center at Elmendorf - he came home one evening and told me that a Soviet Mig had done a touch-and-go on the main runway...it took the USAF 45 minutes to get two Delta Darts in the air to give belated chase. Army biathelon was a hoot - cross-country skiing, combined with shooting, using an M-14 - I was tuff then... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 22, 2016 Share Posted August 22, 2016 Oh how things have changed, the glacier has retreated at least 3/4 mile across Eklutna lake. Maybe it was planned to protect GIs from ice falls? Not that I EVER did something that well thought out, oh no, not I. The ice caves in glacier faces I explored, briefly were safe, yes sir safe as houses I say. There are a few glaciers that are pretty stable, they advance at the same rate they melt so they more crumble than calve. Eklutna glacier has always been darned active, IIRC in the mid '70s when I went to work for the state of AK and had access to all sorts of interesting reading Eklutna glacier was advancing around 6' a day and the melt rate was so varied they logged it by the week. One dangerous glacier at it's face. I don't know about farther up. The ice fields are neat and not so dangerous as a glacier. Knowing what I know now my druthers are to camp at -40f or colder than mess around on glaciers. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 22, 2016 Share Posted August 22, 2016 And I will sit here in the output of the swamp cooler with a margarita in hand and *read* about the natural history of the stuff that cools off my drink! (You know that natural ice is a mineral but made ice isn't---Mineral == A naturally occurring inorganic crystalline solid; so stuff like coal and amber are not minerals!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted August 22, 2016 Share Posted August 22, 2016 Cool factoid about natural vs artifact ice. Stuff like coal and amber aren't minerals though they contain them. I have to keep tight rein on myself when in a local natural stuff store. Once in a while someone will start going on about the superiority of "organic" food. It's terribly hard for me to not point out ALL food is organic. Then again unless I'm grazing in the garden all my food is prepared. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted August 22, 2016 Share Posted August 22, 2016 What I like is folks talking about "No Chemicals"...of course my Sister was a chemist... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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