Jump to content
I Forge Iron

Frankenbucket


Scott NC

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

Oh I remember when linear amps became THE thing with CBs!

When I worked for a Cadillac dealer in the 70s we had a mechanic that had a linear on his trucks CB. This was a time when the cars were just getting computers in them. He was delighted, when he discovered if someone was driving slow in the left lane on the Rickenbacker causeway, he could key the mike and shut their engine down and make them pull over into the break down lane.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 376
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  Thanks Jerry!  Would you believe it's the sane photo?  It's the result of editing the original dark one while being bored on the couch.  I altered it in an editor and couldn't reproduce it again if my life depended on it. Tint, shadow, contrast, it's all hocus pocus to me but it lightened it up nicely.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You did a good job, it's much better without losing any of the crazed appeal of the old one.

Just had something happen for the first time in the 25 years we've lived here. Deb's out walking one of the dogs and she comes back in to get me. A pair of Sandhill Cranes are walking around the yard!

They split up, one down to the west of the house and the other wandered up the driveway. They spent some time calling at each other then walked back closer together. The larger one takes off up the driveway towards the house and then the other takes off towards the house.

I've seen Sandhill cranes every year I've lived here, sometimes huge rafts fly over calling but I've never seen a pair this close nor watched a take off towards me and almost straight overhead.

It was wicked cool, I'm pretty pumped by it.

Frosty The Lucky.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  That is cool.  We travelled to Kearney, Ne a couple of times to see them as they stop over on the Platte River.  It's quite a spectacle.  Over a couple of months, more than a half a million pass through there.  They have viewing stations or you can just pull over on the roadside with a pair of binocs.  I have never had an experience that close though.  I looked them up and some go over the Bering Strait to nest in eastern Siberia.  Beautiful birds.

  I should add, one would make an elegant metal sculpture.....:)

 

Edited by Nodebt
Add a thought
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is about 130' +/- the tallish white thing is the well casing about 50" high on higher ground. This is the larger of the two and the other one was doing all the calling, my pics of it are against ground cover and brush so really hard to see. It hasn't greened up so everything but birch is this color.

I'm pretty sure this is the male, "he" was quite a bit larger.

Frosty The Lucky.

1006436483_yardcrane02.jpg.05fed94bff6b373136375447c2378f5e.jpg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  Nice sighting.  I had to move to to NC to see a White Egret.  I tried to do a repousse of it but I lack that skill.  I got frustrated and made a smiley face out of rocks on the driveway, laid a sheet of copper from hobby lobby on it and went over it with the car tire.  It looked like quasimodo.  I gave up then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sandhill Cranes winter in my area; most days there will be dozens in the fields around our neighborhood and thousands down at the Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.  They are huge, makes me think of F16's coming in for a landing.

Their call was used as a basis for the Velociraptor call in "Jurassic Park";  when I first moved here I went outside one morning and thought there was a HERD of Velociraptors  over behind the neighbor's house...then I did the research.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While the fossil would be cool, I'd MUCH prefer plastic casts of it so I could do a lifelike mount. Maybe a 5-6 velocitiraptor pack diorama. They should offer a pack discount on plastic casts. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's like you're reading my mind! I'm not THAT predictable am I?:rolleyes:

A few years ago the restoration of Sue the T rex was in Anchorage and Deb and I attended a lecture by Jack Horner. Besides being a non-stop great evening I discovered the allosaurus restoration was being retired and discarded after that exhibition. 

It was a lifelike rubber skin on a steel tubing armature and they cut the skin up, tossed it in the dumpster and ran the skeleton through a crusher. I doubt the scrap price covered the pickup call on the dumpster. 

THAT I would've been happy to pay well for. A little tinkering and I'd articulate the jaws and neck. I'd have to pay someone to rig it to a motion sensor but it'd be a joy to watch people walking past my old mobile home and have an allosaurus track them while opening and closing it's mouth. Maybe a recorder with sniffing sounds and a low grumbly growl. 

But NOPE the owners made absolutely sure nobody else could have it. <sigh> 

Frosty The Lucky.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  An old job of mine was scrapping an old horizontal milling machine and I asked the boss if I could have it.  He said sure, but the next day I came in with my trailer and someone had cut the spindle and threw it in the roll-off.  Somebody heard I was taking it and the bosses boss said NO.  Liability issues.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whole hearted agreement! I've experienced both, as a recent recipient of a surface grinder. (now powered with VFD for motor and just discovered lube system is 110 VAC so I can run it from separate circuit). But in the past, a contractor abandoned a long length of 6" tubing next to a road after an accident while running a new gas line. I think the tubing was used as part of the pulling head to run through a bore hole under a rail road bed. For years that tubing was an obstruction for the parish to cut grass. I finally came up with a use for it and cut it up into lengths that would fit into a trailer. Suddenly I was surrounded by four patrol cars with lights flashing. They didn't charge me with anything but wouldn't let me take the tubing. A couple of days later the tubing was gone. My guess is that someone else wanted it once it was cut up to manageable size.

Getting back to the Frankenbucket  maybe the windmill would look better with an Darrieus turbine on it's head.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm glad to say I meet and interact with far more decent honest people than the others but the taste a rotten apple leaves is more memorable.

Yes, a version of a darrieus turbine is what I was envisioning for a possibility. 

Oh yeah, gvt. property on a state or muni right of way is gvt. property. Stealing it is a NO NO! I see light poles that have been knocked down laying in the ditch I could have used here. Bury and set a section of a base end in concrete and bolt a longer one on top for a light pole in the yard. They don't even have to haul it off but OH NO!!:o Removing any gvt. property from a right of way is criminal. Same for picking up spikes along RR tracks and crossing swords with mid level feds is a losing proposition. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Purple Bullet said:

Darrieus turbine

  I had to look that one up.  I saw a five bladed "eggbeater" design that would give it kind of an outré space look.

  Maybe the bucket could be rigged up with a speaker that plays the "Space Kook" laugh, over and over.....  :)

  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...