Down where I am they are thinking that the valley might be the start of a rift valley someday far in the future---sides head east and west and the center drops

Chuck, Here on my place weathered limestone is no deeper than 30" and the fine Indiana Limestone often used in buildings is from 18 to 25' deep. Dig a little and you have very solid base to build, but a basement is expensive.

sand

The Geologist tell me the sand in this country blew in here from the Rocky Mountains. In some places it is pretty deep in others the Caliche is right under the surface or actually bare, then a few miles from there it might be ten to twenty foot to the caliche. The quality varies greatly on the Caliche(Calcium Carbonate may be the right name)
Go east of into Sherman, Hartley, Moore and parts of the next couple of counties they have what is called Pullman Rich-field(tight land)soil(seems like this is where some of the Natural Gas is), a real heavy loam more kin to the lake beds that was here in the beginning.

I have always been of an impression that the major rivers through this country are on top or along rifts. It seems the Canadian river from start to stop is really covered with either gas or oil and in the country west of here around Solano, Hayden, Nara Visa NM and in there is a lot of Carbon Dioxide, Enough to where the royalty holders feel like they are getting money from home without writing for it.

THOMAS P.
But you being a Geologist, I would like to brew a pot and visit till it went dry. I don't know anything about any of it but am curious.

There some vents or something over in Moore county alongside Big Blue creek.
They look like miniature volcanoes with one side out.

chuck

Well the last volcanic eruption out my way had "Indigenous People" as observers. The next one is forecast for about 12 miles north of my house, +/- 15 miles. My wife says I am not allowed to hope it will be in the field next door, next week!

Caliche is evil stuff.

Ptree, find a cave to build over and your basement can be Vast and Free.

ThomasP, the Karst region is about 10 miles west of me. I am on the Highest are, so the drainage goes down hill, not into the ground:)

I thought it was your Driveway that goes down hill---every time it rains...

Well ThomasP, rain water running down that hill will indeed carry the driveway gravel:) But no caves that I know of closer than the next county over.
Local to me is Wyndott woods caves, somewhat famous for the Wyndott chert that the native Americans traded far and wide. Also Squire Boone caverns, discovered by Squire Boone brother of Daniel Boone. He related he was out alone, exploring, was ambushed by the local Native Americans. Wisely, he beat feet and saw a hidey hole, dived in, and the pursuers did not find him. He had found the natural entrance. Large neat cave.
Harrison County Indiana is big time Karst country with sinkholes and caves all over.
When you live in an area with shallow limestone, and fairly flat topography, and 40 to 60" of rain caves seem to be pretty rampant:)

down hill

JEFF-- I thought you were always talking about you had to carry, drag, pull, haul the driveway back up the hill.
We grew to understand the power of water while living in Missouri. The boulders washing down the creek(making a clunking noise as they roll maybe a quarter turn at a time) must weigh over a couple of hundred pounds a piece. Gravel in the calms, boulders in the swift water.
We hauled 1 1/2"(about) gravel out of one hole for two weeks and the first time the Beaver Creek got up it refilled the gravel beds.
My Caliche drive will wash down a slight grade(can't see the grade till the Caliche starts milking up the drive)a bit but there is no getting it back. It gets in the grass and just flat disappears.grin
I domed this drive to start with, it has domed itself more with the wind, traffic and a little rain.grin

The closest gravel plants/pits are about 60 miles from here and you have $4.00 + per mile in freight before they throw one bucket full of gravel on the truck.
The wind will sometimes turn a gravel rock over but it won't blow it away. Wind plus sand and caliche can sandblast any thing out in the roads or fields. It is coming next month, probably with a vengeance since it has been so dry and lots burned off country around the area.

chuck

Chuck, the gravel I use is dense grade, dust to 5's and 7's. packs hard, and with a crown stays put pretty well till the freeze thaw cycle gets it all mushy in the spring and then comes the rains. when we get a good hard rain in the spring say 2-3" in a couple of hours it gets cut by the running water. We have had several 4-6" rains in an hour the last few years. Now that is not a cut gully down the drive, that is a driveway relocation by water event:) Then i borrow the neighbor's 52 Hp Duetz with the grader box I built and re-re-locate the drive:)

Driveways

I had the same problem as Jeff. I had use of my foster-son's Kubota then and I actually enjoyed bringing the gravel up the hill! Then He bought acreage and I lost the use of the tractor. Fortunately about that time things worked out so I could afford paving. Although I don't need one for driveway maintenance any more, I miss having one for many other tasks.

Volcanoes

ThomasP,

I witnessed Mt. St. Helens from the Portland west hills, about 90 miles as the crow flies to the mountain, from about an hour after the eruption to after dark and a good part of the following day.

My best advice to you is be Very, Very, Very Careful what you wish for!

Without a doubt, the single most awe inspiring thing I've seen in my life and it wasn't even on my bucket list....

I was at a geology conference that year and we got to see the first shots taken from inside the volcano by plane...for some reason volcanic geology is rated a hazardous profession...

My top 3 are: The birth of my first daughter, The birth of my second daughter, and watching the Saturn V take off for Apollo 11 from closer than the VIP bleachers.

My single most awe inspiring moments.

1. Seeing my bride to be with the engagement ring on her finger, when she figured out it was for her.
2. Seeing my first born for the first time
3. watching the birth of my second born
4. watching the birth of my Third born
4. watching the birth of my forth born.
5.waking up UNDER the muzzles of a 175MM howitzer battery, in the dark when they got a fire for effect fire mission.
6. Seeing a fire for effect full battalion fire mission impact about 800 meters away.

Items 5 and 6 were completely due to the inability of our company commander to read a map.

Jeff

After number 5 do you have any hearing left? Sounds like a tough experience.

horses

Sandpile, the jughead is being saddled, gittin' ready t' head east.

changes

One time a long, long time ago when the pigs could talk and birds flew upside down. The people that lived in and around Anton Chico, New Mexico would have to hang up to make a $200.00 bet on a horse race, then fight like hell in order to try NOT to pay the losing bet.
NOW It is supposed to be one of the higher income towns in New Mexico--$100,000.+ per capita income.

HACHITA- Thirty miles west of Palomas is in what used to be one of the poorest areas in the state, The pelados run around in straw hats and Huarache's for shoes.. Now is the richest per capita at $155,00. per household. Might be because of the border being less than dozen miles south.

LEMITAR-- Comes in at $86,250. and folks that deserves more than a $20.00 a week allowance. We need to start a write -in for THOMAS P.to get a fifty percent increase in his weekly allowance.grin

chuck

east bound

MILLWRIGHT--Sounds good I will try to get the package before my Blue Lacy dog gets it.

chuck

anton chico

Should have read they would have to GANG up.--Anton Chico hombres.

Not many people even know where Anto Chico and Hatchita are.
Lemitar because it is on a major highway is better known

chuck.

Ellen, I was 18 and 5 months old, we had made a night move practicing tactical no light and being as stealthy as we could. We must have been very quiet, as we even set up our 2 man pup tents, When that fire mission started, I and most of the company was sound asleep in our tents after that night move. I woke to think Armageddon was here! More light, noise, fire and brimstone and the concussions were beyond belief. Mostly levitated me right off the ground. Finger in my ears saved them. Tents got burned from unburned propellent that fell out. We had set up just off the tank trail, and just the other side was that 175mm unit. Those bad boys have very long tubes and they were well elevated or might have killed us from the concussions. The muzzles were flush with the trail, and we were maybe 3 meters off the other side.

It is sure to make a guy start praying:) But at least that knucklehead had not bad navigated us into the impact area for that mission!

I suffer some tinnitus, but the VA says no record of it ever happening:) Same on the knees, they say my records do not reflect the 200 jumps I made either:(

Finally! A simple CAD program

For several years now I've been using an old legacy CAD program to do my mechanical drawings and job sketches, but it simply won't run at all on my new shop computer with 64-bit Windows7 and is badly wonky on my 32-bit Win7 laptop. Over the course of time I've gotten comfortable with this old program (TotalCAD 2-D), and all the other CAD programs I've tried out had too long a learning curve for me and/or were too expensive, so I had to resort to setting up a separate virtual computer just to run that TotalCAD program. Until now.

Thanks to a helpful suggestion from my former nemesis BurntForge, I think I have finally found a nice, dumb, really simple-to-use CAD program for doing my shop and bid drawings. This little program is simple enough that I had it mostly figured out in about ten minutes, yet it really does seem to do what I need done. It has the customary features like spline curves, polygons and so on, it does the necessary dimensioning and outputs as .dxf or .dwg file, as desired. It has a very easy and clean method for adding notes and callouts to the drawings, something my old program did very poorly. It is strictly a 2-D program, which is just what I want - I have neither the time nor the desire to learn to do 3-D drawings at this stage of my life. That's what pencils are for. (grin)

The program I've just discovered is called DeltaCAD and I'm currently using the free trial version which is good for 45 days with no limitations or restricted functionality. The full cost of the program is only $40, so I'll be buying it after I've tried it for a few more days. The download is just under 10MB so it went quickly even with my somewhat hobbled third world "DSL" connection.

If you've been thinking about getting into using CAD for your drawings but don't feel like spending hundreds of bucks and the next six months of your life trying to learn AutoCAD, Rhino or one of the other full-strength professional programs, this DeltaCAD might be well worth a try. It certainly isn’t for engineers or architects, but at first blush it seems dandy for blacksmiths or newcomers to the world of CAD. It is, unquestionably, the simplest CAD program I've ever seen and yet seems plenty adequate for my needs. Check it out at http://www.deltacad.com

Q 4 Rich

Rich, the cad program is a good pointer, I can put it to immediate use, seems simple enough even sales people I know (who need it) can use it... thnx.

Now, I tried searching over on artmetal but didn't find what I want. Where would you point me to find out if one can use polyurethanes to cast zinc? I just want to do 2 dimensional panels for now and am wondering if polyurethanes can take hot zinc...? Want to do multiple copies w/o remaking a sand mold our such...

Thnx,

Polyurethanes & Hot Zinc

No. There may be some silicones that will, but not urethanes. I always used Type A plaster with 50& sand, thoroughly baked after cure.

Urethanes

Sorry Bert, but it won't work. Plaster of Paris with some fine mesh silica sand and silica flour added makes a fine mold, tough and is cheap. Even jeweler's investment plaster is cheaper than urethane.

Glad to hear that the CAD program will be of use to you, though.

Sandpile; when my wife started drawing Social Security she bumped it up to US$25! So I'm rolling in money theses days.

Taking the trash to the transfer station I lucked out. Someone had dumped a load of old metal in their "Metal Pile" and the guy who runs the place lets me scrounge it for *FREE* Unfortunately he wanted the old plow, wagon parts on horse drawn scoop bucket for himself---but I dig get another wrought iron buggy tyre as well as some old High C stuff---about 50 pounds worth total

Next week is the Las Cruces Conference!

Mold-er-ing

John - Rich,

Thank you, guess I'm 'back to the future' so to speak... Good thing I didn't through out my 15 gal bucket and the big paint mixer during last falls' cleanup.

You sure are a noisy crowd

loud interrupting bunch

DARRELL--I had a deal typed in but decided it was a little too much of a cynic.
I have been off in two group deals on Facebook. We have a family group and a School group. That is right I do have a family and I did go to high school---
Can't tell by my typing but I really did have some good teachers---I just did not show up often enough for it to rub off.Grin.

Took the boss out for Mexican food for Valentines---That makes fifty valentines with same old guy, she is tough. And she is appreciated.

God Bless

chuck

Chuck, I brought my young gal a big box of Crunch and Munch, a treat for her as she will not buy it for herself, and a big pot of live daisy's. She made me a big ol pot of Chicken and dumplings. Near foundered:)
That makes 30 valentines since married, 34 since we started dating:) Watch out I may be gaining on ya! :)

Valentines

We don't get too excited about Valentines Day, which is really good for me. Sally's birthday was the 7th and our anniversary is today. That's enough! We've either been married 35 years or 11 years, depending on whether you count from the first marriage or the current one. Some days it seems like ten years and other days fifty. (grin)

I took my wife to the Punjabi restaurant in Albuquerque for their lunch buffet Monday for Valentines Day; then went on to the Drs and I spent Tuesday and Wednesday recovering from some minor surgery. I have found that Holidays spent on painkillers can be very relaxing---though I seem to recall asking my wife if she was studying up on how to burke someone properly....she said "No", she already knew...

Heading to the Las Cruces Conference tomorrow evening; back on-line Tuesday!

SWABA event

Sorry I am missing the SWABA conference this year. I have made it to a couple of them and it is always a great time. Loved grilling on the portable forge a couple of years ago. Great folks, wish I was closer.

Jack

Jeff, today I got the new 1" ports poppet valve from Norgren installed in the custom 200. What an improvement! This is probably the snappiest hammer I've ever built. Thanks for your help along the way.

Electromagnetic Pulse

Just something to think about if you have not seen this before. if you read it all the way through you will finally come to the copper shield. I wonder if it can be bought by the compressed sheet or like expanded metal?

http://www.newsmax.com/RonaldKessler/emp-electromagnetic-pulse/2009/09/23/id/335160

God Bless

chuck

John Larson, you are welcome. I love when I can remember the stuff I used to use in my everyday job. Now it's all extremely thin metal, small machines and mostly safety and environmental stuff.
It is amazing when you take a choked pneumatic system and get it tuned to flow to get all the performance you expected.

Sandpile a nice deep twisty mineshaft works well and we have a lot of them just going to waste out here. One local mine has over 25 MILES of shafts in a local mountain.

I used to think about putting a stack of cheap solar calculators in an ammo box and hiding it down in a mine shaft just in case. Nowadays I'm dependent on modern medicine so I don't worry about such things. My smithy is way more EMP Proof than I'd like it to be!

Thomas

I think it would be possible to convert a Buffalo Forge hand cranked blower into an insulin pump if need be....immune to EMP stuff, just maybe not as portable.....grin!

Hollywood is Calling

Hey there, people – I recently received an email from Joey Gemelli of Pilgrim Studios in California. Joey is the casting producer for a new Discovery Channel TV reality show to be called “Top Engineer” and wanted me to help him get some applicants for spots in the cast. Joey said he thought it would be really cool if a metal artist could make it onto the show, so he’s looking for artist blacksmiths to apply. This really is a legitimate deal, not a scam, so I’m passing it on. It sounds like it could be fun.

Pilgrim Studios is looking for, in Joey’s words, “America’s most creative and daring techies, machinists, inventors and engineers to design, build and BLAST their way to a Grand Prize on their new competition TV show TOP ENGINEER.”

Most of us who get into blacksmithing are the sort of people who have also do or have done construction, welding, machine work, engineering, electrical work, hydraulics, carpentry, and a whole slew of other things. In other words, we tend to be generalists and Joey seems to think that would be a really great attribute to bring to this new program.

So if you think you’d like a shot at being a TV star, maybe winning something and, if nothing else, getting an all-expenses-paid ride to LaLa land to do a screen test, here’s your chance. Joey even said they’d be happy to fly someone from the Virgin Islands, not that I have any intention of doing it – I just can’t imagine myself on TV, somehow. I’m willing to be you guys who know me can’t really imagine me on TV, either. (grin)

Here’s the pitch, from Pilgrim Studios flyer about the show:

“No, you don’t need to have an engineering degree to compete on this show, but you MUST be able to design, build, test and integrate an idea into a Final product the WORKS. These will be fast-paced, hands-on VISCERAL challenges! If your experience is strictly behind the keyboard, then this show is NOT for you.

We are looking for visual effects experts, accomplished home shop machinists, contractors and engineers with backgrounds in civil, structural or mechanical engineering.

If you have an outgoing personality and are ready to get your hands dirty for the chance to win a GRAND PRIZE and the title of TOP ENGINEER, then we want to hear from you.

APPLY TODAY!

Email TopEngineerCasting@gmail.com with your name, age, location, phone number, a recent photo and a brief explanation of why you are perfect for this competition show.

Deadline to submit is March 7, 2012. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or residents at least 21 years of age. For more information please visit www.pilgrimstudios.com/casting/toppengineer “

Okay, there you have it. Get busy those applications sent in and don’t forget - when you become rich and famous, be sure you remember who turned you onto it!

Not my forte, most of those shows I've watched need a top notch welder over any artistic virtues. Too bad I trimmed my beard back, I might have snuck in under "Flamboyance" (But I was getting tired of the ZZ Tops jokes...and the forge was starting to trim it on a regular basis.)

Rich

Just send Pilgrim a couple of 40's era Old School Millwrights. That oughta hold 'em!

Hollywood Applications

For years I have carefully explained the difference between blacksmiths and engineers/machinists.
The blacksmith says,"It's within a quarter inch."
The machinist says,"MY GOD! IT'S 250 THOUSANDTHS OFF!"
The engineer says,"Wouldn't it be better if you had a piece of equipment to more accurately measure the distances, both internal and external, on that pot supporting apparatus? Have you determined the weight, loaded and unloaded, that it is going to exert on the ceiling supports after installation? Will the deflection of the ceiling be within acceptable limits?"

And the liberal arts major says "Would you like fries with that?"

Hollywood is Calling

I discovered I put a bad link address in that earlier posting about the TV show. It should be http://pilgrimstudios.com/casting/topengineer/

stuff

hey SANDPILE,,,,th' jughead layed down on me. Gittin' 'nother one.

The big storm predicted to swing our way went south of us so they got the rain and snow, which we really did not need. That is good news#1

The broken Interstate bridge over the Ohio River that has added 1-2 hours to my daily commute for the past 5 months was opened Friday night! Good news #2.

The 2 above offset that I was sick enough Friday to stay home and to miss a great monthly hammer-in on Saturday. I got Antibiotics Friday and am somewhat better, although the sinus and throat infection is trying to move to my lungs.

I did almost nothing for the past three days but rest and try to beat this. Did whip up a beef noodle soup into the crock pot for an all day simmer and add the egg noodles at the end. Just finished 2 big bowls and am stuffed, but satisfied.

Misc.

Jeff, get better soon!

Glad the Louisville bridge is fixed! I'm driving to Chicago in May.

medic

JEFF Sorry to hear you are down. Hang in there, Lots of fluids, beef brothy soup, rest.

At the VERY FRIST sign of an on-cooking cold or respiratory something or the other. We take 'AIRBORNE' simple little tablet like an Alka Seltzer. it will knock ours sometimes right at the start.

God Bless

chuck

John Odom, the I-64 bridge is now in great mechanical shape. They will be closing a lane during off hours to repaint. The I-65 bridge (North South) will be having lane closures starting in April to rebuild the deck. After carrying 200# of design load for 5 months at 51 years of age on a 50 year design life the deck is badly in need of total rebuild.My car is badly in need of alignment, and now I can. The bridge I crossed twice a day would take your teeth out.
Some of the expansion joints are 2-3 inches difference in height.
There is a ton of road work planned for this summer in the Louisville area as much was halted mid project last season when the bridge was taken out of service. When you are ready to travel, give me a hoot and I can advise on the situation at that time.

Turkey

The wild turkey hen is in the back yard gleaning under the bird feeder. This is the second time this year. She is beautiful!

Made it back from the Conference; sold a post vise and stocked up on small french crosspein heads for gifts (probably Lynch stuff)

Demonstrator used a KA75 and a #5 screwpress about 90% of the time---had both of them sold too.

My father isn't doing too well after his fall; I went along to the Dr and got to see his Xrays---9 screws and a plate on just one side of what was his "good leg" and a bunch of pins on the other side. His "bad leg" has inclusion body myositis and so no power in the muscles. Makes him pretty much bedridden save for when burly folk can help move him into a wheelchair. My mother is not up to it at 75 years old!

Looks like I will be spending most my weekends down there to help out for a while. 4 other adult kids within 2 miles of their place; but I was asked to come down 160 miles (each way) to help. Glad I can do it too! Will be taking some work days off to widen the weekends I get down there.

I'll probably be tired and cranky online for a month or too

John, those are beautiful birds. When the gobblers arrive , it will be interesting! Before long, she will disappear then return witha brood of little ones.
Thomas, it's your perogative to be tired and cranky :-)

stuff

Made two candle dishes yesterday and neither suit me. Will do some more to day.
Put a real nice solder job on a good guard of Nichol silver for a cross draw knife with a slanted belt sheath. Then realised I had used a brass pin on the N/S. I will tell who ever buys it. "I is a planned deal to see if anybody really pays attention.GRIN. That don't even make me cranky. I am just glad I am still here and able to screw up and laugh about. Lots of kinfolks, friends and neighbors would like to have a Xmas gift.

My Mom has been gone now eleven years and Dad for almost six, I still catch my self wondering what MOM is doing.
She is probably making a list of what she is going to say to whom when she has the chance.Grin
She was not biased she would eat on anyone that needed it. Course strangers sometimes would have to interpret her raised eyebrow frown.
Yesterday was one of those days that would cause this country to be overpopulated. Almost no breeze, 72 degrees, soft beautiful light with a cool crisp evening. Can't get much better than that.--Except wet.

God Bless

chuck