Projects from my shop

First I'll throw up what might pass for Art.. I've mostly earned my way working with metals.. Now days it's plastic, and cast aluminum.. More of a hobby than anything else, and some things i do could hardly pass for Art..The newest of these pieces is at least 20 years old, the knife about 40. The elephants are master links that were intended for the molds for a bracelet.. the cut in half link was to be used to build as
the catch.. I have a mold of that link uncut, to be used to build the alternating links in the bracelet..

 

Found one more pic of the knife.. It also relates to my next project in progress.. A Raiders logo about 6.5"x 7", sand cast in aluminum. It'll fit the 2 inch hitch receiver on my , 99 F-150-- sucks a lot of gas, but it's only got 114k on it. Someday the Raiders will play in Vegas, and I can sell it right off my truck.. AZ is not that far from LV.. The skull is for a shiftier. Needs to be drilled and a threaded insert added.

 

Thanks for the kind words.. It's our stuff and things that keep all of us going..

 

Aluminum casting in less involved because on the relatively low melting and casting temps... !200*f - 1400*f... This small propane furnace works for smaller aluminum castings... It'll melt 6# of aluminum in about 15- 20 minutes... I use an empty 1 lb propane canister, cut down, for the crucible.. The bottom half of the furnace is mounted on small Sears table top router table. Another yard sale treasure... The top half is mounted on an old photo copy stand, attached to the router table,, The top round half lifts up and swings to the side and locks in place., giving access to the crucible.. There's not very much to it... The bottom half is a 5 gal metal can cut in half, 6 insulating firebrick were cut to fit inside.. Ceramic fiber blanket [ same stuff used to insulate the Shuttle], was stuffed in any open spots behind the IFB .... These are the only pics i can find at this time.. My word pics leave a lot to be desired.. I'll fill in with some pics of the skull ash tray casting, The back side had two leaves from a plant glued to the master mold to get their repressions.... Just so happened the under sides of the leaves work best.. The ash tray has a cz in the tooth and 10mm onyx cabochons in the eyes.. I

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As sand cast. Dammit, I wanted full size, but this works.

 

Used to be, when i had an idea of something I wanted to build, fiberglass was my go to material.. Not the easiest, definitely the messiest.. Done right you can get great, one off prototypes, like this evaporative cooler.. It was made for the rear, slider window of a 86 Dodge truck.. Don't have a pic of it on the truck, but I do have this pic of it, the black fan.
I wanted to make new copies to be 25% smaller dimensions, and in plastic, not fiberglass. . The problem was, I didn't have a vacuum former, or the money to buy one.. The only way left to get one was build one.. The site www.tk560 provided a wealth of information, especially the electric oven chart wiring calculator.. The site was built by, and for people wanting to make vacuumed formed Storm Trooper armor.. All I needed was the how to information on vacuum formers... Next to the original cooler are the fiberglass molds I made to pour the new plaster vacuum former molds .. The red fan placed on the f/g plaster mold to check for fit..
To make my ideas in plastic I designed and built this vacuum former.. It's built on a 2'x3' HF utility cart
and the oven is cantilevered when in use, and folds up when stored. these are also pics of some of the first things I made..

 

This is the first of the smaller coolers, this one I made for my 83 Toyota pickup..
The swamp cooler design is still evolving.. How it works is fairly simple, and will explain if anyone
is really interested..

 

Almost finished the master mold for the Raider project. It's about 6"x6" and will fit into the trailer hitch receiver on my truck. I'll post a pic of the mold before I cast it in aluminum.. I can't sell them, but they can't keep me from making one for myself.. A person can make any patented device or thing, you just can't sell it.. Not until the patent runs out..


"Freddie"

 

This is the new Raider mold, I need to deal with a few under cuts before my first test pull in sand.. The mold should leave a perfect impression in the sand in the the lower half of the mold.. Any under cuts will trap the sand and reman trapped on the surface of the mold.. All the sides on the surface need a 3-4degree slope to release cleanly.. The mold itself was cut with a air brush pen using silicon carbide.. Cost me $30 to have a friend do it. It was beyond my beginner skills..

 

Dog Log Retrieval and Bagging System aka DLRBS

This is another one of my make work projects from way back.. always good for a laugh....

It's rather funny how this got started... I was out with my dog, naturally she took a shit. I slipped a plastic bag on my hand to pick it up, believe me, you want that warm feeling your dog can give you, in your heart, not your hand. Anyway, she started laughing and rolling on the ground, when she got control of herself, she told me how embarrassed she was to actually be with a human who would pickup warm dog shit with their hand.... I had to agree with her..
She was a great dog, Rhodesian Ridgeback. One day she accused me of cheating at poker. I told her "I can't help it if you wag your tail every time you get a good hand." All in all, she gave me some pretty good advice... I told her my ex-wife was being really good to me lately...She said "That's what usually happens before that last ride to the vet." Enough about my dog. Here's my solution for moving that warm feeling out of your hand and back into your heart..
This project was made to use a plastic shopping bags to pick up dog logs. I cut the corner out of one and attached it to the scoop with a twist tie.. Can't find the pic that shows it..