My Social Distancing

Discussion in 'Metal casting projects' started by FishbonzWV, Apr 21, 2020.

  1. FishbonzWV

    FishbonzWV Silver Banner Member

    Last two spires finished.
    Moved the tripod four times to get this big one set.

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    Pink and black veined marble.
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    One more small stone to set and hours of other work to do, but basically finished.

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    Before

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    Last edited: Aug 23, 2020
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  2. FishbonzWV

    FishbonzWV Silver Banner Member

    Tried something new, epoxying stone.
    This is a finial for one of the spires, found it buried beside the base and found the acorn top when we re-set the base.
    Epoxied the acorn back on.
    The lip on it was half gone.
    I pulverized a piece of black river gravel, a piece of obsidian and mixed them with Domo 10 stone epoxy.
    Layered it on over three days. The final coat, used the mix and straight Domo like a paint palette to get a matching grain.

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    Cast this piece again. I forgot his wife was buried here.
    The sad part...I had cleared the pattern and had to re-apply all the letters.
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  3. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Well done Bonz. Looks great.
     
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  4. FishbonzWV

    FishbonzWV Silver Banner Member

    I bet you guys thought you've seen the last of this...wrong, back at it.
    More tree cutting before they leaf out.
    Pictured is locust, cherry, maple, oak, sorrel, cedar.
    Three more large ones on the ground that I need to cut up small enough to pull out. A double bole sorrel, large maple, and a large hickory that the ice storm brought down. My lumber yard is full so they need bucked up to make room.

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  5. Petee716

    Petee716 Gold Banner Member

    I had a mature ash fall victim to the emerald ash borer beetle and had the tree dropped last summer. It's still right there where it fell. I had a large oak taken down as well, but we cleaned that one up right away. I left the ash as-is because a few limbs are keeping a majority of the tree up off the ground so it'll stay dry till we're ready to cut it up and pull it out. It's in an area that won't dry out till summer, so it's not going anywhere anytime soon. I'm not afraid to cut trees myself but size, location, and complexity of that particular pair of trees warranted professionals. I've done enough cutting to know when to walk away.

    Pete
     
  6. Jason

    Jason Gold

    C'mon man, nothing beats those videos watching a guy drop an 80 ft pine through his living room!:eek::p:D
     
  7. rocco

    rocco Silver

    Yeah Pete, take one for the team, get out your video camera and cut down those trees!
     
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  8. Petee716

    Petee716 Gold Banner Member

    F that! Treetards belong on youtube, not at my house.
     
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  9. dennis

    dennis Silver

    Not having messed with wood-cutting - I'm better at fixing saws than running them - I'll trust your judgement regarding the tree(s).

    I'd most likely get myself hurt or killed if I tried.
     
  10. FishbonzWV

    FishbonzWV Silver Banner Member

    I don't think there's a living ash in the East, all of ours are dead.
    I wonder where they are going to get wood for the Louisville Slugger?

    I hired out three a couple years ago, two massive Sycamores and a severely leaning red pine over a home.
    Even though I have the equipment to pull them down, those were just too daunting for me.

    I sure wish I had a bandsaw mill, some of these logs would make good lumber.
     
  11. Petee716

    Petee716 Gold Banner Member

    If I were a betting man I'd wager there's one within 10 miles of you. I know of three just in my little town of 7000. There's a guy just 1/2 a mile up my road with a permenant setup in a converted chicken house. He came and took the 14 useable feet of oak trunk I mentioned above. My buddy got the rest for firewood. I have little interest in the wood for myself, but a little good will can go a long way. (Guys with skid steers and dump trucks can come in awfully handy in a pinch!). I did the same with a mature larch a while back which I'm starting to regret a little bit.
    That ash still had some leaves 2 summers ago so I'd assume it's still pretty sound lumber but because of the year-round wetness of the area any machine that could retrieve it in reasonable saw sizes would destroy my yard. So it'll end up as firewood.

    Pete
     
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  12. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    The emerald borers finished up all the ashes around here about 5 years ago, I'm pretty sure. My friend had a beautiful 80 year old tree right next to his driveway that he had to have taken down after the bugs got it. It was already almost completely dead when woodpeckers tore all the bark off the trunk going after the beetles. He hired a sawmill to cut it up for him and bought a big old used planer to play around with, and just in the past year he finally tore out most of the walls on his main floor to open the place up and replaced them with some huge ash beams. Looks great. The stump in his front yard is absolutely massive.

    I wound up with as much of the waste cuts as I could carry, and used it as fuel for the stack melter.

    We do have a couple of mature elms around here that have somehow survived long enough to get really massive, and there is a big old butternut in the woods near my place that managed to avoid the blight until just a few years ago. More than 1/3 of the top is still living.

    Jeff
     
  13. dtsh

    dtsh Silver

    Over the past couple of years we've removed about 100 tons of willow from around the buildings. Damn things grow too fast and the wood just isn't dense enough to be worth much. I've cut down my fair share of trees in my lifetime, but anything over about 30" DBH or near a building gets hired out.
     
  14. FishbonzWV

    FishbonzWV Silver Banner Member

    I apply pure RoundUp on the cambium of the stump within 45 minutes of cutting to kill future growth.
     
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  15. ddmckee54

    ddmckee54 Silver

    Bonz:

    Is there something magical about the 45 minutes, or do you just do ASAP so you don't forget it?

    Don
     
  16. rocco

    rocco Silver

    Over a fairly short period of time, the cambium will "scar" over which would inhibit the uptake of the Roundup so it's important to get it on there while the cut is still fresh.
     
  17. dtsh

    dtsh Silver

    It's best to hit it with gylphosate (roundup) or triclopyr 4 when it's fresh cut, but I've been known to hose down the suckers that sprout if I missed it.

    It's important to remember that herbicides aren't poisons, they're usually plant growth hormones that cause it to waste it's energy and starve it off; and do follow the label for mixing, with most of these making it "hot" only wastes product.
    Some are sold with wetting agents, other aren't; a tiny amount of dishsoap works great as a surficant if you happen to have some without.
     
  18. FishbonzWV

    FishbonzWV Silver Banner Member

    When I do a lot of brush clearing it was a pain to go back and treat the cuts. I searched for something to carry with me and dab them as I go. Tried a liquid shoe polish bottle with the foam applicator but it didn't last long and didn't dispense a lot. Now I have a Rubbermaid Paintbuddy edger. It has a 1" foam roller which puts it down a lot faster and holds enough to last my day of cutting. They are discontinued now but still a few on ebay/amazon.
     
  19. dtsh

    dtsh Silver

    Most of my erradication work is broader in scale, I go through about 40 gallons a year here (less than half what I used to use at my old place), so a 2 or 3 gallon sprayer is what I tend to use, I don't like to walk back and refill all the time and lugging around more than 3 gallons is tiring.

    Les and less each year as I slowly win battle after battle. Gotta keep on it though lest they get a foothold again.

    You want fun, erradicate japanese stiltgrass from forrested hill county, make you feel like Sisyphus.

    Edit: Probably less than 20 gallons a year now thinking about it, the last jug of concentrate isn't empty yet and it's more than a year old, might be 2
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2021
  20. FishbonzWV

    FishbonzWV Silver Banner Member

    This is going to be my yearly control after knocking down the large stuff.
    1950 Gravely L Model. Ordered a carb kit today.

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