"Cock fight" is something I don't think my ISP needs to see. Kinda like googling MOBY DICK and hitting the image tab.
Started working on eagle again after a short 6 month break. I added some feathers on the chest. Will start making more feathers for different areas next. Wow I can't believe I started this nearly 3 years ago. I really need to make moves and finish it sometime. This is the longest duration sculpture I've done to date.
My sister has egg layers in florida. One day, one of them started crowing. That was the end of his ass. I was down there a couple of weeks ago. Nothing beats a home raised egg. There really is a difference. Here is some photos of the ladies. She had 36 and is down to 26. Had a little bobcat issue.
Starting to look like a rooster, all right. “Get too close to a peeved rooster, and you will wish they were,” said the soft voice. “Think of a forty-pound bird with the attitude of an irate gamecock, the ability to absorb punishment of a cape buffalo, the overall shape and flying capacity of an eagle – and the claws and beak of a prehistoric creature.” A pause, then, “oh, and add the aggressive tendencies of an angry African lion.” “That does not sound like any rooster I have heard of,” I muttered. “That is for a red rooster,” said the soft voice. “The black ones are substantially worse.” “Those... Gamecocks?” I asked. “Those called that where you came from are nothing compared to these birds – and that presumes parity in size.” “Oh, my,” I asked. A coworker far in my past had once spoken of gamecocks and their behavior. “Be glad there are no six-pound black roosters there,” said the soft voice. “Cockfights would not happen.” “Uh, why?” I asked. “The birds would get loose and kill every person they laid eyes upon,” said the soft voice, “and they would continue to do so until they were blown to atoms by artillery.” “Artillery?” I asked. “What?” “Lukas was demonstrating a dangerous degree of overconfidence when he spoke of using a dragoon,” said the soft voice. “More than one rooster has needed pounds of lead in its body before it acquired anything remotely close to 'manners'.” “P-pounds,” I asked. I was beginning to 'get the fear'. “Ask Sarah when you see her,” said the soft voice. “She saw one continue to attack with beak and claws until it was cut apart with an ax.” A brief pause, then, “before that point, though – it stopped no less than twenty-three musket balls from 'large' muskets, two bullets from a heavy caliber fifth kingdom rifled musket, and five roer-loads of stiff shot.” “Oh my,” I squeaked. “A red rooster,” intoned the soft voice. “Like that one you heard crow in that town.” Another pause. “The black ones are fully as bad as Lukas implied.” From http://www.slowginonline.com/ch94.html
Yeah they are pretty scary when you look at them. Dinosaurs. I added more feathers to the back. Used up my stash so I need to spend forever making more sigh...
Are you going to cast this? That is incredible work. How will you preserve the sculpture to cast it. This is the lost wax part of the forum and I could never melt that out of a mold. LOL I am interested in how you will preserve it though.
Yes I'll cast this. Thanks. Preserve it? Do you mean mold making so I can make copies? I'll break the wax sculpture up into pieces then make silicone rubber molds of each part then cast them separately and weld them together in bronze. I have some pictures of making silicone molds of original "eagle" I made before I realized I had got it all wrong and was infact making a chicken. http://thehomefoundry.org/forums/index.php?threads/eagle-statue-zapins.187/page-2 Yes Jason is right the wax is destroyed/reclaimed during the process.
Pretty neat about the bobcat. I'd like to see one but they are quite reclusive and don't like people.
Thanks for the info. I was hoping you would make silicon molds. My skills usually require making duplicates for multiple attempts. Though I often think of just simple repeatability if its cool enough to sell. I will check out the picts. Also thats a pretty cool chicken setup in florida. I had some but the neighbors complained. I didn't have any fences. No wonder.
If I plowed the kind of hours Zap does on his stuff, I'd be making silicone molds too! Half the time, I'm too cheap and just "wing" it.... <<<<<< See what I did there? My family tried for days to kill that bobcat, but they are so hard to get near. Now with the chickens in their new run, they are safe from predators. My sister gave them the run of the yard, but they destroy EVERYTHING so it's better they have their own area. The outside run must be about 15ftx30ft, plenty of room to run around. They have a coup for night time that's much smaller. I had a neighbor here in our city that had chickens and we got fresh free eggs all the time. Then, HER neighbor complained because there was a rooster in the crowd. I said bring him over and I'll turn him into chicken and dumplings! She quit and got rid of all of them. I think the trick with the neighbors is a little EGG compensation for keeping ones mouth SHUT from the a-holes down at city hall. I can see not having a rooster in a residential neighborhood, but a dozen chickens is WAY quieter than the yapping dogs at the renters next door! The mutts I have next door are REALLY obnoxious! I hosed them down the other day when it was 40 outside and they came back for more. Talk about DUMB!
Zap That is a pretty cool process. The resin backing was kind of a surprise but i can see how some stiffness is needed. My largest castings to date are only 5x4x1/2" so the rubber molds are rigid enough. I was having a lot issues with hot tears with the lost wax approach so i started using petrobond for that casting. That was before i found this forum. Now that i am a little more educated about, well everything especially how to melt metal to avoid defects. I use mostly copper and copper alloys. I will follow this for sure. Jason Bobcats are pretty cool little cats if you dont have livestock and farm critters. Use a snare trap that should do it. Since they are killing their chickens they shouldnt have a problem with the state game commission. I have only seen two in my life. Do you do any skydiving? I have known a few pilot/skydivers in my life. I know this is a lost wax thread but here is a random question anyway. If you have a lot of detail in a casting say a plaque would you cast the piece with the detail in the cope facing up or in the drag facing down.. bill
Yeah epoxy and fiberglass backing works but I hate fiberglass. I'll buy some woven fiberglass cloth when its time to make new molds to try cut down on the itchy fibers. Or maybe I'll give that moldable plastic someone mentioned a go if I can remember what its called. Hot tears usually happen when there is a fat section next to a thin section. They cool at different rates and tear along the junction. You have to either taper the sprue size to match, add many sprues that match the thickness of the thinner piece or grind it out and weld it back together after casting. Hehe wing. Yeah chickens root around a good bit thats for sure. But they don't tear up a yard like dogs after its been raining... ask me how I found that out. Yeah too many stupid ordinances in populated areas. I am happy I'm out in the boonies now. Nobody to complain about stupid rules like that. If probably put the detailed side down because if any sand dislodges it will float on top of the heavier metal and be pushed up to the top where it will get trapped in the metal as it freezes. But I don't do a lot of sand casting so my experience is limited.
Plasti paste. Smooth on sells it. not cheap, but none of this stuff is. Skydiving? Hell no, did that once. I'm good. Cope? Drag? What's that? Just messing with ya. I'm a lost wax ceramic shell guy too.
As alternative to smooth-on, I tried this last time. https://www.brickintheyard.com/coll...rtkast-brushable-resin?variant=30275247702087 Googling Artkast shows that several places stock it. BITY is in Richardson, TX so you may find someplace closer to you.
LOL, I've known a lot of pilots and your aversion to skydiving seems to be the norm. I've only met one pilot who was also a skydiving enthusiast, the last time I saw her, she had just ground looped her Cessna 140 and wrapped it around a tree.Seems to me there's a life lesson there, not sure what it is though.
I don't even like heights! How's that for irony! It takes a 16ft ladder to get up to the beacon on the tail, I've been up there a couple of times and it's not something I like.
The funny thing is I never really had any issues once I jumped out. I was in one plane wreck about 20 years ago, got lucky. Totaled the plane though. Hitting the ground at 60 knots isn't fun with wings tearing off and the fuselage twisting and ripping apart just 24 inches behind my feet. I was sitting behind the pilot in a Cessna 182 just after takeoff on a skydiving run. Only had three real plane issues in the 862 jumps and that was one of them. Had to jump out at 900 feet once something with the engine. But those are stories for another day. Zap As far as hot tears I can say for sure most of the problem was lack of knowledge and limitations of my home made flasks and equipment. The piece was pretty thick. Cant seem to find to many picts of the worse hot tears. But this was my favorite defect by far but was re-melted. Here is the grave yard of defects LOL Some of these were done BEFORE I made a burnout oven. The one on the top left (my only aluminum casting) and bottom left was petrobond cast. Almost all of these but maybe two were done lost wax with investment (prestige oro) I believe and a homemade vacuum system. The base is only for this flask. Someday I will finish it with full vacuum chamber to pull the hot gasses out evenly not just from the bottom. I just read the post with the bracelet and the spruing challenges so I thought I would add some pictures of some trial and error spruing and venting. This is a really bad vent. The left side never filled This may be gross but this was the first time I got a good casting. I had just stabbed myself with something and was getting blood everywhere. So I left it on the wax and ivesteded it anyway. This venting worked well. By this time I was thinning out the backs and the hot tears didn't happen. This was a horizontal attempt and three pounds of investment. I think? Here I used some steel grating for support and sort of a chill. Always experimenting. WOW the pictures sure are big. I guess I should work on that. I know how everyone loves pictures. I want to use ceramic shell one day but the startup cost is a bit much for this old guy.
