2016 POTD Thread Archive

There are alot of Coyotes here in Northeast PA ...and upstate NY too . They take down alot of wildlife. They got brought in by the insurance companies ...I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't sumbled upon a release in person... in a remote area of susquehanna county PA , early 90's , along the tracks we used to ride. ...Well , I guess this thread is now way off topic ...haha
 
Subwayrocket said:
since you brought up Emu's ...i've got an interesting story . We have a remote cabin, upstate NY, top of a mountain, 10 miles from the nearest small town, 4 miles to the last power line... My buddy was up there turkey hunting, this guy lives about a mile up the logging road from me, completely off the grid...he's sitting there a while then he can't believe what he's seeing. Some kind of genetically mutated huge turkey ?
He shot and ate it ...figured it was an ostrich and no clue why it was there ...2 years later we hear about a guy that raises Emu's about 5 miles from out cabins ...Ooops !
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Happened to me too only it was while duck hunting. Sitting there on a small slough out in the middle of a grain field and along comes this big bird.
 
I had a neighbor (in the rural sense of the word) who raised ostriches when I was a teenager. And he did house painting. Odd dude. Anyway, he gave us some eggs specifically for carving. He had drilled a hole, maybe 1/4" wide, on the top and bottom and blew the contents out, then washed them. I never did carve mine, because I couldn't ever decide on a design. Those things are like 1/4" thick. Lots of room for relief carving.
 
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I finally finished the fabrication on my mega-bench, and painted it. For those just tuning in this is 12' long, 39" deep, and 33" tall (will be a bit taller with the leveling feet and double layer plywood top installed). I made it to hold my lathe, mill, and surface grinder because in my tiny garage I just don't have room for all of the individual bases and all the wasted space that could be used for storage. Thus the base will be filled with drawers.

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I primed it first with a light coat of self-etching primer, then a good coat of automotive primer, and finally multiple coats of urethane alkyd enamel in Osha Red. Why red? Because that's what I have. And because I think it looks awesome. :)

Note the arched support along the longest unsupported stretch on the front. I'm rather proud of that design. It will be perfectly functional and I think it makes the whole thing look even better.

The bad thing about this paint is that it will take days to cure enough to do anything else with it and months to truly cure. But the chemical and chip/abrasion resistance make it worth it.

I can't wait to finally put this thing to use!!
 
Quick POTD involving our 20-year old Steven. We are blessed and live on 64 acres in a 4200 sq. ft. home. Being in the boonies, we heat with propane. Also being cheap, or maybe a resource manager not wanting a lot of potential funds for tools for my shop going up the chimney of the furnace, we burn a lot of firewood. I cut, split and stack about 7-8 full cords of wood a year. Good exercise and keeps my Stihl Farm Boss saw carburetor from gumming up from old gas setting too long (burn 24 – 30 tanks of fuel through it a year).

Anyway, we have a heat-a-lator fireplace in the lower level with a decorative firewood rack. Looks nice, but takes about 3 arm-loads of wood to fill. Got the clearance from my wife to convert a hand truck to a wood rack. Makes it nicer for moving wood since it’s just one trip out and one trip back in with the wood on wheels instead of multiple trips carrying all of the weight. Steven had the choice helping dad in the shop or studying for Calculus and Organic Chemistry tests . . . easy choice!

Steven hadn’t used my Hobart Handler 190 MIG, or HF 7 x 12 band saw, or the HF welding table so off to the shop for a quick project. I didn’t shoot photos of the welding or band sawing, but we basically mitered a piece of 1” x 1” angle into a 2’ tall x 1’ wide ‘U’. Joints were welded on the HF welding table (nice table by the way, like the pop-up edges for 90 deg. angle references). The angle was drilled out on the drill press and bolted to the hand truck for the wood mover/holder. Glad he was in the shop, I had inadvertently bumped the Hobart welder switch from torch to spool gun and couldn’t figure out why the wire wasn’t feeding . . .

Bruce

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I have some friends whom raise emus. Now those eggs are huge. In fact, Bruce you would have to mount them on your Grizzly. Those eggs are from what I understand are in layers of different blues and people use them for carving. Hmm, that actually might be worth trying.
 
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