Month at the Museum

The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has an interesting proposition for you. How about coming to stay for a month? Like 24/7 for a month. Sound like fun? Then you need to get your proposal in quickly. The applications are due in by August 11th. The Missus told me about this the other day. In fact, she suggested I put in for it. I don't know if she just wants me out of the house or she knows that this is the kind of thing I would really enjoy. After looking into it, I must say it does look like quite the little adventure. You even get to spend the night in the U-505 submarine among other places. That's definitely a chance of a lifetime plus much better than some of the places I've slept in over the years.

The museum has a list of attributes and physical requirements they're looking for in their visitor. The physical requirements are actually less difficult than being a welding teacher. They require you to be able to lift 40lbs. - a box of welding rods is 50 - so that's covered. You need to be able to stand on your feet for long periods of time as well as climb stairs. Of course there is the mandatory drug and background check and I'm sure they want some assurance you're not afraid of the dark or will get spooked and start tearing up their priceless artifacts. Computer and photography skills are a plus, and you need to be able to deal with the public with a smile - they specifically mentioned the smile. Those are qualifications that most school teachers or car salesmen have so that's not going to eliminate too many people. The required DVD and essay then will be the deciding factors. You need a 60 second video of why you're qualified and a 500 word essay as to why you want to do this gig.

I'm working on applying. I talked to a co-worker, Jeff, about some help putting the video together and Surly is in the pipeline for a little photographic assistance. I've been fairly successful in the past writing applications such as this but the video has me a little concerned. I'm not all that creative to begin with and have basically no video experience. Jeff is and does. Time is the limiting factor.

I'm going to hookup with Surly and get a couple of photos and do a little brainstorming. I've got a week to get things done and still have plenty of time to get everything to Chicago without having to hand deliver it on the 11th. We'll see what happens.

More Spillage

From here:

Besides BP's big oil leak, now we have one close to home. One of the lead stories in today's NWI Times is about the pipeline leak in Marshall, Michigan. The pipeline runs from Griffith to Sarnia, Ontario carrying 8 million gallons of crude oil per day. The leak spit out 840,000 gallons before they got it stopped. I've been to Marshall, it's a lovely town, damn shame it has to be polluted by crude oil.

Eventually we're all going to have to realize that driving around every where we want, whenever we want, is not the best policy. I think China just passed us up as the number one energy consumer. Not that we've gotten better, it's that China's using more. India is likewise using more as the standard of living rises. Something's going to have to give one of these days and you and I are going to see some tall prices at the pump again. I do find it interesting that the gas prices remained low when oil started gushing out into the Gulf, when any other time all there had to be was a bad weather forecast for that region and the price of gas would jump 20 cents. I guess it's just bad form to gouge when you're in the middle of the nation's largest environmental disaster of all time. They were able to bump it up as soon as the cap looked like it was going to work, however.

Well, I'm off to run some errands in my terribly inefficient internal combustion engine powered pickup truck, public transportation being nonexistent. They are planning on putting a bike lane in along the state highway I'll be taking. Even though I'll put in 60 miles today, I'd consider riding the bike and trailer if there was a decent way of getting up that way without putting myself too much in harms way. Instead of the new Illiana expressway they're planning on putting through here, maybe they could put a little effort into thinking of alternatives to more traffic criss-crossing the State of Indiana. You know, we all saw this coming back in the 70's. You would think by now people would realize that if you build more roads you don't eliminate traffic, you get more. In fact that's one of the selling points of the new expressway - new development. Dumb asses.

Mattock

The mattock mentioned in the previous post.

It's a little rough but if we were to actually make a real one, we've got the moves figured out now. The rest of the parts will have to wait until I'm able to get back into the shop at school to get finished. And since they have the shop all packed full of bits and pieces for the remodeling project, that may be a while. It's like a maze just trying to walk through the place. I stopped in last night to drop off a couple of tools I used for the fair and I really don't see how they're going to get things finished before school starts. Couple this with the rest of the monkey business that's been going on and it should be a very interesting start to the new school year.

The blacksmithing crew: Craig, Andy and the guy in the witness protection program.

We were joking at the end of the session with one of my co-workers (Kevin) who had stopped by about getting our pictures taken with the fair queen and such and he mentioned the fact that my picture had never appeared on the blog - like Wilson from the show Home Improvement. This was the result. He also took another picture of the three of us that turned out rather nice. I'll save that one for the scrapbook. It's a nice keepsake for the time spent with two really nice young men who are going to be making their mark on this world pretty soon. It was a pleasure working with them.

Last Day

The item in the photo will be a candle holder when it's completed. The leaf is the one that was in yesterday's post. There will be a candle cup and a drip pan (or do you say bobeche) centered on the bottom part when completed. Instead of hanging as it is now, I think I'll make a base for it directly under the candle cup. It will look good sitting on the mantle over the fireplace. The fireplace with the new tools and stand, I might add. I'll have to wait and finish them after the fair closes. It will be easier to join the parts with the MIG welder than trying to rivet or fasten them together with the limited resources at the blacksmith shop.

Craig was fumbling around for something to make out a heavy piece of stock we had laying around and quite facetiously I suggested making a mattock. A little while later after a lot of pounding, he and Andy pounded out a 1/2 scale version. We had all three of us working on it for a couple of the operations. Craig was holding while Andy and I did the striking. There's a lot of sweat involved in shaping the larger pieces but the three of us work really well together and it went pretty quickly. Hard work but fun.

It's supposed to be the hottest day of the week today, so I think we'll just tinker with some small stuff. Both of the boys say they're in for next year depending on situations. One guy is thinking internship and the other one is getting married. Pretty good reasons not to come work for free but I imagine they'll be there if they're able to. That would be nice.

I should have a few more pictures of our output to post in the next couple of days. Stay cool!

Bits & Pieces

Iron Head

Iron Leaf

Couple of pieces from fair projects, or maybe mediocre projects, we'll have to wait and see. The iron head goes with a stand I'm making for some fireplace tools that I made last summer. The leaf is part of a candle holder. I'm just kind of winging it this summer. The shop is small, the tooling is limited and the crowds are small as well. We've had several friends and former students stop by to see us, which is very nice of course, but the majority of the crowd just passes us by. It's nice that I get a chance to work in a blacksmith's shop and tinker and it's always a lot of fun working with Craig and this year Andy as well. It's also nice to give something back to the community but if you're not reaching too many people, you have to wonder if it's worth it, especially when the temperature in the building is 100 before you light the fire. Maybe I'll put some effort into planning and next year have them all standing in awe "when I make my masterpiece" as Bob Dylan once sang. Then I could go retire out and be known county wide as the blacksmith who didn't know much but he worked real cheap.

Off to the fair.

Ice Tongs

I made a pair of ice tongs yesterday at the fair. These of course are very practical in this day and age. I had an old book from the '30's that I was thumbing through looking for inspiration and saw these. In the building next door is a display of old and interesting tools so I figured what the heck, I need to make something. Craig worked on making a trivet for his mother and Andy started a candleholder but ran into a little trouble so that might get scrapped. The shop's a little small for three guys and there's only one anvil so it makes it a little interesting at times. The weather was cool due to a rain front moving in and should be cool again today, so there's a blessing. I ran three miles this morning and I'm planning on six tomorrow so I don't need to sweat profusely for four hours in front of the forge. I don't need to get dehydrated or anything and push the marathon training back any more than what is already is. I'll just try to take it easy this week and have fun pounding iron.

County Fair

Rusty Allis WD.

What a WD is supposed to look like.

WD 45 Diesel.

The county fair started last Friday and I started at the blacksmith's shop yesterday. I went down a little early to drop off the tools and get myself a porkburger - one of my must-haves during fair week - and to shop the tractors in the shed next door. Even though the featured marque is Oliver this year, I still dig the Allis-Chalmers. My older brother did a little farming and he had a couple of Allis's, including a WD 45 Diesel like the one in the above photo. I've got a WD myself, the condition of which is about half way between the ones in the other photos. It's amazing there's so many of these old tractors still around. The ones in the photos are from the 50's. As farms got bigger, so did the tractors. A lot of these were kept around to run a mower, elevator, pump or maybe do some cultivating instead of the mainstream field work. Probably the thing that kept most of them from going to the scrapyard was that they were so damn reliable. The engines are as simple as can be and were run at a very low state of tune, so they just kept working. There are very few farmers who want to part with anything that always works, especially if they can't get much money for it. Plus a lot of them are just big fans of machinery. Many of the tractors on display have been in the family since new.

Craig and I started off a little slow yesterday but we did hammer out enough metal to justify our existence. Craig made some brackets to get our stock up off the floor and I worked on a cooking set-up for a campfire. Nothing too fancy but good for openers. We're going to have another young guy working in the shop this week as well. Like Craig, Andy is also attending Purdue and is interested in just about everything I am - railroading, firearms, welding, photography. Should be a fun week for us. We'll be working 3 - 7 every afternoon. That way we can start in the heat of the day and get the shop up to over 100 real quick like.