Birds from the phone

 

Though I try to keep my iPhone photos down to a reasonable number there are always favourites I tend to keep.

This blog simply shares some I have kept on the phone - a mix of Scotland and Australia.

Hope some of those images made you smile.

Crush, chop, melt, pour

 

I had run out of pewter ingots so I dropped into one of the local charity shops and was able to purchase the couple of items below. After a morning of crushing (hammer and anvil), cutting (guillotine), melting (electric furnace) and pouring (graphite moulds) I now have the stash of metal above.

 Items before crushing.

Crushed on the anvil with a heavy copper hammer.

Cut with workbench guillotine - I'm glad it has good jaws and a long handle.

The amount of metal out of the mug.

Metal out of the goblet.

Detritus after the melt.

And a couple of images of what the metal might become.

Soldering fishing boats

 

To say I soldered fishing boats sounds quite simple given there are only three elements to be connected - hull, mast and sail. This blog post gives a bit of an insight into the many steps to arrive at the competed form above. There is lots of action on the workbench.

It all starts with the making of the three components: sail, hull mast.

The first soldering step is to solder mast into hull after the hull has been drilled, the drill hole cleaned and the mast ground to remove oxidation. Soldering is done by holding mast and hull in a vice. I use a small spiral of solder over the mast.

Before soldering the sail to the hull I slightly bend the sail entry hole so the mast will sit well, cut a groove into the sail and hull so they can lock together when held in the vice for heating with small soldering torch. The area to be soldered it coated with flux.

I create and cut small u shaped bits of solder to hook around the sail and mast for heating with small soldering torch after coating the soldering areas with flux.  I usually solder both sides - bit of over engineering bot I want the boats to be strong.

After the soldering is finished the boats are soaked in hot water and then scrubbed with a brush and soap to remove excess flux.

The boats are then ready for the top of the mast to be trimmed and ground; and the installation mounting wire to be formed into shape so it can lock over a 25mm square mesh. Boats are ready for installation.

A bit of this and that

 

The photos above and below were me having a bit of fun whilst water blasting the sludge off the floor in G's orchid house.

G doesn't have a lot of orchids out at the moment - almost winter - but the one below is a beauty.

Last night I was able to capture the sunset, newish moon and evening start in the one photo - below. I like the grainy look of the closer shot.

It was a very dew laden morning  - I love the photo of the bee crawling into a dew laden flower; and footprints of a wallaby crossing the road after walking on dew laden grass.

The birds were out to soak up the rising sun.

More of that dew on blossoms.