Phinally Phinishing the Phorge

Drill a couple of holes for the back legs.

Attach some carriage bolts.

Now it sits level!

Cut out a hole for the Burner.


This is where the images of making a support bracket for the burner would go. I cut off the end of a pipe nipple and the secured it with two threaded rings. I also drilled and tapped three holes for some set screws. You'll be able to see all this in later pictures. Plus it was getting a bit scraped up with all the cutting and grinding, so I decided to throw on some paint. Of course I lost all of these pictures when I was trying to back them up from my phone.

Tracing out the shapes I'll need for the insulation. This is two inch Kaowool, ceramic fiber insulation. Turns out I only needed about half of this. Which is too bad, cause this was the most expensive part, about $60.

Cutting out the shapes. That knife definitely needs sharpening now.

Lined the inside. Only needed one circle and about two thirds of the rectangle. I also had to cut the rectangle into a couple of pieces because I couldn't roll it up enough to get it in through the hole. The floor of the forge is made up of one and a half fire bricks.

Oh, yeah. Did I mention that when I painted it, I painted it with hot rod flames? Yeeaaaaah, I went there.

Time to get dirty. Lined the inside with a mixture of furnace cement and perlite. Did you know that perlite is the exact same stuff as obsidian? It's just crushed up pumice, which is obsidian that cooled slower, and then popped like popcorn.

The burner slipped down a little. Better tighten up those set screws.

I allowed the first coat to dry for 24 hours and then applied a second coat. This time it was just thinned down cement without perlite.

Side view #1

Side view #2

The whole kit and kaboodle. I present you with,

The Black Fire Forge!

I'll let this dry a few days and maybe give it a try out this weekend. Now I can finally move on to heat-treating and making some knives!

The start of the forge!

 The parts

  Holes drilled into the sides for the set screws. You can see where I ground down the sides to make them flat.

  Tapped the holes with a 1/4" 28 NPF tap.

 Set screws are in and ready to go!

  Drilled a 1.1 mm hole for the gas orifice.

About a mile of Teflon tape later all of the parts are assembled. Later I took off the needle valve because I couldn't get it to sit right and it kept leaking gas. But there is one on the regulator, so no problem.

The Results!!!

BRRRRR!!

Someone I used to know.

Letsa GO!

Really cool Thing #982: Funky Austrian Accordian Musik

Heard these guys on NPR and had to check them out. Awesome.

Really Cool Thing #983: Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels

So I came across NPR's list of the 100 top Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels (here). It got me wondering how many of them I had read. I also wondered how my list would match up against my family and friends, seeing as how I've tended to surround myself with those of similar literary tastes. So I devised a scoring system and created a spreadsheet. Basically you get 5 points for reading the book and then 1 or 0.5 points for additional levels of geekness (such as reading the book multiple times.) In the spirit of Charlotte's mid winter musical madness you can also argue for new point categories, but keep in mind that will open up those scoring possibilities for other players. The theoretical maximum is something like 1,550 points, but I think anything above 300 would be really impressive. The winner will receive a pulled pork dinner from Crazy Nate's backyard barbecue (note: only redeemable at the Vernal, UT location i.e. my house)
Some of you might notice some some similarities to the Geek Test. Yes, that did play a role in this test. But mine is limited to works of literature. As long as you're surfing the web, check out this hilarious flowchart someone made of the list.
I sent out an email letting people in on the test document. If I missed you, leave a comment here our email me and I'll let you compete.

#984: Muppets (and OK go)

#985 - Just for my Dad.

This one is just for my Dad and his new calling. It's taken form the Weird Al Clasic "UHF".


My Favorite line is, "I'm gonna club a seal to make a better deal!" Maybe you should try it out Dad.

Real cool thing # 986: Posting something just because you think someone else will like it.

I saw this on Austin City Limits the other night and immediately thought Dad would like it. Hopefully this provides you with a little extra "inspiration."

Really cool thing number 987: testing out your new android

Really Cool Thing #988: New Christmas traditions

So every year we put out cookies and milk for Santa, plus some carrots for the reindeer. It's a tradition that I'm sure a lot of other families have. This year I was discussing this with the boys. I asked them if they wanted to leave Santa some cookies and milk. They thought that was a good idea, but then Corbin said, "I want to leave him some Nachos!" I was about to tell him that was silly, Santa only eats cookies and milk, but then I thought, "You know, I'm pretty sure Santa likes nachos. Especially when they're made with pepper jack cheese!" So we put out a few nachos with the cookies and milk. And that my friends is how you start a new tradition. A tasty, cheesy tradition.

Really Cool Thing #989: Trying to be cool like your older brother's friends (or trying to join USoSL)

You know how when you were little and you always wanted to be like your big brother and his friends? Well I'm not sure that ever goes away, except for the big brother part, I'm way cooler than him now. My brother's friend Charlotte started an online quest to collect pictures of stone lions (check it out here) and I decided to be cool like her and seek out stone lions in Vernal. It turned out to be more challenging than I thought.

First I found this guy just around the corner. It wasn't a stone lion, but it was a large wooden bear (and an eagle). I knew I was on the path.


Then, down the road I spotted in the distance two stone statues and my hopes were raised! Could it be that I completed my task so soon? But alas, they were stone, but not lions.


I thought for a while that my quest was in vain. I kept my eyes open, always scouting for that new discovery. We took the boys to Lagoon amusement park this summer and I had a glimmer of hope. We found this guy and finally I had the right species, but now the material was all wrong! What was I to do?

Then on my way to Salt Lake for a conference I spied something along highway 40 at 65 MPH. Could it be? Yes! I finally found my target! But wait! Toto, I don't think we're in Vernal anymore. Sadly, as beautiful as these two guys are, they are in Fort Duchesne. My goal was to find stone lions in Vernal. My quest continued.




And then, a few days ago on a whim I took a strange route to work and what should appear before my eyes?

VICTORY!!!!
Two beautiful examples of Panthero leo! Quest complete!

Finally, maybe I have a chance at being as cool as Charlotte.

Really Cool Thing #990: Babysitting

Its easy, I do it all the time. Its almost as if the boys watch themselves. I don't have to do anything. They don't fight. They don't run off. Just hose 'em down once in a while and they're just fine and dandy until Mom gets home.

Really Cool Thing #993: Having your brother bust your chops about not numbering your blog right.

Thanks Jon, you're the best.

Oh, and do you like the new layout. Different but the same.

Really cool thing #991: 24

So this week we said goodbye to Jack Bauer. It had me hooked from the start. I loved that anybody could be killed at any moment (except Jack of course). It really showed commitment to the story and not just to the actors. I also liked that 24 wasn't afraid to take a stand. It didn't try to be super PC all of the time. The writers took a very practical approach to issues of right and wrong. Often Jack had to do the wrong thing for the right reasons.
I will admit it was getting just a teeny bit long in the tooth. On his last "day" Jack was tied to a chair and beat up, crashed his car into a limo, hand-cuffed and hung from a pipe and shocked, stabbed in the gut (by his girlfriend), shot in the chest (he was wearing a bullet-proof vest), blown up (don't worry he jumped clear), in a car crash, watched his girlfriend killed by a sniper, stabbed again in the gut (bad guy), shot in the chest (by his best friend, clean through and through, no worries - but maybe he should be pickier about his friends), tear gassed, and beat up again. And I'm not even sure I got everything in, there might have been another gunshot wound in the arm. Oh, and he tortured a few people and yelled "GIVE ME A NAME!!" (Tiff, that's what my T-shirt will say) in a really gravelly voice. And remember, all this happens in 24 hours.

I'll see you at 24: the movie (or will it be 120 minutes?)

Really Cool Thing #992: Grandma

I just received a phone call from my Dad this morning. For some reason I answered like I was at my job at the Holiday Inn instead of the BLM. That strange little reaction added some joviality to an otherwise somber conversation. He called to inform me that my Grandma had just passed away. It wasn't really a shock, she had been ailing for quite some time and we all know that she feels much better now.

I'm sad, but I'm not devastated. When I heard the news I couldn't help but think on all of the wonderful memories she gave me. I will be eternally grateful for how she welcomed my wife into our family. JoLynn loved Grandma desperately for this. I'll always remember her house. Running up the path on the south side. The endless sea of juniper bushes in the backyard on the other side of the steps. Painting the roof with crazy aluminum paint. Hidden cookies and candies. Stacks of white bread with dinner. Traveling across the country in their motor home. Camping trips and family reunions. Jeff staggering out of their motor home, for a skit, with his pants stuffed with a pillow saying "I can't believe I ate all of it!" Their house packed full of cousins at Christmas. Swinging on the last baluster at the bottom of the stairs. Times when Grandma would tell Grandpa to hush when she thought his teasing went too far. Seeing her hold my sons for the first time. I'll love her forever for not giving a damn where they came from or what color they were.

Most of you who read this will know all of these things already. But I just felt like I should record this flood of thoughts I'm having. If Viola (she always hated that name!) Geertson Packer was your grandma think of all the wonder and joy she brought to your life. If not, remember your grandma and think of her.

Really Cool thing #994: National Poetry Month

OK, since everybody else is doing it, I might as well jump on the bandwagon too. I'm posting the only two poems I remember from High School. I'm sure my AP english teacher, Mrs. Storey (yes thats really her name) would be shocked I remembered anything. I know she was shocked that I actually passed the test.

I memorized them mainly because they were short, but also because I thought that some of the metaphysical imagery was really particularly effective. They also had particularly interesting rythmic devices which seem to counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor... or something like that.
To be honest I had to google the second one to get the words right. They're both by Stephen Crane



A man said to the universe:
"Sir I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."




In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said: "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter - bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."

Really Cool Thing #995: Bad Kung Fu fight scenes with a wheelchair dubbed in German

Chalk this one up to things you never thought existed. But aren't you better off now that you know it does?

Really cool thing #996- Giant Undersea Macroinvertebrates

According the article which can be found here or this slideshow, this thing is 2.5 feet long!!! Awesome. Although I must say I never got anything that big when I was working in the Bug Lab during college. I wonder if it tastes any good? Maybe with a bit of clarified butter.