One year ago today: April 2, 2016, the big bad three.
Five years ago today: April 2, 2012, pre-Google embedded video.
Nine years ago today: April 2, 2008, we’re going to buy it.
Random years ago today: April 2, 2005, neither can you.
Since I returned from Miami, I confess there has not been a proper two hours of work put in on the back bedroom. That would include this morning, since I was in downtown Lakeland tending to the discrepancies that arose from that September deposit error. I have the printouts, I’ll reconcile it manually later. First, I went to Trent’s favorite brunch spot, the Terrace Grill. To find out they don’t serve biscuits and gravy all morning. I got there around 11:00AM on the Rebel, which is running better now that most of the problems have been addressed. (I’m taking it to Hollywood on Thursday for carb work.)
Next, I took a closer look at the gas-powered water pumps that appeared similar to what I saw in the dredging videos. Once again, the instructions fall short. The pumps said they had a “thermoplastic” centrifugal pump, and all I read into that is the part that says “plastic”. The only other pumps said iron, however that seemed to apply to the casing, not the pump innards. Not one of the on-line genius types delved into this issue. I understand it is not to their advantage to tell people these things for free, but at the same time I know that buying their overpriced books is no guarantee they’ll tell you anyway. Still, the people selling the actual dredging gear could stand to be a little less useless.
That’s why I’m allowing so much headroom. If anything happens, it won’t be until September. Right now it is already too hot, the mosquitoes are in full force, and not many people smart wade into the creeks during alligator breeding season. I’ll continue research because I find the topic appealing. How well will this thermoplastic hold up to the intentional ingestion of rock-bearing water? Are there better materials? If not how cheap and easy is it to replace the plastic? Agt. R gave me a catalog of mining equipment dated 2014. It has the same drawback, the presumption that you know what they are talking about.
There is a contraption that fits at the top of the sluice to turn it into a “highbanker”. It appears to be a hopper with a rake that pre-sifts heavier particulate before it hits the sluice. For the more curious, this fits “backwards” at the top of the sluice and the excess material rolls down back into the water. All of this I don’t know about, it was not even mentioned in documentary or promo videos. I learned out in the dessert, they use a “dry sluice” which appears to be a large ducted fan assembly. That must be fun. Can you imagine the dust?
The sandblaster cabinet is being set into test mode by now. I’m waiting for the call. I’m not hopeful for the first run, for I read many sources saying to operate the smallest box, a compressor with a capacity of 9.5 CFM (cubic feet per minute) is required. And that’s a huge gas-powered compressor with two pistons. But I’m assured the contraption will work with an electric half that size. For $97 I’m about to find out the facts.
To finish the morning, the Mulberry guitarist missed the scheduled noon callback time. Well, no loss. During the audition he went from Mr. Guitar Hero to whimpering wannabe, I just didn’t quite say it so emphatically. He thought he was fantastic until he ran up against a real bass player. He didn’t have to wait to get on stage to disappear. Too bad for him. These types emerge from Guitar Center by the thousands, each one thinking he’ll be a star if only he could find the right people to back him up. Nobody tell the poor guy that rap has been outselling rock since 1997.
Hawaiian beach.
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Here’s the new sandblaster cabinet. Proof once again that there comes a point where risking the $95 is preferable to trying to get a straight answer out of the “experts”. The unit is set up and connected to Agt. R’s compressor with a half dozen adaptors and connectors that also were not mentioned. Take a look at that tube of silicon in the picture. Nothing in the manual explains what that is for. This is a Harbor Freight product and it comes with a bizarrely strange set of instructions. Despite a severe shortage in China of English translators, we got this equipment working.
Considering that this tool arrives assembled, it is a better deal for your average handyman than trying to assemble the same thing. We had it working in no time though I will re-read the manual. There is a big flea market upcoming this weekend. I’ll be in Dade. I personally think any sandblasted items should carry a real premium price. Like $28 for the wrench I worked on. I have no control of that end, since the objects do not belong to me at any stage of the process, just the sandblasting, and even that is owned by the robot club. But my opinion is that they should be sold as collector’s items, not tools.
Okay, here’s the before snaps of some wrenches. Two John Deere tractor wrenches and some generic crescent. I’m going to make you wait until tomorrow to see the sort of job I did on these tools. The aluminum oxide powder flakes off the layer of crud, it has a tendency to flay out the sporadic spark, so keep your eye on the work. The process is slow and my judgment is this would be one monotonous job. Before the novelty wore off, I blasted the handle on the big wrench in this picture
“I found two tickets to a guitar concert nailed to a fence,
and grabbed them because you can never have enough nails.”
Take a closer look at the wrench after I blasted the handle a bit. I really too time and aimed at the crevasses but you can still see small spots of darker rust. This side by side comparison makes it evident the blaster is worth a hundred bucks. Maybe I’ll improve with experience but that will never be my chosen career. Say, did I mention Agt. M used to sandblast? I’d better catch you up on the gossip. He’s getting married. My guess is a gal from the church, so his gallivanting days are over. Forget the monster electric bike, he’ll soon be vacuuming the family station wagon that rocks in the Peace River. I’ll no doubt be invited so watch for another small holiday upcoming.
Thus, I will motion that we build a chute which I’ve priced out at $40. It is two 3-1/2 foot sections that bolt together with wind nuts. It has the same features as touted by the big boys, it saves us $100, and I find out what we are up against. As for pontoons, I’ll settle for anything that floats except a fat girl. I’ll record the current state of planning, just keep reading. Historians love it when records are kept this way. The idea is to have the chute clamp onto the side of the boat, as a type of outrigger. This will require two anchors to keep it pointed upstream. The pumping motor sets amidships with the suction hose some 25 feet forward into the streambed.
The trough is slanted downstream. One brave soul jumps into the drink and draws up the dirt and gravel slurry, which discharges onto the grate at the top of the sluice. The second person sits in the boat and oversees the sluicing action, clearing jams, and snagging targets of opportunity. Clearly both jobs are best performed by experienced people, so once again, I allow two weeks to get five years’ experience. Agt. R is not keen on picking up the proper industry terms, so I won’t stress them in person, but you’ll get them aplenty in the blog. For instance, the metal grate that blocks the bigger rocks from tumbling down the sluice is called a “classifier”.
Remind me to look closer at the recovery of artifacts and shark’s teeth. These teeth are prehistoric, though I wonder if they are also fossils. Do teeth even fossilize? You help me out here, gang, because there is nobody else on the entire crew who is going to ever find these things out by themselves. If there are any accidental discoveries to be made, it will most likely be due to research. And trust me, this is the only part of the operation that does any of that. One damn good example of the value added is the design of the outrigger sluice. When pricing the floats, the other guy did not anticipate the added weight of water and gravel in the chute during business hours.
As for the market, there is a buyer who advertises for the teeth and arrowheads. He runs the ad a few weeks before arriving, I’ll see if I can locate a copy. My contemporaries see him as the end buyer, I see him as the middleman and seem to be the first one around here who had that take on the situation. Anyway, I’m always curious as to how the middleman makes his living. For reasons.
ADDENDUM
Upon asking around concerning my experience at City Hall, I’ve been called everything from foolish to crazy for asking. Yeah, well, I figured that much out on my own. People who’ve built on to their houses say the attitude I got from the City Inspectors office is nothing unusual. Some say the city has never ever pre-issued or pre-approved a license to anybody but a licensed contractor, and the consensus is they are all on the take. My emphasis here is that 100% of the people asked responded this way. Nobody likes the department and at street level, the city people are accused of running a “big small town”.
This instinctively led to a second conversation about how people got anything done on their houses. They went ahead and waiting until the city found out, then after the fact the city issues a license, the fait accompli. When I asked the club owner if he knew of any building additions I could go look at that was built in this manner, he replied that I was sitting under one.
Hence, the conclusion is that if you supply your own blueprints or make your own applications, they will never be good enough. That reeks. We’ve all been through that runaround, where they won’t tell you where you can find specifications, they want you instead to keep submitting plans. They then go into a locked room and inform you the plan is rejected without saying what it is they want. Ha, they want you to keep wasting time coming back because what they want is some kind of kickback. It is so wrong when the city acts as a tacit employment front for their favorites.
The secondary situation that emerged was everyone said it was a smart move that I did not give the city my exact address. I picked up on that in the first few sentences at the office. The dork was more obsessed with getting my name and address than answering questions on where I could source building code information. What I’ll do is see if there are any copies at the library, though just you watch, they will be completely outdated. Why? Because the city employee I was talking to went out of his way to not tell me anything useful, that’s why.
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