Denver at Last

It took a small disaster to avoid a larger disaster, but we actually got to the Western Cast Iron Art Conference in Denver. I lost my cell phone just as we were leaving Houston, the extra time that it took to unsuccessfully search for the phone put us an hour later getting to the Texas panhandle region. Just as we pulling in to Vernon, TX, all traffic stopped for a about a mile. It turned out that there had been a major tornado in Vernon about an hour before, power lines were down and there were a series of detours around various impediments to traffic. It cost us a couple of hours time, but we were safe.

After an all night drive we arrived in Denver about noon on Friday, we were scheduled to give a panel on metallurgy at 2:45. A little close for comfort but OK. The panel went well, Elliot Brown, an actual, real metallugist presented the "scientific" aspects of cupola operation, Donnie gave a "seat of the pants" operational presentation, and I merely listened to both and gave my observations. There was a video recording going, so it should be available somewhere after the fact. The panels that I was able to observe were well presented and interesting, which makes me wonder, what about the ones that we missed trying to get the cupola to work? Sigh...

Today, Saturday, is the production pour day. We were supposed to be operating as well, but the furnace is just a pile of materials and good intentions as we speak. We shall see...

Watch out for meterological abberations,
Butch