Spokane Blues

Got the Spokane Blues

‘Cause all it does is rain

I suppose it could be worse,

‘Cause snow would be a pain (in the ****).

We started off Wednesday morning with high hopes that we would be in Seattle by the afternoon. ‘Twas not to be; we sit in a Ford dealership just outside Spokane because the truck developed a habit of shutting down and firing back up. At least we drove in to get it fixed instead of having to be towed.

We had an “extra” day programmed in, so no time should be lost getting to the ferry in Bellingham, but we may miss the new sculpture park in Seattle. And, I was looking forward to showing Donnie the Chinese iron castings in the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

They have incredible detail and thin-ness for the technology of the time and place.

It is somewhat ironic (if you’ll pardon the expression) that we have the arrogance to consider ourselves ferrous-temperature foundry-men, when it has been done with as good or better craftsmanship for many centuries now. It makes me wonder if those who preceded us had the same feelings. There is a certain commonality of experiences through the centuries when we compare what we produce. The Chinese foundry-men were making an object for veneration of a spiritual vein; I make things for contemplation that I suppose could be spiritual but outside of an organized dogma. Are the two comparable? Should they be compared? Has human endeavor progressed or are we just fooling ourselves? A certain humility and skepticism would seem to be appropriate.

Iron casting originated in eastern Europe some thousands of years ago, before recorded history, its not unreasonable that someone took that technology northward above the arctic circle before. At the same time, ferrous temperature foundry didn’t happen on the North American continent until European settlement, as far as we know. So we could be the first on this continent at least. We didn’t really set out to be in the Guinness Book of Records, but we could be.

It’s easy to fall into such speculation while waiting for parts and repairs under the grey skies of eastern Washington. I was really looking forward to seeing that sculpture park.

I hope your “cam shaft position sensor” is in the proper condition.

Butch

Onward from Denver

Onward from Denver

The Western Cast Iron Art Conference was a good meeting, although I missed some of the most interesting parts getting there late. The metallurgy panel that Elliot Brown, Donnie, & I did seemed to be well received. Elliot is a “real” metallurgist and gave a technical presentation, Donnie described how he approaches the same thing from a “seat of the pants” viewpoint, and, as moderator, I just took notes and summed up what seemed to be most important.

The “Iron Tribe” exhibition opening featured a celebration of the life of Charlie Hook by his widow Deborah LaGrasse. I knew Charles for more years than either of us wanted to admit and I’ll miss his participation in things iron.

The exhibit itself was a remarkable survey of works from old & new guard, foreign & domestic. Some were just the molds that were to be cast the next day during the production pours. They were just as interesting as sculptures in sand as the eventual castings. Great presentation of the work, in a nice space. Kudos to David Lobdell.

The “performance casting” night went off without any apparent hitches. Bowling will never seem the same after watching freshly cast, glowing cast iron balls run down the ramp towards a set of ceramic shell bowling pins.

The production pour day seemed to go well too. We didn’t participate because our furnace didn’t work, but the furnaces that did run functioned well. Furnaces from the University of Minnesota, University of Montana, and University of Colorado, Denver were the stars of the day. The fact that the M & M cupolas were student built, bodes well for the future. The Montana furnace cast the largest piece from the workshops and an “Iron Trail to the Arctic” plaque, we left the plaque with the Denver host crew.

While the pouring action was happening, students from Lamar University rammed-up the refractory into the trashcan that will be our Alaska furnace. When it was done we lit a fire in it and went to my sister’s home for drinks and dinner. That fact that my sister makes excellent wine made drinks somewhat mandatory, the fact that Tom, her husband, makes whisky from any unclaimed alcohol made it dangerous. They were grand & generous hosts.

The “Trail” continued Sunday, getting as far as Casper Wyoming. Monday started fast, but slowed down with sight-seeing. The interstate goes right by the scene of G.A. Custer’s defeat at Little Big Horn, we had to stop. As a battlefield, it wouldn’t be my choice, there was no cover to fight from. Custer made mistakes and his Indian opponents didn’t. Custer lost. It was very strange to stand at the highest point of the battle scene and try to imagine the actions that took place so long ago. The mayhem, noise, smells had to be totally disorienting to the 7^th Cavalry; modern archeology has exposed a lot of the causes of the defeat, finding firing patterns from both sides with forensic techniques.

As I say it was somewhat surreal, but one of the most surreal facets was that, as I was walking back down from the scene of the conflict, I was met by a bus-load of Japanese tourists climbing up the hill. I can’t imagine what they took away from the experience.

So for tonight, from lovely downtown Billings, Montana, peace…

Butch

Note: any photographs will be by Forrest Goodhue, official photographer for all things Iron.

we are getting closer

Hey,
Things here in Alaska are moving along, we just got word that some more coke we are having shipped up is ready to be loaded on a ship, which should arrive in the next week or so.
We are continuing to collect Iron . We plan on using mostly automotive scrap brake drums, rotors and exhaust manifolds. there is still a lot of breaking to do.
More people have signed up to join us in Wiseman .

Logistics are the key to that pour. From my house in Palmer AK we will be driving approximately 650 miles to Wiseman. we will be driving up the Parks Highway Past the entrance to Denali National Park. up to Fairbanks AK. Then on to wiseman we will be on the Dalton highway or as it is known in Alaska the Haul road. Its called the Haul road as it was built to allow equipment and supplies to be trucked to the oil fields on the edge of the Arctic Ocean.

The haul road from Fairbanks to Wiseman is about 250 miles and about 100 is paved the rest being maintained gravel road. On arrival in Wiseman Pop13 year round residents. we will set up at the Wiseman Community center which is near the bank of the Koyokuk river. A beautiful setting.

Wiseman is a village off the grid, no public electricity and no running water. the only electricity is what the residents generate themselves by fuel or wind.

So as I said logistics is everything. we will be hauling all of our food and equipment including coke ,iron molds, etc the whole distance. the crews coming from Houston will have come thousands of miles to reach Wiseman and are bringing the furnace.
We will need to be self sufficient as the nearest hardware or grocery store will be over 200 miles away.

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

3 Days late for Denver

Another busy and frustrating day. Donnie & Forrest stayed up half the night putting a windbox and four tuyeres onto the machine, and it still doesn't work right. After the second try of the day, Donnie just looked over at me and said,"Lets build a trashcan." For those of you who don't have a history with us, I built the first "Oscar the Grouch" cupolette (so named by Wayne Potratz) at the 2nd International cast iron conference at Sloss furnaces in Birmingham, AL in 1992. It was my intention to make something that anyone could make and run by themselves if necessary. And it works, better some times and not so better others. We Built another version at the 5th Int'l Conference in Iron Bridge, UK in 2006. I ran the original machine in NYC a couple weeks back and it made hot metal right on schedule. Unfortunately, I left it with the Texas Firehouse for their use in future.

So, we will not be pouring in Denver, we'll be building a furnace that we will pour with in Wiseman. For all those folks in Alaska who have never seen such a thing, it will be interesting. The folks in Wiseman probably don't know what to expect and will most likely be surprised by this 20 gallon trashcan that will melt iron.

But now its on to Denver and the Western Cast Iron Art Conference (wciac.org, not wicca, I was mistaken). Donnie and I are still on the metallurgical panel, I think, and fortunately its the very last panel of the conference, so we have time to get there. Leaving tomorrow (Thursday) and driving straight through. Not the original plan, but one must be flexible. My father would have said that it keeps one young, and it worked for him.

So, til we're on the road and posting from a Starbuck's hot spot, keep you tuyeres clean.
Butch

Hi Everybody,
This is Pat Garley on the Alaska end of Iron Trail. Things here in Alaska are going well preparations are coming along. This past weekend Wendy Croskrey Sculpture professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks and several of her students came down to Palmer and we made sand molds.
There will be 3 pours here each about a week apart. The first will be in Wiseman about 50 miles above the Arctic circle. Wiseman is a small village with about 13 year round residents. there is no electricity or running water in Wiseman unless you count the Koyokuk river. But the people are friendly and the scenery is beautiful. To reach Wiseman you must travel the Dalton Highway 300miles north from Fairbanks . Its called a highway by Alaskan standards because at least 100 miles of it has some pavement. During our stay in Wiseman the sun will not drop below the horizon and we will have 24hrs of Daylight.
The second Pour will be in Wasilla about 350 miles south of Fairbanks. This pour will take place at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry. We thought that this would be an appropriate venue for demonstrating old technology as the Museum has a collection of planes ,trains, and automobiles as well as boats ,snow machines and equipment from Alaska's past.
The iron casters will be joined at the Museum by Artists demonstrating Blacksmithing, Raku fired pottery and other artists for a day long art festival complete with art vendors, food booths and live music.
The third and final stop for the Iron trail will be in the city of Kenai about 150 miles south of Anchorage. There we will be casting on the 4th of July as part of the City's Independence day celebration.
So you can see we will be traveling quite a bit within Alaska over 800 miles from wiseman to Kenai. Pouring 3 times in 3 weeks. Its going to be fun.

The furncae is NOT working

And Donnie & Forrest Goodhue took the new furnace to Clarendon, TX to do a test pour, that was going to be our first stop on the "Trail". It didn't work, one tap of cold metal and nothing. Had to use an oxygen lance to open the tap hole, skulled the ladle, got zilch. So today, or rather this evening into this morning, was spent trouble shooting the machine; we know its an air problem, but too much or too little, too high a verocity, too much volume? The coke at the tuyere goes black under blast. That says too much air, or it could be that the well hasn't fully burned in and is stealing heat to cure.
After fighting it for a few hours I'm ready to agree with Donnie & Forrest that its too much air, but I ran a trashcan furnace in NYC a week ago with the same blower, & its a lot smaller. So now to ascertain what blower will give us the right amount and what kind of connection. In NYC I used an aluminum dryer vent hose from Home Depot and cut a slot in it to "spill" excess air, Home Depot isn't open 24 hours like it used to be, so its another day shot testing. We will be lucky to get to Denver by Thursday at this rate.
Two students are wandering around Denver waiting for us; I wish I could remember the name of the pool hall that had those great "billiard" tables, I'd send them there, they could get a little culture.
Tomorrow will bring what it will, til then don't take any wooden bott sticks.
Butch