Keeping character, or restoring a pond

[MF1455v]

Wow Harvey, sounds like another great project. Can't wait to see this one. Every time I'm in that part of town I drive by and check out the pond.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

James

 

[lhfarm]

This is my all-time favorite TBN thread. I remember waiting each day for the next installment. Thanks for bringing it back and giving us an update. Looking forward to seeing the fence go up.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Maybe the best way to explain to all the newbies, y'all who have been members of TBN less than five years, how a project works for me is for them to watch the movie Temple Grandin. Like Temple I'm in the autistic spectrum so my mind works a little different. I see a project finished project and then build it. If you are familiar with CAD I have a mind with a built in CAD program. It works very similar. Many years ago I had to accept that I wasn't like everyone else socially but the engineering advantages offered adventures worth the price.

When I got home from Haiti I went over to where my friend and yours,Bob Warner, had been punching, drilling actually, the 2400 holes in the 3/16" X 5" X 20' pieces of bar stock. The reason I went with Bob instead of a commercial metal fab company was I wanted to know for sure without a doubt that I would have the accuracy required.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Let's pretend you don't have the advantage that I have with the autistic spectrum and are scratching your head trying to figure out how in the heck those pieces of steel are going to end up looking like knotty pine slabs.

1. First they will be hot dip galvanized. The reason for that is if we just sandblasted and then powder coated them there is a history of them turning greenish over time. They don't do that if the are coated over a shiny silver finish, prepared stainless, aluminum, or fresh galvanized.

2. Then they will be powder coated a base coat color.

Then the fun begins.


Each piece is taken into a clean room, not a space suit type clean room but a very very clean room. There workers wrap the piece in with a special film wrap that has the finished appearance on it. Then the wrap is vacuumed down to the metal shape and all of the wrinkles are removed with squeegees.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Then the pieces are put back into an oven and baked one more time to set the pattern onto the metal.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Then after the item is baked once again and cooled back down to room temperature the wrap is removed and we have something that can't be found in nature.

While going through the old photos I found a shot showing what the base coat looks like.

As you can see what makes this fun is figuring out hot to make the finished project in pieces because it is almost impossible to accurately vacuum the material onto a finished project like a gate. The pieces in this photo show and tell were posts and gate on another project I did back in 2008. The project is here on TBN in Projects.

I hope this helps you understand what we are doing, we might be crazy but we're not nuts.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Always glad to see a new Harv project here on TBN. Thanks for sharing Harvey. Hope your Haitian trip was bountiful in all ways.

Welcome aboard Tim. Hope you and yours enjoy your place and Harv's artistic skills.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

It's off to the galvanizing place and then they will ship it to the powder coater where the real fun begins. I figured out that I had almost a half an hour per post in fabrication when I considered every step in the process. But I am happy with what we got, I believe they are going to be spectacular after powder coating.

I was billed for 14,000 pounds for the galvanizing. They charge by the pound for that and I should be thankful I guess, there are about 600 individual pieces involved. That should be enough materials to do the fence and have a little extra of every item when we are done.

The gate isn't included in this order. We still have to figure out the gate and then fabricate it where it can be broken down into components and then reassembled after powder coating. The way this works is I start off with an image that is out of focus and as we progress it comes into focus. We are thinking of a basket, big basket, 18' + long and seven feet high. The hiccup in that design at this time is whether to put in fruit or flowers, it will work itself out.

This is what they mean when they talk about the journey being more fun than the destination.

 

[EddieWalker]

I like the basket idea. Never seen it, but there seems to be so many options and patterns you could use in it that would work off of the fence design. Really excited to see what you come up with!!!

Eddie

 

[txdon]

I We are thinking of a basket, big basket, 18' + long and seven feet high. The hiccup in that design at this time is whether to put in fruit or flowers, it will work itself out.

This is what they mean when they talk about the journey being more fun than the destination.

Two votes in central Texas are for flowers. It is easier to recognize flowers, and more color. They can flow over the sides, go up high etc..... and you can always throw in a butterfly or bee for excitement!