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Showing posts with the label junk yard

Trying Out New Tools

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My newest tools have been on the floor long enough!   The doming kit and the Swantrom Disc Cutter Set were getting dusty and I was getting anxious to try them out.   Out of the box and unwrapped! Swantrom Disc Cutter Set Remember my trip to the junk yard in a previous blog?   My friend, Kim, and I divided the scrap metal and the wire and it too was sitting on the floor.   Right!   I could hardly walk to the work bench. I had a couple of polymer clay discs ready for something and I liked the blue copper (someone’s failed etching project) from the junk yard.   So I took the disc cutter and tried it out.   After a couple of tries with the mallet, I had a disc.   Wow! It works!   And a second disc and tiny holes in each of those. I was careful to leave enough blue copper around the holes I cut so that I could use the leftover for another project I have in mind. Next the doming kit…not as easy.   In fact, I watched a Beaducation video on YouTube about using it and I will prac

The Junk Yard Run!!

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Yesterday my friend, Kim, and I met at Kuhle’s to explore the junk yard!   Neither of us had been there and neither of us had a camera to capture all the interesting shapes and textures and materials.   But we did find Darrell who led us to the locked up room where old sheet metal to be recycled is kept.   We found a treasure trove of copper and one sheet of brass as well as several gauges of wire.   It did not take long to amass 20 pounds of metal at $5.00 a pound.   Men are working! One of the first questions we were asked was, “Are you just looking or are you buying?”   Having grown up with two brothers and a father who was in demolition (along with many other businesses), I knew we better be buying.   I know not to waste a busy man’s time when it is close to lunch (or any other time either!).   So we were “buying”!   The sheet copper we bought had a natural patina, purple colors where I suppose someone tried etching, and there were a few thicknesses.   We quickly selecte