jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Dec 16, 2023 13:28:21 GMT -5
Thanks Jason. The old stock is becoming vintage stock; it has been a long time since doing any melting. Trying to remember old techniques is a problem due to a vintage brain these days. Both you and I are like wine. At one point we had "aged to perfection"...now we're just turning to vinegar! Man is that the truth. Thought we were tough when young Jason, this aging is the true test of tough !
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Dec 14, 2023 10:57:58 GMT -5
Wow! Those are seriously psychedelic and cool! Pretty neat how you can take slabs from different sides and have completely different patterns. Is that what you would typically do now is slab them? Thanks rockbrain. The sawyer can have a lot of fun cross sawing at various angles to get crazier patterns no doubt. Because glass pours with distinct color boundaries and mixes well one can make some unique patterns. These will be sold to arrowhead makers(knappers) in the block sizes seen in the photos; they will saw them to their whims usually 5/16" slabs to make spearpoints. I fuse them in 6x6x2 inch or 11x6x2 inch bricks and saw/sell them in basically 6x3x2 inch bricks. I used to sell sawn slabs but got lazy and tired of sawing long hours.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Dec 14, 2023 10:48:54 GMT -5
How cool is that !! Patty
Enjoy Patty. It has been a while since fusing glass. Thought I would give it a go again just using the small kiln for quicker experiments.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Dec 14, 2023 10:46:35 GMT -5
Holy Crap jamesp! Those came out fantastic!! I still have some chunks of your "old stock"! Thanks Jason. The old stock is becoming vintage stock; it has been a long time since doing any melting. Trying to remember old techniques is a problem due to a vintage brain these days.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Dec 13, 2023 12:11:31 GMT -5
Jamesp, what a kaleidoscope of color you work with for your product. There is definitely enough selection that everyone can find multiple pieces they like. a few new man made obsidians out of the bakery Victor saw this at angles for slabs and get some interesting results. Sawyer has all the fun... Much of what looks black on this brick is transparent colors, see backlit below. Note varying saw angle effects. Above backlit, lighting change does color changes(digital cameras)
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Dec 8, 2023 8:24:53 GMT -5
The big kiln has an error code, must fix. Doing a half brick in the small kiln to get groove back. This stack should collapse and have some wiggles in the bands. The small kiln. Had to re-program. This one runs hotter than the big unit, lots of heat coils close to the mold. May have to shorten the dwell cycles. Peak is 1475F for 3 hours. 2.4 hours at 1200F going up, and 1000F for 2.5 hours for anneal. Most art glass would require 24 to 48 hour anneal for such a thick chunk. This China made glass is great for making stable bricks, about useless for other projects.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Dec 7, 2023 9:27:30 GMT -5
Curious if a glass melt can be performed after a 3 year break. Problem is remembering the kiln program settings for thin melts and brick melts. The brick melts require a longer dwell at full temp, bricks being about 2" x 6" x 12" in size. The guys that make arrowheads like the brick melts. They have been fusing glass in small microwave kilns, been there done that, OK for small projects. Still got several tons of art glass in many colors. Art glass has gotten so expensive. The large load I found was in a warehouse and the owner basically gave it to me if I would haul it off. Winter is here, the kiln helps heat the house lol. The new work area is all set up and rather inviting. Go review some of your old glass posts. I know you mentioned more than once what your programs were for the bricks and for the blobs. Maybe it will refresh your memory. Getting old sucks, doesn't it? The good news Robin and thanks for the refreshment ideas - Eureka, the programs were still stored(6 steps, each step has it's own unique 1) time 2) rate and 3) temp(21 settings). The bad news is what appears to be an error code preventing the kiln to run. Certain that Paragon Ind. will have a fix. It is a 7200 watt kiln, 240 VAC. The main energy cost is maintaining 1225F for 2.4 hours and 1475F for 3 hours, and anneal at 950F for 2.5 hours. These are long melt/stabilizing times due to the size of the brick. It took over a year to cool the 16 foot diameter 2 foot thick chunk of glass for the Mt. Palomar telescope lens to avoid glass de-stabilization. This China made glass is user friendly when cast into thicker 'stable' bricks but it is terrible at cooling with a polished surface required by the majority of hobbyists making vases/plates/bowls. I have had zero complaints about spearheads cracking and fracturing years later. Even the whole bricks left outside never displayed freeze/heat/moisture fracturing. Man made obsidian looking good in the stability department. The US art glass is more challenging to pour into bricks and maintain stability, but it cools with a killer polish.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Dec 7, 2023 8:44:43 GMT -5
jamesp. It is always a pleasure to see your glass creations, and your wife’s creations. I’m currently working on some of your glass for pendants and earrings. Beautiful pieces! Got more, let me know if you want them Pat. The Madam has been bugging me to crank the kilns up. She loves to compose with glass.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Dec 7, 2023 8:42:15 GMT -5
Curious if a glass melt can be performed after a 3 year break. Problem is remembering the kiln program settings for thin melts and brick melts. The brick melts require a longer dwell at full temp, bricks being about 2" x 6" x 12" in size. The guys that make arrowheads like the brick melts. They have been fusing glass in small microwave kilns, been there done that, OK for small projects. Still got several tons of art glass in many colors. Art glass has gotten so expensive. The large load I found was in a warehouse and the owner basically gave it to me if I would haul it off. Winter is here, the kiln helps heat the house lol. The new work area is all set up and rather inviting. What a coincidence, I made a trip up to visit snuffy yesterday and he asked me if you were still working with the glass. Great minds must think alike!! He sent me home with a large bag of Broad Leaf Mustard, will cook it up later today for supper. Henry Good to hear Snuffy is still gardening Henry. He was all about his garden. The mustards will empower you , look what they do to the SEC !
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Dec 6, 2023 13:56:29 GMT -5
Curious if a glass melt can be performed after a 3 year break. Problem is remembering the kiln program settings for thin melts and brick melts. The brick melts require a longer dwell at full temp, bricks being about 2" x 6" x 12" in size. The guys that make arrowheads like the brick melts. They have been fusing glass in small microwave kilns, been there done that, OK for small projects.
Still got several tons of art glass in many colors. Art glass has gotten so expensive. The large load I found was in a warehouse and the owner basically gave it to me if I would haul it off. Winter is here, the kiln helps heat the house lol. The new work area is all set up and rather inviting.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Nov 26, 2023 6:58:39 GMT -5
Are there other fossils and particularly fossil sauropod bones in the the area where the coprolites are found ? It would seem likely. An article described how vertebrae were the most common bones found which makes sense considering how incredibly long their tails and giraffe like necks are. Considering horsetail must have grown at least 50 feet tall they needed a long reach for reaching tree foliage. Some of them are massive creatures. There had to be a serious food source and serious loads of large diameter waste.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Nov 24, 2023 14:21:20 GMT -5
Randy, silicified coral never had that brecciated appearance. It was so rigid in it's non - petrified state it never probably never experienced shinkage. The fern roots from Texas never had shrinkage fractures either as it is also quite stable in the non-petrified form. Same goes for petrified palm wood, however palm burl and tree root cavities experienced chalcedony fills without brecciation. Whatever the climate was in ancient Texas(probably hot and in some cases dry)brecciation was common in many types of petrifications including petrified soils and clays. Or perhaps tectonic forces caused becciations, don't know. Some stones were brecciated brecciations go figure, as if they petrified in a brecciated state and some force brecciated them yet again only to refill with chalcedony again. Who knows what happened back in those days. If hot ash landed on dino poop maybe the heat of the hot ash shrunk the poop balls. Perhaps there were quarterly eruptions that the dinosaur could survive but would cover their dung fields repeatedly. Your "stream bed" photos of poop balls reveals a repeated usage of the poop zones. The foliage during the dino age was so diverse. There are barely a dozen species of palms in North America. In Texas alone collectors have found over 400 species of fossil palms. Half the petrifications I found in Texas did not even appear to be wood but some strange non-woody vascular plant species. Emphasis - lots of biological diversification back then. When the settlers first arrived in south Texas it was covered with vast forests of palms. It did not take man long to remove the useless palms and convert it to grazing lands. It is now common to find 1-5-10-larger acre monoculture patches of opuntia cactus 6 feet tall. Let's just say it was enough heavy cactus to feed plenty of dinosaurs. It is bizarre to see so much heavy vascular plant mass in one place. I considered what it would be like to bulldoze to a pile an acre of solid opuntia cactus 6 feet tall being that they are full of pasty liquid. It is easy to grow cherry tomatoes here that produce so many tomatoes that the tractor loses all traction when plowing them down. Crushed tomatoes can generate a lot of slick paste. Just saying the dino's diet could have been real diverse.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Nov 21, 2023 10:26:21 GMT -5
A habitat in a delicate balance.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Nov 21, 2023 9:35:48 GMT -5
That meteorite shattered ice that impacted the elliptical shaped and radially oriented Carolina Bays likely had bubbles in it James . "Likely" does not mean did. And ice is not the same as meteorites.
They are still debating on the how the Carolina Bays formed. There is no solid evidence yet of a meteorite impact leading to the formation yet, just a hypothesis. Where are the meteorite fragments? High nickel levels?
An easy way to determine if this is a meteorite, slag or magnetite is to simply do a specific gravity test. There is a big difference in the specific gravity between iron meteorites and terrestrial iron ores or slag.
The truth will just have to remain a mystery. As Pilate said, "What is truth" ?
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Nov 20, 2023 8:43:53 GMT -5
That meteorite shattered ice that impacted the elliptical shaped and radially oriented Carolina Bays likely had bubbles in it James .
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Nov 20, 2023 7:42:16 GMT -5
Never try to catch a meteorite.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Nov 20, 2023 7:38:11 GMT -5
Never knew. Let's hope they stay microscopic !
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Nov 19, 2023 7:32:17 GMT -5
Good insight jamespI believe every coprolite I have is from one of the many sauropod species, vegetarians all. Wow, the vegetarian angle is a game changer. Meat rots and digests quickly. Consider a panda that eats bamboo which is strange in that bamboo rots very slowly. The Atlanta Zoo harvests hardened off canes to feed them, not tender shoots. Goats eat woody foliage like limbs and tree sprouts. Beavers eat bark and softer wood from gum trees. Off course these are all mammals. But Green Iguana, most turtles, Chuckwalla lizards, others are vegetarian reptiles. Ha, Green Iguanas are the 6 foot monsters that have taken over south Florida. Those things can eat. They multiply like rats. No surprise that a vegetarian reptile can be a hardy beast. Monitor with the runs Falling Iguana For those with a strong stomach, the bearded dragon
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Nov 18, 2023 12:59:52 GMT -5
I'm trying to figure out how to interpret this one and am at an impasse. It could be a cross section of a bundle of twigs or one single large limb? It very much reminds me of a photo jamesp posted of shrink wood a few pages back. I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts. There is little doubt that wood often shrinks and cracks during/before petrification Randy. Especially in dry conditions. It makes sense that poop would do the same. The humidity and wet ground seems to bring bacteria to the equation in these parts but old wood laying on high dry granite exposures often survives and dries with such cracks and fractures. It would makes sense that the times of the dinosaurs would be much more hot and humid. However some tropical woods are super dense and impervious to rapid rot. Take a mulberry tree or eastern cedar, they rot slowly. Trees like teak and biloba in the deep tropics are resilient to rot. Many of the specimens you post have those type cracks in them. I don't remember seeing alligator poop, It might be a good comparison sample for dino poop. Google images provides a variety of gator poop. They are mostly if not completely carnivorous though.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Nov 16, 2023 9:34:53 GMT -5
Will it, or will it not ? That would be a long wait. Surface gas beginning to escape Nov. 14/15 signaling eruption more likely. Must be a way of life in Iceland.
Speaking of long: "The longest word in Icelandic is Vaðlaheiðarvegavinnuverkfærageymsluskúrslyklakippuhringurinn. It's a composed word and means the key ring to the tool work shed in the road works of Vaðlaheiði, a mountain road in North Iceland."
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