Saturday, April 14, 2012
Life: Shop Gets A Mig Welder
The Scrap Metal Philosophy shop gets a wire-feed welder, the motorcycle chopper made from scrap metal is a step closer to becoming yard-art.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Art: Scrap Metal Frog Drummer
They say he's the busiest drummer around the pond, he never passes a chance to jump on the set and practice, practice, practice!
Friday, April 6, 2012
Scrap Metal Philosophy Gets A YouTube Channel & New Blog Ideas
I bought a Flip Ultra HD video recorder on the way to the 2010 Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi, (usually around first full-weekend in August), and not only captured some great live acts, but just about the whole downtown festival area and have continued filming as I roam since then.
I live in West Tennessee and the entrance to the Mississippi Delta area is about a 5-6 drive, a nice road trip to a part of the world rich with "Delta Folk Art", mostly because many of the artist still live there. I have a story to tell later on about butting-heads with an "Outsider Art" vendor at the 2011 Juke Joint Festival, (also in Clarksdale, Mississippi). She was from Georgia, where "it all started". And maybe she's right about "Outsider Art", but not "Delta Folk Art".
But, this is not what this blog post is about, although as you can see, a blog post in where I delve into "art philosophy" (maybe in the form of a rant, maybe a historical perspective) is forth coming.
What I'd like to announce is that I have a lot of video that did not get posted within the reasonable time-frame that fellow YouTubers would consider "fresh material", as that is what my Carroll Gazette YouTube channel is mostly about, recent events, in most cases, Blues Festivals in the Mississippi Delta.
So, instead of letting them sit on my hard-drive as scrap video, I'm going to load them on my new YouTube channel, Scrap Metal Philosophy, with a focus on the various intsrtaments used by the musicians made from scrap.
Slide Guitar made from Scrap Wood
Take an old wooden fence plank, install an electric guitar pickup, string it up and cut yourself off a piece of PVC pipe to use as a slide and you have a guitar made from scrap wood and metal. Throw in a drum set and you're a One-Man-Band!
This guy is playing on historic Cherry St. in downtown Helena, Arkansas during the 2011 King Biscuit Blues Festival.
This guy is playing on historic Cherry St. in downtown Helena, Arkansas during the 2011 King Biscuit Blues Festival.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Scrap Metal Recycling: Alien vs Predator
While sailing the Electron Sea, seeking examples of scrap metal treasures, I find the alien Predator is no stranger to the Scrap Metal Art world. What Stan Winston seen in flesh, Robo Steel, seen in scrap pieces of heavy metal, this sculpture rocks! This Predator is wielding a battle ax and just made a fresh kill. It seems his issue with the Alien creature was over the water bottle. The Alien used the non-biodegradable water bottle as bait to lure in kill on the hot desolate planet, the Predator knew it was worth 5¢ ... in Maine.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Darkside Johnny and Eivinn Larsen: She's A Girl I Used To Know
A friend stopped by to show me his new guitar, I wanted him to hear this D Minor backing track on YouTube by Eivinn Larsen. The Flip video recorder was sitting on the desk. I started a video scrap book of my guitar practice sessions with YouTube backing tracks.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
A Fast Nickel or a Slow Dime (Metal Scrapping Philosophy)
Whether to separate your metals or not, ti's the question. Well, there are several factors involved in making this decision. I would say the top two factors are time versus money.
An example I will use is a riding lawn mower I recently scrapped. I removed all the plastic off it, such as the lights, gas tank, seat, tires, etc., and as many nuts and bolts as I could.
AREN'T NUTS AND BOLTS WEIGHT?
Yes, nuts, bolts and screws (along with washers) are metal weight and you will encounter these items made from various metals, such as steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass, maybe even titanium? Never know. So, overall, they are worth taking off, putting them in a bucket and dealing with them later on when the bucket is full.
Plus nuts, bolts and screws always come in handy around the shop or house and there is nothing worse than going to store to buy a pack of 10 for around $2. Plus your gas having to get there. So, I take as many off as I can or have time for, which brings us around to a philosophy I heard from a flea marketer who had all his stuff "priced to sell".
"I'D RATHER MAKE A FAST NICKEL OVER A SLOW DIME"
After stripping the mower of all the non-metals, I eventually got down to the good stuff, the engine and transmission. Aluminum and steel. Here's the problem, how to separate them. When these things are manufactured, some of the aluminum parts have steel parts pressed into them. The aluminum, to save overall engine weight, and the steel parts for strength or high impact function, like an engine crank.
Getting these parts separated takes tools, sometimes special tools, (they're special if you don't have them), and time. This is where you have to evaluate the situation. Do you have both?
If you do not, scrap it as metal and let a shredder sort it out. If you do have both (tools and time) then you can evaluate the final effort you'll make separating the two.
TIME IS MONEY
Time is money, so goes an adage, and is a very precious commodity of life. Aluminum is more valuable than steel, weight for dollar wise, but in some circumstances you can't separate the two, unless one of your tools is a big press! Yes, there is always the BIG sledge hammer and I've tried that. Sometimes the aluminum just bent, other times it busted up into shrapnel. Didn't find all the pieces either. So I lost weight, wound up scrapping the piece as "scrap metal" and in essence, wasted my time. I had scrap metal when I started, an hour later, I STILL had "scrap metal" going across the scales (minus some shrapnel).
So now when I encounter this situation again, I look at it and say: "Should I buy more tools? Or would I just rather make a fast nickel, over a slow dime".
P.S.
I'm saving the tires and rims because I'm starting a welding shop and along with a variety of trailers, I'm going to make hand-trucks also. The big rear tires will go good on a garden trailer.
An example I will use is a riding lawn mower I recently scrapped. I removed all the plastic off it, such as the lights, gas tank, seat, tires, etc., and as many nuts and bolts as I could.
AREN'T NUTS AND BOLTS WEIGHT?
Yes, nuts, bolts and screws (along with washers) are metal weight and you will encounter these items made from various metals, such as steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass, maybe even titanium? Never know. So, overall, they are worth taking off, putting them in a bucket and dealing with them later on when the bucket is full.
Plus nuts, bolts and screws always come in handy around the shop or house and there is nothing worse than going to store to buy a pack of 10 for around $2. Plus your gas having to get there. So, I take as many off as I can or have time for, which brings us around to a philosophy I heard from a flea marketer who had all his stuff "priced to sell".
"I'D RATHER MAKE A FAST NICKEL OVER A SLOW DIME"
After stripping the mower of all the non-metals, I eventually got down to the good stuff, the engine and transmission. Aluminum and steel. Here's the problem, how to separate them. When these things are manufactured, some of the aluminum parts have steel parts pressed into them. The aluminum, to save overall engine weight, and the steel parts for strength or high impact function, like an engine crank.
Getting these parts separated takes tools, sometimes special tools, (they're special if you don't have them), and time. This is where you have to evaluate the situation. Do you have both?
If you do not, scrap it as metal and let a shredder sort it out. If you do have both (tools and time) then you can evaluate the final effort you'll make separating the two.
TIME IS MONEY
Time is money, so goes an adage, and is a very precious commodity of life. Aluminum is more valuable than steel, weight for dollar wise, but in some circumstances you can't separate the two, unless one of your tools is a big press! Yes, there is always the BIG sledge hammer and I've tried that. Sometimes the aluminum just bent, other times it busted up into shrapnel. Didn't find all the pieces either. So I lost weight, wound up scrapping the piece as "scrap metal" and in essence, wasted my time. I had scrap metal when I started, an hour later, I STILL had "scrap metal" going across the scales (minus some shrapnel).
So now when I encounter this situation again, I look at it and say: "Should I buy more tools? Or would I just rather make a fast nickel, over a slow dime".
P.S.
I'm saving the tires and rims because I'm starting a welding shop and along with a variety of trailers, I'm going to make hand-trucks also. The big rear tires will go good on a garden trailer.
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