For
a LONG TIME (years, actually), Mr. Bill has been 'attempting' to
'model' (in
CAD software) some pottery-kilns...
I won't bore you with all the technical mumbo-jumbo about this
effort, other than to say that I'm using a product called "_Rhino3D_"
and it is an awesome software tool, that if I continue to use it
until the day I die, I still won't know but 15% of it's
capabilities...
It has a companion software tool that is called (loosely) a
"graphical algorithm editor" (_Grasshopper_
is it's name) - it allows me (the 'pilot' for lack of a better
word) to do several things that are not inherently possible in
Rhino3D... Most everyone has heard of 'AutoCAD'
(which is actually a 'suite' of products) and even in the (VERY
EXPENSIVE) AutoCAD world there is nothing to compare to Rhino3D
and Grasshopper applications working together...
Just recently I've begun watching the on-line-training-videos for
_Grasshopper_ , and I'm now blown-away (mentally) by what the two
products can do, together, and furthermore what they might allow
me to do, assuming I can "re-think" my mental approach to this
task.
I suspect it'll take me another 6 months to perhaps as long as 18
months to do what I want with these two products, but I've got a
real start, here, and the people who wrote and support this
software have taken an interest in what I'm attempting to do (from
their viewpoint I'm a 'customer' but one who has a concept they
might be able to produce and sell, and I don't see anything like
it in the marketplace, at this point...
Above you will see one small picture of the two products working
side-by-side, and the key (mathematical / geometric) 'gadget' I've
discovered is something called 'biarc'
- click on the link to view what Wikipedia has to say about it...
...
WE went BACK (on Friday, 23rd) to BC to FINISH what (some of us)
started, back in October of last year... - there is / are a LOT of
'stories to tell' - but - in this case, one picture really is
worth 1000 words. - this is at the end of roughly 12 hours
of work, and we still had to clean-up, eat dinner, pick-up the
dog, and drive back to the intermediate step, and then drive-home
from there - bottom-line we hit the sack about midnite and
that makes for a very very long day! - but it is DONE, now (at
least our part, therein!)
Here's May in front of the kiln that took us nearly 4 months -
over 100 'man-hours' to finish.. (and someone still has to do the
piping for the burners...) - The picture quality suffers,
somewhat, because this was way after dark and the flash on the
phone-camera doesn't work very well with back-lights (the two
flourescents in the kiln-room... (if I were more skilled with
"Gimp", maybe I could make this better?)
We
went, (on Monday, 12th January), down to BC - and
helped a friend with 'kiln-buidling'... - Mr. Bill had helped,
back in October of last year, and we 'got started' during our time
on-site back in October 2014...
Yesterday's task was to 'get farther' (which, we did, with 3
people working over about a 14 hour period - that's 42 'man' (and
woman) hours) and - I'm guessing we've probably got another
12 to 24 'man-hours' work, yet, to do...
Here's a picture that was taken 'about' 1/2 way through our day -
probably sometime very early afternoon... - We didn't get home til
about 11 p.m. - so kiln-building is NOT 'easy', nor cheap, nor
fun, it's a LOT of manual (slave) labour and a LOT of mental
decision-making 'on-the-fly'... - a REAL PROJECT...
This picture's title is 'Key brick in, happy face.' - and I think
that pretty accurately spells out our feeling(s)... - beyond this
'stage', though; we built the chimney; built a 'damper-slot'; put
on a 'second' layer of 'soft' brick over this arch; took out the
'Arch Form' (the plywood thing you see); built 'part' of the
back-wall; installed the steel angles to 'hold everything
together'; cut-off the 3" steel channel that 'holds' the arch-base
together; cut-off the 'extra' of the threaded-rod that holds the
angles in, etc. etc. etc.
Well
- we set a NEW Personal BEST, Record, on Sunday, 4th January, 2015
- racked-up a SIGNIFICANT INVOICE at Lowe's - wow - you gotta see
this receipt to believe it... - the Local hardware store didn't
have 'in-stock' what I needed - so I had to go ALL THE WAY (about
3 miles) to Lowe's (when the hardware store is only about a mile
and a half?!!??!) - anyway 'click-here for
receipt'
Saturday
morning's (03 January, 2015) cycling at the "L.O.S.T." =
(Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail)
- just a little sunrise picture - I think (silly me for
'thinking' - something I should not do)
- that this is one of the 'best' mix-of-colors in a sunrise
I've seen in a VERY LONG TIME...
By The Way! - YES - I HEAR YOU COMPLAINING about the
power-lines in the picture and too much of a 'dark-band' at
the bottom of the image.
SO - YES - I CAN do something about BOTH, and I am WORKING
ON IT - but it is time-consuming and tedious - and I don't
have a lot of
patience (yes - see - I'm ADMITING in PUBLIC that I don't
have what it takes) - HOWEVER, I AM doing the
on-line video-training to learn the
skills - and YES - at SOME POINT I'll replace the above
image with something more-bettererer, but for now you'll
have to put-up-with what you see!
Just
a FEW birds congregating for their morning 'meeting' - doing
whatever birds do when they get
together...
ON THE OTHER HAND - on the 30th (of December 2014 (nearly
new-year, but not quite) - we had a new drainfield put-in - to to
tune of several thousand dollars, but - when one needs a new
drain-field one isn't given a lot of CHOICE about WHEN... and the
'old' one (seen, just barely to the right of the right-hand
'tunnel' and the extreme base of the pile(s) of dirt...)
(for other pictures (not that you might be interested))...
We
had an excellent lunch with one of our Pottery-Friends, and met
his new doglet (sometimes called a puppy) and his wife and so-on
and so-forth, so we had, basically, an excellent day on the
last-day of the year!
AND - here's
a few 'new' friends we met during the last couple of days of
2014. Both look like they might make great NEW FRIENDs in the
NEW YEAR!
(BIGGER
VERSION click here)
Mr. Panda-bear had his annual "bath" on 03 Sepetember, and here's
his web-page:
http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/PandaBear/PB.html
