Daughter Karen came over today for an art project. She's the artist,
I was just the proprietor of the shop ... uh, studio today.

Materials: one sheet of 22 gage (.031) steel about 3' x 3', a
few ounces of smokeless gunpowder.
Tools: plasma cutter, small MIG welder, chalk, misc

First she cut about 6" off of one side to make it 2.5' x 3' or so.
Used a piece of 1.5" x 1/4" bar as a straightedge, swooped along that
with the plasma torch. Man, I have never seen a smoother plasma cut.
It dang near looked like it had been sheared. No cleanup with file or
air sander necessary, it was good to go.

Then she used chalk to draw swooping lines on the thin, rusty steel.
They were fairly short and abstractly disconnected but by golly it
looked sorta like a tree. When she was happy with that, she made
freehand cuts along the chalk lines with the plasma. The result was
very, very thin kerfs in the metal. I don't know how wide, but
perhaps 0.5mm or so, more or less. Very thin. Then she went round
and zipped some holes near the "branches" that would be where leaves
or fruit might be.

We held this up with the sun behind it. WOW! Looked like
impossibly-thin glowing lines that were the merest suggestion of a
tree but the eye and brain still saw TREE. I didn't get a photo
but perhaps she'll take one when she gets it up in her apartment back
in Gotham. It will have LED backlighting.

Then she sprinkled gunpowder along the cuts on one side, kinda nudged
it into little rows and ignited it. It burned amazingly slowly, about
as exciting as charcoal lighter, leaving textured black smudges along
the lines that look sort of like bark. It smelled wonderful.

I have no idea where she got the ideas for this project. She
continues to amaze me. She was worrying about using up my good
pristine rawstock. Pristine in shape only, it had some very
interesting rust patterns and colors on it. I told her I'd been
hoarding it behind the lathe for most of 20 years to use for
autobody rust work, don't do that anymore and if I should ever need
some 22 gage steel I can get it at the metalmonger's. It was way
worth the rawstock just seeing what she did with it.

She said she thinks the plasma cutter is her new favorite tool. It
does seem to have that effect on people. It's a nothin' special
Thermal Dynamics PackMaster 38XL I picked up most of a decade ago.

I was teasing her about what fun it might be getting her creation back
to Brooklyn, imagining the airport sniffers going bonkers with all
that GSR and Karen trying to explain her "art project" colored with a
few tablespoons of ignited gunpowder. "Art project colored with
gunpowder, uh huh. We'll need you to step over here, Ma'am, keep
your hands where we can see them."

She said hm, maybe she'd FedEx it to herself. Her employer probably
wouldn't blink if she FedEx'd herself a piano. I think they like
her.

On Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:14:34 -0500, the infamous Don Foreman
scrawled the following:

Daughter Karen came over today for an art project. She's the artist,
I was just the proprietor of the shop ... uh, studio today.

Materials: one sheet of 22 gage (.031) steel about 3' x 3', a
few ounces of smokeless gunpowder.
Tools: plasma cutter, small MIG welder, chalk, misc

First she cut about 6" off of one side to make it 2.5' x 3' or so.
Used a piece of 1.5" x 1/4" bar as a straightedge, swooped along that
with the plasma torch. Man, I have never seen a smoother plasma cut.
It dang near looked like it had been sheared. No cleanup with file or
air sander necessary, it was good to go.

Then she used chalk to draw swooping lines on the thin, rusty steel.
They were fairly short and abstractly disconnected but by golly it
looked sorta like a tree. When she was happy with that, she made
freehand cuts along the chalk lines with the plasma. The result was
very, very thin kerfs in the metal. I don't know how wide, but
perhaps 0.5mm or so, more or less. Very thin. Then she went round
and zipped some holes near the "branches" that would be where leaves
or fruit might be.

We held this up with the sun behind it. WOW! Looked like
impossibly-thin glowing lines that were the merest suggestion of a
tree but the eye and brain still saw TREE. I didn't get a photo
but perhaps she'll take one when she gets it up in her apartment back
in Gotham. It will have LED backlighting.

Very cool. Please post the pic when you get it, Don.


Then she sprinkled gunpowder along the cuts on one side, kinda nudged
it into little rows and ignited it. It burned amazingly slowly, about
as exciting as charcoal lighter, leaving textured black smudges along
the lines that look sort of like bark. It smelled wonderful.

Yeah, that's a better smell than Hoppes!


I have no idea where she got the ideas for this project. She
continues to amaze me. She was worrying about using up my good
pristine rawstock. Pristine in shape only, it had some very
interesting rust patterns and colors on it. I told her I'd been
hoarding it behind the lathe for most of 20 years to use for
autobody rust work, don't do that anymore and if I should ever need
some 22 gage steel I can get it at the metalmonger's. It was way
worth the rawstock just seeing what she did with it.

She said she thinks the plasma cutter is her new favorite tool. It
does seem to have that effect on people. It's a nothin' special
Thermal Dynamics PackMaster 38XL I picked up most of a decade ago.

I was teasing her about what fun it might be getting her creation back
to Brooklyn, imagining the airport sniffers going bonkers with all
that GSR and Karen trying to explain her "art project" colored with a
few tablespoons of ignited gunpowder. "Art project colored with
gunpowder, uh huh. We'll need you to step over here, Ma'am, keep
your hands where we can see them."

I can hear them now..."Wow, we actually get to DO something today!
Book 'em, Dano!"


She said hm, maybe she'd FedEx it to herself. Her employer probably
wouldn't blink if she FedEx'd herself a piano. I think they like
her.

Bueno. She'd better mark "May smell of gunpowder" on the outside of
the box, so they don't think she's trying to hide anything.

P.S: Nice story, once again.

---
So far Mr. Obama has used his personally exciting presidency for initiatives
that are spending public money on a scale not seen since ancient Egypt.
-- Daniel Henninger
WSJ Online, 4 June 2009
"Obama's America: Too Fat to Fail
The age of the induced industrial coma."

Aren't Daughter's wonderful!

Don Foreman wrote:
Daughter Karen came over today for an art project. She's the artist,
I was just the proprietor of the shop ... uh, studio today.

Materials: one sheet of 22 gage (.031) steel about 3' x 3', a
few ounces of smokeless gunpowder.
Tools: plasma cutter, small MIG welder, chalk, misc

First she cut about 6" off of one side to make it 2.5' x 3' or so.
Used a piece of 1.5" x 1/4" bar as a straightedge, swooped along that
with the plasma torch. Man, I have never seen a smoother plasma cut.
It dang near looked like it had been sheared. No cleanup with file or
air sander necessary, it was good to go.

Then she used chalk to draw swooping lines on the thin, rusty steel.
They were fairly short and abstractly disconnected but by golly it
looked sorta like a tree. When she was happy with that, she made
freehand cuts along the chalk lines with the plasma. The result was
very, very thin kerfs in the metal. I don't know how wide, but
perhaps 0.5mm or so, more or less. Very thin. Then she went round
and zipped some holes near the "branches" that would be where leaves
or fruit might be.

We held this up with the sun behind it. WOW! Looked like
impossibly-thin glowing lines that were the merest suggestion of a
tree but the eye and brain still saw TREE. I didn't get a photo
but perhaps she'll take one when she gets it up in her apartment back
in Gotham. It will have LED backlighting.

Then she sprinkled gunpowder along the cuts on one side, kinda nudged
it into little rows and ignited it. It burned amazingly slowly, about
as exciting as charcoal lighter, leaving textured black smudges along
the lines that look sort of like bark. It smelled wonderful.

I have no idea where she got the ideas for this project. She
continues to amaze me. She was worrying about using up my good
pristine rawstock. Pristine in shape only, it had some very
interesting rust patterns and colors on it. I told her I'd been
hoarding it behind the lathe for most of 20 years to use for
autobody rust work, don't do that anymore and if I should ever need
some 22 gage steel I can get it at the metalmonger's. It was way
worth the rawstock just seeing what she did with it.

She said she thinks the plasma cutter is her new favorite tool. It
does seem to have that effect on people. It's a nothin' special
Thermal Dynamics PackMaster 38XL I picked up most of a decade ago.

I was teasing her about what fun it might be getting her creation back
to Brooklyn, imagining the airport sniffers going bonkers with all
that GSR and Karen trying to explain her "art project" colored with a
few tablespoons of ignited gunpowder. "Art project colored with
gunpowder, uh huh. We'll need you to step over here, Ma'am, keep
your hands where we can see them."

She said hm, maybe she'd FedEx it to herself. Her employer probably
wouldn't blink if she FedEx'd herself a piano. I think they like
her.

"Don Foreman" wrote in message
...
Daughter Karen came over today for an art project. She's the artist,
I was just the proprietor of the shop ... uh, studio today.

Materials: one sheet of 22 gage (.031) steel about 3' x 3', a
few ounces of smokeless gunpowder.
Tools: plasma cutter, small MIG welder, chalk, misc

First she cut about 6" off of one side to make it 2.5' x 3' or so.
Used a piece of 1.5" x 1/4" bar as a straightedge, swooped along that
with the plasma torch. Man, I have never seen a smoother plasma cut.
It dang near looked like it had been sheared. No cleanup with file or
air sander necessary, it was good to go.

Then she used chalk to draw swooping lines on the thin, rusty steel.
They were fairly short and abstractly disconnected but by golly it
looked sorta like a tree. When she was happy with that, she made
freehand cuts along the chalk lines with the plasma. The result was
very, very thin kerfs in the metal. I don't know how wide, but
perhaps 0.5mm or so, more or less. Very thin. Then she went round
and zipped some holes near the "branches" that would be where leaves
or fruit might be.

We held this up with the sun behind it. WOW! Looked like
impossibly-thin glowing lines that were the merest suggestion of a
tree but the eye and brain still saw TREE. I didn't get a photo
but perhaps she'll take one when she gets it up in her apartment back
in Gotham. It will have LED backlighting.

Then she sprinkled gunpowder along the cuts on one side, kinda nudged
it into little rows and ignited it. It burned amazingly slowly, about
as exciting as charcoal lighter, leaving textured black smudges along
the lines that look sort of like bark. It smelled wonderful.

I have no idea where she got the ideas for this project. She
continues to amaze me. She was worrying about using up my good
pristine rawstock. Pristine in shape only, it had some very
interesting rust patterns and colors on it. I told her I'd been
hoarding it behind the lathe for most of 20 years to use for
autobody rust work, don't do that anymore and if I should ever need
some 22 gage steel I can get it at the metalmonger's. It was way
worth the rawstock just seeing what she did with it.

She said she thinks the plasma cutter is her new favorite tool. It
does seem to have that effect on people. It's a nothin' special
Thermal Dynamics PackMaster 38XL I picked up most of a decade ago.

I was teasing her about what fun it might be getting her creation back
to Brooklyn, imagining the airport sniffers going bonkers with all
that GSR and Karen trying to explain her "art project" colored with a
few tablespoons of ignited gunpowder. "Art project colored with
gunpowder, uh huh. We'll need you to step over here, Ma'am, keep
your hands where we can see them."

She said hm, maybe she'd FedEx it to herself. Her employer probably
wouldn't blink if she FedEx'd herself a piano. I think they like
her.

HHmmmnnnn! Wonder where daughter Karen got that there artistic streak ? Musta been Mary.

Bob Swinney

HHmmmnnnn! Wonder where daughter Karen got that there artistic streak ?
Musta been Mary.

Sometimes it just pops up out of no where. At least that's the case with my
sister. No one else in the family has even a trace of artistic talent.

Don, show us pics when you can. I've come to expect pictures of any Foreman
TM project.

Karl

On Sat, 22 Aug 2009 18:40:35 -0500, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:


HHmmmnnnn! Wonder where daughter Karen got that there artistic streak ?
Musta been Mary.

Sometimes it just pops up out of no where. At least that's the case with my
sister. No one else in the family has even a trace of artistic talent.

Don, show us pics when you can. I've come to expect pictures of any Foreman
TM project.

Karl

I didn't take any photos! I'm hoping Karen will.

On Sat, 22 Aug 2009 17:36:17 -0500, "Robert Swinney"
wrote:



HHmmmnnnn! Wonder where daughter Karen got that there artistic streak ? Musta been Mary.

She probably did get it from maternal ancestors but Mary isn't her
mom.

--Speaking of girls in shop have you heard of the Flaming Lotus
Girls? Awesome shop and awesome work.

--
"Steamboat Ed" Haas : Imagine what I could do if
Hacking the Trailing Edge! : I knew what I was doing...
www.nmpproducts.com
---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

On 23 Aug 2009 18:42:12 GMT, steamer wrote:

--Speaking of girls in shop have you heard of the Flaming Lotus
Girls? Awesome shop and awesome work.


Links?


Whenever a Liberal utters the term "Common Sense approach"....grab your
wallet, your ass, and your guns because the sombitch is about to do
something damned nasty to all three of them.

Sounds like she's a candidate for the Guild of Metalsmiths, based in the
twin cities. www.metalsmith.org.
Can't help but advertise; our annual conference is Sep 18,19 & 20 at
the Little Log House Show Grounds in Hastings, Mn.
----nice gallery for a new member, too.
We have several artist-metalsmiths in our group.

Long time member,
Pete Stanaitis

Don Foreman wrote:

Daughter Karen came over today for an art project. She's the artist,
I was just the proprietor of the shop ... uh, studio today.

Materials: one sheet of 22 gage (.031) steel about 3' x 3', a
few ounces of smokeless gunpowder.
Tools: plasma cutter, small MIG welder, chalk, misc

First she cut about 6" off of one side to make it 2.5' x 3' or so.
Used a piece of 1.5" x 1/4" bar as a straightedge, swooped along that
with the plasma torch. Man, I have never seen a smoother plasma cut.
It dang near looked like it had been sheared. No cleanup with file or
air sander necessary, it was good to go.

Then she used chalk to draw swooping lines on the thin, rusty steel.
They were fairly short and abstractly disconnected but by golly it
looked sorta like a tree. When she was happy with that, she made
freehand cuts along the chalk lines with the plasma. The result was
very, very thin kerfs in the metal. I don't know how wide, but
perhaps 0.5mm or so, more or less. Very thin. Then she went round
and zipped some holes near the "branches" that would be where leaves
or fruit might be.

We held this up with the sun behind it. WOW! Looked like
impossibly-thin glowing lines that were the merest suggestion of a
tree but the eye and brain still saw TREE. I didn't get a photo
but perhaps she'll take one when she gets it up in her apartment back
in Gotham. It will have LED backlighting.

Then she sprinkled gunpowder along the cuts on one side, kinda nudged
it into little rows and ignited it. It burned amazingly slowly, about
as exciting as charcoal lighter, leaving textured black smudges along
the lines that look sort of like bark. It smelled wonderful.

I have no idea where she got the ideas for this project. She
continues to amaze me. She was worrying about using up my good
pristine rawstock. Pristine in shape only, it had some very
interesting rust patterns and colors on it. I told her I'd been
hoarding it behind the lathe for most of 20 years to use for
autobody rust work, don't do that anymore and if I should ever need
some 22 gage steel I can get it at the metalmonger's. It was way
worth the rawstock just seeing what she did with it.

She said she thinks the plasma cutter is her new favorite tool. It
does seem to have that effect on people. It's a nothin' special
Thermal Dynamics PackMaster 38XL I picked up most of a decade ago.

I was teasing her about what fun it might be getting her creation back
to Brooklyn, imagining the airport sniffers going bonkers with all
that GSR and Karen trying to explain her "art project" colored with a
few tablespoons of ignited gunpowder. "Art project colored with
gunpowder, uh huh. We'll need you to step over here, Ma'am, keep
your hands where we can see them."

She said hm, maybe she'd FedEx it to herself. Her employer probably
wouldn't blink if she FedEx'd herself a piano. I think they like
her.

http://www.flaminglotus.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_Lotus_Girls

--
"Steamboat Ed" Haas : Imagine what I could do if
Hacking the Trailing Edge! : I knew what I was doing...
www.nmpproducts.com
---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

On 24 Aug 2009 18:27:51 GMT, steamer wrote:

http://www.flaminglotus.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_Lotus_Girls


Cool!!!!

Gunner

Whenever a Liberal utters the term "Common Sense approach"....grab your
wallet, your ass, and your guns because the sombitch is about to do
something damned nasty to all three of them.

On 24 Aug 2009 18:27:51 GMT, the infamous steamer
scrawled the following:

http://www.flaminglotus.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_Lotus_Girls

Man, is Burning Man the next event Dems will cap and trade, or just
cancel?

---
So far Mr. Obama has used his personally exciting presidency for initiatives
that are spending public money on a scale not seen since ancient Egypt.
-- Daniel Henninger
WSJ Online, 4 June 2009
"Obama's America: Too Fat to Fail
The age of the induced industrial coma."