Class?

[Alex Cloutier]

I just joined this group after finding the link on the ATXHackerspace
website. I moved to Austin in December and am very interested in
casting. I have a 5lb bag of fireclay, 50lb bags of portland cement
and regular sand, and a bag of perlite. I got this stuff before I
moved, hoping to follow the same instructions you guys list and make a
furnace out of buckets. It looks like the last relevant message was in
march. Did the class/project happen? Is it going to? If it is still
going to happen, please count me in! I don't know anything past what's
in the instruction, but I'm super interested in doing this and willing
to help out in any way I can (that's not too financially demanding...)
I also have a very small amount of scrap aluminum and ~50lbs of scrap
zinc (just about pure) from the metallurgical lab where I used to work
in Houston.

[Nathan Scherrer]

Alex,

Welcome to the hackerspace, our previous leader Matt G (tall Matt with the funny hair) lost interest because we bullshit too much.  Congratulations, we just appointed you as the new chairman of the casting committee.  I don't mean to be a dick, but you already have more materials than we managed to pull together between to lot of us.  We have a cylinder of propane, some aluminum scraps, and not much else.  We need someone who still has some motivation to get the rest of us going.  Everything is approved, all permissions have been granted.  We just need to do it.  There are a number of us that are all interested in casting, but none of us have any real hands on experience.  Any way you look at it melting metal is cool, and I am sure that once the ball is rolling others will want to join in and help.

What ever plan you have, let's go with it.  Don't ask for advice or what to do from the members, YOU tell us how we are going to get this done.  The other members on the main group tend to make a lot of comments, but never do anything besides fuck up a perfectly good discussion with Beavis and Butthead jokes and what ifs.  Please let us know what other materials are needed, and please speak up and introduce yourself at the next member meeting on Tuesday at 7:30 pm.  Just tell them Nathan said you are in charge of casting real loud, I'll be down there and we can get some of the doers together and make it happen.

Later,
Nathan

[Jason Lambert]

Yes! Let's do this now! I am halfway tempted to take my ball (gas and build materials) and go home.

[Alex Cloutier]

As awesome as it is that I rose to such prominence so quickly, I was
kind of hoping to contribute my materials, labor, and enthusiasm and
maybe get the benefit of someone else's experience. I'm all for
figuring it out, but do you think there's any way to get the original
organizer back on board? I mean, there's me and I guess you guys, do
we really need more than four people if others don't feel like
actually doing it?

On May 27, 8:14 pm, Jason Lambert <sheepishlion...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes! Let's do this now! I am halfway tempted to take my ball (gas and build
> materials) and go home.
>

[Jason Lambert]

Yep. Let's build this thing and melt some shit. See you on Tuesday.

On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 12:48 PM, Nathan Scherrer <surfa...@gmail.com> wrote:

Does anybody know if Matt G in town, or did he go home for summer?  Matt will help us is he is around.  Let's get together on Tuesday and figure out the plan and what else we need to build the foundry.  We don't have to have an official leader, we can demote you to mvp if you like. :)   Don't worry about the other members we definately have enough man power, but I am sure others will want to join in on the fun once we get started.

[R J]

Anyways to do this tuesday night???  Late?

Or... Im actually off work this Monday.  I could do it then?

[Alex Cloutier]

Alright. I'll be there Tuesday. This is the only tuesday that I can be
there though, because I'm usually teaching a dance class at 7:15 on
Tuesdays. Will we be able to work on other days after this initial
meeting? Also should I bring materials Tuesday or just bring myself
and then worry about gathering material later?

On May 28, 1:25 pm, Jason Lambert <sheepishlion...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yep. Let's build this thing and melt some shit. See you on Tuesday.
>

> On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 12:48 PM, Nathan Scherrer <surfairh...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Does anybody know if Matt G in town, or did he go home for summer?  Matt
> > will help us is he is around.  Let's get together on Tuesday and figure out
> > the plan and what else we need to build the foundry.  We don't have to have
> > an official leader, we can demote you to mvp if you like. :)   Don't worry
> > about the other members we definately have enough man power, but I am sure
> > others will want to join in on the fun once we get started.
>

[Matt Goodman]

Today is my last day in town.  If you want to use a castable refractory, you want to let it set for at least a week, to minimize the chances of steam explosions resulting.  

When I started the group, I was looking to get a group of people together to work a common project, but when I reached the inflection point where the amount of cat-herding I was doing surpassed the amount of work to just build the damn thing, I let it go.  Its a fun toy, but if I have to build it on my own time/money, I have better things to do.  

I will be at the meeting if you guys wanna talk about it more.  
--Matthew Goodman

=====================
Check Out My Website: http://craneium.net
Find me on LinkedIn: http://tinyurl.com/d6wlch

On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 2:17 PM, Nathan Scherrer <surfa...@gmail.com> wrote:

Alex bring what ever materials you have.  I think Matt was saying something like the sand needed to set up for a few days or a week for some reason.
RJ I'm busy all weekend and Monday, but if you wanted to get together with Alex or the others before that and then bring the rest of us up to speed on Tuesday that would be cool too.