This, that, and the other

[txdon]

Jim, can you take a couple of picks of the smaller flat rocks?
Harvey, are these the kind of rocks we will need in addition to the ones you are getting?
Bobby stand by, if the answers to both questions above are yes then you just might have your gas paid for and a BBQ dinner!

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I'll take some pics of the rocks I'm looking at Pearson Stone today. Then we can all compare those with Jim's.

I don't think we can have too many rocks. What we don't put on the design we can use in landscape around the entry.

Gary, when I have 110 available I'm starting to go with Viking. Supposedly they never lose circuit boards and that's usually what takes down operators.

For twelve volt (solar) I've had good luck with US Automatic.

 

[jinman]

Jim those rocks sound perfect. I'm trying to figure out how I can economically get them. We have a time factor and a fuel factor that is working against us.

The dates and time are working against us. Is this going to happen next weekend (10-11) or the weekend after? The reason I'm asking is that today our youngest is getting married. Next weekend is Mother's Day on Sunday. I can probably get down and take some pictures of the rocks tomorrow, but they are pretty spread out in my neighbor's corral. I'll try to scratch around and get a few piled up so I can get some photos. When I take the photos, I'll also take some measurements and give you good info on the size of the rocks.

More info tomorrow....

Reread this thread...If Bobby is coming down there after next weekend, then we could load out his trailer next Saturday, the 10th. I have to work all the week of the 12th-16th, so if Bobby wants to come by during that time, I'll have to stage the rocks so he can get to them when I'm not around. I don't think that will be a problem with my neighbor since he has the same "affliction" as Don...retired-itis.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

The key pad log and myself wrestled yesterday. It wasn't pretty. But we did it.

I looked at the key pads available and this one offered the features we wanted, telephone integration and camera option, and size. Size was important. I didn't want to go find another log at this point in time. Besides that, I liked this log. It's cute.

There was some surgery.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

It worked I believe. The height is one inch below ADA recommendations but we're in the country.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Harvey, You nailed it! Karen thinks the idea is "so cool".
It is 60' from the front fence to the 16' cattle guard. Below are some pictures of the front entrance now. Our heads are spinning on a design to grid out. (Any artist out there?)
The excitement is rising!
(Oh, I almost forgot, there also needs to be an Eddie Walker snake in the mural.)

Don we can't seem to find a copy of your texas wildscape sign online. If you can take a good picture of it head on so we will have something to work with picking up the images. thanx, harvey

 

[txdon]

Here it is Harvey. The other wildlife sign is from our wildlife co-op. You will be coming up at a good time. Every day more flowers are blooming.

 

[jinman]

Here are the pictures of the rocks. These are just a few. There are 1000s of rocks laying around everywhere. I left the McDonald's bag someone "decorated" the side of the road with for size reference and put my glove in another picture. There are enough rocks in two piles by the road to overload Bobby's trailer at least twice.

Oh yes, the picture of the two big rocks are ones I hauled to my house. The largest one is 5' long and the short one is 3' long. Bobby probably won't be loading these by hand.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Here's some photos of the kind of rocks we're thinking about.

I put my cell phone in there for comparison of size.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Glenda has been on me like a bad coat of paint to do something. It's the same thing Don mentioned.

Since I'm out numbered I believe we need to consider something like this for the gate. New Page 2

I've done it before, about fifteen years ago as a matter of fact.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Looking for these pictures I found some photos of something similar to what I'm building with the cedar entryway. The latest job has metal posts and wood rails.

About seven or so years ago I built at the Ft Worth Zoo a fence that had cedar posts and pipe rails.

Life comes full circle.

 

[txdon]

Jim, Your rocks are totally different than Harvey's. Your rocks have different thickness sharp square edges, while Harveys are smooth mostly round.

Harvey I'll let you make the call if you think they will fit into the patterns.

 

[jinman]

Jim, Your rocks are totally different than Harvey's. Your rocks have different thickness sharp square edges, while Harveys are smooth mostly round.

Harvey I'll let you make the call if you think they will fit into the patterns.

Yep, Don, the rocks are very angular and have varying thickness. There are lots of hand-size and smaller flat rocks laying around on the ground, but they were not the kind that bothered my neighbor.

Harvey's rocks are more like cobblestones. He has a lot of variation in colors from reds to greys. It all depends on the needs for the murals.

These rocks are available if you need them. If you pile them somewhere beside your gate, you may not need a snake in your mural. You'll probably have the real deal sunning itself on your rock pile.

 

[weldingisfun]

Harvey, that keypad post is very original, but come to think of it, so is everything you build. Love your postings, brother. Good luck at Don's and keep up the good work.

 

[EddieWalker]

Harvey,

Thanks for posting the pics of the fence that you built at the Ft. Worth Zoo. Steph and I were there awhile ago and tried to figure out what fence it was. I've always wondered about that. I know exactly where that fence is, since there's a very large Longhorn in there!!!!

Jim,

It seems like such a shame to have all those rocks and nobody needing them. I have a stack of about six rocks that I've found at my place so far. I just don't have any rock here other then what I find in my iron ore veins. Thats's just small pebbles that are sort of melted together, but fall apart when dug up. Rock is very rare in these parts, it's either red clay or sugar sand. I have red clay, a guy up the road has 60 acres of nothing but sand.

Don,

Wish we could make it to your place for no other reason then to just see Harvey in action. He has a plan and I'm dying to see him make it happen. For me, the thing that I admire most in people is their ability to make an idea into reality. Most people talk about what they want to do, others like Harvey, just do it.

I don't know how you will be able to get any sleep at night knowing what's about to happen. The excitment is keeping me up at nights!!!!

Eddie

 

[silverdollar6]

Well you folks in Texas sure do grow some fine looking rocks, that first herd of rocks looked like they were still wild, but Harvs rocks looked like they were pretty tame. I think that I might start me a little rock business, sure would save on feed and fences.
Seriously though you guys have some great projects and do outstanding work, I really enjoy all the project posts, keep them coming.

 

[GaryBDavis]

Harv,

For some reason, lightening seems to be a big issue for most gate opener circuit boards. I ran the biggest solid copper ground wire I could get from the opener to the welded pipe structure. There, I welded on a piece of 1/2" round bar and then brazed the copper wire to it. With a brazed connection, you can bury it just under ground and corrosion won't be a factor. I also run a ground wire from the keypad to this same grounding point. There's no chance of driving a copper coated ground rod 8 feet deep in my rocky soil, so the pipe structure is the best next thing.

In my old MCI days, we had some pretty good engineers that specialized in grounding designs for the tower sites, but those techniques are too costly for these applications. Do you do anything different for grounding?

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Harv,

For some reason, lightening seems to be a big issue for most gate opener circuit boards. I ran the biggest solid copper ground wire I could get from the opener to the welded pipe structure. There, I welded on a piece of 1/2" round bar and then brazed the copper wire to it. With a brazed connection, you can bury it just under ground and corrosion won't be a factor. I also run a ground wire from the keypad to this same grounding point. There's no chance of driving a copper coated ground rod 8 feet deep in my rocky soil, so the pipe structure is the best next thing.

In my old MCI days, we had some pretty good engineers that specialized in grounding designs for the tower sites, but those techniques are too costly for these applications. Do you do anything different for grounding?

Gary the way I usually do an installation like Don's is the operator is bolted to a frame that is attached to the fence frame work. With Don's we'll have the cattle guard along with all the posts and framework for the slide as our grid.

One of the things we'll have going for us at Don's is we won't be having an overhead. The lightning will have to have it's heart set on a lowland piece of art to target us.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Harvey,

Thanks for posting the pics of the fence that you built at the Ft. Worth Zoo. Steph and I were there awhile ago and tried to figure out what fence it was. I've always wondered about that. I know exactly where that fence is, since there's a very large Longhorn in there!!!!


Eddie

Eddie if it's the same longhorn, he's as tame as a kitten. Well, almost. The owner was training the handler when I was building the fence. He was no bigger than a minute. Literally the caricature of the bull rider, small man, all shoulders, big buckle and she, the handler was a little nervous with the steer.

He told us that longhorns can run full speed through a south Texas thicket with their eight feet plus horn spred while we couldn't. He said the horns are almost like fingers are to us in that the steer is always aware of exactly where the tips of the horn are in relationsihip to their surroundings.

I believed him when I noticed two yahoos messing with the steer in it's stall. The steer just stood there ignoring them as they hooted and called at it. Then one of them grasped a vertical bar in the front grill of the stall. Steer twitched his head. There was a loud crashing sound as the tip of the horn slapped the upright where a millisecond before had been a hand. The hecklers left pretty well shook up. Steer acted like he'd slapped at a fly.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Well it looks like we're off for another adventure. It's time to implement the no-plan plan entryway for Texas Don and Karen.

We've got the images islolated and I've printed them off on clear plastic for using in the overhead projecture. The trailer is ready and I've got almost all of the stuff we're bringing down to Lee county loaded either on the truck or the trailer.

Last night as I rolled a couple of rings a smile came to my face. I felt like Bernice, wondering where Mikim is when you really need him. We haven't settled on a design yet, the reason for the no-plan plan label, so I rolled two pieces of one and a half inch channel flange out into circles. One of them is probably a three and a half foot diameter and the other's is probably closer to five foot across. But if we decide we need either a wheel or a circle in the design we'll have something to work with.

This morning I've got to go by Pearson Stone to pick up some rocks. Then I'll re-line the small forge. I'm taking the forge, the anvil, anvil stand, some hammers etc, in case we decide we need some metal worked hot for the design.

Already in the garage portion of the Patio Hauler is the gate operator and all of the other stuff like key pads, free exit coils, etc and so on. We're hoping to hook up with Bobby along the way. I sent him a p.m. alerting him to us probably pulling out of Josephine sometime around noon.