Does not follow...

[Vonz90]

Talking to a friend from church last night and he has seen cougars on his place, showed me a video of one that looked quite large. His place is only like 5 miles from mine.

Interesting

out looking farther afield for action after the spring break crowds have gone home? All those likely young men...

Um dude, yeah, communication and all that. The other kind...

[blackeagle603]

heh

[Netpackrat]

He's crazy 'bout a Mercury.

[HTRN]

In other news, a wild master caster has appeared on eBay!

The good news: aside from some pot rust, likely due to the devil marvelux, it appears to have only had light use.

The bad news: he's asking $1100 for it, thats literally what a new one costs.

The so-so news, he does have a "best offer" option, so I'm thinking of waiting a few days and offering six bills and seeing if he bites.

[blackeagle603]

He's crazy 'bout a Mercury.

Always wanted a mercury outboard. The coolest looking engines on the lake growing up in the 60's and 70's. We were stuck with boring looking Johnson's and at one point a Chrysler outboard.

As for cars... Go high or go low, in between is just squish and boring. Ford or Lincoln, not Mercury. Dive joint burgers or surf and turf, not Denny's.

[Netpackrat]

In other news, a wild master caster has appeared on eBay!

The good news: aside from some pot rust, likely due to the devil marvelux, it appears to have only had light use.

The bad news: he's asking $1100 for it, thats literally what a new one costs.

The so-so news, he does have a "best offer" option, so I'm thinking of waiting a few days and offering six bills and seeing if he bites.

Yeah I looked at the offerings from Magma and couldn't really justify the cost or the capacity. Found a Lyman Mag 25 on sale but I haven't tried it yet.

I think I finally succeeded in buying a used Kurt vise on Ebay yesterday. I had done so once or twice previously only to get the usual demand for $200+ additional shipping Because Alaska. The guy yesterday I wrote back and said that the $85 shipping I had already paid per the listing should be more than sufficient, and suggested taking it apart to get the pieces under the 70 pound minimum for flat rate shipping. He didn't reply but Ebay sent me a couple of tracking numbers, so we'll see. Judging by the pictures, this is probably the least chowdered Kurt for the money that I have seen so far, so I am hopeful.

[blackeagle603]

speaking of casting, really should get some smelting done and clean up the piles and buckets of accumulated lead. But I feel the urge to complicate things and look for a larger pot for smelting.

There's enough now in my stash that I hesitate starting smelting with my (2) little plumber pots. It would take forever. Got at least 80# salvaged from demo'ing out cast iron. That should be primo dead soft stuff for muzzleloading. Have a couple half full 5 gallon buckets of wheel weights that a mix of Pb and Zinc accumulate during the final CA transition away from Pb wheel weight.

[HTRN]

Yeah I looked at the offerings from Magma and couldn't really justify the cost or the capacity. Found a Lyman Mag 25 on sale but I haven't tried it yet.

I've been on the lookout for a used sanely priced master caster for ten years. They're a either gone in hours, abused to hell, or priced by lunatics. I had pretty much relegated myself to buying new, when this showed up.. I probably have 20+ magma pattern molds at this point. The great thing about them is they nearly equal 6 gang molds in production, but aren't nearly as tiring to use, so you can keep up that rate of production for hours.

Aaaannnndddd it's gone

Sigh.

<Edit> I think it probably went for close to asking price, because I just discovered Magma is currently not taking orders since the beginning of the year, as the current backorder sits at two years.

[HTRN]

.There's enough now in my stash that I hesitate starting smelting with my (2) little plumber pots. It would take forever. Got at least 80# salvaged from demo'ing out cast iron. That should be primo dead soft stuff for muzzleloading. Have a couple half full 5 gallon buckets of wheel weights that a mix of Pb and Zinc accumulate during the final CA transition away from Pb wheel weight.

Get a cheap dutch oven and a turkey fryer( protip: they often go on sale at Wally world the day after Thanksgiving). Sort the wheel weights by wether their clip on or stick ons - the stick ons are almost pure lead. Thezinc thing can be worked around by keeping the temperature as low as possible, as zinc melts at 800°f. Below that they'll simply float on top - get a lead thermometer and use it! Also be aware that plastic coated steel wheel weights are a thing these days.

[blackeagle603]

Yeah, can sort some of the zinc by feel and just let the rest float to be skimmed. I've been meaning to put a cast iron pot on my wife's thrift shop wish list. She's blackbelt thrifter and loves the hunt.

But then I look at some of the steel smelting rigs guys at CastBoolits have set up with gravity feed taps installed... Achh, I should just suck it up and go back at it with the old cast ladles again.