Fellow Shadow Watchers,
Casting from wooden patterns is something not touched on
so far as I rarely use castings. For quite a while now I've been making the
patterns for a Mariners' Astrolabe in odd minutes between other jobs. They are
now finished and go to the foundry for casting in brass tomorrow as my own tiny
foundry facility is much too small to handle this at home. Certainly this is a
solar 'instrument' rather than a sundial but the the casting process is the
same.
The limb is to be cast from a 'split-pattern' which has doubled the work but
makes 'fettlng' easier than the 'coping down' method. Puzzled? - all will be
explained in due course.
I've made a series of JPEGs along the way of the patternmaking process and will
be sending these out to my JPEG sublist when I have the completed castings in a
week or so.
As before, if you are already on my sub-list JPEGs will come to you
automatically. If you want to drop out for this series please let me know by
the weekend. New members welcome.
For those who are interested in such things the replica I am making is of one
of the astrolabes in the Skokloster castle collection in Sweden. (The one with
the ballast weight in the lower part of the limb).
Until the foundry assess the work I have no idea what the cost will be but I'm
having an extra set of castings made on this occasion for anyone who might be
interested either in a set of raw castings (with drawings & artwork) or a
finised instrument. There's something of a queue at my workshop door at the
moment however and the latter might take many months.
F.C.F.S.
Best Wishes
Tony Moss
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*\\ ******* *******
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***\\ Tony Moss, Lindisfarne Sundials
*****\\ 43, Windsor Gardens, Bedlington,
*******\\ Northumberland, England, NE22 5SY,
**********\\ 55° 07' 45" N 1° 35' 38" W
Tel/FAX +1670 823232
Mobile: 07970 208 540
Website: http://www.lindisun.demon.co.uk
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Horizontal, Vertical, Declining, Analemmatic, Equatorial, Polar
and Capuchin Sundials individually made in solid engraving brass
or phosphor bronze. Professional-quality Dialling Scales,
'engine-divided' Meridian Layout Instruments with software.
Analemmatic dial plots - any size for any latitude.
Graduation, re-cutting and restoration of scales.
'Lintique' patination of brass.
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