But about noon the bottom dropped out; I was so exhausted I could barely function, and had to take a long nap in the afternoon, not waking up till about 5:00.
So trying that scheme on a weekday when I have to (a) go to work the next day, and (b) come home and actually function (lots to do next week), probably isn't going to work after all. Oh well. It was worth a shot.
The next thing that fell apart is my potential kennel. A friend's friend had recommended it. I don't know what they were thinking. The place is awful. It's the typical institutional room with overhead fluorescent lights, concrete floors, and chain link cages lined up throughout the place, except way too crowded together. I would never, ever put Tyler in a place like that. In fact, this one wasn't even as nice as the one at my vet's, which I said I'd never use (and which also has the chain link kennels on concrete, but at least has huge skylights for natural light, and is much roomier and less crowded).
I was so disappointed. I really thought this place was going to be 'it.' So I'm back to Plan B, which is to have a friend come and stay with Tyler each evening, spend the night, and leave in the morning. It would be basically the same as when I'm working - he'll have company throughout the evening, get fed and walked, have someone with him overnight, get fed and walked and have some company in the morning, then alone for the daytime hours.
She offered, and we'd talked briefly about it, but I've had a hard time hooking up with her to finalize details. So I've been a little nervous about it ... I'm sure she's not doing it on purpose, but being vague about something as important to me as watching Tyler is really freaking me out.
I've sent her another email and I'm waiting to hear. This is my last hope. If she can't do this for whatever reason, I'm out of options, and probably will only be able to daytrip Pennsic during War Week. Very much a bummer.
Meanwhile, since I don't know, I still have to do what I can to get ready, and there's a ton of stuff on my plate this coming week.
Moving on ... I cast my first coins last night. That was really a lot of fun.
After our experiments Thursday night, I reworked the mold a little bit using my Dremel. That was tricky, as even with the smallest point I had, it was still difficult not getting the lines too big and chunky looking. I also had less fine control. I wouldn't want to try to use that for my initial design if it was anything detailed, but using it in already-existing carved out parts wasn't too bad ... it already had a channel to follow.
It seems to have worked not half-bad - at least the mold part of it.
The coins that came out well show that the design is mostly okay. I'm still not thrilled with it, but it was my first ever attempt, so I'm somewhat forgiving. ;o) Even mildly pleased.
The problem I had seems to be more with the pewter than with the mold design. Though it's kind of hard to tell in the picture, some of the coins are 'cleaner' and more clear than others - which is why I say, it must not be the mold, it must be something going on with the pewter in each different casting.
I would be tempted to say that in the clearer casts, the mold was hotter, but that's not it - one of the worst ones was the last one I did, when I know the mold was very hot.
I was running into a problem of ash collecting in my pitcher used for melting the pewter. I don't know why that was, unless it's a side-effect of the material the pitcher itself is made out of. I don't remember Robin ever having that problem when using a soapstone crucible. I'm thinking that may have been what was muddying up the casting.
Later edit: I was on site today at Pennsic, and talked to Ulfr, our local resident casting expert. He told me that the ash, or dross, is not uncommon, but it won't hurt anything - it floats on top of the molten pewter, and stays in the pitcher or crucible when the pewter is poured out, so that's not what was 'muddying' my casts. Also, it can be caused from overheating the pewter - which is very likely, as it has a very low melt point, and I had that propane torch cranked up to the max. Ooops. :o)
Also, the mold was supposed to be carved so that there was a nub left at the top, to create a hole in the coin so it could be strung on a cord. I had forgotten to do that, so I was going to experiment with putting a piece of nail into the soapstone prior to casting, to create that hole.
That didn't work, and created the bump at the top of the coins. I used the tiniest Dremel point to drill a hole straight into the soapstone, then clipped off the end of a small nail, and tried to insert it. It was a little too long, and rather than incrementally snipping off more and more, I thought I could drive it into the soapstone (it being relatively soft). Well, it's relative softness was the problem - instead of going straight in when I tried to gently prod it, it shifted sideways and gouged out a little hollow in the mold. Which of course, when cast, created a bump instead. There's nothing I can do about that now, as I know of no way to fill in a mistaken divet in the mold.
However, I solved the hole in the coin problem by cheating: I drilled it.
To make these right, rather than just so-so, the whole mold needs recarved. But I just don't have time to do that now - since I wanted to get Robin at least some of these coins today. Maybe, if the Fates are really smiling on me this week, I might have time to do it before next weekend, and make some better coins for the revelry that is War Week proper. It only took me one evening to do this mold the first time (plus a few tweaks last night), but that was when I had no idea what I was doing. Now I do, it should go much faster.
We'll see.
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