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leo g_13

Leo G

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Mike T., Swampeast MO

Finally set one up for this never-ending project of mine.

Swampy's Photo Gallery

BillW@honeywell

If that 's a swamp...

I wanna be an alligator in it! WOW! Really nice work, and having watched your progress, I know what went into that. Congratulations!

Dan Foley

Photos

Mike, I really enjoyed the slide show. What a transformation! You do excellent work. -DF

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Joe Furfaro

Bronze radiators

Hi Mike,
Thank you for sharing the photos. You have a beautiful home and much to be proud of.
I have done some bronzing on my radiators and was surprised to see that blue one in your bathroom. I was not aware that you could add that kind of color to the bronzing process. Can you tell me how you did that?
Thanks Again
Joe

Mike T., Swampeast MO

The "bronzing" I use is actually powdered mica. You might be able to find it at ceramic supply or big-city art supply stores.

An on-line source is "Sinopia Mica Pigments"

Just noticed that they no longer list greens, blues, violets and the multi-colors on-line. They might still have it available--not sure.

This source seems to have a very good selection "Polymer Clay Express"

Do NOT use the products that contain flakes or "shimmers"--they don't mix. You can make your own two-tone versions by mixing powders. They don't combine like regular pigments to make a blend--they stay distinct.

I mixed from ½ - 1oz of powder (by weight) with 1 oz (by volume) of boiled linseed oil plus cobalt drier (available from any art supply store). 8 oz of oil is enough for two coats on a very large radiator. For the 8 ounces used a scant ounce of cobalt drier. This makes a quite thin "paint" rather like heavy cream. Stir VERY frequently and brush ONE STROKE IN ONE DIRECTION ONLY! Overbrushing ruins much of the effect. Use soft brushes--camel hair is supposedly the best, but expensive and hard to find. I used a soft synthetic.

PRIME FIRST with flat oil-based paint tinted to the approximate color. If working over bare iron, you'll have to make a MUCH thicker mix. For golds, use the traditional gilding colors (pale, straw yellow or red oxide) for priming. Pale yellow brightens; red oxide mellows.

Be VERY patient waiting for it to dry. Dust free and OK to re-coat after a day, but it stays fragile for at least a week depending on the weather. If you're painting the rad in place, you can speed drying considerably by turning on the heat after about a day. With thin-fin tube rads it's really best to remove and paint the ENTIRE thing.

The initial (sort of cheesy) lustre dulls over the next few months, but the metallic character remains. Depending on the intensity and direction of light the colors "shift". Especially noticeable with two-tones using bright gold. Very durable coating, but it will water spot if you put a cold cup on top and leave it for days...

Expect at least 4 hours of work PER COAT for a large thin-fin tube rad.

Joe Furfaro

Bronzing

Thanks for the info Mike.
I will try those web sites.
Joe

Jason_15

Pantry radiator

That pantry radiator that you traded is awesome!! Never saw one quite like that.....

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Not traded. Gift to the finest craftsman I've ever met--Hotrod.

jerry scharf_3

great work, one question

Mike,

First, it's a pleasure to see your work. Your attention to detail is tops. I bet it would look even better with high res images.

Also, I saw you had a rain guage on the condensate for the vitodens. I had thought about this also but wasn't sure it would produce information that I could use. What's your sense having run it for a winter?

thanks,
jerry

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Rain Gauge

It worked--sort of. Calibration instructions told how to convert rainfall to actual volume, but amounts it reported were much lower than suggested by the boiler literature.

Not sure if it's overwhelmed, if I'm not reading the raw data correctly or what. Very short horizontal venting and clouds of vapor and steady drip outside. Presume there would be more condensate from a veritical venting application, but that doesn't "count", right?

Next season will run into a container where I can compare measured with actual--never got around to it last season.

Constantin

Maybe you need something simpler...

... for example, you could put two contactors into the water at certain heights. Whenever the water reaches the top one, a solenoid valve opens at the bottom of the neutralization tank. Whenever the water level drops below the lower sensor, the solenoid closes. Next, measure the quantity of water that comes out of the thing with every discharge. Then measure cycles and you should have a very accurate metering device.

Another way you could do it is the old toilet flush way, where a float comes up to touch a microswitch. Install a solenoid with a timer delay (i.e. enough to allow the water to drain most of the way), then measure each discharge. This approach is likely to be less accurate than the first, unless you set the timer to not allow a complete flush each time.

Naturally, the tank should have a fail-safe overflow in case the metering devices don't work as well as they ought to.