Doggie Sun Dial
I wanted to make a sun dial in the foundry. I thought it would be neat to immortalize
my little wiener dog too, so I decided to make a likeness of Snoopy and have it
support the gnomon (the edge that casts the shadow).
Here's a pic of my best friend.
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For a pattern, I cut a silhouette from quarter inch plywood and packed several layers
of plaster on both sides. Then I carved away everything that didn't look like a
wiener dog.
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Snoopy in relief!
Our latitude is close to 43 degrees. That's the angle for the gnomon.
Here's my best friend, about to be buried in foundry sand.
This is my mom. She always likes to help me when I cook.
And here's the pour. You can see that we have a lot of extra metal to cut off.
So here we are, working. And this is work.
I began the pattern for the horizontal part this way, by making the numbers.
I bought the letters from an office supply. I used a router to cut the grooves.
This was a very big pour. I had to make the flask special. The job used all
our
foundry sand and we almost filled our crucible completely.
And we're almost finished. There's still some work to do. I think I'll use a blue
patina.
Later we'll pour again in brass.
(woof woof!)
Well.. it took six years, but I finally got the sundial installed in the garden.
`Bout time. My dog's about to die. He's got Cushing's Disease. I wanted him to see
it before he goes.
I put it up on blocks. Inside, I put a couple notes, laminated in plastic to keep
them fresh.
This is one note. My wife Michelle added the part about our other pets.
We also added a note about ourselves. This has become a time capsule.
Here we go..
And here's Snoop, working harder than ever.
I'm thinking about removing the gnomen stick. Snoop's shadow is fine without it.
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