Dicranurus Monstrosus

[chunkolini]

My latest personal project.
I have always liked trilobites, and was reading Richard Fortey's excellent book Trilobite the other day and had a urge to make a sculpture of one of the spiny Trilobites; Dicranurus Monstrosus

The preparation of these fossils is amazing, extracted from solid rock by hand. I was attracted by the spines. Originally I had planed on making it about 1m long then thought if it does not work I will cry so I went smaller.

This will be about 450mm long.
Grinding the spikes was an absolute swine using a bench grinder,(many thanks to Welderpaul for the grinding wheels).
My belt linisher was supposed to arrive on Monday ready for this job. It turned just as I closed shop for the day.
Each spine was taking me about 20 minutes, I made one with the linisher in about 10 minutes. Grrrrrr.
looking good though.
Chunko'.

 

[Drains]

You strike me, Chunko' (no pun intended), as a man whose workshop might occasionally benefit from the addition of a small forge, hammer and anvil.

Oh, and good work!

 

[shirazman]

nice

thats really cool. Love that. You wont get more original than that

 

[outofthefire]

I agree with drains, a little one brick gas forge would be a real time saver and open up a whole new world. Drawing down them legs would have been a lot easier and a lot quicker than the linisher with a bit of practice.

 

[strube1369]

Amazing, man, amazing.

 

[troppo]

I had thought you`d used a forge or o/a torch to heat and beat the legs/feelers. i can see the work that went into them if you used a grinder. I agree with the others, you need a small forge.

 

[chunkolini]

I have wondered about a small forge, maybe one day.
I was offered the use of my neighbours forge but it some thing that for now I am happy to avoid.
I admit when I started fannying about with the bench grinder I did wonder why I was doing it this way.
I also had the stupid idea of cutting them pretapered out of strip with an angle grinder.
That did work but I aint doing it again,
Anyways, happy with the result so far. Ihave to whip the short pair of legs and make them shorter still.

 

[pondman]

Awesome work and detail!!

I also thought you had used a forge to draw down and I agree with the others I added one to my workshop a few months ago and its made the world of difference.

 

[Shox Dr]

I love Trilobites, there are loads for sale on you know where*.

As for a forge, my thoughts exactly. There has been a few come up for sale on (YKW*)
That have been taken out of schools, the last I watch sold for less than £100, all in with torch

 

[Andy from Workshopshed]

Looks good, another vote for the forge

 

[Shox Dr]

i also think the Mill scale build up from using heat would lend itself to the look

 

[chunkolini]

No still no urge to start forging stuff, I like the smoothness produced working like this. If I decide to scale up i may have to look into using a forge, luckily there is one on the farm I can use.
I had another go at it today.

Starting to get somewhere, I have taken a few liberties with the original but am happy to invent a new species.
Next up eyes and horns.

 

[Hitch]

Thats a horrible looking thing, but i think its meant to be, so good work

 

[astro_al]

Interesting project chunko.

I don't mean to sound like a donut, but I think you have some misconceptions about forgework and what it can achieve. This has come up before when I've suggested you look into it. Its cool if you don't want to, but some of your reasons seem to be a bit off target and I wonder if you're missing a really beneficial tool in your work.

Not trying to be negative, more trying to help. Cheers, Al

 

[Windy Miller]

When I make the new forge, you can have my old one if you like Chunko. You'll be surprised how smooth you can get stuff if you want to, but the organic finish is also easy to achieve if that's what you're going for. I would have thought its right up your street really!

 

[chunkolini]

Hmmm
I can see a small gas forge making sense as long as I can hide it from my snobbyblacksmithing neighbours.
Something that can be turned on and off on demand for small scale works.
But does that lead to another obsession taking over..........

 

[astro_al]

...probably. When I started my business a few years ago I couldn't stand the thought of forge work. Now I try to turn away anything that doesn't involve it.

Coke forges can be lit or left to go out pretty swiftly, so don't discount them. For the scale of stock you work you could get away with a nice small one.

Cheers Al

 

[outofthefire]

Hmmm
I can see a small gas forge making sense as long as I can hide it from my snobbyblacksmithing neighbours.
Something that can be turned on and off on demand for small scale works.
But does that lead to another obsession taking over..........

This is my little 1 brick forge. Its just a soft fire brick wrapped in steel with a hole all the way through its length and one in from the the side. Heat is from a propane/air torch but an ordinary blow torch will work for occasional use.