Saturday 13 March 2010

Skull impression test is still under way.

A busy day at CFZ Central yesterday.

A short-term objective is to get the CFZ Museum looking decent, before Easter. It's currently looking like a bomb-site, as the entire contents of the adjoining workshop were turned out into the museum, in search of missing CFZ resources and missing tools. I'm currently putting the stuff back, but in rational order, so the job's taking a while.

One item amuses me.

A week before Jon and Corinna went to Texas, we decided to check the ability of some builder's plaster to form a cast of impressions in mud. There was a bag of plaster handy, in the workshop. I wetted some sand and then, for testing purposes, pressed a skull into it. Then withdrew it, and poured plaster in.

Well, over two weeks later, it's still not dry. The way things are looking, it'll still be soggy when the guys return home.

Clearly, the dampness of the sand is hindering the drying process. Cement will chemically set, even in quite wet conditions, but this particular plaster evidently doesn't. It's not fit for purpose, as the UK Government would say.

Anyway, after doing the website updates and then emailing the info out to various newsgroups, I resumed work on the CFZ perimeter, seeking to make it impervious to Biggles the collie. This is a good time of year to do it, as the gaps are visible - not much foliage growth yet - and I regard the weather conditions as tolerable for outdoor working.

Well, just about.

2 comments:

dinosaurman said...

Hi Graham.

I don't know why I have assumed the moniker of Dinosaurman on this site--force of habit, I suppose, but I'm sorry for not getting back to you after your reply the other day.
I had some weird virus on my compurter that prevented me from writing--if you can believe it, but it's ok now.
That batch of plaster must be faulty--I've never heard of that kind of material 'refusing' to set. Take it back immediately!!
All the best,
Alan (Friswell)

Graham Inglis said...

Hi- pleased your computer's ok now.

Just checked (Friday 26th) and it's STILL not dry, a month later. The bag is over 2 years old, so maybe it has a "use by" date tucked away on it somewhere.

I think I'm going to abort this experiment, if it hasn't set by, say, summer 2010!!