I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd show off a one of a kind piece that was a one in a million find.
I like to metal detect, so this summer I was out in the wilds of Wyoming and got a pretty good hit on my machine. I dug down about a foot and found the end of a pipe -- dang! However, I had a bunch of other junk metal in the back of my pickup that I was going to take to the recycler so I figured I'd dig up that pipe and add it to the pile. Normally I would never dig that up.
So I dug, and dug, and dug, and after about 8 feet I was sick of digging the stupid thing. I could tell that I was getting to the end of it because my detector wouldn't read much past where I was. So, I decided to grab the end of the pipe and see if I could pull it up out of the ground.
When it popped out of the ground, the sign that you see was at the end of the pipe. Naturally it was all rusted and ***** looking, but I could tell right away that it was a really cool piece. I brought it to school and had a couple kids sand blast it. We could then tell that it was probably hand made by one of the ranchers that lives out in that area, using a drill press and an end mill. Judging by the difference between what the sign says and what the mileage is today, we determined it was probably made in the late 1930's.
A friend of mine told me that there was probably reflective paint used on the letters. I checked everywhere for reflective paint and I guess nobody makes such a thing. I was finally able to find these small glass beads that when sprinkled into the wet paint stuck really well. Once we hit them with a flashlight, we could tell that they were perfect for our application.
You can see how well they illuminate the letters in the second picture. The sign almost glows when headlights hit it at night.
I had to buy a whole pound of the beads and they were really expensive. We used barely any of them and I'd really like to re-coupe some of our money if possible. The full bag cost $40.00 -- I'd like to get $25.00 for what's left. Please let me know if you are interested. Thanks!
Chris
