Our Field Trip

Meet Al. He's my new friend. You can't believe what he can do! My husband told me that for my birthday he wanted to take me out to see Al's shop. He thought I might like what I saw and then he would know what tool to buy me for my birthday.

Oh, I liked what I saw alright! Machines that were amazing. This one can shear off a thick slab of metal in seconds and can punch holes in metal like a knife through butter. Yeah, you might have guessed that Randy wasn't thinking something quite this big for my gift.

His computer generated plasma cutter can do this in minutes. He can pretty much cut out of metal any shape or design he wants.

These are the filings from his metal lathe. I asked if he used them for anything. Nope, just sells them back for scrap. Do you see great potential for these?! Beautiful, huh?

We told him that what I needed right now was a flat iron pounding block. So he and Randy carried in this long piece of iron, settled it in "Ellis" and he cut me off two slabs.

Slowly, surely, and smoothly, it cut.

And, again, I was as interested in the byproduct as the other piece. This iron sparkled almost as much as glass glitter. Potential?! He sells this back as scrap too.

My husband and my girls watching. They thought the pieces would be fun to play with, but soon realized they couldn't even budge them off the floor, so rolled them back and forth. All fingers and toes were kept safe. These pieces are HEAVY!

A smaller version of this will probably be what he gets for me. I'll be able to bend, and shape lots of junk pieces! More importantly, when I have an idea, I now know what can be done and who can do it, when I think "If only I could"....Maybe, I can't, but Al can!