Cleaning Copper Using Brown Sauce...

I'm an always on the look out for interesting experiments to perform...
I read that brown sauce can be used to clean copper...
I decided to put it to the test...

The equipment:

From The Inexplicable World of Outa_Spaceman...

Lid from a copper kettle, brush and bottle of brown sauce (I would have liked to use H.P. sauce but we don't have any...)

The process:

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Brown sauce applied to copper lid with the brush...
Wait for 8 hours and...

The result:

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After a bit of elbow grease:

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Conclusion:
Well, yes it cleaned the tarnish off but it took a lot of buffing to bring up the shine...
I'd do the rest of the kettle in the same way but I'm preparing a sausage sandwich and I have a much more important use for the brown sauce...
(Small sachets of brown sauce can be found in various cafe's and restaurants thoughout the U.K. and is usually free...)

Interesting Shops No 1: Period Features

Period Features is a small company based in Leek, on the edge of the Peak District. They are a useful source of products for period homes.
I ordered some bits and bobs from them and received this:

From The Inexplicable World of Outa_Spaceman...

Brown paper and string..!
I was deeply impressed...
It contained these essential items:

From The Inexplicable World of Outa_Spaceman...

My world is now a happier place...

Amberley Mid-Summer Steam Fair 2009...

It's very rarely that I can be persuaded to leave my workbench but, due to an increasingly alarming creative blockage, I set out to visit the Amberley Working Museum's Mid-Summer Steam Fair...
There are far to many exciting things to look at within the museum and a visit is highly recommended...
Highlight for me, after asking the man politely, was having the Tesla Coil sparked up...
Wow! That's loud...

Collaborations...

Bloodflower bowl...

Pastry Head...

Having lived together for nearly 11 years now it's rare that Linda and myself ever agree on anything but...
We both like these pieces...
Which just happen to be collaborations between the two of us...
Linda made the bowl and the head and I applied the paint finishes...

Shabby Chic Noddy Box Experiment...

Shabby Chic Experiment..., originally uploaded by Outa_Spaceman.

Basically a distressed paint effect..
Not my sort of thing really but I thought I might give it a go, it'll match the clock re-mount..
I still have to seal it, add a base and, maybe, a lid..
I think I'll keep my pens and pencils in it...

Cycle Motor Progress Report...

On reflection it seemed a better idea to get on with the Cycle Motor Build rather than distract myself with animations of aerostats...

I seem to have been building this bike for ages now...
I have replaced the somewhat dull nuts that hold the drive sprocket to the rear wheel with domed brass nuts...
I'd bought 20 of them and then discovered that the nuts on the chain tensioner and most of the engine are all M6 and I now need at least another 20 to replace them all...
My only worry about this development is that brass is a 'slippery' metal and I hoping that (along with adding spring washers) that they don't rattle loose...

I stripped all the paint off the fuel tank with a view to having it copper-plated but having discussed this with the only plating firm in town, conveiniently situated at the end of the road, I find out that it will cost me at least £45...
So, black powder coat it is then...
I also started making the straps to hold the tank on from a length of phosphor bronze strip...

A Short Balloon Flight...

Inspired by the story 'By Aerostat To Hooting Yard' I considered making an animated version using clip-art...
Having progressed thus far I realised that I might die of old age before completing it...

Rusty Cast Iron Picture Frame...

Rusty Cast Iron Picture Frame..., originally uploaded by Outa_Spaceman.

I'm still fascinated by the 'cast iron' paint effect and am using it to decorate some boring Ikea picture frames for my collection of postcards featuring BIG steam engines that can be seen at Kew Bridge Steam Museum...
The 'rivets' are drawing pins which, on close inspection, I failed to measure out properly...
I've added a coat of lacquer this time...
Works well...

Illuminated Pink Octopus In a Clam Shell...

Every now and then it is 'politick' for me to build something for my companion..
I decided to make something that she could add to her treasured collection of 'tacky' mermaids...
All right, it's not a mermaid, but fits in with the general theme in her mermaid collection cabinet...
Apart from the shell, batteries, L.E.D. and baize, everything on this build was manufactured by me...
The octopus was made with a mould I struck from a piece of Nook Art jewelry...
This is 'Crap-Tech' in ornamental form..

Un-lit...

Rear view

T.S.D. Control Knobs Redux...

T.S.D. Control Knobs Redux..., originally uploaded by Outa_Spaceman.

I wasn't happy with the mounting I'd built for the controls (vol/tuning)...
It was crap even by my standards and didn't really fit, what I consider, is becoming 'my style'...
Which is what, exactly..?
I'm reluctant to describe anything I build as 'steampunk' now-a-days...
To do so is to invite a string of abusive emails from people I've never met (whom, I suspect, still have a designated bedtime) telling me how far wide of the mark I am...

I'd tend toward saying my builds are 'crap-tech', heavily influenced by Frank Key's Hooting Yard, the spirit of 'mend and make do' instilled in me by my granny and my late father's reluctance to shell out for anything he couldn't make himself...
The astute may notice I've also added a polished mahogany plinth which will hide the DVD player and the R.F. converter (definitely not steampunk items by any stretch of the imagination...)

Ho-hum...

Barometer Re-Mount...

Barometer Re-Mount..., originally uploaded by Outa_Spaceman.

I've re-mounted my barometer as I intend using it's original mounting for the Televisual Simulacrumating Device as a speaker mount...
I'm very fond of my barometer...
It tells me all I really need to know about the world outside...

Tick Tock Chicken Clock...

Tick Tock Chicken Clock..., originally uploaded by Outa_Spaceman.

At the risk of seeming completely obsessed by time pieces, here's my current favourite clock...
It has a pleasingly loud 'tick, tock' which makes a nice change to the smooth silence of battery powered quartz movements...
It's a product of the People's Republic of China...
The mother hen's head nods with the tick...
It adds a comforting ambience to the room especially in the early hours of the morning when, I'm reminded by a stern voice, I should be in bed...

The Old Clock Face Revived...

The Old Clock Face Revived..., originally uploaded by Outa_Spaceman.

I've wanted to revive this clock face for sometime now...
It did have it's original clock mechanism attached to the back but sadly it was way beyond repair (although I still have it stored in a box under the bench for future restoration/repair)...
I butchered the clock that I'd hung on the back wall of my shed and ended up with this 'shabby-chic' time-piece...
I even know what time I took this picture...

Beachwood Collection Cart (Luxury Model) 01

Beachwood Collection Cart (Luxury Model) 01, originally uploaded by Outa_Spaceman.

I had the cart all ready to attend a picnic...
Comfort and splendor guaranteed...
Sadly the venue was changed to a hall in in a nearby town and I balked at dragging it 7 miles there and (possibly inebriated) back home...