Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I dunno, I have known a LOT of teachers who were remarkably useless in their field, and didn't know gak. I have had some truly excellent ones mind you, but k-12 here in the States, and even some in college have been piss poor.
Bear in mind, both my parents were teachers, and I am working on becoming a professor myself. I think it has a lot less to do with teachers in particular, and a lot more to do with how difficult it is to hire any high skill job where the results are complicated. Teachers can just slide by better due to being impossible to fire and blaming the students.

Of course, we only hear the stories about the bad ones...The Phrase is an over-generalization.

well...for your job dave...did you go to university? well i´ve met so many jerks teaching there... all pretended to be gods of their profession...all had small neat companies up their sleaves...i always wondered...: why did they get to university and teach if they could be entrepreneurs instead and making top money...?? now as a prof you don´t get paid that well...compared to the free market...

one fella had a company that worked for "Luft hansa" a big player...but he ended up as a prof...made me think...

That is very likely true, but all phrases are over-generalizations. Even that one. But not that one. Or that one.

Also, holy gak your blog is on page 178! I forgot how disgustingly amazing your work is, and after 5 pages of trying to find where you discuss the Crikcut I am overwhelmed with a sense of my own inferiority. I don't suppose you could point me towards which page it is in particular; I can't afford the therapy going through that all at once would require

lol, thanks man! you only need to go back 4 or 5 pages to cover all of that.

I worked in IT for 10 years before I got my degree Vik, All of my College Profs also had regular day jobs in the field and only taught as a part-time second job.

Ahh, yea there's the rub: IT has a good back and forth in the states between industry and academia. I know a lot of guys (arguably myself, but I am going for a different field) that work, then teach, then work again. Probably in part because doing interesting IT work in the industry is a little difficult, and you miss having people to talk with about big ideas.

Things like Economics, Math, Physics, those are often pretty iffy, especially in high school. Things like English are definitely a problem. Can't write stuff people want to read? Teach writing! (Your mileage may vary.)

And I have heard college education in the EU is pretty weak in general. Do you think that's the case Vik? Any basis for comparison?

Sorry to interupt the philosophy debate. But I have a problem. I had to stay home this morning due to a sick child. The child is still sick, but the wife took the second shift, so I could at least get a half day at work. Thanks a lot Honey...

Anyway, I tried to do a couple of resin pours this morning, but both pours came out only half cured. I think I know what went wrong, but I wanted to share, in case others are trying to start some casting of thier own.

When I got the resin dye last week, I mixed some of it into a small amount of the part "B" of the resin, so I didn't have to add the dye every time I poured. However, I don't think I shook it enough to mix it back up after it sat for a couple of days, and mostly just the dye was mixed with the part "A". What I got was a sticky, dark browm mess. I was not happy. There were a pouple of pieces that came out ok, but most of it was a waste.

So, in hind sight, if you are using dyes in your resin, be sure to mix it VERY well into the part "B" before you mix the part "A", or you'll get what we had this morning. Which is NOT the way you want it.

I didn't take any pics of the mess. I was so mad I litterally gave myself a headache over it. I'm still mad, but I'm starting to cool down, now that I think I know what went wrong.

Anyway, the last few molds I've made have turned out alright, I made some more, and one more is currently in the pressure pot. Not much of interest, at least not yet.

Tahnks for letting me vent. Later,

RSJake

Aww man, that sucks. Sorry dood. How much resin was wasted?

Oh, about 16 drams.

4 ounces for the rest of us!

Not a whole lot, it's the TIME wasted that I am upset about!

oh crap!...well you live, you learn... but time, energy and money wasted that is always a drag...

i hope next time everything gets better...
same goes to your small one...hope it is nothing too serious? if kids get ill it is double intense for us parents...not only do we get tense because of a sick child we want to help and there is often little we actualy CAn do but also the kids in it´s suffering makes us even more tense...


and to wehrkind...well the university i attended was very bad...we had lots of idiot prof in our uni...i knew of a course that got its "A"s for playing a game of monopoly...that was for business administration ...and one of my own profs was so wasted that he couldn´t see through a whole class ...he wasn´t even able to get 15 min of coherent content...but in essence i have nothing to compare it by...as i´ve never really had any insights from first hand in other countries schoolarsystem...

I'm calming down, there is nothing that can be done for wasted time that has already gone by, but to think of how not to waste it in the future.

As for the kid, the problem was that she WASN"T suffering! We didn't even know she was sick! All she had was a chough. But it was persistant, so we took her to the Dr. She had an ear infection and a viral infection in her throat! Poor kid! But even the Doc said she was very happy for a sick kid. She's fine, we just have to give her medicine. Little bugger smiles all the time!

well...that is a blessing! but coughing kids can be tough nevertheless...can she blow her nose already? my youngest son is almost four and he still is not able to do so...which makes those inbetween season full of snotty noses and coughy throats quite strained...

Our 3 year old can "sort of" blow here nose. At leasst she blows it, but doesn't wipe it. So there is a "hanger" when she's done.

But the sick one is our 6 month old. And she HATES it when you wipe her nose!

oh...well...i know it sounds like a bit from a tortures pit but have you something like this:







i bet she doesn´t like that either but the last one will work! i promise you that... tho you might want another pair of hands to keep her secure during that process...and of course you get a "traumata" in an early stage.... but we battled many a snotty time with my two sons with that one... (mind you the first aperatus is crap!)

Yeah, we have one of those. I wouldn't want to suck up any boogies with that second one!

Everything is traumatic with kids!

Everything is traumatic with kids!

works both ways^^

and we have used the second and only if you are very overenthusiastic you suck up the gooey stuff^^

That's their brain, you don't want to go sucking that up.

now that was quite naughty of you chemical!

Yea, I gotta say, the second picture there with the woman sucking on the other end of the hose... looks like she is sucking out the brains with that thing.

well...all i can say i s that the kids act as if they might do that for real...they fight like a mule...but it is really a pain for them to have a snotty nose they can´t get rid off... by this methode you fight so many minor nastinesses like sore skin under the nose and such things... but lets not dwell anymore on gooey snot^^

Thank you! I have had quite enough of snotty noses thank you. Mine and my kids. So, I got around the problem I had with the resin I had pre-mixed with the dye yesterday. I threw it out.

I don't know if it's because I was using Alumilte dye with Smooth-On resin, or what, but I have given up trying. So, if anyone wants a half-used bottle of brown resin dye, let me know.

I am going to order some Smooth-On resin dye, and hopefully that will solve the problem. It's spendy though, so I'm not too thrilled.

I did get one cast with color that wasn't all sticky and gooey:


The production mold for these heads is pretty good. There are a few places like the brim of the hat that don't seem to get resin to completely fill in, but I figure I can just fill in the cracks with GS before shipping.

I still need to get examples some painted, hopefully this weekend.

Oh, and I almost forgot! I got a picture of the Pressure pot for Dave!


Thanks for looking,
RSJake

the heads are truly good looking...tho i think you need to make your own stamp for the sprues...the current writing looks a bit too doughshaped for me...

that pressure pot reminds me of a pot my grandma used for making her own jam...

Thanks Vik, yeah, I need to get some letter stamps or something. This will have to work for my first one though. I don't really want to do it over yet. When this mold wears out, I'll do the sprue better.

of course... never change a running system^^

The letters were better when I started, but I kept messing with the sprue before the GS cured, so I smudged them.

Next time Gadget!!! Next time!

That's Awesome Jake! Thanks man! It looks like my air compressor regulator

RSJake wrote:The letters were better when I started, but I kept messing with the sprue before the GS cured, so I smudged them.

Next time Gadget!!! Next time!

stupid fingers...i kknow that one by heart^^

dsteingass wrote:That's Awesome Jake! Thanks man! It looks like my air compressor regulator

Harbor Freight?

You know, I didn't think to ask this earlier, but were you pouring the dye mixed resin into a brand new mold? That might cause the stickiness. I find usually the first 1-2 pours out of a new mold are generally gummy (like the first centaur pour I sent you). This can be mitigated by letting the mold air dry out after demolding for a day or so, but I have not ever eliminated it.

I wish I hadn't JUST thought of that... sorry man.

Nope, it was with all of the molds. It didn't even completely cure in the mixing cup! I think the stuff from the different brands just don't like each other.

Actually, the first few molds with color came out great! It was after the mixture had sat for a couple of days that the problems started. And I even tried just mixing the dye in the resin as I was mixing the two resin parts. That didn't go so well either. I'm stumped.