Saturday, May 23, 2009

Making a copper rain chain......


I decided to replace one of our downspouts with a copper rain chain. After shopping for them, I decided they were much too expensive to buy, so me being me, I decided to make one. I priced several of the style that I ended up making and they ranged from about 13-16 dollars a linear foot. My chain is about 18 feet long so it would have been at least 234 dollars. I ended up spending 50 on copper and I had a soldering iron and solder on hand. I purchased 1/4 inch copper tubing (the same stuff used to run a water line to your ice maker) in 5 packages of 20 feet. I carefully uncoiled it into a straight line....be careful not to make any kinks in the copper. I used a spray paint can to coil the tubing to my desired ring size. I just held one end and rolled the can along the tubing until it is all tightly coiled around the can.


Slide the coil off of the can and cut the coil in to chain lengths. Make sure you make your cuts parallel with each other and it will make soldering easy later. Snip down the length of the whole coil.
Solder the links together. I found it easier to use the soldering iron over a torch and made my chain in an alternating double and single link pattern. Copper is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity......the electrical conductivity hopefully will not be a problem, but its ability to conduct heat certainly will....wear thick gloves! Add links until you reach your desired length. I removed my downspout and pushed the top link up through the hole where the downspout attached to the gutter. I had a one foot piece of 1/2 inch copper pipe (it was scrap and just about anything will work) that I used to anchor the chain. I slid the pipe in the gutter and through the top link of the chain to hang it in place.
I purchased a copper pot used to coil a garden hose. I picked this because it has a hole for the hose to exit the pot. I pointed the hole away from the house and filled it with landscape rock.
Done....it has already started to patina to the traditional green but I am experimenting with some leftover copper to try some different acids to see what color of patina I can get. Now I am just waiting for the next rain to see how it sounds.....

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Green Bay Marathon

Marathon #75, State #35....here is a collection of pictures.

Kim and her finisher's medal

My medal and number.....

After packet pick-up and pasta....


The Bay of Green....

Fried cheese curds from Titletown brewery.....mmmmm.

Titletown Brewery....a must....good food and good beer.


Cheese head...available in the Lambeau Gift shop...along with about anything else.

Lambeau Field....the start and finish of the marathon.
Next up......West Virginia.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Green Bay Weekend


This weekend, we will be driving up to run the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon.....finally a new state. I have been running too many races that are repeat states, so it will be nice to be able to cross another one of the list. If all goes well this will be Marathon #75 and state #35......

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

The Lincoln Marathon

I ran this marathon 10 years ago as my first marathon and it has not changed a bit. The course was the same and it was fun to remember covering it that first time. We partied it up a bit too much the day before, so it was a rough morning....way too much good food and a bit more alcohol than I am used to consuming the day before a race....I was so stuffed I could not sleep and was parched and constantly getting up to drink water.
The race started and we just settled into a nice slow pace. I actually think I felt better the back half of the race than the first half, despite the temps creeping up. We finished at about 5:30 and marathon number 74 is in the books.....
mile 9 or so....