Making a replica of the Black Bear Pass summit sign


If you’re interested in one of the two remaining signs, they are listed here until they are sold. I will not be making any more of these: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1119881583/limited-edition-black-bear-pass-summit

I wanted to make something special as a memento of my trip to Ouray, Colorado this year. I made a replica of the summit marker on Black Bear Pass.

Ouray, CO – Imogene Pass


I took my Jeep, along with some friends, from Ohio to Ouray, Colorado to explore the mountain passes and some abandoned gold and silver mines from the late 1800s. In this video, we leave the town of Telluride up and over Imogene Pass back to Ouray.

Park Bench Rebuild


My next door neighbor was going to throw an old worn out park bench away. One of the cast steel sides was broken and would need welding. I grabbed it and decided to give it some new life. I welded up the broken pieces, replaced the wood slats and hardware. I intend to give this back to him. His mother is 95 years old and perhaps she would like to sit in it out in the back yard.

Ouray, CO – Black Bear Pass


I took my Jeep, along with some friends, from Ohio to Ouray, Colorado to explore the mountain passes and some abandoned gold and silver mines from the late 1800s. In this video, we climb up and over the infamous Black Bear Pass. The ascent was somewhat uneventful. It’s the decent into Telluride that makes this pass so unique.

Ouray, CO – Alpine Loop and Engineer Pass


I took my Jeep, along with some friends, from Ohio to Ouray, Colorado to explore the mountain passes and some abandoned gold and silver mines from the late 1800s. In this video, we get on a section of the Alpine Loop off US 550 just outside of town. After passing over the summit of Engineer Pass, we take a side trip up to see the Golconda Mine Boarding House.

Exploring mountain passes in Ouray, CO


Took the 1,668 mile trip to Ouray, Colorado from Ohio with some friends to explore the mountain passes and old mines. What an epic trip. We drive Engineer Pass, Black Bear Pass, Imogene Pass, Ophir Pass, Poughkeepsie Gulch, Corkscrew Pass and Hurricane Pass. We even took the time to take a ride on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. And I topped it off with a visit to the Field of Dreams movie site.

Blast Cabinet Improvements


I bought this mini sand blast cabinet off the interwebs some years ago. It’s good for small projects. Somewhere along the line, I broke the top plexi glass. I needed to replace it, and I figured while I was at it, I would make some improvements to media delivery system and vacuum hook ups.

Making knobs for my bathroom cabinet


I’ve been working on this bathroom cabinet, on and off, for probably 2-1/2 years. I’m finally down to the last couple things and figured I might as well try and get this moved to the “done” side of the list.

I always figured I was going to make some kind of a knob, but now that I have the lathe, I’m going to turn them from some scrap!

Rebuilding a Vaper Non-Aerosol Spot Sprayer


My next door neighbor has this big hunk of concrete in his front year that appears to have been used for an old flag pole that has long since rusted and fell over, I would imagine. He asked if I could weld him up something new that he could use to mount a smaller pole, something more like a naval yardarm that has provisions for multiple flags. He is going to use some 1″ black plumbing pipe for the new pole. He asked me if I could fabricate some kind of pivoting/hinged mount that we could bolt onto the concrete.

I turned a small piece on the 13″ South Bend lathe for the pivot and used my Primeweld TIG225X in SMAW mode to weld the pieces together.