# I can't believe it.



## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

I got the poly and rice all mixed up let it set so the bubbles would come to the top, was about to put in the hardner. I then discovered I had put the wrong nut on the side of the pipe. Now this nut is to hold the pipe to the small motor that will turn the pipe at 6 RPM so the rice won't settle to the bottom. Now I have all this poly mixed and hope it will last till I get the right nut glued to the pipe. I have some orange that I mixed yesterday and it is still ok, so maybe it will be ok.


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## EndTuition (May 24, 2004)

WOW, you do think out of the box, rotomolding !

Here is a link to another rice blank the same guy posted today. Not very big, and I don't like the color, but you can sure tell it has some rice in it!

http://www.customcalls.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1216398078

Here is another that is very cool !

http://www.customcalls.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1216394587
I think you are on the leading edge of a new wave of game call blanks !

I'm starting to think the rice is absorbing some of the resin ???? That might explain why the exposed ends of the grain don't look like raw rice and how the blank is strong enough to drill/turn, even when it looks like 90% rice ???

Let me know how I can help....


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

Looks like they are really puting the rice in. I was using about a 60/40 rice to poly mix. I may change that to more rice now that I saw those.


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## Hooked (Oct 15, 2004)

I think I may have posted once about the guy I saw on another forum mixing in all sorts of dried nuts/veggies and turning. He was really thinking outside the box like you are Bobby. Cool stuff. 
Hope it comes out for ya.


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## EndTuition (May 24, 2004)

Bobby said:


> Looks like they are really puting the rice in. I was using about a 60/40 rice to poly mix. I may change that to more rice now that I saw those.


Heck, that may end up being about right if it absorbs any of it. Hey, you could blow out a mold if it swells up !
Better stand back till it cools off !


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

I have the rice sitting in the poly without any hardner until just before I pour it. So if it is going to assorb any of the poly it should have done it already. I then put in the hardner and mix slowly so I don't get any air bubbles. Then put into the tube and seal with wax paper and a cap to hold the wax paper. That way no air can get mixed in while turning on the motor. It only has to turn for about 30 minutes and the poly will jell and hold the rice where it is.


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## EndTuition (May 24, 2004)

Does the hardner cause the resin to heat up ?


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

yes it will get real hot.


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## 3192 (Dec 30, 2004)

You guys don't take these pens too far now!

*Texas Man Has Leg Up On Competition Using Manure*

POTEET (AP) ― 
One cow's excrement is one man's fine writing instrument.

At least it is for John Lopez, 42, who began making his South Texas Cow Patty Pens six years ago with local, natural materials.

He perfected the process through trial and error. The end result: flecks of brown suspended in a clear plastic, looking almost like wood from a distance.

"I take my pen kits and feed 'em to the cows and then go out in the pasture and pick 'em up," Lopez joked, stroking his mustache from behind the desk at JS Shop, his lawnmower repair business in downtown Poteet.

Cow patties may be Lopez's current specialty, but when he began the craft in 2000 he used wood, bone, deer antler and other materials to encase mail-ordered ballpoints.

"I was bored, poor," he said. "I had bought some tools" and decided to give handmade pens a try. But after hawking them at craft shows and county fairs, he realized his wares looked like everyone else's.

So he started looking for a way to distinguish his work. Exotic materials were hard to find in Poteet, but he came across the solution in his own backyard.

"There's not much money in this area, so I need to make things with the finances (I have) and I need the materials the same way," he said.

His original brand name for the pens included a vulgar barnyard term, but it offended customers and other vendors at craft shows, so he retreated to the safer "South Texas Cow Patty Pen."

Listening to Lopez describe how he arrived at his production method is like listening to a scientist describe a breakthrough discovery. The cow patties can't be too dry but they can't be too fresh, either. Also important is the type of feed the cattle in question are eating.

Eligible patties must be made from pure coastal grass, never grain, Lopez said adamantly, gesturing with both hands otherwise the patty "won't be natural."

Once selected and harvested, the winners are ground into a powder, placed in a tray and mixed with a plastic resin. After four days, he can cut the hardened plastic into small blocks for further custom milling. He said it's the hardest substance he has ever cut because of sand ingested by the cows along with the grass.

The blocks are spun on a wood lathe at 3,900 revolutions per minute, worked into a cylinder, assembled with parts bought from a catalog and polished. The process yields 10 to 15 pens and takes six to eight hours, Lopez said.

The finished product goes for $45.

"It's not an easy-made pen," Lopez said.

A jack-of-all-trades, Lopez has made everything from patio furniture to metal coat racks and even earrings, but only pens, darts, knife handles and letter openers from cow patties.

Lopez's pens have become fairly well known around Atascosa County, one collector of his work said.

"Probably nowhere but South Texas you'll come across that," said a laughing David Soward, who owns a few of Lopez's antler and wood ballpoints and whose sister-in-law gave him a cow patty pen as a gag gift.

Local demand for the pens has spread via humorous word of mouth, said Soward, the Atascosa County Sheriff's Department's chief deputy.

"It's just a novelty item," he said. "I get a kick out of it."

Lopez has spent his life in South Texas, loves his home and wants his work to reflect his natural surroundings.

"That's where I live, and I'm not a Yankee," he said with pride, adding: "I've been up north once. I've been to Oklahoma, and I didn't care for it."

(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)


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## Tortuga (May 21, 2004)

LOL...now THAT'S carrying it a little bit TOO far !!! Geeezzee !!!..You can have this 'un , Bobby.. 

That antler smells like burning human flesh when you cut and drill and turn it...Can you IMAGINE what real, genuine BS must smell like ???sad4sm 

Whew......

(Gotta agree with the ol' boy though...on Oklahoma...been there...done that...)


edit...Lightbulb just went off in the old noggin...Think I'll pick up a couple of OKRA while I'm grocery shopping and see if I can turn out a "Okra Special" for JQ/Randall.....LOL


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

I remember reading about that guy somewhere. Ok red one is in the can cooking. I had to turn it by hand for 30 minutes till it should be jelled, cause my nut that holds it on the motor didn't hold. This one will be about 4 inches long and 1 1/2 dia.


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## Tortuga (May 21, 2004)

That's gonna be one he11 if a WIDE and SHORT pen....

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Bobby said:


> I remember reading about that guy somewhere. Ok red one is in the can cooking. I had to turn it by hand for 30 minutes till it should be jelled, cause my nut that holds it on the motor didn't hold. This one will be about 4 inches long and 1 1/2 dia.


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

I forgot to add that I had enough left over to pour a pen blank 3/4" X 4 1/2 to 5" round.


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## 3192 (Dec 30, 2004)

Too much information there Bobby...lol

_"....cause my nut that holds it on the motor didn't hold. This one will be about 4 inches long and 1 1/2 dia."_


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## Viking48 (Jan 24, 2006)

EndTuition said:


> WOW, you do think out of the box, rotomolding !
> 
> Here is a link to another rice blank the same guy posted today. Not very big, and I don't like the color, but you can sure tell it has some rice in it!
> 
> ...


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## Viking48 (Jan 24, 2006)

galvbay said:


> You guys don't take these pens too far now!
> 
> *Texas Man Has Leg Up On Competition Using Manure*
> 
> ...


Hmmmm - how many of us chew on the end of a pen while thinking or stick it in your mouth while you do something??? Think I'll pass on this one.


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

First try didn't work real good. I didn't rotate it enough I guess. A lot of the resin came to the top or the rice settled to the bottom. It still hasn't set up good yet either. I got my rotater working now. So I put on a clear to see what it will do. I also doubled up on the hardner on this one too.


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## EndTuition (May 24, 2004)

I'm worried that the rice is going to expand and blow up your mold ! Is it airtight ?


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## EndTuition (May 24, 2004)

Viking48 said:


> Hmmmm - how many of us chew on the end of a pen while thinking or stick it in your mouth while you do something??? Think I'll pass on this one.


So a duck call is just out of the question ? RATS !


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## deerdude2000 (Feb 17, 2006)

*pens*



galvbay said:


> You guys don't take these pens too far now!
> 
> *Texas Man Has Leg Up On Competition Using Manure*
> 
> ...


That gave me an idea i'v got a lot of deer poop !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## EndTuition (May 24, 2004)

Bobby, here is another grain call. This one is milo,corn and wheat. Pretty interesting, but I wonder about the exposed ends of the grain, especialy the corn? I suspect some sort of final finish is needed that will seal it all up ? Did your first pour ever harden up ?

http://www.customcalls.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1216514908


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

Ok here are the blanks I have done now. They finally got hard. I haven't tried to turn one yet. I may just leave that to you .:smile: The clear one has a crack, but I think you can get around it by turning the small end where the crack is. Look real close at the second picture and you can just barely see it. I put the pen in so you can get a ideal of the size. The one next to the pen is a pen blank Bill. :smile: The pen is 5 1/2 inches long.


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## 3192 (Dec 30, 2004)

Looks like my mom's old rice pudding to me! Can't wait to see the results..gb


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## 3192 (Dec 30, 2004)

ET....wonder if one of these would make a call. gb

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=17825&cookietest=1


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## bill (May 21, 2004)

yeah, cool Bobby

Turn one out, I want to see it. I think as long as the rice is hard you should get a good finish. I was thinking the otherday to soak some rice in poly first to get it hard, then after it dryed add it to your mix.


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

This rice set in the poly for 2 days before it was poured. So if it would soak up the poly it had its chance LOL

And GB I think you could do it but the corn cob would have to be stablized with poly so it wouldn't be so pouris(sp).


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## EndTuition (May 24, 2004)

I looked at those corn cob blanks also. I'm not sure if they would work or not. They are just a tad too small around for a full sized duck call, but I think you could make a call out of one. I may have to try it.


Bobby, I wish we lived closer! I'd come by,pick those up and drop off the pen blanks ! As long as they are hard, I can turn some kinda call out of them !


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

EndTuition said:


> I looked at those corn cob blanks also. I'm not sure if they would work or not. They are just a tad too small around for a full sized duck call, but I think you could make a call out of one. I may have to try it.
> 
> Bobby, I wish we lived closer! I'd come by,pick those up and drop off the pen blanks ! As long as they are hard, I can turn some kinda call out of them !


They are hard that is why the one cracked on me. It cracked when I was trying to get it out of the mold. It fell out after I hit it real hard with the hammer and hit the concrete floor on the end and cracked.


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

I have a 11 am appointment at the VA in Houston tomorrow. I can drop them off after my appointment as long as I can get back to Bolivar before 4 pm,

I am a gogether now. I take her to work and then go get her.:smile:


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

Ok I turned the pen blank and it blew up on me just as I was getting close to the tube. Now you may be able to make the pen fat and get it to work. I think I need to use more poly and less rice. The rice kept breaking out on me. The duck call blanks may be easier to do since you have more meat on them left when you finish. It is going to take very sharp tools and very light cuts.


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## Slip (Jul 25, 2006)

I tried some corn cobs pens before with no sucess. When it got down to the size close to the tube size, it got to the center part and lost most of the corn cob look and broke off as it was soft. These were stabilized cobs also. Haven't tried any more since.


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## EndTuition (May 24, 2004)

Bobby said:


> I have a 11 am appointment at the VA in Houston tomorrow. I can drop them off after my appointment as long as I can get back to Bolivar before 4 pm,
> 
> I am a gogether now. I take her to work and then go get her.:smile:


Tomorrows not a good one for me, sorry, meetings all day right up to 2:00. RATS


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## Bobby (May 21, 2004)

Ok I got another red with rice on the rotator. I used less rice on this one.


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