Ptychodus04’s Fossil Fish Prepapalooza

[Ptychodus04]

2 more off the list.

 

 

[SPrice]

That second one...wow! The client will be extremely pleased with both the preparation and the preservation.  

[Ptychodus04]

On 5/11/2024 at 9:08 AM, SPrice said:

That second one...wow! The client will be extremely pleased with both the preparation and the preservation.  

 

Yah, the 1st one definitely left something to be desired in the preservation...

[Ptychodus04]

This is the worst part of prepping as much as I am… restocking iron powder! This hurts the bank account 100 pounds at a time!

[FossilNerd]

I’d bet it hurts the bank account and the back! That is a lot of weight in a 5 gallon bucket. 

[Doctor Mud]

I always forget about the blasting medium as a consumable! I suppose it’s not really practical to recycle? Too hard to purify spent media or just easier to factor it in to the charges for prepping.

[Ptychodus04]

1 hour ago, FossilNerd said:

I’d bet it hurts the bank account and the back! That is a lot of weight in a 5 gallon bucket. 

It’s almost impossible to carry it. I use a moving dolly to get it to the lab.

 

 

17 minutes ago, Doctor Mud said:

I always forget about the blasting medium as a consumable! I suppose it’s not really practical to recycle? Too hard to purify spent media or just easier to factor it in to the charges for prepping.

I recycle my iron powder but some gets picked up by the dust collector and a bit gets lost to the lab floor. I can usually get 80% back from each use and some of that gets lost during the screening process. You have to get the rock dust out or it will compact in the abrasive hopper during use so, you need a bit of air flow across the media as it exits the screen. The finer media blows away with the dust.
 

100 pounds will last me around a year at my current work load. Not too bad.

[Doctor Mud]

19 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

I recycle my iron powder

From what I’ve seen on here I’m not suprised you have a great system like that . A year is amazing given the amount of prep you are doing! 
 

[Ptychodus04]

4 hours ago, Doctor Mud said:

From what I’ve seen on here I’m not suprised you have a great system like that . A year is amazing given the amount of prep you are doing! 
 

Yep, it’s way too expensive for a single use media. 

[Ptychodus04]

Had a productive couple of days.

 

 

 

 

[Coco]

Very nice, as usual !

 

Coco

[Ptychodus04]

Fish, fish, and more fish…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last but not least, I got to prep a really weird fish. Asineops is an anomaly that nobody really knows where to place in the taxonomy. It’s super rare and was a blast to prep. 

 

I’m done with fish for a few weeks. I’m working on a few other projects currently and hope to get back to my stingray prep before I get loaded back up with paying work. 

[jpc]

Asineops from Fossil Lake.. that is pretty unusual.  

[Ptychodus04]

1 hour ago, jpc said:

Asineops from Fossil Lake.. that is pretty unusual.  

Very. I talked to the folks up there today and they found a 1” Asineops earlier this week.

[Randyw]

Wow! Just just WOW! I’m so jealous!

[Bobby Rico]

Really wonderful school fish you have there. Beautifully prepared and I am more than .   

 

All the best my friend. 

[Ptychodus04]

Too bad none of these fish are mine.  Of course, if they were, they would still be sitting in a corner unprepped.

[Randyw]

Roflmao! Can you imagine how big a set of shelves you’d need if all the stuff you’ve prepped were yours?

[Denis Arcand]

Wow, great work. Is it heartbreaking to do all this preparation work on these wonderful specimens and have to return them to their owner?

Edited June 14 by Denis Arcand

[Pagurus]

Your clients have got to be THRILLED with your work! Superb!

[Ptychodus04]

11 hours ago, Randyw said:

Roflmao! Can you imagine how big a set of shelves you’d need if all the stuff you’ve prepped were yours?

I would need a new house! 
 

10 hours ago, Denis Arcand said:

Wow, great work. Is it heartbreaking to do all this preparation work on these wonderful specimens and have to return them to their owner?

It’s easier than you would think to spend the time and let them go. I don’t keep a large fossil collection. My excitement is in the discovery and preparation provides a lot of discovery. It’s also nice you make people happy with a well prepared specimen. It also doesn’t hurt that I’m getting paid to do it. 
 

9 hours ago, Pagurus said:

Your clients have got to be THRILLED with your work! Superb!

Thanks. They are pretty happy.