Re: Mounting Sundials...securely
Dear Roderick, Bill Gottesman notes the Tony Moss method of securing sundials to pedestals. This certainly works but it doesn't stop anyone with a hammer and a cold chisel doing serious damage in an attempt to steal the sundial. Now take a look at this: http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/keep-your-eyes-peeled-plea-after-antique-sundial-st olen-from-blickling-hall-near-aylsham-1-3319691 You will see two photographs taken in the grounds of Blickling Hall, U.K. The first photograph shows a damaged pedestal but with the dial plate still in position. This dial was secured in a Tony Moss fashion and the thieves damaged the pedestal but failed to take the sundial. The second photograph shows what happened next. The thieves simply walked off with the entire pedestal. The pedestal was 18th century and had a much higher value than the sundial (a modern replacement). It would have been much better to have had a simple lift-off sundial and thereby saved the pedestal. OK, so what do you do? I have come to the view that sundials on pedestals or plinths in public places are simply too vulnerable to countenance. You either settle for an analemmatic sundial on the ground or you have a wall dial sufficiently high up that it is hard to get at. BUT there is a third way... You have a plinth and you want a sundial. I would have a nice design which was printed on vinyl and stuck to a prepared surface on the plinth. The replacement cost is about $5 and the scrap value is zero. What about the gnomon? You design the dial for a rod gnomon but don't actually provide a rod. You drill a hole through the Vinyl and the supporting brickwork and arrange for it to be polar oriented. You insert a simple piece of hollow studding and invite users to put a ball-pint pen in the hole. Vinyl is commonly used for advertisements on buses and seems to tolerate wind, rain, snow, ice and loose stones. The design life is about five years, or longer than the mean time between thefts! Your next challenge will be that someone will steal the plaque but let's deal with one problem at a time. Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Re: Mounting Sundials...securely
Tony Moss described a secure and permanent mounting method using bolts permanently fixed to the underside of the dial. The dial is then set in mortar atop the pedestal, and the bolts become permanently fixed in the mortar. Lord knows how this could be removed later. Another method involved using a silicone adhesive to fix the dial to the pedestal (no bolts). Use cardboard spacers to ensure an 1/8" gap from the pedestal surface. If it ever needed to be removed, it cold be separated from the pedestal by cutting under the dial with a flexible hacksaw blade. -Bill On Tue, May 16, 2017 at 5:19 PM, rodwall1...@gmail.com < rodwall1...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi all, > > In the Ranelagh Estate at Mount Eliza Victoria 3930 Australia. There is a > memorial to John Thomas Smith in Ranelagh drive. The memorial was > surmounted by a sundial. It was there as late as 2004. It was removed by > unknown people several times and was replaced by the shire. But the shire > eventually gave up as the sundial could not be adequately secured. > > Question, does anyone know of a way to adequately secure a sundial on the > following memorial? > > http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/settlement/ > display/32753-john-thomas-smith > > It is such a shame that we all can't enjoy a sundial. Without someone > thinking that they should have it for themselves only. > > Thanks, > > Roderick Wall. > > > --- > https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial > > > --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
Mounting Sundials...securely
Hi all, In the Ranelagh Estate at Mount Eliza Victoria 3930 Australia. There is a memorial to John Thomas Smith in Ranelagh drive. The memorial was surmounted by a sundial. It was there as late as 2004. It was removed by unknown people several times and was replaced by the shire. But the shire eventually gave up as the sundial could not be adequately secured. Question, does anyone know of a way to adequately secure a sundial on the following memorial? http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/settlement/display/32753-john-thomas-smith It is such a shame that we all can't enjoy a sundial. Without someone thinking that they should have it for themselves only. Thanks, Roderick Wall. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
