Iron to Iron, Rust to Rust

Surplus radiator removed from This Odd House.

The demolition of the garage had forced a few actions. The surplus refrigerator being stored there had to find a new home. And the three cast iron radiators had to go somewhere too. I couldn’t see them going to a landfill; there had to be someone who would want them.

I did a little research. New radiators cost thousands of dollars. Salvaged radiators are considerably less, about $30 per “fin”, the vertical segment that gives radiators their distinctive functional look. I checked into the companies that bought and sold used radiators. The buy price was $3 per fin, about the same as the scrappers get when they score such an item.

After offering them on Craig’s list for a price in-between, but not getting any serious responses, Portia suggested we simply donate them to the nearby artist’s organization, Franconia Sculpture Park. This had great appeal. Iron that had served its time heating our house for the last century being recycled as an artistic sculptural expression seemed like a worthy destination.

We proceeded to load them from the garage to the van. At 200 pounds each, they were a bit beyond our daily weight lifting routine and we used carts and dollies to maneuver them near the van and ally-oop them into my aging vehicle, which sagged in proportion to each additional load.

Radiators loaded into the van.

The drive to Franconia was sluggish and luggish. But when we arrived we were greeted with eager delight. Not the usual response to someone with surplus radiators. They helped transfer them to a holding area for such items. We were told that the radiators would be broken down to fragments, the non-iron components (steel pipe fittings, assembly rods etc.) would be removed, and the rest would be prepared to feed into the furnace the day of the pour.

I learned that the iron pour was not just for professional artists; there was a program where the public could participate too. The sculpture park offered workshops to prepare molds for casting iron plaques, bas-reliefs, with patterns inscribed into them by anyone willing to subscribe to the class. Even me.

I have long wanted a plaque for the space on the exterior occupied by a former air conditioner, an address marker with a distinctive pattern that would identify This Odd House to passersby. This seemed like a perfect ending for the fate of my radiators.

Accompanied by Portia and my son, we attended the workshop and proceeded to dig, scratch, scrape, drill, and dremel our way into the resin-cast silica-sand molds we were given. After about an hour and a half we decided we had done enough damage and the molds were given a graphite “mold-wash” in preparation for the molten iron.

Carving the sand block.

The iron pour will be August 2, my birthday. It seems a fitting highlight to match the recent roller coaster of life. Last year on this day I attended “Physics on Ice” a dramatic presentation of modern high energy physics, including the saga of detecting the Higgs Boson.

This year I get to witness molten material, thousands of degrees higher than ice, being transformed into objet d’ art. It is hard to think of something that combines so well the values I cherish: the recycling of matter to useful purpose, the application of our hard-won knowledge to work and form it, and the encouragement of artistic expression.