A day out wioth Rob Wilson

[doubleboost]

Hi
Most of you will have seen Rob Wilsons work on this & other forums.
I had the pleasure of meeting Rob a few weeks ago .
Looking at his shop and the quality of his work you could tell he had an eye for detail. I mentioned to him that i am a member of a mine rescue team
(like mountain rescue but in disused metal mines).
He showed great interest in finding out more about the sorce of his raw materials . A trip was aranged , Rob turned up on time  rearing to go suitably kitted out we ventured underground

He listend intently as i gave him a quick safety brief & told him his insurance was void in such places .
As soon as we enterd the mine you could sense he would be ok (some people dont like the wet dark atmosphere) we had a quick smoke (no gas in metal mines) to allow our eyes to get used to the dark.
The futher in we went the more questions he asked untill finaly we came across a good pice of ore , he picked up a piece the size of youir head and slowly fondled it.
I am going to smelt my own he said i must be able to improve on the material i buy


He carried this lump of rock as a child would carry a new toy


After a couple of hours we reached the point where we had to head back out to day .
We had a spot of lunch more cigarettes then slowly made oiur way out (Rob still holding his precious find )




All in all a really good day out


Regards
John

[sbwhart]

Great post looked like a fun day, some great underground shots.

Do you reckon you could get an engine out of that bit of ore then, 

Thanks for sowing.

Stew

[Bluechip]

Ah YES!!!

Happy memories came back of when I was in the RAF in Somerset ....

Potholing in St Cuthberts  .....

 EDIT ... not St Cuthberts, that's in Northumberland, some other St .    

 EDIT again .. nearly right .... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Cuthbert%27s_Swallet

The non-public bits of Wookey Hole  . some of, big system that ..

and Swildon's Hole .. with kind permission of Swildon, of course ...    

Valiantly trying to get a smoke out of a packet of wet, pulverised Park Drives ....  

All coming back, .......   when does he do a sump then ??

BTW What happened to the telly programs of Syd Perou (?) could do with seeing them again, instead of the mindless carp on now ..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swildon's_Hole

Entrance looks a bit posher ..

Dave BC

[Rob.Wilson]

Hi Lads

Just starting to recover now form my day out with John ,i used parts of my body i hardly ever use ,like my legs  ,,,,,,,,, What a trip it was to ,,, I have always had an interest in were or raw materials come from , so when John told me he was part of a mine rescue team and he goes of exploring old mine workings ,and then  offered to take me down an old mine i jumped at the chance .
John has a good knowledge  of the mine working and took the time to explane everything as we crawled (OH my knees ) ,stooped and splashed or way through the workings     Like why we were walking on what was the roof due to cave-ins , what the many deep shaft were for , and the general why ,how ,whats i came out with .

When i found my shiny lump of ore , ,,,,,, i thought i would take scratch building to a new level and smelt my own metal 

Thanks John 


Cheers Rob

[PTsideshow]

  Great post, brings back memories of caving,(pot holing in England) in West Virgina, Virgina and Kentucky. Best day was when I did the wild cave tour in Mammoth Cave. They take you on an 8/10 hour trip to some parts the tourists never get to see.

We crossed paths with a couple of groups of the regular walking tours and the looks on the people faces was priceless

Last vertical I did was Hellhole in West Virgina, 180' first drop, about 90'second and last 45' great going in. tried by the time you Prusik out. Type of knot and loop you climb the rope out.

thanks! you made my day

[Rob.Wilson]

   All coming back, .......   when does he do a sump then ??


Dave BC

Hi Dave ,,,,,,,,,,, dose this count 



Cheers Rob

[Bluechip]

Rob

Bah!!! Can't see what's going on ... might be owt   

This is the one I did   Sump 1 ...near the end ....

&feature=related

Dave BC

[John Stevenson]

You might have warned us about all the big pic's of Rob in the first post.

I opened it up on the computer and the dog stuffed it tail in-between it's legs and has hid behind the welsh dresser and won't come out.

All it does is wimper.

John S.

[Rob.Wilson]

  i thought i looked good in yellow, John   

You might have warned us about all the big pic's of Rob in the first post.

I opened it up on the computer and the dog stuffed it tail in-between it's legs and has hid behind the welsh dresser and won't come out.

All it does is wimper.

John S.

[doubleboost]

Thanks for posting the video i reeally enjoyed that
I have done a couple of short sumps in flooded mines that certainly focuses the mind
John

[Bluechip]

Quite easy really ..

Shut gob ..

Slam and secure sphincter ...

Dive in and get on with it ...

Dunno how the womenfolk manage      

None of my business 

Dave BC

[John Stevenson]

Last sump I did was on a Leyland 680 fitted in a Shell Aircraft Refueller.
Heavy dirty bastard thing.

John S.

[doubleboost]

Strange that the last sump i did was a A3 Audi (put a helicoil in it)
John

[Dean W]

What kind of ore have you brought home with you, Rob?
Looks like you had some fun.

Dean

[Stilldrillin]

Wow!

That looks to have been a great day out, (in/ under)..... 

I was a caver/ potholer during the 1960`s. Still got me 1966 "Pennine Underground", caver`s bible......

Sumps? Hmmm...... Thanks Dave! Not my favourite places.

Rob, looking forward to seeing the end product, in all it`s glory.......   

David D

[Artie]

Bloody Hell!

As one who doesnt like confined spaces... this is not for me... I recently had occasion to tell Rob that he was a nutter.... If I had any reservations about this title...theyre certainly gone now!

Looks...er interesting... got bigger cojunes than I have... 

[Bluechip]

Back to holes again ....

Rob reckons he's been in Scotland ...


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1303152/A-mile-daylight-4-145-feet--deepest-British-caver-been.html

Maybe .... maybe not ??? 

Dave BC

[PTsideshow]

Good for them, I remember when they made a couple connections in the Mammoth cave system here. Was a lot of happy cavers that knew it was only a matter of time. That cave diving can be a real killer. I believe more people have died cave diving than any other way. To be young again and wandering the bowls of the earth.
Really great sights to see and amazing formations. It also real isn't that bad as in the dark you can't see the walls and roof so it doesn't feel so closed in.
Other than when you have to go through one of the real small holes or passages. Which they had the digital cheap cameras back then.
As the speolo group here says,

Kill nothing but time, take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but foot prints!

Go Dark! Go Deep!

[Rob.Wilson]

Hi Dave
  i wish 


Rob

[andreas]

Hi John!!! is it quartz????

[Mayhem]

...I mentioned to him [Rob] that i am a member of a mine rescue team
(like mountain rescue but in disused metal mines)...

Just read this post after John linked to it over on MWF and when I read the aforementioned sentence, I wondered why would you have a mine rescue team for disused metal mines.  Then I figured it out - it is for when Rob getting himself stuck when going back for more ore!