Friday the 13th was everything but unlucky at the bone mines. However, work has come to a bottleneck so there won't be any huge leaps of progress for about a week, as we wait for custom-made skeleton hangers to be finished. But, as we wait, there is still plenty to do. This will be a good place to stop and do more bone repair. The scapulae and ribs all need to be examined and repaired where necessary. The vertebrae all need to have a final run through. Any repaired areas that don't quite look like bone will need a little fine tuning, which will probably involve a bit of sanding and perhaps some texturing. So anyone wanting to dig in on that, you are more than welcome. Even if you are a new recruit and haven't worked on any other areas, please come in and Lee will give you step-by-step instruction.

On most days Lee is at the workshop by 9:00 a.m. and will stay after 6:00 p.m., if he knows someone wants to come in after work or wants to work late. If he hasn't been notified that someone wants to work after 6:00, he closes up at that time.

And here's what took place yesterday.

Sara Reinert and Heather Beggs had good luck finding the center of another caudal vertebra to be drilled, and luckily Esther Lowe was there to start repair work on the ribs.

There were more drilling moments yesterday as Sara and Heather
drill the remainder of the caudal vertebrae.

A little to the right. . .keep going, you're almost there.

The caudal vertebrae (tail bones) were then strung onto their support pipe. This pipe is a smaller diameter and length size than the pipe that will hold the rest of the backbone vertebrae.

And look who has become the skeleton project's new machinist! 
None other than Pratt Museum's own intern, Caroline deCreeft.

Here she is cutting through a piece of solid steel.

Look at that! Perfectly straight! Good job, Caroline!