I have a 2004 mount, tanned skin, lifesize animal, and I need to disassemble it for shipping.
It is held to the base with a single 10 gauge wire.
This is a gorgeous animal, done by a very good taxidermist, for a very high price.
I got the plaque off, and now I need to know what the best method would be to get the animal off it's branch, as the branch is causing huge "dimensional weight" and "space" problems in the s/h box:
1) cut the animal's leg off that has the wire in it and repair the animal (sans wire) soon as it's off the branch (simply Dremel the wire off on both ends)
2) cut through the base (just your standard driftwood thing) at the approx. angle of the wire's passing through it and jack the wire out
3) Is there a method to melt silicone (the wire channel has been siliconed which is why I can't just pull the wire out of the base) - i.e. should I sit with the lighter on the wire for a while and wait for it to get hot enough to melt the silicone in the channel, then pull it off the base?
Just yanking the animal off the branch won't work, already tried that, it's not a threaded rod (just a 10 gauge wire) but it's bent inside the animal at some point and I don't want to rip the leg off.
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Can you send a digital picture for review? If not, You can try to grip the wire with vise grips and twist it to break the Silicone bond. If the wire is galvanized, then the silicone won't have formed a molecular bond with that surface, and it should break free and allow withdrawal. Heating the wire from beneath the driftwood may help some, but you cannot heat the leg portion without doing possible damage to the mannikin or the pelage.
You can also try to get a penetrator material to flow along the interstices between the wire and the silicone. Xylol or Tuolene, MEK or MEKP may do the trick. Acetone as well, may interrupt the mechanical bonds.
Perhaps simply drilling an oversized hole through the driftwood adjacent and parallel to the wire may allow you to pry the silicone free and extract the entire plug. The hole could be easily patched with bondo, tooled and painted to match after reassembly.
I sure as heck wouldn't consider removing a leg from the animal for a wide variety of reasons.....
I think you're playing with your ass. Not very tactful, but since your name is "-", I don't guess I'm losing a friend if that offends you. You simply CANNOT DISASSEMBLE a good mount and have it look as it did beforehand. I'm assuming you don't want to pay a freight company to move it properly since none of that would be required.
On my trip to Alaska last summer, I sat awaiting a flight into the bush and watched a returning successful hunter cutting a Pope & Young class set of caribou antlers into 12 inch sticks. I was dumbstruck at first, but felt compelled to ask if he intended on using the antler for knife handles. "OH NO, he replied, I'm cutting it like this so I can carry it aboard the airplane. My taxidermist will glue them back together and mount my animal." I proceeded to tell him what a jerkoff he was and that what he was doing would destroy the animal regardless of the taxidermists skill. He STILL wanted to defend his actions and I told him that I just wished him the best of luck. I said that if any of my customers EVER brought in crap like that for me, it would cost them $5000 for me to mount their animal. Four thousand for trying to reconstruct antlers with saw gaps in them and $1000 for mounting the animal hoping the antlers would stay together.
Your plan of action certainly isn't so drastic, but it's not much different in reality. Just pay the freight if the piece means anything to you.
I have a drill, I've never used it, but I know it works. I'll try to drill alongside the wire, good idea! That should do fine, and if not maybe the twisting with the pliers and a dab of acetone to break the molecular bonds will work.
The wire appears to be either galvanized or stainless, my guess by how hard it was to bend, is galv.
Besides safety glasses, are there any precautions I should take with the drill? The wood is extremely soft, so should I worry about breaking the bit more, or having it catch and chatter more? Should I stick the bit straight in, or kind of at an angle?
I have no practice driftwood, I don't stock it, so it's do or die the first time out.
I can't clamp this to a bench or anything so it has to be done free-standing (I do not have a mounting stand). So I ask about safety.
No, I don't change my own oil either, and have enough happiness to not mind getting called drill-ignorant. :)
The drilling and all that is being done from the underside of the mount. It is not visible, and even if it was, simply gluing more 35 cent moss over the area like the original taxidermist did would fix it "better then before".
¢rapting me.....You can don glasses, a flak jacket and whatever suits yer fancy, but you shouldn't need any safety equipment to drill a hole through a piece of driftwood.
You didn't mention the species involved, and I have no clue why you were trying to take it apart without packing the work in entirety, but by your post, I figured you had already screwed with it to the point that few choices were left.
Is this April first?
Wire is set with hot glue!
Take it to someone who can disassemble it for you for a few bucks.
It will be cheaper in the long run than you screwing it up.
I cant believe that I wasted the time to read this....I'm with George on this one...just pay the freight!
It came out just fine w/no damage to animal or plaque at all, so your worries were for naught! Now the freight is about $110. Trapper, 3-spot, and George are welcome to donate the difference ($1090) :)
3-spot - tip: ten cent listing day tomorrow on eBay.
What! 1090.is a lot of money..I dont have that 1300 right now but i can get 1500 soon..when are you goning to pay that 1750 back?