[PSUBS-MAILIST] Bruce Beasley Acrylic Casting

[Phil Nuytten]

Can't say enough good stuff about Bruce Beasley - he really is is an amazing 
friend. His former company, Polymer Engineering, made the acrylic hemis for 
our 'Deep Rover' about 30 years ago. Bruce and I discovered quite 
accidentally that we both had a passion for northwest coast  first nations 
art and knew many native artists who were our mutual friends. Bruce is an 
artist who got into acrylics because of his art. I got into the underwater 
biz for a similar reason - I apprenticed with a master totem carver during 
the summers in the 50's and that led to diving . . .a long story. You can 
find it in my book "The Totem Carvers" - now out of print but usually 
available -used-, from Amazon - stupid prices sometimes, though!
BTW, our crew just got back from Normandy - filming the sunken 'D' -day 
troop carriers and tanks off SWORD, JUNEAU, and OMAHA beaches for a one hour 
special due  to air next year for the 70th anniversary of the D-Day 
invasion. Even took a 92 year old survivor down in 'Aquarius' to see his 
troop transporter, we used AQ and DeepWorker.  AQ is off filming deep 
glass-sponge reefs next week, for a conservation group called C-Paws - 
google the name and you'll get the skinny.
Phil

-----Original Message----- 
From: Alan
Sent: Saturday, October 12, 2013 12:56 PM
To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Bruce Beasley Acrylic Casting

Hi Jon & Hank,
Firstly Hank, no I didn't come across any Biber class submarines.
   Regarding Bruce; After his success with acrylic he started an acrylic 
business, however his partner got out of it & set up his own company. He was 
a bit hard done by. At some point he
chose to pursue art rather than a business career. He is a good friend of 
Phil Nuytten. They both
have a strong interest in Native American art.
If we had a conference on the West coast you might be able to talk him in to 
speaking.
It certainly is an interesting story.
Alan


Sent from my iPad

On 12/10/2013, at 2:59 AM, Jon Wallace <jon.wallace at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Nice job Alan.  I always wondered where he was, he seemed to disappear 
> after his work with Stachiw ended.  We should see if he's interested in 
> being a guest speaker for a future conference.
>
> --------------------------------------------
> On Sat, 10/12/13, Alan <alanlindsayjames at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Bruce Beasley Acrylic Casting
> To: "Personal Submersibles General Discussion" 
> <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
> Date: Saturday, October 12, 2013, 1:26 AM
>
> While in San Francisco I looked up
> Bruce Beasley's contact details.
> He is one of Americas pre- eminent sculptures & a
> pioneer in casting thick sectioned acrylic.
> I thought I was heading to his gallery but it ended up being
> his home & studio.
> For those who are unfamiliar with the story, Bruce was
> attracted to acrylic as a sculpting
> medium but no one had cast it more than two inches thick. He
> managed to cast a 4" thick
> model of a proposed 13ft x 4ft art work that he submitted
> for a competition for a State of California public
> sculpture. The judges awarded him the prize & finance to
> built it. Unbeknown
> to them the technology to make it didn't exist.
> Du Pont the acrylic manufacturer told Bruce they couldn't
> offer him technical assistance as he had already exceeded
> what their chemists could achieve, but would supply him the
> raw product free.
> He observed the formation of bubbles in the polymerising
> acrylic through windows in an autoclave & discovered how
> to eliminate them & the cracking, that were the Achilles
> heel of the process. 2 castings later he created The 13ft x
> 4ft casting. He said if he hadn't have made it he could have
> been sued.
> It was at that point that Jerry Stachiw from the U.S. navy
> approached him to make thick acrylic spheres for deep diving
> submersibles. There were several failures before success
> & the price tag on these failures was the equivalent of
> a new VW.
>    Anyway he ushered me in to his living room
> & chatted away. I have a background in art
> so we related well, & he ended up giving me a book which
> was a retrospective of his sculpture,
> including the story of his acrylic sculpture. I think he was
> quite impressed that someone from N.Z.
> knew his story & had tracked him down.
> He still has the secrets to manufacturing large castings if
> anyone wants to purchase the technology.
> So again I've been totally spoilt.
> Alan
>
>
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
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