Pictures (old) of the building of the Visalia benches

B

Boyd Allen

Active member
The reason for the poor quality is that they are small pictures with textured finishes. I have bigger files, but the free hosting sites that I usually use are tied up. If anyone remembers dates, post them. The guy that is working on a bench top is Lee Six. One pic is of a odd rifle (at a match) set up on one of the old benches.
 

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  • Lee Six working on new Visalia benches 001.jpg
    Lee Six working on new Visalia benches 001.jpg
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  • Visalia bench construction 002.jpg
    Visalia bench construction 002.jpg
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  • Visalia old bench and odd rifle.jpg
    Visalia old bench and odd rifle.jpg
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  • Visalia bench construction.jpg
    Visalia bench construction.jpg
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  • Visalia bench construction 003.jpg
    Visalia bench construction 003.jpg
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  • Visalia bench construction 001.jpg
    Visalia bench construction 001.jpg
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Boyd, the biggest problem with the photos I see is their extremely high dynamic range. If you have PhotoShop, there is an HDR compressor built in. Oddly enough the way I've found is to first convert the image to 32 bit. From that, convert to 16 bit. During that conversion (from 32 bit), a menu will appear; one of the options is HDR compression. If you use it, the range will be cut in half -- PS will resample, assigning pixel values from 0 to 127 (which is compression), so if you then restore the image to the full 256 tonal values, there will be better shadow detail without losing much highlight detail. There are other, better tools in PhotoShop, but that one is automatic.

Better still is to first use the tools in Adobe's Camera Raw, or Lightroom in a Box. I don't use CR for its "intended" purpose, but for the interactive slider tools that let you dial in a picture more quickly. I use CR mainly for HDR compression, but you have more control and better feedback, without so many options as to get in your way. Then do the rest of the work in PhotoShop.

I'd work in the 16-bit mode, then sample down to 8 bits as a final step. With 16 bits, posturization is all but eliminated.
 
Thanks Charles,
Unfortunately, I don't have any of the programs that you mentioned. These are scanned from old 3 1/2 x 5 prints, that are none too good in the first place. I already did a little work with an eye toward making the details that are more important easier to see, but these are only the tools that come with my OS. Would you say that the benches were a bit labor intensive? I called Dennis to get some help on the date, he thinks early 80s, I will add any info if and when I get it. The range that I belonged to at the time, Fresno Rifle and Pistol Club, did a cooperative effort on the forms. The prototype form was built by Lee, I simplified the design and we (myself and two others) built five more, then Lee looked at what we had done and built another, third generation form. That is the one that is shown with the rebar in place. We poured 42 ,using six forms, and Lee and Dennis poured the 28 that are still in use at Visalia. The rebar is inserted into drilled holes in the slab after the form is positioned. One of the little tricks, that I came up with, is designing the side panels of the base so that they could be easily removed after the pour. Just in case anyone missed it, the benches are a one piece pour, top and base at the same time.
 
Old shooting picture's are always fun. I would love to see that rifle up close! I wonder what that ring around the eye piece is for. That is a Rem. rolling block is'nt it? Upper left in the photo, look's like he brought his lathe milling attachment with him.
 
They are all gone. I was not able to get anyone to save one, but I remember enough to build some others if I needed to. Truthfully, they are probably the most labor intensive benches that I have heard of. If you every want to know some of the features that worked, you can contact me. I put in a lot of time on the project.
 
Bench forms

When I worked for Lee he still had one of the forms. If memory still serves me, Lee loaned or gave it to Norm Jeffries to build new benches for the sunnyvale rod and gun club. Sadly, Lee is gone, but either Norm or Mel Iwatsubo might know of its fate.
 
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