Hongerig Geholpen Base

Submitted to Community Chat

Update - December 20, 2016.

This is Hongerig Geholpen on his stand in my Daughter's classroom. I am not sure if this is a real skeleton or a plastic one. She has both and they are both pretty heavy. Contrary to the movies and television, when all the flesh is removed from a skeleton it falls apart as individual bones. Real and plastic classroom skeletons are usually wired together with a high degree of precision so the joints work properly.

Watched a television movie the other day where they dragged a bone only skeleton out of a grave. The prop guys probably bought a plastic wired togethered skeleton and no one knew reality. This "fall apart through tissue decay" issue is what gives the museum guys so much fun when they go to piece them together after digging up sites.

Thanks,

Rex

My oldest Daughter teaches anatomy, among other things. One of her teaching aids is a skeleton that came with a cheap plastic stand that was not real sturdy or stable. It broke and almost caused the loss of "Hongerig Geholpen" (Hungry Aide in Dutch). So, the task of resolving the issue got transferred to me. This base is just over 24" in diameter with five 2 7/8" wheels. The mount is off center since Hongerig hangs about 4" in front of the mounting pole.

When she mounts Hongerig on it, if it is not stable enough we will use about 25-pounds of steel from the spare parts pile and mount it to the bottom, center. The reason for the 2 7/8" wheels.

The wood is Birch and it is finished in Natural Cherry - leftovers in the workshop. The wheels are from furniture dollies from Harbor Freight. Two dollies, giving us eight wheels, was cheaper than buying three wheels alone.

(Now I have three wheels in my spare parts pile waiting for a destination. Something will come up, I am sure.)

Puppy is Kidji, an emigrant from Israel. Tried to find out what her name means but have been unable. Nicest dog you will ever meet. We are told she is an intentional mix of Vizsla (Hungarian Pointer), Chow, and Rottweiler. The Israeli national police force(?) captain that brought her to the U.S. will say very little about her other than she started training as an ambassador dog but did not complete it due to the captain’s emigration to the U.S. I have never seen Kidji growl or snap even when two of the neighbor's dogs attacked her. She wanted to play while they bit and fought her.

(By the way, there are laws about owning human skeletons and human organs. Daughter is a credentialed teacher in a public high school teaching a course approved by the state. She has to provide numerous documents for each purchase.)

Thanks,

Rex