Odd obelisk found in Utah????

originally posted by: booyakasha

this dude found it.

heres a video

23 1/8th in wide x 9ft 7 in tall.....and sounded somewhat solid when he knocked on it. Maybe filled with something?

This will be a bit lengthy. But give it a read if you will.

First off, it's been found. It's been visited, and photographed in detail.

Aliens didn't make it.

The questions that remain, are who made it. Why did they make it. How did they do it.

I have no clue on the first two, but I've put some thoughts into the third. So, I've put together 2 scenarios, in the first I lay out how I would have done it. In the second I postulate how they did it.

How I would have done this:

In a shop I would take the first panel and weld 60 degree angle mounts along each side of the panel, then on the second panel, 60 mounts along one side only. Other side of second panel would be pre drilled for the rivets. The third panel would be drilled on both sides for rivets.

All three would have 45 degree mounts welded at the top for the triangular top to be mounted.

The assembly would be pre assembled in the shop to ensure everything fits correctly.

That's it. Panels done.

For assembly at the site, we need in addition to the proper transportation,
An air compressor that is gas driven, or a portable air tank, a partner saw equipped with an 1/8 inch concrete blade, caulk gun and tubes of good quality construction adhesive (Sika makes some good stuff for this) and a rivet gun with rivets.

Upon arriving on site, you clear an area, level it up and lay out your three cuts. Make the 3 cuts with the saw, blow them out with compressed air to clean. Squirt in a good amount of adhesive and place the panel with mounts welded on both sides into the slot cut facing the approach to the monument. (This gives initial appearance of no rivets).
Then place second panel with mounts welded on far side away from first panel, then the last panel that just has holes into the last slot and rivet all three together.
Rivet in the top, and your done.

2 to 3 people could easily pull this off with no fancy tools. Or equipment.

As an added improvement, studs could be pre welded onto the panels on the inside where the rivets currently are, and push lock type nuts could be welded onto the brackets to achieve a smooth finished product with no visible rivets.

How I think they did it:

The obelisk has 2 rows of rivets on each panel, so instead of welded mounts, I suspect they built a pre welded frame for the sides to attach to.

They likely still cut the 3 slots, one for each panel, (all pre drilled), applied adhesive then installed the first panel, then riveted the framework to it. Then they likely just simply slid the other 2 panels into place and riveted them to the framework, then installed the top.

It worked, and was still just as easy to accomplish with as little as 3 men, but the result they got was full of rivets, and required an extra framework that in my opinion was extra work and expense with detrimental effects.

That's my take on it anyway.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Why doesn’t he take a jackhammer and try to slam that thing and see what happens?

Another point.
I don’t know why we always say aliens didn’t make this.
Actually, if memory serves aliens were not in the two movies this is supposed to mimic and had nothing to do with aliens.

a reply to: Willtell

why damage someones art installation like that?

Just let it be, what are you gonna find out by slamming it with a sledge hammer?

It's like Banksy in the wild.

a reply to: booyakasha


I'm just joking ...maybe a bad joke...

But the other point is true. Why do people associate aliens with this when the movie doesn't mention aliens

originally posted by: Vasa Croe

originally posted by: booyakasha

this dude found it.

heres a video

23 1/8th in wide x 9ft 7 in tall.....and sounded somewhat solid when he knocked on it. Maybe filled with something?

1/8 inch stainless would feel pretty dang solid to a knock with a hand. It's made with some fairly serious plate.
In comparison, thats about the thickness of your average semi tractor trailer truck frame.

a reply to: caterpillage

Ummm, I beg to differ with you there! I built semi tractor frames in college in a big fabrication shop for Autocar and Volvo tractors. They were two pieces of 1/4" plate, bent into a "C" shape and slid inside of each other and then welded.

I was the guy who had to drill the holes for the axle shackles and had to horse those mammoth pieces of steel up onto the press, day after day, so I know exactly what those things were made of! Later, I got into welding the pieces together. No way would 1/8" stainless work for a tractor frame, sorry.

ETA - The HD Autocar tractors were made from (2) pieces of 3/8" plate, bent and welded. Those things were miserable to deal with! All of them I had to pick up with a chain fall to get them up onto the press table, but those Autocar frames were finger busters big time!

a reply to: caterpillage

I did work with some big stainless at the same plant though, but that was for NASA. That was 3/4" plate, and we even had a shear which would shear it (seriously, a 3/4" 420 stainless plate!). It was like a 600 ton shear. We made the SRB stands for Morton Thiokol for the Space Shuttle rocket boosters to be hauled by rail to the Cape, and that was NASA's spec. Those plates were like 120 lbs/sf (I don't remember exactly, but they were heavy). One sheet would come in on a truck and that was a max load; they were 40 feet long and 9 feet wide.

originally posted by: TKDRL
a reply to: djz3ro
A fake, whatever it is. Real things don't have rivets.

This!

-MM

a reply to: MerkabaMeditation

🤣🤣🤣🤣

ETA - Yeah, like planes and stuff aren't "real"! LOL!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Ok. I could definitely admit to being wrong on the thickness of truck frames. I'll admit, I'm not a heavy truck mechanic. Nor am I a designer or builder of them.

I am however, someone who has extensive experience in both welding and fabrication.

And I stand by my above statement that 1/8 inch thick stainless, or for that matter anything 1/8 inch thick in any metal will feel pretty god damn solid.

Do you disagree with that?

a reply to: caterpillage

Agree completely. It would be pretty stout, especially put together in a triangular shape like that.

I didn't mean to suggest 1/8" thick stainless was just flimsy sheet metal by any stretch!

...only that truck frames aren't made from it.

ETA - I've worked in some pretty heavy fabrication environments in my past. Big stuff, where men are by far the miniscule minority and are eclipsed by heavy machinery. If I'm not mistaken, so have you, so no issues there.

a reply to: caterpillage

Just on a side note...I would think who ever built this thing had access to a decently sized sheet metal break. Bending a piece of 1/8" stainless 12' feet long isn't puppy stuff!

And, if I had to guess, I'd guess each of those pieces has a 2-3" flange bent into it. Else, what would they rivet to? So, not an easy piece to construct, regardless of where it was built.

I would think the pre-bent pieces were brought to the site and then the pieces were riveted together once there.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: caterpillage

Agree completely. It would be pretty stout, especially put together in a triangular shape like that.

I didn't mean to suggest 1/8" thick stainless was just flimsy sheet metal by any stretch!

...only that truck frames aren't made from it.

ETA - I've worked in some pretty heavy fabrication environments in my past. Big stuff, where men are by far the miniscule minority and are eclipsed by heavy machinery. If I'm not mistaken, so have you, so no issues there.

I've been around fabrication for the last 30 years, in the aspects of working along side the people doing the fabricating, and also doing it myself.
There's precious few times that things that I excel in, and have experience in, come up on ATS. So, when they do, I take a keen interest.

One of those things is metal work. I kinda like it.

So, if you've read my synopsis above, what do you think of it? Am I full of #?

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: caterpillage

Just on a side note...I would think who ever built this thing had access to a decently sized sheet metal break. Bending a piece of 1/8" stainless 12' feet long isn't puppy stuff!

And, if I had to guess, I'd guess each of those pieces has a 2-3" flange bent into it. Else, what would they rivet to? So, not an easy piece to construct, regardless of where it was built.

I would think the pre-bent pieces were brought to the site and then the pieces were riveted together once there.

I think no break was necessary. There are no bends.

a reply to: caterpillage

No, I think you're pretty much on the mark.

Personally, I don't think the construction of this thing was on par with building the great pyramids in Giza, but in the same breath it wasn't built by a bunch of drunken teenagers with leftover beer cans, duct tape and crazy glue either.

I'm not "awed" by the construction, it's fairly simplistic, but the location is curious. I think it accomplishes its apparent objective which is to draw attention. I doubt it will be the "8th" wonder of the world, but it is kind of cool.

In some respects I wish this object wouldn't have gotten as much attention as it did, as fast as it did. I would have preferred it to become some sort of desert lore which served as a kind of anonymous curiosity for decades. With all the attention it has grabbed, I suspect the federale's will tear it down pretty quickly.

That's my take.

a reply to: caterpillage

I disagree there.

ETA - Anything less would have required some fairly serious gussets on the inside to make it rigid. The strength of the object comes from the longitudinal shear strength of the surface material via the fastening system, which has got to be a flange. To build it any other way would just be silly and a waste of materials.

Go to 00.00 to 00.02 the first image in Vasa Croe's youtube above( for some reason it won't embed and the picture I took won't upload) and you'll get a very symmetrical picture of this monolith with the sky. It roughly resembles an alien head or looks like something very symmetrical coming out of the monolith's top--the blue sky behind it.

I just wish someone would hit that thing with something solid like a ball peen hammer, or a dead-blow mallet. Not enough to damage it, but just enough to really tell if it has anything inside of it, or if it has a liner.

Knocking on it with your fingers doesn't tell you much. But if you whacked it with a rock or something it would.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: caterpillage

I disagree there.

ETA - Anything less would have required some fairly serious gussets on the inside to make it rigid. The strength of the object comes from the longitudinal shear strength of the surface material via the fastening system, which has got to be a flange. To build it any other way would just be silly and a waste of materials.

I'm not sure what you're refering to here.

Our discussion has taken tangents, and on this one I'm lacking understanding.

Are you refering to my hypothesis of welded brackets facilitating riveting to other panels?


Look, I'm not wishing to be some kind of detractor to you here, we all now you are the authority on all things construction. I'm just adding my thoughts dude.