Dolphin

[chunkolini]

I have made loads of fishes over the years and have always avoided Dolphins as bit 'twee' (and probably difficult).

I was asked recently to make a large Dolphin for the garden of an old peoples home. No more excuses, I was also impressed that somebody in this maligned area of care is spending his wonga on nice stuff.

The body was reasonably straightforward, the head was a royal pain, but I got it in the end.


The fins had to be made to have thickness, somebody asked me how I forged the tail. I made them out of two pieces of sheet with tapered strips holding them apart and giving thinness at the trailing edges. Can I see a manta ray in there?


He stands 2m tall, and is mounted on a 40cm square plate that bolts down.
The next stage is let the rust develop, then rub him down and varnish him.

Chunko'.

 

[mike os]

Nice chunko

 

[Jake]

Thats mega

 

[pedrobedro]

He didn't do it on porpoise though.

 

[chunkolini]

Groan.

Chunko'.

 

[madkayaker]

quality work as always

 

[cumbriasteve]

Spot on..looks great!

 

[Wozzaaah]

Great stuff as always Chunko'.

 

[Hitch]

I like the head, and fins, some nice sheet metal work techniques gone into that, or lots or error and trial?

Not so keen on the body though, cant pinpoint why though.

 

[tayash]

awesome!

 

[Slim Shady]

Sweeeeeet

 

[Drains]

Lovely job Chunko. Are those compound curves on the head? If so, how?

 

[Sparkey]

I like the head, and fins, some nice sheet metal work techniques gone into that, or lots or error and trial?

Not so keen on the body though, cant pinpoint why though.

Yep, i must agree with Hitch chunko...loooove the head, but the body is just too open, maybe you could fill it in a bit....not all of it but just here and there....if you get what i mean...

Yes, the tail fin can definitely be a manta ray!!
(tribute to Steve Irwin.....i'll get me coat....)

 

[PhillipM]

I can kinda see what you're saying about the body, looks a little insubstantial at the side of the head.
No matter, I love it anyway, but some fillets in the gridwork might sort that?

Apologies for murdering your dolphin with my Paint skills:

 

[Gsus]

congratulations, great job

 

[Ian D]

I can kinda see what you're saying about the body, looks a little insubstantial at the side of the head.
No matter, I love it anyway, but some fillets in the gridwork might sort that?

Apologies for murdering your dolphin with my Paint skills:

To be fair thats the first thing i thought before i saw the rest of the posts, did not look finished.
That looks better, great other than that. Ian.

 

[chunkolini]

As usual glad you like folks, this is a first unveiling so a nervous process. I am pretty happy with it, and that is not bad going. In fact I love the nose and tail, the middle bit fills the gap nicely.

Phillip that is not far from what I wanted to do. I did my full sized drawing on the workbench and could see that more in the sides would have improved things.
But this is built down to a budget, I gave my man a price, he gave me budget to work within (a great help to me), so I compromised. he still got massive value for money because I appreciate what he wants it for. The fillets around the fins should have carried along a lot further etc.
But, hell it shouts 'DOLPHIN' that is what we are after.

Compound curves? Nope. the head is curved in one plane, then spot welded to the body, the nose bits are made flat and clamped to a substructure then spot welded in place, luckily they made themselves into the beautiful curved shape. This kind of thing does itself all the time, I think if you relax this type of work almost makes itself. A weird process, but very rewarding.

Chunko'.

 

[GrahamGKD]

Brilliant - the head certainly looks as though you have beaten out compound curves on bags of sand or suchlike, and you are right - it does shout dolphin, no mistaking that - bottlenose, I presume?

 

[chunkolini]

Bottlenose? no just Dolphin.
the only Bottles I knows have cider in them.
I confess, re the four components on the nose. I spent ages fannying about trying to give one of them compound curves, fly press, log and mallet etc etc, then I clamped it on and the sodding thing bent itself. Ha!!! Of course, steel is malleable and ductile.

I spent ages sweating the details on this one, in fact was almost panicking, all these weird curves etc. Silly boy. The end of the hooter? a ball cut into quarters, one quarter top and bottom.

It's great, I still flap and panic over unfamiliar work, but I know if I can plan 1/3 of the job in my head it will work out fine, and a week later I will have forgotten how I made it.

Chunko'.

 

[Sanny]

That looks brilliant Chunko, how heavy is it?