First Dragonfly this year ?

[RonMig]

Is it a bird ?
Is it a plane?
Is it a superman?
No - it's a Dragonfly !

Well, it was too cold to fix the summerhouse floor or the rust on the car wheelarch, so Shed, Blowtorch, Hammer and Mig Welder beckoned....

It started with me finding some scrap lengths of 3mm galvanised fencing wire and thinking I must re-purpose that somehow...
Had this thought in my head for a while, probably goes back to the last time someone on here made one...?
Hopefully mine will be different enough to previous ones to avoid toe-treading.

Out comes a bit of scrap ply and a pencil...

 

[RonMig]

I also have some bottle-openers going spare (!) and somehow I could picture these being useful if bashed-up (er - fabricated) a bit...

 

[RonMig]

And these nails weren't getting used any time soon...
Does anyone use nails any more?
I converted to screws years ago, after having a bad time trying to get nails Out...

These needed a bit of a clean first, then some bending etc...
Almost got a production line going (but not quite) -












My mig has got some Lidl 0.6mm gasless wire in at the moment, just trying it out, can be a bit messy but otherwise seems quite good for tiny spot welds on thin stuff

 

[RonMig]

So intent on doing it that I forgot to take pictures of using strange brackets to mount the wings onto a Rotor from a wrecked electric motor (hoover?).
Also made eyes and body, from them little gas canisters...







The body / tail was a bit too shiney so I used the blowtorch to burn that off then got a nice dull-grey finish with the drill/wire brush.

 

[RonMig]

Shiney or Dull or Rusty?

I like shiney. I like Dull. I like Rusty ( like @chunkolini amazing creations)
I like Painted too.
Not sure which way to go with this one.? What do you think?

Probably too big to stay indoors...

 

[RonMig]

Made some chunky washers with claws (more nails) to add to the feet, for anchor points

Then Legs section attached, completes the build

Sits nice and solid on the bench; can be mounted vertical on a fence / shed / tree, or suspended with fishing wire...

Just needs a decision on Shiney / Dull / Rusty / Painted ...?

 

[arther dailey]

thats really great, are you putting some cellophane/shrink wrap on the wings ?

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Great work For the finish, I'd go 'dull'.

 

[RonMig]

thats really great, are you putting some cellophane/shrink wrap on the wings ?

I did think about this but, assuming it will live outside I'd be concerned how it might deteriorate with rain,sun,hail,frost,snow then 37C heat and UV light.

I'm leaning towards "dull grey" natural metal finish, with protection by a coating of ACF50 and clear wax which could be easily topped-up when needed/annually?

Anyone else have metal sculptures outside which are not deliberately rusty?

 

[arther dailey]

well maybes there are model aero plane enthusiasts you could ask if there is a suitable clear film that would suit ,really think if you get something that would give the slight oil on water effect in the daylight it would be a cut above , understand your long term thoughts re outside weathering, either way its excellent

 

[outofthefire]

Usually I just heat up to a black heat and rub a candle over the steel, it lasts remarkably well. The last couple of bit's i've done though, i've sprayed with a clear lacquer purely because we have it at work and I wanted to see how it held up - carp is the answer, rust was starting to show with in a couple of weeks. From now on it's either rust or wax. If you're going to use acf50 try putting it on over the wax, putting wax on hot, it seems to soak in a bit and lasts.

 

[RonMig]

I like the idea of using heat and a candle...
I'm also a fan of ACF50, so i'm doing some test pieces with wax only, wax with ACF50, ACF-only, and untreated, so will give those a few weeks outside & see how they change, if at all.
In the meantime I did a test-mount on the shed...

Maybe it's because the sun was actually shining (!), but to me, it Definitely looks a bit too shiney...

 

[outofthefire]

Maybe it's because the sun was actually shining (!), but to me, it Definitely looks a bit too shiney...

Heating it up to apply candle wax will darken it. You could also go past black heat and colour it a bit.