First "Real" Sculpture

[eSCHEn]

I was asked if I could make a sculpture for a friend of my wife (another one, yeah she's great at volunteering me!) We didn't know what he would like but decided on the symbol for the Common Weal, which he's very interested in: www.allofusfirst.org

I'd hoped to be able to get hold of some triangular box section to make my life easier but none was forthcoming so I bit the bullet and had to make some. I thought I'd stick a few pictures of the build up in case someone fancied a laugh at my "skills"

I'd asked on another thread about aquiring box section and got the setup on how to lay the bits out from Tig Paul so a big thanks out to him for the help. Doesn't look anywhere near as nice as his stuff unfortunately!

First thing was laying out where I wanted the cuts on the bit of scrap mild I had to use. It used to be part of a knackered stove:


Next I laid the triangle out and checked that the balance part would look right, scale wise:


Here's the fulcrum tacked together. I used the TIG as I find it easiest to control:


I filled in with the MIG on pure Argon as, well, I don't have anything else I went through a few passes of fill, grind and repeat. Eventually came to this:


Nowhere near perfect I know but the best I could do with an angle grinder. Here's a shot of the finished pieces:


Wifey dearest gave the gift to the recipient today and he was really pleased with it. Phoned me up specially tonight and now wants to commission me to do something else for him, ulp!

One last shot of the all pieces assembled before it headed out the door:



That's all folks, thanks for reading

 

[Paul.]

Looks good, well done
when I read your original post I must have misread the length, I thought it was 1000 mm, hence the advice about tipping it up and welding downhill, a small piece like you have done there would tig weld nicely,
That would make a great little ornament made from stainless and polished, perhaps there's a market for them.

 

[eSCHEn]

Thank you very much Paul, means a lot from someone of your calibre. I'd hoped to get neater and sharper corners but that was the limits of my skill. If I'd had more time I would have gone all TIG but I only had a few hours in which to do this and I'm super slow on TIG.

I'd originally thought 100mm for the fulcrum but the piece I had to work with wasn't huge and that was the biggest I could extract. Scale was perfect in fact so a happy coincidence

Now I need to get some stainless rods and practice for the next bit he wants. Eek! Good job I like learning on the job

 

[RonMig]

Nice! It's weird how a such 'simple' structure can look so good.

 

[chunkolini]

Tidy work there, and a bit of meaning.
As Ron says sometimes simple just 'works'.

 

[CRB]

Neat and simple.....and hours of fun with pennies.

I had to look up 'weal' since I only knew it as an alternative to welt, the nasty red mark left by something hitting you. ?Could not be that, surely?

 

[Moosevan]

'Just right', nicely done.

 

[eSCHEn]

Thank you all, very kind. Yes I was suprised at how nice it turned out given how simple it is. Sort of sad to see it leave really!

The name it seems is old Scots: "Common Weal, an old Scots phrase meaning both wealth shared in common and for the wellbeing of all. (Para 3)."