Flowers and Vase

[Hitch]

I will do this in a few posts over the next few weeks.
The project, is a vase, with some metal roses in.


I have made a fair few of the roses before, but only ever singularly.

Wanted a vase that was weighty enough to be nice and stable.

Made the vase today, about an hour to do.
1.5mm zintec sheet, measure 240 high, and 200x200 square

Developed the pattern out flat, punched the dimples, purely for decoration, Then plasma cut out the corners.

Folded the top edge 45deg over square so it acts as a bit of a safety edge, aswell as adding a lot of strength. Pressed up the sides up to meet each other, then welded it up.
Nice easy downhill mig weld, slight gap left to alow for some penetration.

Cleaned up the welds using a flap disc, then a surface conditioning pad to remove any marks.

Just the roses to do now

 

[Hitch]

For the newer members that havnt seen them, this is what will be going in there...eventually...
Probably half a dozen fully open, then a few half open, and a few buds.

 

[Luke]

they're beautiful.

 

[steve202]

Chrome the flower heads!

 

[Hitch]

Chrome, mmmmm not sure on that :-/

 

[Baz-Cem]

If I made somthing like this it would take me week to convince the misses I hadn't been upto no good

 

[Hitch]

Its for her birthday, so doing on the QT is essential
Told her id work untill 12, clocked out at 11

 

[steve202]

Chrome, mmmmm not sure on that :-/

Yeh yer right! tacky.......

 

[Hitch]

They dont look bad in satin black.

Or just burnished with some lacquer loks smart too

 

[MrFluffy]

Any chance you will be going into how you make the rose heads themselves hitachi?
I think itll be spot on, and a better present than something you just get off the shelf in a shop.

 

[Hitch]

I could do i guess, its really easy from a metalwork point of view.

 

[Hitch]

I think i will charge 50p for this issue, and give you the first piece you need free.
The next parts will be £7.50 a week for the next 6 months

Okay, first job, make the stems up.
5/6mm diameter bar, about 3-400mm long. And a piece of 10 or 12mm diameter bar, about 15/20mm long.

Drill a 3.2mm hole down the middle or (near as) about 10-12mm deep. Either on a drillpress or by hand. I used my cheapy home one.

You can tap the stem out to M4 now or leave it untill later.


Then weld the two together, sand off smooth, blending the 12mm into the 5mm.

Thats as far as i have go so far....

 

[Welderpaul]

Come on hitch - dying to know what comes next!

 

[Hitch]

I ahve done part of the next bit, i need to pull my finger out a bit, her birthdays in 12 days time, but im flat out at the moment

 

[Hitch]

I managed to find some time yesterday to sort the leaves out.

I bought the leaves in from North Valley forge. The wire they are stuck onto is just bit of mma rod, 2.5 and 3.2 for some variety

I crimp over the edges of the leaf stem with some pliers, then tig braze the leaves on.
No reason you couldnt mig them if you havnt got TIG, but the leaves are pretty thin, about 0.5mm i think.
I bought a handfull of different sized leaves and welded a few on each stem.

 

[Hitch]

Then next.... the worst part.
Cutout all the petals

I use 22gauge sheet or thinner if you can get hold of it.
I use tin snips to cut them out, left and right handed one makeit very easy. You dont have to be precise with the cutting.

Cut out a series of petals, a variety of different sizes, so when bent up they fit inside each other.
The centre has 3 petals, then 5, then 5, then 5, then the outside has 5 pointy bits.

I will be doing some with 4 sections some with 5 and some closed roses with only 3.

Once youve cut them all out, you then need to drill a 5mm hole through the middle of each piece.
(I happened to use a punch to save time)

 

[Welderpaul]

You can buy the petals Hitch.

 

[Drains]

You can buy the petals Hitch.

Now you tell 'im!

 

[Welderpaul]

Now you tell 'im!

No one asked little ol' me.

 

[Hitch]

Ah yes, but then, everyones identical and no longer hand made.