Metalsculptor
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Impressed...
- Thread starter Buter
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Impressed...
pondman
Member
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- 476
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- United kingdom, high wycombe
I'm loving this thread. Well done on getting the commission it looks like its going to be an amazing sculpture!! Very interested in the patina's too, I've also just got the go ahead for my first life sized sculpture (a horse) so I'm trying to figure out what finish I'd like to achieve and how make a sturdy enough base. I look forward to seeing yours take shape 
Buter
Chief Clam
- Messages
- 86
Thanks, guys.
I've been a silent admirer of your work for a while now, pondman. I think I even have a froggy of yours saved as inspiration.
I hope everyone had a good weekend. I let the tools gather dust on Sunday and went out to my land to keep working on our bike jumps/trails. Too wet to ride, sadly.
After changing out my 32 amp breaker due to the welder tripping it out at full chat, I got back to work on Monday morning. Wasn't exactly smooth sailing...
First I cut the belly piece out of 1.2mm sheet. Fabrication 101 - your guide/template protects the piece you're cutting. Fail.
If anyone doubts the kind of edge you get with a plasma, here ya go:
Tacked in some spacers
Then came the first of many head scratching moments - I didn't have a plan to align the two faces. Hmmm.... Well, if the edges are aligned and the tips of the wave are aligned, it can't go too far wrong
Measure twice, cut once. Wise words. I measured twice, cut once. Unfortunately, I was working with the wrong numbers... back to the beginning...
Then more tech troubles. This is never a good sign
The solenoid was working on it's own schedule today. Very frustrating. To make matters worse, it feels like the liner needs replacing. Having already wasted Tuesday morning running around getting stuff like argon, cutting disks, beer, grinding disks, hand cleaner, etc... I wasn't about to go all the way across the island again for a torch liner.
When the welder was working, I had my own design implications to deal with. I was joining 3mm to 1.2mm - fun, eh? Now, these pieces weren't cnc cut, so there were places with great fit up and places where, you know, not so much. Also, I had planned on welding with the wave upright where I had good light. What I found was the only position I could get with the torch was causing too much heat input into the 1.2mm. Doh!
So I ended up having to reach in to a max of 440mm with poor visibility, poor fit up and a dodgy torch. My dog learned a few new words today.
Occasionally it all went my way and the crappy little Sealey made some decent welds
Of course, with that much welding to do and the equipment working properly it was only a matter of time until...
Been a frustrating couple of days but I've enjoyed it and I'm pretty much where I wanted to be with the piece
I think that the hardest bits are over and the fun stuff can start now. Top tunes on the playlist today - Black Label Society and System of a Down.
Let's see what tomorrow brings!
Cheers
Buter
I've been a silent admirer of your work for a while now, pondman. I think I even have a froggy of yours saved as inspiration.
I hope everyone had a good weekend. I let the tools gather dust on Sunday and went out to my land to keep working on our bike jumps/trails. Too wet to ride, sadly.
After changing out my 32 amp breaker due to the welder tripping it out at full chat, I got back to work on Monday morning. Wasn't exactly smooth sailing...
First I cut the belly piece out of 1.2mm sheet. Fabrication 101 - your guide/template protects the piece you're cutting. Fail.
If anyone doubts the kind of edge you get with a plasma, here ya go:
Tacked in some spacers
Then came the first of many head scratching moments - I didn't have a plan to align the two faces. Hmmm.... Well, if the edges are aligned and the tips of the wave are aligned, it can't go too far wrong
Measure twice, cut once. Wise words. I measured twice, cut once. Unfortunately, I was working with the wrong numbers... back to the beginning...
Then more tech troubles. This is never a good sign
The solenoid was working on it's own schedule today. Very frustrating. To make matters worse, it feels like the liner needs replacing. Having already wasted Tuesday morning running around getting stuff like argon, cutting disks, beer, grinding disks, hand cleaner, etc... I wasn't about to go all the way across the island again for a torch liner.
When the welder was working, I had my own design implications to deal with. I was joining 3mm to 1.2mm - fun, eh? Now, these pieces weren't cnc cut, so there were places with great fit up and places where, you know, not so much. Also, I had planned on welding with the wave upright where I had good light. What I found was the only position I could get with the torch was causing too much heat input into the 1.2mm. Doh!
So I ended up having to reach in to a max of 440mm with poor visibility, poor fit up and a dodgy torch. My dog learned a few new words today.
Occasionally it all went my way and the crappy little Sealey made some decent welds
Of course, with that much welding to do and the equipment working properly it was only a matter of time until...
Been a frustrating couple of days but I've enjoyed it and I'm pretty much where I wanted to be with the piece
I think that the hardest bits are over and the fun stuff can start now. Top tunes on the playlist today - Black Label Society and System of a Down.
Let's see what tomorrow brings!
Cheers
Buter
chunkolini
celebrity artiste
- Messages
- 9,456
- Location
- Swansea
All looking good, and nice to see the build.
Hardest bits are over?
I have been saying that for about a week and a half on my current project. Every bit turns out to be hard. But if it was easy wouldn't life be boring.
Quick thought, when I am cutting out matching panels I sometimes cut both at the same time, as long as the layers are a close fit I have not had problems doing this.
I bet rolling and fitting the curved section inside the body was great fun.
Keep us posted.
Hardest bits are over?
I have been saying that for about a week and a half on my current project. Every bit turns out to be hard. But if it was easy wouldn't life be boring.
Quick thought, when I am cutting out matching panels I sometimes cut both at the same time, as long as the layers are a close fit I have not had problems doing this.
I bet rolling and fitting the curved section inside the body was great fun.
Keep us posted.
Buter
Chief Clam
- Messages
- 86
Hi Chunkolini
Yeah, the bit I thought was gonna be really fun has turned out to be a giant PITA - more later...
Like you I quite often cut matching panels in the same pass to ensure a good match but there was a kink in one side of each of the sheets I was cutting the pieces out of so it wouldn't have worked this time. Still, good enough for government work.
Yeah, the inside piece was a bit of a 'mare, but I always knew it would be.
On to the progress...
Due to a suggestion on another thread, today's playlist begins with
First order of the day was to get the structure tidied up a bit. Fill in the gaps and get it 90% ground down and smooth. I'll do the final tidy up as I'm skinning the thing with copper. Did I need to do the filling with TIG; no. Did I use it any way? Hellz yeah I did!
After 30 minutes of headache inducing grinding, it was time to start playing with copper! Out comes my new favourite toy to filet the water cylinders
Time to start practicing
Here's where the trial and error, guessing and swearing began. If you think welding 3mm to 1.2mm mild is a PITA, welding (disclaimer - I know this is technically supposed to be brazing, but I am going to continue to use the 'w' word. It's my story and I'll tell it the way I want to) .75mm copper to 3mm steel is a whole 'nother kind of aggravating! After 2 hours or so I could join the metal, but I still wasn't happy with it.
Trial and error continued throughout the afternoon, interrupted for a few hours by a buddy who wanted a tool rack fab'd up for the back of his pickup. Changing settings, changing techniques and working my way through more tungsten than a 1st year noob (I should have really cleaned up the copper a bit better as it was coughing and spitting all over the place).
In the end I cracked it. Yeah, I know, no pics = it didn't happen, but I had my 50mm lens on the camera and it just won't focus close enough to get a good shot. It was nice to finally start stacking dimes (pennies). The joints are going to be much wider than you would want with a lap joint normally, but I don't really see a way around that. Besides, this is just for decoration and we want to accentuate the joints anyway (you say cloud, I say silver lining).
Off to work tomorrow so you won't hear from me for a little bit, but this thing is right on schedule!
Top tune on the playlist today - Steve Earle, Copperhead Road, of course!
Cheers
Buter
Yeah, the bit I thought was gonna be really fun has turned out to be a giant PITA - more later...
Like you I quite often cut matching panels in the same pass to ensure a good match but there was a kink in one side of each of the sheets I was cutting the pieces out of so it wouldn't have worked this time. Still, good enough for government work.
Yeah, the inside piece was a bit of a 'mare, but I always knew it would be.
On to the progress...
Due to a suggestion on another thread, today's playlist begins with
First order of the day was to get the structure tidied up a bit. Fill in the gaps and get it 90% ground down and smooth. I'll do the final tidy up as I'm skinning the thing with copper. Did I need to do the filling with TIG; no. Did I use it any way? Hellz yeah I did!
After 30 minutes of headache inducing grinding, it was time to start playing with copper! Out comes my new favourite toy to filet the water cylinders
Time to start practicing
Here's where the trial and error, guessing and swearing began. If you think welding 3mm to 1.2mm mild is a PITA, welding (disclaimer - I know this is technically supposed to be brazing, but I am going to continue to use the 'w' word. It's my story and I'll tell it the way I want to) .75mm copper to 3mm steel is a whole 'nother kind of aggravating! After 2 hours or so I could join the metal, but I still wasn't happy with it.
Trial and error continued throughout the afternoon, interrupted for a few hours by a buddy who wanted a tool rack fab'd up for the back of his pickup. Changing settings, changing techniques and working my way through more tungsten than a 1st year noob (I should have really cleaned up the copper a bit better as it was coughing and spitting all over the place).
In the end I cracked it. Yeah, I know, no pics = it didn't happen, but I had my 50mm lens on the camera and it just won't focus close enough to get a good shot. It was nice to finally start stacking dimes (pennies). The joints are going to be much wider than you would want with a lap joint normally, but I don't really see a way around that. Besides, this is just for decoration and we want to accentuate the joints anyway (you say cloud, I say silver lining).
Off to work tomorrow so you won't hear from me for a little bit, but this thing is right on schedule!
Top tune on the playlist today - Steve Earle, Copperhead Road, of course!
Cheers
Buter
outofthefire
Member
- Messages
- 2,871
Cracking music choice and work so far, i've played about welding 1mm electical copper wire to 2mm copper sheet with oxy acetylene it never occurred to me try welding it to steel like that, now i've got something else added to my todo list (yes once the dragons done chunko 
) 
)
Buter
Chief Clam
- Messages
- 86
I kinda wish it hadn't occurred to me, dude!
If anyone's interested, the final settings turned out to be 1.6 tungsten, pulsed 105/60, 80 wide and 1 Hz - moving on the up and dipping on the down.
This setting gave a nice weld but I'm quite open to suggestions and advice as it still wasn't easy.
Cheers
Buter
If anyone's interested, the final settings turned out to be 1.6 tungsten, pulsed 105/60, 80 wide and 1 Hz - moving on the up and dipping on the down.
This setting gave a nice weld but I'm quite open to suggestions and advice as it still wasn't easy.
Cheers
Buter
Buter
Chief Clam
- Messages
- 86
Back from work; tired, jet-lagged and more than a little bit grumpy. Load the playlist up with some angry music - que Slipknot! Time to get to work.
I need to finish the stainless steel ring before I can close the wave up and do the copper work. I'd allotted today and tomorrow for that, but my 309 rods were a no-show. Grrrrr....
I also decided I wanted a bit more of a ring than I could realistically roll. It's probably a bad idea, but I'm gonna fab up a 10mm ss ring. And nobody on island has a circle cutter - time to get creative, I guess.
The sculptor gave me the size of centrepiece so I started laying it out and wondering how the he!! I was actually gonna do it
Decided to bring in a bit of extra money by providing DIY shank kits to the local jail birds
Well, I'm sure I've had worse ideas than this
The theory was sound
But in practice it was a bit of a pain. The two big issues were the torch wanting to pop out of the guide ring and dealing with the torch's hose. As always, figured out much better ways of doing it after I'd finished.
Since my home-brewed circle cutter didn't give me the perfect circles I was kinda after, I bolted them together and attached them to a piece of MDF and 10 minutes with a flap disk and I had matching, if not perfect circles.
Then I implemented the first improvement on my circle thingy
So after a few hours I've got these and not much else
Gonna head into the big smoke tomorrow and see if I can get some thinner stainless and some filler to get these things done tomorrow.
Decided to just throw down some TIG practice after I'd finished and just couldn't lay down any nice beads. Realised that I couldn't focus on the puddle and chalked it up to tired, jet-lagged eyes. Just as an experiment I put a dioptre on my hood and, lo and behold, stacks of dimes started appearing! I was stoked for a minute until I realised that time appears to be catching up with me and my eyes. Bummer.
I've not worked with stainless before so any suggestions are most welcome.
Cheers
Buter
I need to finish the stainless steel ring before I can close the wave up and do the copper work. I'd allotted today and tomorrow for that, but my 309 rods were a no-show. Grrrrr....
I also decided I wanted a bit more of a ring than I could realistically roll. It's probably a bad idea, but I'm gonna fab up a 10mm ss ring. And nobody on island has a circle cutter - time to get creative, I guess.
The sculptor gave me the size of centrepiece so I started laying it out and wondering how the he!! I was actually gonna do it
Decided to bring in a bit of extra money by providing DIY shank kits to the local jail birds
Well, I'm sure I've had worse ideas than this
The theory was sound
But in practice it was a bit of a pain. The two big issues were the torch wanting to pop out of the guide ring and dealing with the torch's hose. As always, figured out much better ways of doing it after I'd finished.
Since my home-brewed circle cutter didn't give me the perfect circles I was kinda after, I bolted them together and attached them to a piece of MDF and 10 minutes with a flap disk and I had matching, if not perfect circles.
Then I implemented the first improvement on my circle thingy
So after a few hours I've got these and not much else
Gonna head into the big smoke tomorrow and see if I can get some thinner stainless and some filler to get these things done tomorrow.
Decided to just throw down some TIG practice after I'd finished and just couldn't lay down any nice beads. Realised that I couldn't focus on the puddle and chalked it up to tired, jet-lagged eyes. Just as an experiment I put a dioptre on my hood and, lo and behold, stacks of dimes started appearing! I was stoked for a minute until I realised that time appears to be catching up with me and my eyes. Bummer.
I've not worked with stainless before so any suggestions are most welcome.
Cheers
Buter
outofthefire
Member
- Messages
- 2,871
We have a circle cutting attachment for the gas torch at work and we move the steel and keep the torch still rather than the other way round.
chunkolini
celebrity artiste
- Messages
- 9,456
- Location
- Swansea
Now that is bloody obvious.
Would never have thought of it though.
Idea filed away for future reference.
Would never have thought of it though.
Idea filed away for future reference.
Buter
Chief Clam
- Messages
- 86
Been a long day, don't really feel like posting. Thought about it last night and decided that there was no way I could use the ss rings I made yesterday and get a decent outcome so I chalked it up to experience and made them again properly. More later.
I don't mind sharing my first ever bead on stainless, though
In a redneck mood today so Charlie Daniels was the man on the hi-fi.
Cheers
Buter
I don't mind sharing my first ever bead on stainless, though
In a redneck mood today so Charlie Daniels was the man on the hi-fi.
Cheers
Buter
norlander
Member
- Messages
- 3,389
- Location
- Europe, mocycling paradise
Hi Chunkolini
Due to a suggestion on another thread, today's playlist begins with
Did I need to do the filling with TIG; no. Did I use it any way? Hellz yeah I did!
Way to go bro- why mig or stick it when ya can tig it, nice going on the sculpture.
BTW- cutting/welding on a drum- wasn't there something on here about a bloke who blew himself up welding or cutting on a drum?? or did I read that somewhere else?.
Buter
Chief Clam
- Messages
- 86
Well, the drum ain't blowed up on me yet, so I guess I'm alright!
I've not slept in 2 days so first things first, plug in a little bit of wake up noise
Upon reflection, the thin rings I cut out were never gonna work. They were just too flimsy to be the backbone of a fabricated piece. Nobody ever likes throwing out work and doing it over but if you learn from it, it ain't a complete waste. I kept the inside bits from the rings and they are gonna be my new pieces. We'll see how far I get with this left in the 'Y' bottle
Now that I'm buying the stuff myself I can't believe how fast you can go through Argon when you're TIG welding!
I got some 60mm wide strips of 1 mil stainless and bent one around the outside of one of my disks, which should be close enough identical for our needs. The sculptor and I had differing opinions on how this ring should look - I wanted to keep the mirror polish and highlight the joins with stacks of dimes; she just wanted a piece of metal to hold her mosaic and didn't want a shiny piece of metal stealing the show. W'eva...
Once I started tacking this bad boy up, I'm glad I was going for a more agricultural look. Why did none of y'all tell me that stainless moves around more than a coffee addict with ants in his pants?!? Because I wasn't going for a perfect ring anymore I just kinda soldiered on, which may not have been my best move.
Anyway, before lunch I had the outer band on the two 1.6 mil disks and got the centers cut out. Shame to not be using that mirrored shine. Out comes the DIY circle cutter again. If this all goes tits up, at least I can go into custom cake tin fabrication!
After lunch I deal with the inner band and again wished that I'd spent more time working on fit up and stopping the damn metal from dancing all over the place. I really like how it came out and it's just pride that keeps me from using it as-is. Everyone will know who welded this up and it wouldn't be a great advertisement, even though I really dig the way it looks. This is 5.6 metres of TIG welding, by the way!
That's enough of the ring thing today. I'll get it cleaned up tomorrow. Bit of a shame to be laying down really nice welds and know that because you're not back purging they're gonna look grey and ugly. They're gonna be ground off anyway...
Next step is to mark out the main structure to poke some holes in it tomorrow for the bars that will hold the ring. I invented a tool to help me mark it out; I call it a 'laser'
Hey, I said I hadn't had any sleep in two days; throw me a friggin' bone, here...
Dinner was ready so that's where I left it for the day. Grab some more gas, flapdisks and other bits in the morning and I hope to have the posts in and get the outer skin on tomorrow.
Good to have Metallica along for the ride today. Top tune - Disposable Heroes.
Cheers
Buter
I've not slept in 2 days so first things first, plug in a little bit of wake up noise
Upon reflection, the thin rings I cut out were never gonna work. They were just too flimsy to be the backbone of a fabricated piece. Nobody ever likes throwing out work and doing it over but if you learn from it, it ain't a complete waste. I kept the inside bits from the rings and they are gonna be my new pieces. We'll see how far I get with this left in the 'Y' bottle
Now that I'm buying the stuff myself I can't believe how fast you can go through Argon when you're TIG welding!
I got some 60mm wide strips of 1 mil stainless and bent one around the outside of one of my disks, which should be close enough identical for our needs. The sculptor and I had differing opinions on how this ring should look - I wanted to keep the mirror polish and highlight the joins with stacks of dimes; she just wanted a piece of metal to hold her mosaic and didn't want a shiny piece of metal stealing the show. W'eva...
Once I started tacking this bad boy up, I'm glad I was going for a more agricultural look. Why did none of y'all tell me that stainless moves around more than a coffee addict with ants in his pants?!? Because I wasn't going for a perfect ring anymore I just kinda soldiered on, which may not have been my best move.
Anyway, before lunch I had the outer band on the two 1.6 mil disks and got the centers cut out. Shame to not be using that mirrored shine. Out comes the DIY circle cutter again. If this all goes tits up, at least I can go into custom cake tin fabrication!
After lunch I deal with the inner band and again wished that I'd spent more time working on fit up and stopping the damn metal from dancing all over the place. I really like how it came out and it's just pride that keeps me from using it as-is. Everyone will know who welded this up and it wouldn't be a great advertisement, even though I really dig the way it looks. This is 5.6 metres of TIG welding, by the way!
That's enough of the ring thing today. I'll get it cleaned up tomorrow. Bit of a shame to be laying down really nice welds and know that because you're not back purging they're gonna look grey and ugly. They're gonna be ground off anyway...
Next step is to mark out the main structure to poke some holes in it tomorrow for the bars that will hold the ring. I invented a tool to help me mark it out; I call it a 'laser'
Hey, I said I hadn't had any sleep in two days; throw me a friggin' bone, here...
Dinner was ready so that's where I left it for the day. Grab some more gas, flapdisks and other bits in the morning and I hope to have the posts in and get the outer skin on tomorrow.
Good to have Metallica along for the ride today. Top tune - Disposable Heroes.
Cheers
Buter
chunkolini
celebrity artiste
- Messages
- 9,456
- Location
- Swansea
It must be so much fun being an artist.
Buter
Chief Clam
- Messages
- 86
Wouldn't know, man.
I had a day to work on this thing and the deadline is creeping up on me so I guess I better get to it.
The wife is bugging me for the wood to do the mosaic so I had to get that sorted. Much like my ex-wife, I hate playing with wood. Look at this mess. Sawdust all over my damn shop!
The wood is done so back to the metal. I don't think I need them and they're probably too thin to do much good but I felt I ought to cut up some gussets and weld 'em in for the sake of completeness
OK, this bit sucked...
All the sheet tacked up, guess I better weld her out
Since the sides were 3mm and the spine was 1mm I cranked the welder up to '11' (well, 5, actually) to burn into the 3mm and just let the weld pool tickle the 1mm for a nice, flat weld and a bit less grinding.
So, there we go - the end of 8 metres of mig weld
The only way to make it through a day like this was to crank up some Danish rockabilly death metal. Thank god for Volbeat!
It's been a long day, I'm gonna grab a cold beer and jump in a hot bath. The end is in sight!
Cheers
Buter
I had a day to work on this thing and the deadline is creeping up on me so I guess I better get to it.
The wife is bugging me for the wood to do the mosaic so I had to get that sorted. Much like my ex-wife, I hate playing with wood. Look at this mess. Sawdust all over my damn shop!
The wood is done so back to the metal. I don't think I need them and they're probably too thin to do much good but I felt I ought to cut up some gussets and weld 'em in for the sake of completeness
OK, this bit sucked...
All the sheet tacked up, guess I better weld her out
Since the sides were 3mm and the spine was 1mm I cranked the welder up to '11' (well, 5, actually) to burn into the 3mm and just let the weld pool tickle the 1mm for a nice, flat weld and a bit less grinding.
So, there we go - the end of 8 metres of mig weld
The only way to make it through a day like this was to crank up some Danish rockabilly death metal. Thank god for Volbeat!
It's been a long day, I'm gonna grab a cold beer and jump in a hot bath. The end is in sight!
Cheers
Buter
outofthefire
Member
- Messages
- 2,871
Seems to me that this is your sculpture with a small amount of assistance from the wife, I hope your going to get the recognition you deserve 
chunkolini
celebrity artiste
- Messages
- 9,456
- Location
- Swansea
Interfering wives are what keep the artiste going.
This is why I don't work to deadlines - I would have had a rethink about the whole copper thing, but I ain't got the time.
