Beginner Art

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Nothing fancy, just a couple of beginner projects to work on cutting, shaping, and welding.  Everything done with some sheet metal and rod from Home Depot, an OA rig, bench grinder for shaping and removing slag, and a handheld grinder / flap wheel for some of the polishing.My daughter wanted something with hearts on it.  I originally was just gonna cut out a heart, but I thought that would be pretty boring, so I came up with this idea.I wanted to get a bit deeper, so I started looking into candleholders.  I wanted to incorporate flowers, so I figured I'd get my feet wet by making a standard sheet metal rose.  Wish I had the equipment to get it sand blasted or something to better clean off the slag and scale, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
Reply:That's pretty good looking work!!!
Reply:Thanks!  It's been enjoyable to watch something evolve from just sheet metal and rod stock.
Reply:Nice look'n rose.   I think you should give us a short tutorial on how you went about making it.
Reply:Nice work.
Reply:Good job on both!!You might like some thinner sheet metal for the rose. Easier to bend and shape, plus looks more dainty.Burt _____________________Miller Syncrowave 250Millermatic 211Miller 375 Plasma Cutter Hobart Handler 12010FtDrillBit.com
Reply:That is great ! What's your location ???  Check out the horseshoe thread , some easy stuff and fun to make. http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...rojects-StickyHere is some silverware art and wine bottle holders that are easy and fun too. http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...rojects-Sticky
Reply:Thanks for the encouragement!  Just filled in location.  I'm south of Philly in the 'burbs.  Wish I could claim some design smarts, but the rose was just based on an instructable that I stumbled across.  Basically cut 3 circles out of sheet metal, then 5 cuts towards the center to make the petals.  A bit of shaping on the grinder, then drill a hole through the center of each circle.  Weld the petal circles onto a rod, then just bend the petals up.  Takes some time, but turned out to be pretty easy.  The only thing that sucks is I don't have a vise (but amazon tells me that one is en route as we speak  ), so it took a bunch of torch lighting, heating, turning the torch off, bending, relighting, ...Here's a pic of the flower halfway through that gives an idea of how it came together.Yeah, the metal was certainly more than I needed.  It was all I had on hand, and I was to lazy to run to Home Depot (still need to find a local supply place that sells in tiny quantities).  I'm working on a candleholder now that will have 4 or 5 of those flowers, but the center is open enough to fit a tea light in each one.  Using 18 gauge, which is turning out to be much easier.  Plus, I can cut it with shears instead of the OA torch, which means I have much less cleanup to do on the pieces.
Reply:Nice Rose!!
Reply:You might try cleaning the mill scale off the pedals before you cut them.  Should work out good and give the same effect of sandblasting after.Eastwood 135 mig welderHobart Stickmate LX 235 AC / 160 DCHobart EX Tig 165
Reply:jstrain, a few ideas for the next rose?  What about taking your grinder/flap sander and beveling the edges of the circles for about 1/2" outer edge? This would leave the pedals much thinner, then after tapering the edges, cut the the pedal's outlines as you show. If you tapered to a knife edge you could always touch the outer edge and blunt it some, and what if the outer edge were just a little bit more irregular-too?Then instead of following the original method, a slight detour; what about taking a small hammer and some round stock and just roll the thinned edges a little back downward- prior to stacking and rolling the pedals up?  Then the thin edges combined with the outward (once formed) roll of the pedal edges may give a little more detailed shape?Just a thought?  Also, once the flower is formed, after starting with cleanly sanded white metal, maybe you could use the torch to color the pedal's upper rolled edges and get some interesting metal heat patina effects?Looks nice, glad to see your work, just a few ideas about what may be done to other versions of your metal rose.Cheers,Kevin MorinKenai, AK
Reply:Thanks for all the ideas!  I clean the petals decently after they're cut, but maybe I really need to hit them with the flap wheel before mounting them.  Some of the gunk is coming from my heating and bending the petals.  Not sure what I can do about that.  I've been working on some more today (18 gauge this time) and gave a shot at cleaning the outside layer before the next layer gets folded up.  Not perfect, but looks cleaner this time.  Next step is to clean each petal as I fold it up.Finally got some flap wheels for the Dremel, which work pretty awesomely for for stuff like this.Kevin, those are some great ideas.  I especially like the edge rolling idea.  The ones I'm working on now will just get painted black once I get the candleholder done.  But I see myself doing some more of these down the road, and it'd be great to up my game and do something a bit more advanced.
Reply:You`ve got skills, nice!Thermal Arc 210 - Tweco 211I - Cutmaster 52
Reply:I use this HF 1'' belt sander for small stuff. The thing has been holding up well considering how much use it gets. It has been steadily going up in price but not bad using a 25 % off coupon. http://www.harborfreight.com/1-in-x-...der-60543.html
Reply:That's still a pretty good price! I just bought an Eastwood unit with a 2 or 3 inch belt and a grinding wheel. That has come in handy for cleaning up edges and getting rid of slag on the pieces I've cut with the torch.
Reply:Originally Posted by jstrainYeah, the metal was certainly more than I needed.  It was all I had on hand, and I was to lazy to run to Home Depot (still need to find a local supply place that sells in tiny quantities).
Reply:Been working on a larger candleholder project using metal flowers, but took a break to make a single one for my mom's birthday present.  Don't know why, but I like the ones made of thicker sheet better than the thinner sheet I've been using for the candleholders.Anyway, I took Kevin's idea of slightly rolling the petal edges.  Don't have the setup to easily do it with the hammer, but I heated the tips up and used needle nose to roll them out a bit.  Really like how that turned out.  To finish it off, I painted it black.  I love the look of bare metal, but this covers up a lot of the imperfections left over from the forming.I'm getting better at it, but still looking forward to improving my technique and finding some other ways to make these nicer.
Reply:Good morning Jstrain.I also hammer the stem in places to give it a more natural look then shape some leaves out of thin sheet. I crudely mark some veins on the leaves using a cold chisel. Weld a couple of them on the stem. You will be surprised how easy it is and how much it improves the rose.You are doing well, keep practicing.Burt _____________________Miller Syncrowave 250Millermatic 211Miller 375 Plasma Cutter Hobart Handler 12010FtDrillBit.com
Reply:Thanks for the ideas, Burt. I've got some leaves cut out for the candleholder project, but didn't go that far on this iteration. I like the idea of chiseling the veins on!
Reply:A needle scaler can be used in metal artwork too. http://www.harborfreight.com/compact...ler-96997.html
Reply:Those are some unbelievably incredible metal projects. Great forging skills.PlasmaCam CNC cutterLathe and Band SawClamps