Digital Fish Grows

Last night I put some more time into the fish. I added another 167 squares to the fish, and I cut another 251. The total number of squares on the fish is now 591. I’m thinking of naming this piece (and future pieces made with this same technique) based on the number of squares it’s made up of. So if this fish ends up with 728 squres alltogether, I’d called it The 728-Square Creature. Seems like a fun theme. Anyway, here’s the digital fish in progress.

Digital Fish Continues

Yesterday I added another 180 squares. Okay, some of them aren’t squares. I’ve allowed myself to create a few rectangles – 1″ across and more or less than 1″ down. The body of the fish is starting to really take shape. Next, I have to start on the head and tail (details!). I got a new piece of equipment for this project: an auto-darkening welding hood! See pictures of the digital fish in progress.

Digital Fish Begun

I started the digital fish last week! I’m calling it digital, because I expect to do the whole thing out of 1″ x 1″ squares. Last week, I welded together the first 174 squares. Yesterday I added 70 more squares. The bar there is just a visual guide; when finished, the fish will be composed of only squares (and weld detritus).

Here’s a gallery of what I’ve got so far.

New Project

I’m not sure what I’m going to make yet, but I have already decided how. In the past I have started by making a framework/skeleton out of small bars, then continued by forging arbitrarily-shaped pieces onto the frame, conforming them as I go. What I’m going to do next is start with a whole pile of 1″x1″ squares (1/8th” thick) and just weld them together to create a surface. No forging, no framework. I’ve cut over 300 squares already.

Metal Scorpion

This little creature has been sitting on my living room coffee table for two days now, and I get a little scare every time I walk by. I forged the body out of a piece of quarter-inch rod, cut and bent the legs from a piece of smaller rod (1/8th inch?) and forged the claws using a mid-size piece of rod. All heating and welding with oxyacetylene tanks. You can see a few progress shots and photos from different angles in this gallery.

Tree

Still not ready to go back to the bear just yet. And I only had 2 hours in the shop today, so I started this tree. I took a 4 foot piece of thick-ish bar (1/2 inch?) and forged the whole thing, heating to white hot and then hitting with a hammer to work the surface. Then I cut, forged tips, and welded it together. Next I’ll add branches and maybe more roots.

Metal Dragonfly

Most of my metalwork so far has been pieces that takes many weeks to complete. This past week, instead of spending all of my metalshop hours on the bear, I used some of them to create bugs. This metal dragonfly took about 3 hours. He’s made out of steel bar and some welding wire. I forged the body, bent the legs with heat and wings without, and welded it all together using oxyacetylene heat. Here’s the piece page, and here are some more photos.

Metal bear gets some skin

After adding just a few structural pieces yesterday, I began adding “skin.” First I had to cut a number of pieces out of a large sheet of sheet metal, and then I began welding them on. It was quite a challenge; I had a #2 welding tip that worked perfectly on quarter-inch rod, but just about vaporized the thin sheet metal. Once I had a skin piece attached, I’d heat it up with the tip and bang it into place around the skeleton with a hammer. At this time, he’s looking kind of buggy, but I’ll be taking care of that at a later stage. I think this bear’s name might be Iorek Byrnison, because he’s looking an awful lot like an armoured bear.

Metal Bear grows

Tonight I spent a solid 5 hours working on the bear in an overheated metalshop. You know, if you’re not sweating, you’ve not having any fun! He’s not got a much more complete skeletonal structure and more weight in his back-end to keep him balanced. Head, legs, body, shoulders, and neck have all been honed. Next week I hope to start adding skin! Here are two pictures from today: from the right and from the back.

Metal Bear begins

Using this old drawing as inspiration, I began the bear last night. So far, he’s got a basic skeleton, same way the elephant, bull, and dog all started out. He’s going to be leaning forward, and looks like he should topple over, but I’ve put some heavy weights at his back end to keep him upright. There’s a lot of work to do before he’ll be done: complete legs, head, skin, etc. Maybe I’ll squeeze in an extra visit to the metalshop to work on him. Here’s his picture so far.