Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Sculptural Metalworking Recap


Sculptural Metalworking with Bevan Weissman


A Recap of what they did: 
  • Learned the sweet spot of MIG welding - balancing "voltage" and "wire feed" to get that steady buzz, like your head's in a hornets nest.  Too much wire makes staccato spatter, too much voltage causes gaps and stalling.  The right "proportion" can be dialed up and down to make thick & deep or thin & light welds.
  • Learned cutting with the chop saw, cutting with the angle grinders, and cutting with the oxy-acetylene torch
  • Learned how to safely turn on and off the oxy-acetylene gas tanks & regulator (clockwise closes main tank valve, but clockwise opens regulator valve)
  • Learned how to operate oxy-acetylene torches for cutting (remember, POOP or for us "FOOF"  - fuel, oxygen, oxygen, fuel for the order of turning on and off the torch).  
  • Gas ratios.   ~6:1 oxygen:acetylene ratio (~30:5 psi) for cutting.
  • Learned grinding with the angle grinders and the bench grinders
  • Put all those newfound skills together to collaboratively build a lovely jellyfish sculpture!  
    • Cut, heat & bend steel sheet for the dome
    • Cut, bend, and weld round rod to make tendrils, tentacles, and the "brain"
    • Embellish everything with oxy-cutting and MIG welded texture
    • Weld the whole thing together
April using the Oxy- Acetylene Torch
Jody & April
April Bending Steel
Jody using the Oxy- Acetylene Torch
Wes & Jody 
Wes using the Oxy-Acetylene Torch
Wes on the MIG
"You guys did great.  It's quite the accomplishment to learn a skill from scratch and then immediately put it into use to make an awesome sculpture.  Well done." -Bevan

Wes, Jody & April with there finished collaborative piece. 
NEXT SCULPTURAL METALWORKING WORKSHOP 
Saturday, May 25 10:00-5:00pm 
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Contact Jenny for any questions PSGJennyWelsh@gmail.com

1 comment:

  1. I would love to learn metalworking and produce my own work like this. Is there any way to use a process similar to cold heading when working with these types of materials?

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