Polished Stainless Steel Wethervanes

ERIC12345 - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 - 7:54am

Boogie boarderSurfer weathervaneHi to you all at artmetal am new too posting and relatively new to metal sculpture. There is some great work on this site and what I do is amateur at best.With more knowledge and experience I hope it can leed to bigger and better.You have to start somewhere. The weather vanes are related to watersport images(windsurfing,kitesurfing,surfing images) done in a silhouette using sheet1.2mm,3mm up to 10mm rod all polished to good as I can get. Currently using 316 as the material is alredy in shed but as I replace this I was wandering if I could use 304? I am also wandering what finish to order the material as I am aware various finishes are avilable?The main aim is to keep the costs down.I am aiming on a high level on my polished finish.Nothing like the reflection of the sun being cast across the yard as the vane spins in the sun.
There are plenty of questions to be asked.I will try to keep them short.
Cheers Eric.

» ERIC12345's blog | add new comment

weathervanes

lin - Wednesday, July 8, 2009 - 10:35am

These are very fun pieces! I love it that they are so non traditional. The surfer looks like you did a heat patina, it's great. Lin

» reply

Weathervanez

visitor - Thursday, July 9, 2009 - 10:20am

Hi Eric and welcome, I like your stuff...are you using bike bearings on those bad-boys? I've been scrappin yard/junkyard art for 4 yrs with my trusty Hobbie 140 which I've run 70 or so 10 lb. spools of flux cored wire. I mannage to sell enough to keep my modest shop tooled up. As a matter of fact I'm getting a great deal on a TD plasma cutter with built in air. Can't remember the model but it retails for $1800 and I'm gettin it for $999. I'm spastic with a torch and tired of cutting with an angle grinder so I'm excited. Look foward to seeing more of your work.
Lock & Load
gimperfi

» reply

Thanks for that,yes there is

visitor - Friday, July 10, 2009 - 7:34pm

Thanks for that,yes there is a 12mm ball in the tube end for the shaft to run on.Questions for you how good is a plasma cutter,how much clean up after cut,how much time does it save,how easy to operate? I'm thinking that I should have got 1 a long time ago.
Cheers Eric.

» reply

weathervane

ERIC12345 - Friday, July 10, 2009 - 8:26pm

Thanks for that,questions though have never seen a plasma in action how good are they on 1.2mm plate s/s.Are they worth the $$$ how much of a time saving tool are they?

Having trouble replying to my own topic here maybe it is out there or maybe I pushed the wrong button but this is the third attempt.Trying to upload some more photos but they are not coming out the other end,will try again later.
Cut it up,cheers Eric.

» reply

Eric, Your previous post

Rich Waugh - Friday, July 10, 2009 - 11:39pm

Eric,

Your previous post didn't show up right away because you had neglected to sign in and it went in the moderation queue for approval. I don't know why you're having problems with the pictures, unless they're too big.

A plasma cutter of the appropriate size will zip right through that stainless. A relatively small unit, say 40 amps, would cut 1.2mm just fine, and would do up to 5mm pretty well. Since you can't cut stainless with an O/A torch, plasma is the best option.

You can get a moderate plasma cutter relatively inexpensively if you buy one of the Chinese machines. I know a couple of people who have Chinese units and they're quite satisfied with them. A high quality machine like the Hypertherm will be much better, of course. Regardless of whether you go with the cheaper machine or the high-end machine, you will save a lot of time over cutting with a bandsaw, fiber disc or jig saw.

Rich
ArtMetal Moderator

» reply