.jpg)
Repurposing scrap metal into various animals, shapes, useful items, display pieces, crazy expressions, monsters, weird creations and ornamental iron household items is one of the funnest crafts in which to throw yourself at. Using your imagination and working with your hands to start with nothing but "throw away" junk metal parts and ending up with things to sit back and stare at or even use on a daily basis is very fulfilling. With the welding trade the sky is truly the limit. To make and create cool artistic creations you don't need to be a skilled welder. Although I will say when you start getting into pieces that have any kind of weight bearing requirement, you should know what you are doing. As for doing free spirited artistic expression welding, you can do it with minimal equipment and skill. If you are just getting into it, I recommend you first allocate a safe place in which to perform your hot work as this could possibly cause some serious personal or personal property damage. Also, get some basic safety equipment which includes a welding hood, leather gloves, safety glasses for grinding, and some steel toe boots. Can't hurt to pick up some a long sleeve leather welding jacket as well. You can find them used for cheap. In the video above I took an old gear shifter that I found out in the woods and a horseshoe then I cut and welded them together.
Rattlesnake Decoration
This welding video is on how to make a Metal Art Horseshoe Rattlesnake Welding Project from old junk metal parts you may have laying around. I ended up doing a better paintjob with rattlesnake patterns and eyeballs but regretfully lost the videos. Poisonous snakes are always fascinating and ended up selling this on e-bay to a snake collector. The tail of course was made from a gear shifter lever off of an old motorcycle. The rest was cut and welded from old horseshoes. The welder used was a Lincoln Pro-mig 140 that plugs right into a standard wall socket. For the welding wire or filler material I used some standard innersheild 0.035” 71T1 purchased off the shelf at Lowes hardware. Metal art is so fun to make and each piece like this turns out to be totally unique and some can make people stop in their tracks. The paint used was some rustoleum brand metal paint.
One of the challnges of this fun metal art project rattlesnake was to make sure that I did not melt the tail portion which is made of very hard rubber but could easily melt if I got the welding joint nearest the rattlesnake tail too hot. I used extra precautions not to weld too much at one time without letting it cool down before resuming welding again. This is something commonly practiced as well as something to consider when performing welding around various materials in close proxomity of your welding.
Horseshoe Wine Rack
Step by step process of repurposing some old horses and making a decorative horseshoe wine rack out of them. Great as gifts or selling to make a few bucks. This project was made using the FCAW (Flux Cored Arc Welding) process using a Lincoln Pro Mig 110 Welder I purchased from Lowe's. Along with it I bought some inner shield welding wire on the spool for it. I usually like to keep a spare roll or two of it around. The first thing I do with the horseshoes is knock the nails out of them. Sometimes they pop right out if you knock them back through with a hammer and punch or sometimes you have to cut them off with a grinder and still use a hammer and punch to get them through the hole. It all depends on how corroded they are. Then I get them lined up. One thing to do is get a standard size wine bottle and have it at the ready. It's a good idea to test fit the horseshoes that you are going to use for your wine rack. Some of the horseshoes have too small of a radius and won't allow a wine bottle to fit through it. I learned my lesson the hard way on this. It sucks to get your wine rack all fabricated and painted and then realize that one of the slots are too small for a wine bottle. I'll then clean up the horseshoes with a power wire brush or wire wheel as well as a grinder to where the welds are going to be. If you grind it down to clean metal your weld will turn out a lot better, last longer, and be more structurally sound. Then I get them lined up horizontally on the work bench and try to use the same size horseshoes if possible. Each one is a little different. Then I tack them together on the backside really well. Then I'll put some decent tack welds on the front. Using round stock or other flatbed I'll usually cut them to length using a wine bottle as a reference. This is where you can make it too long and the bottle will fall out if you do or even sit in there funny. I weld those in along the bottom and have even put one in the middle or towards the top before depending how much support is needed. For painting I like to use a primer made by rustoleum and then either flat black or semi gloss. I've made many of these for gifts and sold quite a few as well too.
Metal art welding fun. The making of a small dog from junk metal auto parts and other metal scraps. Repurposing scrap metal into various animals, shapes, useful items, display pieces, crazy expressions, monsters, weird creations and ornamental iron household items is one of the funnest crafts in which to throw yourself at. Using your imagination and working with your hands to start with nothing but "throw away" junk metal parts and ending up with things to sit back and stare at or even use on a daily basis is very fulfilling. With the welding trade the sky is truly the limit. To make and create cool artistic creations you don't need to be a skilled welder. Although I will say when you start getting into pieces that have any kind of weight bearing requirement, you should know what you are doing. As for doing free spirited artistic expression welding, you can do it with minimal equipment and skill. If you are just getting into it, I recommend you first allocate a safe place in which to perform your hot work as this could possibly cause some serious personal or personal property damage. Also, get some basic safety equipment which includes a welding hood, leather gloves, safety glasses for grinding, and some steel toe boots. Can't hurt to pick up some a long sleeve leather welding jacket as well. You can find them used for cheap.
The thugs will be in for a surprise then they take a swing at this thing.
After getting my mailbox smacked off the post one too many times it was time to build something that will ring their bell when they take a swing at it. The first part of the video shows the aftermath and what I came out to the next morning. I had some scrap metal around in which to fabricate a metal roll cage for the thing. Some old planter holders made from round stock will do the trick. I bent two "U" shaped pieces and welded extension to each leg of the "U". I had some square tube pieces laying around as well that were .065' wall leftover from another project. I then welded the square tube to the "U" shaped pieces for the base and then a couple of round stock pieces for the top. It's got a mailbox shape to it. Now I welded in more reinforcing pieces since the main frame is welded. Once I got the roll cage or protective cage built for this thing I welded on a triangular elbow piece to the front of it for decorative purposes. I had some old bed rail frames laying around as well so this made perfect mounting brackets to weld to the frame and bolt into the wooden mailbox pole. I then coated it with a couple of coats of rust oleum spray paint. I secured the mailbox to the 4 X 4 post first then I was able to slide the roll cage over the mailbox with no problem.
I screwed it in with some lag bolts. Good to go. Go ahead, punks, hit like you mean it.
https://the-avant-garden.blogspot.com
Here's a link to a new mailbox:
https://amzn.to/2zDdc6B
Pick up a new one at the link above and make a roll cage for it so this will be the last mailbox install that you need to do.
LOTOS Plasma Cutter Setup and Operation Guide | Harbor Freight Tools
You're going to want one of these if you plan on doing at-home fabrication and decorative metal art work.
I picked up this LOTOS brand plasma cutter from harbor freight based off a recomendation and wanted to see for myself how this thing operates. It came with an adapter for operating just off the standard wall plug but will also operate off incoming higher voltage/amperage. I found that it's important to set the air correctly to keep the arc from sputtering. It cuts really smooth if you have your adjustment set correctly, which is easy to do as there are only a couple of knobs to mess with. There are a lot of creative possibilities in which to use this machine. I look forward to using it for more applications.
Extra tip here:
Forgetting standard house maintenance items can be costly. Avoid this by using my homeowner's and renter's quick reference: https://www.diy-technician.com/product-page/handy-homeowner-s-checklist
Comments