I thought I'd start this thread in response to CraigLam and his statement that welding and woodworking can go together. I've been working with both for the last 30 years and for most of the projects we do, the two go hand in hand. They'd have to or the stuff would most likely fall apart!
This was a job for a museum exhibit on playing. It was mostly about the different ways people have found to play over the years. It covered a whole bunch of ground, from rubber balls to boardgames.
I made two of these, the picture only shows the one, but they were both identical. The die pieces themselves were (I believe) 48" x 48" and the whole piece was over 6 foot tall at the very top. The die body was made out of 1/2 inch MDF and the white dots were MDF squares that were laminated together to about 4 inces thick and then turned on a wood lathe to get the cup look. We laid out the holes on the body from a real die and cut them carefully with a sabre saw and then screwed the white dots on center to the holes. Everything got filled and about 6 coats of high gloss machine tool enamel paint were applied from an HVLP sprayer for a nice smooth cover.
The thing was pretty darn heavy, so I made the base out of a piece of 3x3x 3/8ths inch steel and MDF. The pipe support is welded to a flange on the base and it goes all the way up through to the top of the die where it was welded to another flange.
delraydella
- delraydella
-
Weldmonger
-
Posts:
-
Joined:Mon Apr 25, 2011 7:35 pm
-
Location:Detroit, MI
- Attachments
-
- serve.jpg (137.86 KiB) Viewed 1956 times
Welding☞Syncrowave 250,Millermatic 252,30a Spoolgun Cutting☞12" Hi-speed Cutoff Saw, 9x 12 Horizontal Bandsaw Milling☞Gorton 8d Vertical Mill Turning☞Monarch EE Precision Lathe Grinding ☞Brown & Sharpe #5 Surface Grinder
- Otto Nobedder
-
Weldmonger
-
Posts:
-
Joined:Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:40 pm
-
Location:Near New Orleans
I must admit, I envy that the work you do is always on public display, in one form or another.
Steve
Steve
Very nice. Again, thanks for the kind words. I found it a little unusual that the woodworking forum came off the way they did. People were posting in about glass and wood, I just wondered why they were so put off by introducing metal. Their loss, I guess. I wanted to post an Idea of a metal frame that attaches to the wall. It's called a torsion box. Some have probably have seen this before, where you take a 1/4" flat piece of metal, and weld 1/8" thick, 1" dia. pipe, a little shorter than the depth of the shelf. So, you have a 1" x x1/4" x 16" flat piece of metal, with 5 pieces of pipe 12" long spaced about 3 or 4 inches apart welded to it. The box has a 1/2" top and 1/2" bottom with a 1" x 3/4" frame. Then a nice edge, plain or fancy, whichever. Now you have a hollow box supported by a wood frame on the inside that will slip over a metal frame, (supports are offset). A wood frame support bolted to the wall doesn't work. I've tried. A metal frame works perfectly. I'm gonna make a drawing and post it. The shelves can also be offset for a modern design. Because the shelves are hollow, lights can also be installed. That's my next project.