Sunday, September 15, 2013

Metal Fabrication

When I made the Explorer Bot last summer, I wished at one point that I could have just welded the frame together.  But I didn't know how to weld at the time.  This summer, I enrolled in a metal fabrication class and learned several of the basic techniques used to manipulate steel.  I made several items, pictures of which are shown below.  I've labelled some of the pictures with the techniques that were used.
A spaula






Two hooks were made with blacksmithing techniques.  
A tripod holder for an iPhone.




Hardware makes the iPhone holder adjustable at each leg
of the tripod.  I used 1/4"-20 hardware, sandblasting the nuts
prior to MIG 

A piece of pipe tubing was welded onto the iPhone
holder using a MIG.
This corner was made with an
oxy-acetylene welder to put
together two pieces of 16 gauge
steel meeting at the corner.






















Final pictures taken after patina and clearcoat: