Monday, June 13, 2011

Summer Welding Projects

This week is our finals week at school, which means Summer is finally upon me!  I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time in the shop this summer, and have been excitedly prioritizing my welding projects.

The list* looks something like this, thus far:

1. Finish the glider I started last summer.  It was well underway when the Tennessee House completely took over my life for pretty much the rest of the year.

2. Handrail for my cousin Ed's stairs.  He asked me to put something together for him a while ago.  This will be relatively simple and quick once I have my shop back up and running.

3. Rack for my dumbbell set.  Another easy, utilitarian project.  It's good to have a few simple things to work on in between, and along with, the complicated ones.

4. New bicycle.  Yes!   A new bike for summer.  I'm already sketching and researching parts for this, and getting very very excited about it.  Watch for a whole post on this topic.

5. Experiment with making metal bowls on my lathe.  If this sounds complicated and weird, well...  I saw a video online ages ago where someone had put a metal plate on their lathe and was using their welder to build up metal bowls.  Think of a potter with a wheel, only instead of starting with a lump of clay, you start with a flat metal plate and build up the thickness as it spins.  This will be extremely experimental, and I'm not sure how it will go.  I've been wanting to try it for a long time.

In addition to these, I have one special commission already in the works, and am talking to a potential new client this Friday about some welding she needs done.

It's going to be a busy, fun summer!


*Subject to change, of course!

1 comment:

  1. You had quite a list there, and the level of difficulty varies from one project to the other. So, were you able to do them all? I’m particularly excited to hear about the bicycle because it requires more skill level than the other projects. Hope to see some updates soon!

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