Some of my projects

[mike77]

This was a sculpture piece that a designer spec'd for a show. IIRC, the outer frame was 1" EMT and the center vertical was 3/4" EMT. I bent the 1" EMT by hand against plywood forms screwed to the work bench. The center plates were the caps from three different sizes of flue caps. Talk about a PITA to weld to the EMT!

[KHK]

EMT and PITA go together when talking welding!! Nice job though.

[Gadget]

You have to really be careful of the fumes when welding EMT, it's zinc coated and emits a poison gas. Nice sculpture though.

[mike77]

Yeah, I know about the zinc coating. I've welded more galvanized than I would like to have and haven't had any problems yet because I'm cautious about it. I remove the coating with a grinder before welding. If I can, I'll weld it outside as a precaution. I also wear a mask when grinding or welding galvanized. I don't remember the model or specs, but I bought them specifically to trap the zinc particulates. It's not fun to wear with all the other safety gear, but better safe than sorry.

[strube1369]

I notice one thing your projects have in common. Very neat and clean looking.

[mike77]

Thanks Strube. I appreciate it! The carts and railing especially, I knew would be seen by a lot of people for quite some time so I wanted them to look good. My goal was for them to look factory built, at least from a distance.

[mike77]

I'm just putting a lot of my older work into this one topic. If it would be better to split them into their own topics, feel free to say so.

This was a column that a local dance company hired me to make as a prop for one of their performances. The story of the dance was that a god burst out of a temple column when it was hit by the hero. So it had to look pretty solid, but then drop open. I first built the frame out of plywood strips because it was cheaper than steel. That frame cracked the first time I dropped it open. So version two was a steel frame, wrapped with several layers of 1/8" masonite/hardboard. I didn't have access to a ring roller and didn't want to pay to have a couple of rings rolled for me so I built the cylinder as segments. Then the hardboard wrapped around it smoothed the planes into curves. I built the cylinder as one unit, then cut out the connecting bars. If I ever have to do something similar, I'll probably just buy a section of large diameter concrete form and build a frame to support it. It will probably be a lot easier than wrapping that hardboard!
To keep the column halves from tearing out the hinges when they fell open, I used springs to slow the drop just before they hit the end of travel.

[Gadget]

Looks like that was a fun project.

[Nick]

lol. I saw the photo of the column on the main forum page before reading this, and pictured a bikini clad female trapped in it.

Nice to know I'm not that far off. ^_^