Casting results and metal candy canes
Here’s the polished up results of the aluminium R made during the other weekend’s casting session with the flowerpot furnace. I used files to remove any spru and large bumps then a couple of sizes of sanding drum on a minidrill to smooth off surface, finally used wirewool and brasso to polish it.
These funny looking objects are not fake metal candy canes to trick the kids this halloween but some parts for a sculpture I’m making in my welding for artists evening class.
To bend the 6mm re-enforcing bar, I heated the bar about 15mm down from the end of the bar with a butane torch. The bar was heated until it has a bright orangy red stripe across it, then wedged in the vice and bent over. Once I had a “L” shape, I heated the very tip till it was again orangy red and used pliers to finish the hook shape. I then left the hooks on the thermalite hearth to cool down.
One of last week’s welds demonstrated it’s poor quality by breaking whilst I was bending the rebar. To be honest I should have done the bending before the welding but did not have the time.
Metal sculpture in brass, mounted on an 1800s French Coin
