Getting creative with Migatronic 185x

[Ratty]

Yes I've been busy, hence not shouting my mouth off on the forum.
Having finally completed a big project for a client I thought I had some spare time but was then roped in to several other smaller projects with tight deadlines which involved a lot of driving and working on site...and in the middle of it all my oldest bitch, Nancy, decided to create havoc by throwing up, refusing to eat and getting thinner and thinner. To cut a long story short (and several vets visits later) the vet unzipped her to discover she had a rock lodged in her small intestine. Nearly 10 years old and never chewed anything in her life and she decides to do that! So in between getting stressed by work, I am worrying about Nancy and nursing her after what was a major op. Amazingly ('ask a busy woman') I managed to complete a sculpture I started months and months ago in time for a show. Never made decisions so fast!
This is it completed, the paving slabs are 24" square so you can get an idea of the size.

If you want to see 'work in progress' pics with explanations and close ups of the 185x welds, I've spent most of the day getting them into an album in the gallery section Steep learning curve.. the last 3 in the album are accidental repeats which I couldn't delete and all the pics are annoyingly in the gallery area as well in some random order (with repeats! - I've PM'd Malcolm for help) so if you want them to make any sense go straight to the album 'Black Bitch'.

 

[Drains]

That's great Ratty. And no small piece of kit. Based on the Hound of the Baskervilles then?
And has some farmer lost his tractor?

 

[Hitch]

Nice Job Ratty!

 

[Ratty]

Cheers guys.

Lost tractor Si? possibly! I often have no idea what some of the parts are that I use - any identification always of interest

One of my very early pieces - when still at college - was of a large cow (well not that large, about half life-size, now at the John Innes Centre in Norwich if you're passing....) it was a mixed media piece, steel, leather, paper..etc. I used an odd piece of chain I had with dangly bits to make the dewlap and when our local farmer saw it he identified it as a cow's tie chain! Nice..and appropriate.

When I get stuck and need inspiration I usually make a little foray to the farm dump. The dogs enjoy chasing rabbits while I rummage, one of my favourite occupations

Did either of you check out the albums?..just wondering if they are much looked at or whether I should post a few more images in the forum.

 

[Drains]

Yep, looked at the album pics. I want to play chemistry in your workshop! How are you finding the mig then, compared with the old messer inverter?

I think it's worth putting your fave pics on the forum. They'll soon be yesterdays news, but it's better for instant gratification!

 

[snowcat]

nice ratty, love to have a go at something like that, something to put in the garden, trouble no creative tallent at all too used to geting the square out and worrying about heat destortion

 

[Ratty]

Yep, looked at the album pics. I want to play chemistry in your workshop! How are you finding the mig then, compared with the old messer inverter?

I think it's worth putting your fave pics on the forum. They'll soon be yesterdays news, but it's better for instant gratification!

Mig is brilliant compared to the stick - I can just pile on the metal without worrying about trapped slag! and MUCH easier for getting into awkward places and joining thick to thin.

You'd have fun playing chemistry here! I have no end of weird and wonderful bottles of STUFF - some I've not even opened - and scales that go from 0.1 of a gram up to 6kg in 0.1 increments. Not forgetting the flocking gun...not exactly chemistry but oh joy

I did wonder about the instant gratification factor...too tired tonight but I'll try and post a few up tomorrow....and mention some of my beginners stupidness.

 

[Ratty]

nice ratty, love to have a go at something like that, something to put in the garden, trouble no creative tallent at all too used to geting the square out and worrying about heat destortion

Cheers snowcat...a lot of the work I do for other people is tightly wrapped with exact weighing and measuring, exactitude and perfectionism,all technique and little free expression so it's great to let rip now and again. Frees the mind. I'm lucky to be in the position to do both, one feeds the other I often find.

 

[Ratty]

OK...a 'few' photo's of the work in progress, having looked at other pics in the gallery I don't find it very 'user friendly', it's much easier to look at photos in the forum with the captions under each one.

Positioning of parts and decision making. At this stage, most of the piece is merely propped or held with clamps or bolts. The 'head' was made some time ago and is permanently fixed with bolts as some is cast iron and I didn't have the confidence to weld it. The torso, pelvic area and hind leg were got together over a number of months and the unfinished piece was propped outside for ages, I thought I had figured out the front legs too but when it came to actually putting the piece together in the studio, they didn't work at all so I had to re-think. In this picture, I'm trying out different parts for the legs and feet.

Having found something I liked for the forelegs, I then had to heat and re-shape the 'knee' joint. This was done with oxy/acet and twisted with blacksmiths tongs - all I had to hand, would have been better if I had got around to making a custom bending tool like Cappy made for his chimney (my next project!).

With the front end removed, I began to try and work out how the back end would go together.

Work progresses and the workshop gets more and more chaotic. The floor is strewn with steel that may or may not be used. In the foreground is my makeshift cutting bench...a tray of sand and a barrel stand upended and on it a piece of 32mm - part of the front leg construction - which has just had a piece sliced off.

With some heating and bending and finally some welding, the front feet are in place - looks like this dog means business. My first weld caused me some alarm, it didn't hold and when I ground it back I found it had porosity on the scale of being able to drive a bus through..very weird I thought..till I discovered I had forgotten to turn the gas on!

close-up..welding 30mmm to 5mm, two parts of the fore-leg. My migatronic coped well - I was impressed!

Due to the weight of the piece and the lack of any real 'meat' between the front and back end, I decided to keep the piece as two halves. The back end is now supported in the correct position, the head is held at the right height with a small cable hoist.

Welding the hind foot - around 12mm thick - to the 2mm hollow tube of steel (old horse hames) which was to make the leg, was never going to be easy. Took me a while to work out the best solution, first I heated and flattened the ends and shaped to follow the sides of the foot piece which were thinner than the base.

After cleaning the rust from the foot part to be welded with a power file, I drilled two holes in the flattened tube..

...and welded through the holes. I was able to use a high setting to burn into the thick steel of the foot and by keeping the torch in the middle of the hole managed not to burn holes in the thin tubing, the heat was enough to create a kind of stud which looks neat and held firm. As the piece was going to be shown very soon after finishing, I did a bit of instant rusting on the new welds with ferric chloride so they didn't stand out.

 

[Ratty]

The head having holes drilled in the neck part so it can be bolted in place. It was years before I finally bought a cheap and cheerful drill vice - I wouldn't be without it now (and can't believe it took me so long to realise that hands and even G-cramps are not the answer!) I also do that thing of buying cheap if I'm not sure how much use a tool will have, so far this has been fine.

The hoists were great for keeping the piece in a convenient position for welding - cheap ones from NT but I have used (and abused) them loads and have no complaints - except that I lengthened the power leads which were pathetically short. The green squeezy bottle has water in, I kept this close to hand after the mistake of welding in knee-frayed jeans...and setting light to my knee...ouch. My other bit of beginners stupidity was welding in a T-shirt and getting a very 'sun'-burnt left forearm. What I did remember to do was to keep that big extractor going when cutting or welding. A bargain from the free-ads (pre ebay days) it is strong enough to pull open the farthest door (about 50 feet away).

Completed and removed from the work trolley, the two halves simply push together and the join isn't obvious. For transport, the head can also be removed by undoing three bolts. I had a deadline to complete this piece for a sculpture show and I've never worked so fast on a sculpture! It was completed just 3 hours before the opening and installed as early visitors were arriving. My migatronic 185x coped manfully but I was using it at the top end for most of the welds and did blow one fuse so if I do more work with steel of this thickness I will invest in a bigger mig. There are one or two areas that I'm not completely happy with so when I get it back next month I shall be doing a bit of adjusting.
The other thing I must do is to chase up the metal laser-cutting firm I occasionally use who promised to save me a large piece of 10mm steel plate. I raided their skip a few weeks ago for scrap to practice on and there were several large pieces in the skip (and I mean 5' x 4' large), too jammed in to retrieve. When I asked about it I was promised a 'leftover' the next time they used it...too high a silicone content for practice welding they said but that sounds a positive advantage for a bench top. The old chipboard desktop I used when welding the sculpture was hardly ideal but I managed not to set fire to it (just my knee).

 

[malcolm]

You can even tell what the dog is thinking and what it's been doing (running around alot being daft is my guess)! That's very cool, I'd love to be able to do that. I love the workshop and all your toys too.

Definately works better in the forum than the gallery, though the gallery is a handy place to load the photos without all the problems you'd have with these image upload places. It doesn't really work on it's own though.

 

[Ratty]

You can even tell what the dog is thinking and what it's been doing (running around alot being daft is my guess)!

I reckon! the minute I finished the head I realised that whatever I did with the rest that this dog was going to be goofy. Some years ago when I only kept lurchers...independent, aloof sort of hounds that are rarely very demonstrative (I used to make languid, bony sculptures of them), I was asked to do a 'found-object' portrait piece of someones lab x spaniel. Not breeds that I am much familiar with so I spent a day with the dog to get to know it and it's character and the piece that emerged was a hefty rounded dog (mix of found natural wood and steel) sitting with one paw raised and looking up. Titled "Willing to Please". Unlike anything I had previously made and the owners loved it. I loved the challenge of trying to capture some spirit of the animal. Restrictions - whether it be with the materials or the idea - are both good for the creative mind.

I realise I won't get much feedback on here for my work as I'm a little out of place amongst all the car builders and machine enthusiasts but I do appreciate the comments/observations/feedback. Also it's interesting for me to share the making process - not something I normally do, (and encourages me to take stage photo's which is great for my own records), so I'll try and continue. In case it wasn't obvious, it was the making of this piece that first decided me on getting a mig (and led me to the forum) and most of my early questions related to the steel I was using for it, partly why I decided to photograph the process and post them up.

With regards the gallery, I've decided the best way to treat it is an upload and storage area, am I right to think that the best place to load is straight into a private album? I presume that way that they can't be seen unless I choose to put them into the gallery (or elsewhere) and so won't clutter visual space with accidental doubles or pics that are a bit meaningless without description. (or is there another way/place?)

 

[Welderpaul]

I like your work Ratty, i fall into the hairy arsed welder category rather than an artist but i can still appreciate your work. If i set out to weld pieces of steel together to make a piece of art, it would be just that - lots of pieces welded together. I admire your skill Ratty.

 

[Ratty]

I like your work Ratty, i fall into the hairy arsed welder category rather than an artist but i can still appreciate your work. If i set out to weld pieces of steel together to make a piece of art, it would be just that - lots of pieces welded together. I admire your skill Ratty.

Thanks Wp, but you know, without the help and advice from all you properly skilled welders ( h.a.or otherwise ) I would've taken a lot longer to learn migging - and would quite likely have bought some horrible cheap, bottom end mig and regretted it. As for skill, I'm not sure I deserve that yet, (I've just been looking at Chuk's project and I wouldn't know where to start - nor dare to test my welding to that extent!) it's more to do with a way of thinking and a determination to make it work. Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for looking.