A good start.
Welding small things together?
Cant wear gloves, you cant feel what you are doing, you can try holding the bits with pliers but I find they move about too much.
I use my fingers and have got at letting go just as the weld takes, lots of tiny burns but it works.
Also try turning your welder up a bit and working faster, you will get more penetration and the welds are less raised. Start on the heavier component and then just try to 'lick' the small bit with the weld pool once it stabilises. At this scale it easy to balls things up completely, but the materials at this size work out cheap. if you are careful it is possible to 'flow' the components into each other using filler wire.
Here is an example
The Chameleon is made of 3mm bar, the feet have twenty welds each.
The collar bone or whatever it is made of two bars with a tapering gap that I filled as a series of separate runs of weld, allowing it to cool a bit between each run.
I hope that helps. I find working at this scale quite therapeutic, working sat down, music turned up. Oh and wear a leather apron and make sure your tackle is covered.
Can we have the Captain America bike next.
Brazing also works well at this scale if you have oxy/acetylene gear.
I like the bike, can just imagine Toby and Jules off Eurosport going "Ooohh, and he's locked up the front end and flatspotted it big time" Going back a few years, ah admit lol!
thanks for the tips chunko ,dont fancy using my fingers till i get a bit more steady with the torch lol been welding cars ect for years but this stuffs too fidely lol nice work btw its a mig i have alfa
Dont paint it.
Pesronal opinion here.
At the moment it looks cool and interesting, you can see what it is made of and how it was made, Painted it would look cheap and tacky.
The ribbons and wrapping are great, they look soft and flexible which is at odds with their being made of steel.
Another plus point from my perspective. there are no ground or cut surfaces visible. I cant explain why but this an effect I always strive towards when possible.
thanks chunk im starting to really enjoy this stuff ,i didnt grind or file anything just left it as it turned out ,i chipped some spatter off thats about it ,i got alot of it when doing the beard any tips on reducing it ? i havnt used any anti spatter spray i dont have any at the moment is it worth buying ,cheers
Spatter is a pain when working like this, the average weld takes what about 2-3 seconds?
Messing with the wire speed is about it, and making sure the wire stick out is not too long at the business end.
I tend to have a piece of scrap by the workpiece, then click the trigger to burn the end off on the scrap a second before making the weld, you can also use the glowing end to help get exactly the right spot when making the next spot weld.
Nice thing about this stuff is it is cheap to do, bad thing is it is easy to mess it up.
my kinda problem is i dont really understand my welder its a cheap cosmo with 2 switches with high and low and 1 dial to control the speed ,the dial has no numbers ect so i just need to mess with it till i get a decent weld
Might be an idea to make some index marks on it with an indelible felt pen and have a fixed mark behind the dial.
My Clarke was like this, having two dials makes life so much easier.
But yes doing this stupid fiddly stuff the set up is important.
I love seeing all your art work guys, for various reasons i havent picked up a torch in a long time and something like this might give me the perfect reason for digging it out