First Commission

[Norm]

speaking to a mate in work and shows him a photo of the weathervane, turns out his father in law is disabled and stuck in a wheelchair but enjoys being out in the garden as much as he can, The guys an avid Liverpool fan. He says do you think you could make something for him so put me thinking cap on and unfortunately it's another weathervane but shouldn't take me too long now as I have made one and am a bit better set up.
ordered some tube and should end up in a similar style to my first one
Norm

 

[BrokenBiker]

looking good. every time you post a pic of something like it makes me want to go and make a twister and bender lol

very high quality of work though

 

[chunkolini]

Congratulations on you first commission.Scary business, turning somebody elses idea into a 'Thing'. Looks good.
Will it do as the wind tells it?
Had another look, it will go where it is told.
Nice one.

 

[Norm]

Cheers lads, certainly is a bit more difficult when it's for someone else, cutting the liver bird out was bloody difficult, jigsaw and loads of filing! wish I had a plasma. Well impressed with the welder though the branch and leaves in its mouth are cut from the side of a fence preservative tin using tin snips very very thin but on its lowest setting it coped with no blow through.

 

[astro_al]

Norm, you've obviously put a lot of effort into that, a few ideas which might help -

1 for flattening the twisted bar without damaging the texture, so it lies flat on a surface, get a hide mallet (google Thor split head hide) and whack the height points over a lump of wood to bring them down, works one on cold metal.

1b you can smooth out the slight lump in the right hand side of the shield shape, level with the birds shoulder by the same method, one hit would make it match the nicely shaped left hand side.

2 if you have a compressor you'll find a die grinder will take out 90 % of the material you removed from the bird in 10% of the time. By all means finish with a file if it gives you more control to follow the line etc. They are pretty cheap for a low budget die grinder.

3 buy a plasma. ; )

Al

 

[Norm]

Cheers Al, really appreciate the advice Thankyou. I'm getting by with brute force and ignorance at the moment I did straighten it prior to painting by sandwiching it between two blocks of hardwood and giving it some attention with a lump hammer, but now that I am aware of hide mallets I shall seek one out. I'm surprised how much stiffer adding a few twists makes the steel, can you advise what type of burrs would be suitable for shaping work like this? I don't think my compressor would cope with an air powered die grinder but I am sure I have read on here that electrically operated ones are available.
Regards Norm

 

[dickie bell]

looks great norm

 

[Norm]

Finished

Got this finished, just waiting a couple of days for the paint to fully cure and it's off to it's new home, hope he likes it, fingers crossed.

 

[stuvy]

norm im not a footy fan but i could certainly see alot of my mates wanting one of them! top work mate

 

[dickie bell]

great work norm , lots of people may be able to see your weather vane's might be a nice little earner for you