Introduction: Small,Big and Then BIGGER! Metal Eagle Sculpture

By www.facebook.com/stephen.taylor.
About: I am a Marine Engineer in the RNZN (45 years done in various navies) and am looking forward to retirement!!! so I can do more messing about with tools

I bought a cheap wooden laser cut Eagle model from a charity shop and thought it would look nice scaled up and made of metal as a garden ornament

Supplies

Angle Grinder

Sander

MIG Welder

Stainless Steel Sheet/ Old Sink

Gluestick

Step 1: The Original Wood Model

I found this unmade model of an Eagle in a charity shop, and after assembly wondered if a larger metal version would be possible

Step 2: Tracing the Parts

After pressing out all the parts (13 of them) I used the wood "carrier" to trace all the parts.

I then blew these up to A3 size on the photocopier

Step 3: The Metal Material

I had a quantity of 1mm Stainless Steel that I had "rescued" from a kerbside inorganic waste collection, it was originally a Barbeque

Step 4: Laying Out the Template

I cut out the paper templates and laid them out on the Stainless Steel, once I was happy I stuck them in place with a gluestick

Step 5: Cutting Out

Using a 1mm thick cutting wheel on my angle grinder, I cut out all the pieces, any sharp edges and burrs were removed using a belt sander.

A slight curve was introduced into the wings and tail by using a chisel and hammering along the feather lines

Slots were also cut to allow the joining of the pieces, the 1mm cutting disc was the perfect width for this.

Step 6: Assembly

The Eagle was assembled in the same fashion as the original wood model, firstly I peeled off the paper templates and made sure there were no sharp edges or burrs, while the cut slots held it together adequately I used my Gasless MIG Welder to tack all the pieces as I don't want it coming apart.

Step 7: Final Assembly

I made a hexagonal base for it so that I can screw it down where I am going to place it, then cleaned up all the welds and made it shiny again.

Just need to find the right location for it

I am considering making a larger version (maybe twice the size) as I have quite a bit of stainless steel left, though I may need a thicker sheet for that.

All in all this took about 4 hours to make.

Step 8: OK Then an Even Larger One

A couple of weeks have passed since the build and I have decided I want BIGGER (especially as the Big and Small contest has started!)

So using an old Stainless Steel sink which I have had cluttering up the place for ages, I made a larger one (well as large as I could feasibly fit on there), the method was the same, glue on templates, cut out, sand and weld.

The second picture shows what was left of the sink.

Step 9:

Still have to make a base for it, but banana for scale.

If I want to go even bigger I think I will have to use thicker steel, but you never know!