Introduction: Making a Small Welded Steel Sculpture
This is an after-the-fact instructable as I did not take many pictures during the process. I mainly just wanted to show off my sculpture ;) It is a small sculpture of a dancer made from 1/4" and 1/8" diameter mild steel.
Step 1: Tools
The tools that I used to make this include: a hacksaw, metal files, a bench grinder, and a 110V MIG welder. The MIG welder is not ideal, but it's what I had available. A TIG welder would be much better suited to this type of work. This instructable does not teach welding or shop safety. Many community colleges offer welding classes and I would highly recommend this if you are interested in projects like this one.
Step 2: Concept
Here's a sketch of the concept.
Step 3: Materials
This sculpture is made with only 1/4" and 1/8" diameter mild steel rod. The 1/8" diameter steel is used for her arms, everything else is made from the 1/4" diameter steel. This sort of steel can be purchased at nearly any hardware store.
Step 4:
Here's the finished sculpture. It's not as easy as it looks ;) It took me about 4 hours
of cutting, welding, filing and grinding to reach this point. The welds are far from perfect and a TIG welder would have been more suitable for this sort of work, but I'm relatively happy with the results.