Stainless Steel Rose from Scrap Metal

Step 5 Finishing

After you have made the rose bloom and the stem (with thorns and leaves), all you have to do is attach them. Just tack weld the tip of the stem onto the center of the bottom of the rose bloom. Stand back from the rose and look at it to make sure you have the stem where you want it. If it looks good, go ahead and weld it up and grind the weld bead off. Viola! You have just made a rose out of scrap metal! You can leave the rose 'as is' if you like or you can clean it up if you wish. For mine, I sand blasted everything except where the rose opens to get a nice clean look. I didn't sandblast the opening of the rose because the steel charred heavily when the rose bloom was very small, but as it became larger and larger it became more able to dissipate the heat and slowly became less charred. It gave the steel and cool look by being dark in the center and it gradually gets lighter and more reddish until it no longer shows any signs of being effected by the heat. Then I polished the thorns, etched my signature onto the underside of a leaf, and proceeded to show it to everybody. I had a great time making it and it is now one of my favorite art pieces. I hope you have the same experience as I did. Enjoy.

Comments

[Arron199]

I made mine in under 3 hrs, but im a boilermaler by trade. Using tin snips to cut the material saves a huge amount of time, $18 an hour!!?? Where in the world is that considered ok for this type of work? Dont mean to offend anyone but artistic metal work earns you no less than $40ph here :s

Anyway, awsome instructable and nice finnished product.

[jaredzeuli]

Yeah, I moved up to tin ships and lighter gauge metal on the second rose which dramatically reduce the manufacture time. I can make one with the same quality as my orginal in a work day (8-12 hours) and even faster if I prep all the pieces the day before and just do shaping and assembly in one day. If I got into selling more of them on a regular basis I could look into ordering larger amounts of water jetted pieces and just focus on assembly, which would easily shave hours off the overall job. Shaping and grinding still occupies most of the time.

[MrRodrigez]

hmm has anyone thought to hit the budding petals with an OAW torch with no oxy to give it a black coating, then clearcoat it?

[TheGeekFather]

I think it's a very nice ible and the finished project came out great. However Just an FYI. Blacksmiths have been making metal roses for years. I've seen some done by hand (With an actual charcoal forge) I made a riveted Copper and brass one back in 94. The Final book in David Eddings "The Malloreon" series even has one. The book came out in 92. You can find plenty of metal roses and other flowers for sale on the net. So saying making a metal rose is copyrighted isn't really Legal. In fact if you do ever sell one you may have to pay royalties.

[ViktorB]

JaredZeuli, I wanted to thank you for an excellent instructable!  I was looking for the perfect gift for my girlfriend and I just graduated from college so I had a bit (quite a bit) of extra time, and this kept me busy!  My rose took my quite a while to make, and it is made out of mild steel and MIG welded. and with no access to a sand blaster I used an angle grinder and hand sanded it best I could and painted it with rustoleum.  It is definitely one of my favorite things I have ever made, and it could not have been done without you.

[allthegoodnamesaretaken]

 This is amazing! Plus, usually, when people make these type of things it is just a short picture slideshow. Yours is incredibly well written.

[jaredzeuli]

Thank you very much.  I made an effort to help people out, since it is defintely not an easy project.  Even with the step by step, it will take a dedicated person to be able to do it properly.

[cirrostratus]

How much does the finished piece weigh?

[jaredzeuli]

Not entirely sure, but I would guess it is somewhere around 3 pounds.  Not light, that's for sure.

[jimmytvf]

depend what big you want it :D i guess 200g or so

[Goopie]

Do you think you could sell these? Its amazing how there are such creative people out there and i love alll that creative stuff.I don't have any of these materials but I think it would be a good idea if you sold these.

[jaredzeuli]

 I was offered a nice chunk of change ($1000) by a lady that owns an art gallery when she saw me with it at school.  I turned it down because of sentimental value that I have with the piece.  In the future I wouldn't mind making some more and seeing if I could sell them.  I just don't have the time currently.  Not to mention, my original rose (the stainless one) took MUCH longer to make than the carbon steel one you see in most of the construction pictures used in this instructable.  So if you do the math on my original rose, which took me roughly 55 hours to make, that would come out to only $18 an hour.  That doesn't even include materials or equipment costs.  My point being is that it wouldn't be very profitable unless they were being sold for big bucks or if I could trim down the construction time to something like 8 to 10 hours.  If you can sell them, have at it....but I want my royalties!!!!   ; - p

[urbanwoodswalker]

$18.00 an hour is quite admireable...especially in these days of economic uncertainy. 

I love this steel rose.   I wonder if they could be oxidesed into various shades....and rusted also?  You have to come up with a way to make them faster to create!  Usually the first of a new design takes twice as long as the rest.   Keep on making these beauties!

[Kryptonite]

The license currently on this says that others can't sell it.

[344963]

it looks realistic.
hi

[kaynjade]

wow this is beautiful wish i had welding stuff handy

[Roseheart]

Hey! This is SOO great. I'm going to make one of these! Thanks SO much for sharing. I might even add a gold metallic paint to it when I'm done. =)

[rjasso]

Damn you got a creative mind

[neilh]

Very nice welding work! Impressive.

[D.T]

Wow! Sick!

[subhayou]

WOW !!! amazing stuff !!