Introduction: Decorative Bicycle
In recent times I have been exploring making sculptures, crafts with wire and other mediums; I have a good amount of projects piled up that I have procrastinated and not finished.
I wanted to make it a goal to finish those projects so that they are no longer gathering dust and also to practice creating instructions so that the re-creation of these projects can become understandable and reach more people who might find them useful or spark new ideas.
Supplies
- Copper wire
- Galvanized wire
- Washers
- Solder wire
- Soldering iron
- Pliers
- Adhesive tape
- Measuring tape
- Marker
- Gold spray
- Mask
- Paper
- Cardboard
Step 1: Bicycle Steering Wheel/Front
We will start the ornament bike, from the front of the bike.
- With the tape measure, we measure about 6 cm on the galvanized wire, and cut.
- To this piece, we measure 1.5 cm at each end; with the pliers we bend inward at the 1.5 cm marks to make the handlebars.
- Then we cut 3 cm of wire, which would be the neck of the bicycle that connects the handlebars to the arc of the wheels.
- We measure and cut a 9 cm piece to make a narrow arch for the wheels.
- We take the separate ends of this bow, and twist with the round nose pliers, to make a ring at the end of the bow.
- Then we stand at the back of the hoops we just made and twist in the opposite direction to align the hoops to the bow.
- We are left with 3 pieces that we will then weld together.
Step 2: Seat
In this step, we proceed to cut and form the pieces that make up the seat of the bicycle, we will end up with 3 different pieces.
- First we will measure 12 cm in wire and cut.
- Mark half of the 12 cm piece and fold in half.
- Place the pliers on that mark and bend on each side at the 1.5 cm mark, and make a triangle.
- What we have left over wire from this piece, we move it down, to make the seat of the bicycle.
- We measure another piece of wire, this time of 10 cm; we cut and mark the middle of it. Bend the middle of the piece to make a bow.
- Place the pliers at the ends of this arc and twist inward to make rings.
- Finally, we measure 5.5 cm and cut this piece of wire to make another arch from the middle.
Step 3: Body/Frame
In this step, we will make the body or frame of the bicycle. We will shape it into something like a scalene triangle.
- We measure a 13 cm wire and cut it.
- To this 13 cm wire, we will measure 5.5 cm and bend it with the pliers; this 5.5 cm piece will be our frame top.
- At the end of this 5.5 cm side, we measure 0.5 cm and bend inward almost like closing the triangle (without closing it).
- With our remaining side, measure 1.5 cm and fold inwards with the help of pliers, without closing the scalene triangle.
- With this we have a simple bicycle frame.
Step 4: Wheels
In this step we are going to make the wheels of the bicycle, with the help of metal washers.
- We will measure 14.5 cm of wire and cut two pieces.
- To these two pieces, with the help of pliers, we will shape them by moving the pliers around the wire to close the circle.
- And so we get two bicycle wheel frames.
- To make the spoke of the wheel, we take pieces of 4 cm.
- Then we fold in half to make wide arches.
- We make 4 of these arches per wheel.
- With the help of adhesive tape, we fix these arches to the wheel frame, in order to weld them.
- We start with the ends of these 4 arches to the wheel frame, and then we weld the middle of these arches to a washer in the center of the wheel.
- We weld one washer on each side of the wheel.
- We repeat the same with the second wheel.
- This way we get the two wheels of the bicycle.
Step 5: Assemble (the Previous Steps)
In this step, we will weld the parts made in the previous steps.
- Start with welding the handlebar and the parts made in step 1.
- Put a drop of solder wire on the arch of the frame made in step 3, and then weld it to the handlebar.
- Take the help of adhesive tape so that the structure does not move, and weld the seat to the back of the frame.
- Take the small bow made in step 2 and weld it to the bottom of the seat.
- Do the same with the second bow made in step 2, but weld the bow to the top of the seat, under the seat triangle.
- Then join the bow rings to the small bow.
- Weld the washers on each side, where we will put the pedals.
- With the structure assembled, now weld the wheels.
- Take the end of a wire, you don't need much wire for this.
- Bend it to less than 0.5 cm from the end.
- Pass the other end of the wire through the wheel and close it by making another small bend.
- Then solder the axle.
Step 6: Kickstand and Pedals
To finish making the objects of the bicycle, in this step we will make the pedals and the kickstand.
- We cut a wire of about 13.5 cm.
- Grab one end and bend it straight to 1 cm, to form a square.
- Grab the end of the wire with the square and bend it 2 cm upwards, to obtain the first pedal.
- Insert the remaining end of the wire through the hole between the two washers.
- Here, we bend towards the opposite side to make the other pedal.
- We make another square to finish the other pedal.
- We finish by welding the pedals to the structure.
- To make the kickstand, we take one end of the wire and bend it to 0.5 cm to make a hook.
- Measure 3 cm and bend to make the leg of the kickstand.
- We take with the pliers the hook we made before and bend out the 3 cm end.
- Then we cut the kickstand making an extra 1 cm end.
- Hook the kickstand to the rear wheel axle.
- Weld the kickstand to the rear wheel axle.
Step 7: Details With Copper Wire
Having the bike already assembled and soldered, we can add details; in this case, I used copper wire to cover the ends of the handlebars of the bicycle, the pedals and the seat, to give them a detail that highlight these objects.
- With the copper wire, roll on one edge of the wire the object we want to interlace with copper wire, after this, we make a free assembly or following the interlacing pattern you like.
Step 8: Spray Paint Figure
Once the assembly, welding and final details have been completed, we finish giving it a coat or two of gold spray paint.
- Doing it in a ventilated place and with a mask.
- Try to move and cover all parts of the piece.
- I used a wide paper to avoid staining the floor.
Participated in the
Metal Contest