Recently my best friend was diagnosed with a serious illness and so myself and my friend Mark decided to build him a metal get well soon card.

Step 1: What You Will Need

Before you get started be aware this took over 24hours of work with even more then that in man hours. For this project you will need 2 mm thick steel plate , brass sheet , copper sheet , various very fine metal files, an oxy welder set up ,Brasso to shine up the card and a clear acrylic spray to protect the card from rusting. Small brass /copper hinges and screws for those hinges.

Step 2: Working the Steel

I apologise for lack of photos as I didn't think about it while I was working. Firstly you need to get the size steel plate you want we used 200mm by 400mm plates. Drill the holes for the hinges. Then sanding. Start with coarse then get finer and finer untill the card has reached the level of shine you would like. I recruited some of my other friends to help with this to save time.

Step 3: The Letters

Again apologies for no pictures. For this step use word to print out the letters G E T W E L L S O O N or what ever saying you would like. Cut these out and glue them on and file the letters so that they match up with the printed letters. We used a mix of brass and copper which we think looked nice.

Step 4: The Names

To show him that everyones is thinking of him we used the automatic engraver from school to engrave names of his friends into it. We had to do this twice as it didn't work the first time and unfortunately we didn't have time to shine it up so the side with the names on it has scale on it.

Step 5: Soldering the Letters On

As my ill friend loves soccer Mark made a soccer ball with a lathe and the tree is an inside joke. This is not needed. To solder the letters on. Apply flux to the letters then sort the letters into the order you want them. Then heat the card untill hot enough to melt the solder and tack the letters. Make sure the letters dont slip out of place. Repeat for all letters.