Island metal sculptor
 

Started welding and shaping metal on a rooftop in Manhattan in '88. '95 moved to an Island on the west coast on the border of Canada where I started acquiring sheet metal tools and selling kinetic copper and stainless steel wind sculptures in a field behind my shop. Now, 24 years later and several surgeries later still at it 7 days a week with hundreds of visitors in the summer. Aside from a son my other children include 2 pullmaxes, an english wheel, erco SS, yoder PH, pnuematic sheer, rolls, tube bender, 50 ton press, rotary punch, 6 welders, lathe, mill, forklift, 5k sq.ft.space, and a tractor.

Hi Anthony and welcome!:)
Do you have any pictures of your sculptures ? We love pictures around here!:D

sounds like you have alot to share :) i like how you mention the tractor and forklift in the tools. i have used the forklifts here at work a few times to get a unibody pulled in an angle the frame rack just cant get to!



how about some pics of that art!

Here's the last one I finished a few weeks ago. I used to do a lot more shaping to the metal and you can see that on my website at http://www.howeart.net under "Past Work". I also have spent quite a bit of time trying to make a successful hand pan, a hand played version of a steel drum. It is unquestionably the hardest thing I have ever tried to make. Many thanks for including me in your forum.

Attachment 17546

WOW!:eek:
I just checked out your website! The YouTube 's were fantastic!

i second that!

Hi Anthony, welcome to the site. Nice work!.

David

gear
 

Hi Tony, fantastic work. How about some shots of your workshop where it all happens. Theres alot of tourists on here that would love a peek in to your studio.

Here's a wide angle shot from 8 or so years ago. A few new tools since then but more or less the same plus 4k additional space where I have s p r e a d out a bit.

Nice Work Tony,

wished there was 48 hours in a day so i could do some art also.

i love it.

Nice shop too.

Ben

G`day Tony
You have some bloody incredible work there, i dont know which one i like the best. Looking forward to seeing your future work mate.
Cheers
Troppo

HI Anthony welcome to the forum ..... Fantastic work I like it
Peter

It seems as though this forum has a strong Australian representation. In the back of my mind I've always fantasized about living on the north coast (of Australia) in some small town and setting up shop there. I think I might have a few traits in common with some of the local folk; a passion for the yeast inspired beverages and also for the open water and wind influenced activities on the former. Like kitesurfing and fishing.

Many thanks for the compliments all around.

welding wires
 

Hi Tony,

Great sculptures! I'm wondering about the welding technique you're using in the video where you are putting wires together with a pair of pliers attached to some electricity. Are you running the pliers off a welder? I tried a similar thing once but your method looks better. Can you explain it a little?

Thanks!

HI Anthony here in Australia the beer is good the fishing is excellent and us Aussie are not that bad after all
Peter

Welder
 

In the video http://vimeo.com/38348447 you use a pair of needle nose pliers to weld wires together. I'm supposing that the wire that's hooked to them goes to a spot welder? Neat set up.

That's a jewelry welder; capacitive discharge made by Orion of Sunstone Engineering. It does tack welding of sorts and also has a spot tig'ish weld.

Very expensive and not all that useful really unless of course you work with jewelry. My favorite welder for that sort of thing is one I made with 2 transformers from microwaves. You take out the secondary windings and replace with #4 welding cable. Presto, tack spot welder for super thin stuff and .045 wire. I put a timer on it to control the weld time. $70 bucks. Instead of $4,500.

Welder
 

I wonder if modifying a HF stud welder (for pulling out dents) would yield the same result?

For doing the art project with lots of wires to weld, that's the only way to go.

Ben,
You too do nice work, you know.

Tony,
Great stuff.
I find links to your page thrown at me quite often.
Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum.

G.