Island metal sculptor

[TonyH]

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.

[mark g]

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!

[Peter Tommasini]

Originally Posted by TonyH

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.

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

[Overkill]

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.

[TonyH]

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.

[Overkill]

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.