Having taken another welding class this past fall, I realized that I’ve not posted any of the things I made during the semester. This work was definitely my favorite, and it was quite difficult to make. The cube portion is comprised of 6 pieces of .030″ aluminum sheet. Quite a trick to work with. The “stem” is a hollow aluminum tube that used to be part of an automotive fuel rail. Welding it to the thick base plate and also to the “converged” welds at the corner of the cube required some “alternative” techniques. The cube structure suffered from massive amounts of hot shortness (due to my fine technique), so I resorted to simply heating the entire lower corner of the cube with the torch, then “stabbing” the hollow tube in. I then wire brushed all the oxidation off (tho there was a lot of entrapped oxidation as well) and did a cover pass to make it cosmetically acceptable.
Link: A fine keepsake
Interestingly enough, the “brushed aluminum” look is a result of brushing the aluminum vigorously with a wire brush. Note that there is a cross hatch pattern as I brushed in two directions.
My favorite aspect of the piece is that the walls of the .030″ cube are “caved in” a bit as the air inside contracted when it cooled (and it is air tight as a result of my *perfect* welds). I wish I’d snuck a drop or two of water in before sealing it up. If I had steam in there when I sealed it, there may have been enough contractive force to cause some structural failure of the cube, which would probably make some fascinating bends and folds in the structure.
-David