Metal allows you to realize many creative ideas. But working with it requires special skills, abilities and devices. However, the result is durable, original and unique.
Thanks to the malleability of the material and the talent of the master, do-it-yourself metal crafts worthy of admiration appear. They become the pride of a personal plot, cottage or home interior. Let's look at a few examples and working methods:
Metal products for the garden
Agree, every dacha owner gradually accumulates various pieces of iron in his household in the form of old tools, unnecessary metal parts, and from them it will be possible to make wonderful metal crafts for the dacha.
Products for the dacha are constructed from everything metal that is stored in a person’s barn. The best method for joining such crafts together is welding, although other joining methods are also used on various structures. Ideas for implementation:
- For example, you can make an openwork panel for a summer house from wire. First, a frame is made from thick-diameter wire, then the image itself is attached to it from thin wire. The theme of the images can be the faces of people, especially the fair sex.
- Stainless steel crafts. They look neat and do not require frequent maintenance, although they are more difficult to make.
- A grasshopper mailbox would be a bold decision. It will surprise and delight your friends, and will also scare away uninvited visitors.
- With a flight of fancy, you can design a puppy or a piglet. By installing the figurine in the garden, it will evoke a smile and positive emotions.
Creating metal objects for the garden will require the availability of certain materials and free time. You shouldn’t regret spending time assembling the figurine when you have time to paint the fence.
At the dacha, owners often use a barbecue - a collapsible or stationary type. For a model with permanent registration, the grill is made from an old barrel. It is easy to assemble it on your own using a drill and grinder. Still, it’s worth using a welding device.
An empty and washed barrel is taken, cut lengthwise in a straight line and divided into two halves. Legs made of reinforcement, pieces of pipes or rods are welded to one workpiece.
The top half acts as a hinged lid, and canopies are welded on for easy opening. It is advisable to work with thin metal parts after gaining some experience.
In order to weld workpieces efficiently and not make a hole with the electrode, you need to accurately select the current for welding and carry out the work with short tacks, constantly monitoring the quality of the seam.
Technical specifications
Fencing made from various materials has a number of technical characteristics. Requirements for metal structures:
- high security qualities;
- strength, durability, reliability;
- high resistance to deformation.
The material and type of construction are selected depending on the amount of funds and the required performance characteristics.
Chain-link fence (Photo: Instagram / zabormasterby)
Welded metal crafts
Having acquired knowledge and mastered the skills of a welder in adulthood, you can use a welding machine to make attractive metal crafts by welding. During production, two goals are realized.
Firstly, welding skills are consolidated. Secondly, a useful household item is created - a shoe stand or something else. You can make a funny figurine for the garden from used metal cans and unnecessary springs.
Having welding skills, you can start creating an owl from metal. You will need to prepare the following items:
- pencil, scissors, cardboard, drawing paper;
- chisel, hammer, grinder;
- thin sheet metal, welded device;
- bolts with washers, wire, steel rods.
First, an image of an owl is drawn on paper with a pencil. You need to try to make the drawing as beautiful as possible. Then the sketch is transferred to cardboard. Next, a grinder and thin sheet metal are used for work.
To form an owl figurine, you need to prepare body parts with plumage, for the eyes, wings and tail. This is all cut out of iron using a grinder. When forming the eyes, you should make holes in the part to secure bolts in them.
You need to make notches on the surface of the body, due to which the effect of bird plumage will appear. This is where a chisel comes in handy. For the beak, you can insert a piece of bent metal. To form paws, you need to take different rods and connect them by welding.
After preparing all the individual parts, they are combined together using a welding device. Now the craft is ready, all that remains is to paint it and apply a special varnish.
Material
More often, metal fences are made of cast iron, iron or stainless steel. The latter option is not subject to rust formation.
Other types of metals must be coated with special protective coatings. During production, additional components can be added to alloys to increase the corrosion resistance of the material. Ready-made forged elements for a fence can be purchased at a hardware store.
Product made from horseshoes
A horseshoe stand is made as follows. Take two horseshoes, turn them back and weld them together. Another pair of united horseshoes is produced.
At the top of a separate pair, another horseshoe is welded on, with the ends facing up. The two structures are welded into one using the following method:
- installed on the edges with the bottom edge;
- to connect the upper horseshoes, a metal rod is taken and welded to the bottom;
- at the top of the upper horseshoe, a horseshoe is welded perpendicularly, which will look backward with the outgoing edge;
- the second, third, and so on until the end is attached to it, until the topmost one is welded to the side horseshoe on the other side of the structure.
The result will be a product that looks extraordinary and is comfortable for shoes. Welding in a short period of time allows a novice master to consolidate his skills and will be beneficial for the home.
Selection principles
When purchasing metal fences, you need to carefully inspect the finished products. They should not have any irregularities, deep scratches, cracks, or areas with rust.
If you need to protect your area from unwanted views of passers-by, you need to choose fences made of solid sheets of metal.
Advantages and disadvantages
Positive sides:
- Long service life with a protective coating against rust.
- Reliability, strength, wear resistance.
- Easy to care for.
- Ease of installation. Anyone can do it without practical skills.
Negative sides:
- Without a corrosion coating or special additives, the service life of structures is reduced.
- Forged and cast structures weigh a lot.
Rust will form in areas where the protective coating has been damaged. To prevent destruction of the material, you need to regularly inspect metal surfaces and treat defects with special compounds.
Welded fences (Photo: Instagram / grada39)
Manufacturers and prices
Russian manufacturers:
- "Steel TD".
- DMD;
- "MegaFence".
- "MDK".
- "Metal Structures".
The price depends on the type and height of the structure, the presence of decorative elements. The approximate cost for 1 meter of picket fence is 1100 rubles.
Deer figurine
To build up your welding skills, you can also make a deer from metal rings. The manufacturing steps are as follows: metal rings d-5, 6 cm are selected, and on the ground they are welded to each other.
Here you need to use symbolic thinking, which will tell you when creating one side of the deer when you need to start raising the animal figurine. Pieces of brick are suitable for this.
Then the rings are welded together, gradually forming the convex body of a deer lying on its side on the ground. Perhaps you can come up with other methods for maintaining the rings before welding them. The product will take hundreds of rings, but the result is worth it.
The deer is brought to its feet. All parts of his body are clearly visible: an openwork head, a voluminous body, deer antlers.
Such a model may well be taken to an exhibition.
Conclusions: there is no shame in taking an idea to bring a metal craft to life using special literature. Having made a sketch on paper, your products will come out unique.
Working with metal involves using your creativity and ideas. Having acquired welding skills, do not delay to start tinkering and creating masterpieces from metal.
Tools and equipment
The choice of tools and equipment depends on the chosen technique for processing metal workpieces. Popular techniques include cold and hot forging, simple mechanical assembly of crafts using hand and power tools. Equipment, tools for hot forging:
- anvil;
- oven, forge;
- pliers, hammers;
- bending forks;
- vice;
- welding machine;
- blacksmith chisel;
- nail shops;
- steel undercuts;
- ironers;
- tampers, punch;
- Bulgarian;
- drill with accessories.
For cold forging, similar tools are used, but without a furnace, forge, or anvil. You will also need special machines for processing metal blanks. Hand tools for cold forging:
- Gnutik. A mechanism for bending strips of metal and reinforcement.
- Wave. A manual machine for creating rings, sinusoids from metal strips, hollow tubes, rods. Finished parts are needed for making large-scale patterns.
- Snail. Manual mechanisms for bending reinforcement into spirals. The limit on the diameter of processed workpieces is 12 mm. You can make bends of different radii.
- Flashlight. Manual bending machine, which is designed for the manufacture of decorative elements.
- Twister. Using this mechanism, strips can be twisted to produce elongated spirals.
You may also need a hydraulic press.
Drill (Photo: Instagram / _instrument_ua_)
Photos of new crafts made from different types of metal
Business in a garage on body kits for motorcycles, production.
I have already written an article and remembered promising directions. In this direction, I made my very first attempts at building my own production.
This direction is MOTORCYCLES !!! Every year there are more and more bikers. And a welder can start quite well on this topic.
I have already written the first article on motorcycles. The link to it is below.
Go to Welding business. Motorcycles
Do-it-yourself artistic forging features and stages of the forging process 91 photos video
Architects and designers often use forged elements in their work. Openwork metal grilles covering fireplaces or beautiful balusters on the stairs look elegant and noble.
If you know how to forge and learn this craft, you can create original products yourself.
This activity is suitable for anyone who likes to do physical work and who is ready to get acquainted with the technology and features of choosing a metal.
Forging is a process of processing a special workpiece. Its purpose is to give the metal the required dimensions and shape. There is a distinction between hot forging and cold forging.
In the hot method, the metal workpiece is heated strongly. As a result, the metal becomes ductile. Hot forging gives the workpiece the required dimensions and desired shape. The master has a variety of work options available to him.
Having an idea of the temperature conditions used in the forging process, you can easily select the desired type of forging.
The workshop does not require a lot of space, and to set it up you do not need to purchase a special forge; it is enough to buy a forging machine.
Metals with certain properties are suitable for hand forging. The more ductile the metal, the easier it is to change its shape. However, ductility is inextricably linked with strength.
Craftsmen make decorative forging elements from copper, steel, duralumin or brass. In addition, alloys can also be used. Information about metals that can be easily forged can be found in the Steel and Alloys Guide.
Inventory varies depending on the forging method. A forge with an anvil and hammers with tongs will be needed for hot forging.
For the cold method, you need a “Gnutik” tool, which allows you to bend the workpiece at an angle, and a “Snail” machine for forging, which you can make yourself. The latest machine allows you to create decorative elements with a spiral shape.
The modern market offers industrial machines designed to perform technological operations. In the photo of forging you can see a product made on the “Master 2” machine from the MAH company.
The cold forging method does not require much effort from the master. The work includes the following stages:
- creating a drawing or sketching a decorative element;
- procurement of workpieces;
- forging process.
The main forged elements are represented by the following groups:
- Paws. The end of the metal rod is given a certain shape.
- Curls. The ends of the rod can be bent in one or two directions.
- Rings. Decorative elements are made from rods with a square or round cross-section.
- Torsion. It is characterized by helical twisting along the axis.
3 generally accepted technologies are used: drawing, bending and twisting.
- The hood allows you to increase the length of the metal workpiece, reducing the value of its cross-section.
- Bending makes it possible to bend any part of the workpiece at an angle.
- Twisting is a technology in which the workpiece is twisted along its axis. A Twister machine is used for twisting.
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