William the Giraffe

In the cool morning breeze my wife and I finished the final coat on the last of the spots. It was a lot of work painting all the spots on this giraffe. I noticed small rust areas forming that were a result of water getting in the giraffe and leaking out from some of the weld areas. So I did what I could to copperize those areas to minimize any rust lines that will be appearing on "William". Yes, William is the official name of this giraffe. William is giraffe and part time "Smile Machine". Named after the original giraffe artist (William Allen) that helped me with this project by giving me encouragement, advice, and pointers. William Allen creates beautiful sculptures and if you're looking to buy a giraffe like this pay a visit to Mainstreet Gallery in Leland Michigan.

I had a great deal of copper coating left so it was time to spruce up the ugly mailbox in front of our house. The flag and plastic pieces were faded so I used plastic primer and paint to rejuvenate them. Then the mailbox was painted silver and copper spots applied. Looks pretty good and didn't cost me a cent.

William still isn't anchored down in cement yet. Fortunately, we've had some pretty good storms with wind and all and he doesn't even move a bit. Giraffes are known to be steady on their feet though.

The final touches

 With the help of my artistic niece, Mr. Giraffe started looking pretty spiffy in his new spots.  The copper patina we applied looks absolutely beautiful when the sunshine hits it.  Looks like real copper.

So as of now, we have a giraffe keeping watch over the pedestrians and vehicles driving behind our home.  

Metal prep and patina

I'm lazy today so I'll let the video do all the talking

Time for a beer

Giraffe is done.  The final piece (the tail) was fabricated and installed today.  No more welding and no more re-do's.  I'm glad because this project was a lot harder than I originally planned.  Moving this beast outside to get a few pictures was a real challenge.

Still quite a bit of work to do installing the cement pilings and welding something that I can bolt the giraffe down with on the pilings. 

Can't wait.

There's a giraffe in our attic

There was a crazy amount of work on the giraffe this weekend.  I'm pushing very hard to have him done by the fourth of July as there's more significance to this sculpture than just being a giant steel giraffe. 

Well in the redo department, I completely redid the thighs AGAIN.  They were too skinny.  I'm still not completely happy with them but they'll have to do because that was a lot of work.  This week I also finished the feet, legs and knees.  Everything went pretty well and the only complaint is one leg is about an inch shorter than the others so I'll have to come up with a method to shim when it's installed.

One thing I learned is it's very difficult to sculpt an animal when it's laying on it's side or back.  Especially for me who is not very artistic.  So that's why I needed to stand him up while working.  My wife reminded me of our original idea of working on him underneath the open attic door.  That way his head can extend into the attic while I work on the lower extremities.  The downside was the heat pouring out of the attic on a hot Florida day really heated things up during the peak of the day.  The second day I aimed a fan at the attic and that seemed to keep the heat from dropping onto me while working.

So the last item to fabricate is a tail.  That shouldn't be too difficult.  I'm just about out of co2/arg so I called it an evening.  When this project is complete I'll take a little break from summer welding.

Runaway Giraffe

As many mistakes as I made on this giraffe, I probably could have  made two of them with the same materials and time if I knew what I was doing. I spend more time redoing things and it sometimes drives me crazy !!! Yesterday I decided that the removable leg idea was a bad idea because it compromises the stability of this large top heavy metal beast. And come to think of it, I really don't plan on taking this Giraffe on any road trips in the near future. I was going to get him sandblasted but instead I think I'll use oxysolv (or the Eastwood equivalent) over the surface rust before I topcoat it.

Just when I'm about ready to finish him up I add ankles and Hooves pads. They look great and are solid as can be. BUT .... they add about 5-6 inches to the leg which makes the giraffe look grossly out of proportion. Big time. Like he grew overnight. So the only option is to cut 6-10 inches off the lower 4 legs which will be a bit of work. Very disappointing. I took him out to stand him up and it about killed me with the weight and cumbersome bulk. The wife helped a little but then she gave me this serious look and told me I need to start making smaller projects. I had a heck of a time getting him back into the garage.  Between heavy robots and now this giraffe I can see her point. Oh and a large vice from my welding workbench fell from the bench onto my big toe yesterday (just thought I'd throw that in for sympathy : ). 

Moving this beast to the back yard and positioning him will be a major crazy challenge. I have no clue how that's going to happen. Maybe I'll have to run cables and stake him down.  But that will take away from the look.  He needs to withstand wind and the elements. It's the old "be careful what you wish for" scenario.  After all, this is a wild giraffe we're talking about.

Standing tall

After a couple tries I finally got my removable legs working on the giraffe. At first I bought all stainless steel hardware to weld to my steel legs. But in addition to a poor design on my part, welding thick stainless nuts and bolts to the steel legs just didn't work. The welds were not good and failed. It's partly due to my inexperience in welding and not having the correct gas mixture for my MIG welder. It was worth a try and a good lesson.

No worries though ... I went out and bought Galvanized hardware and made sure to grind off all the coating before welding because the fumes generated by welding galvanized metal can be very dangerous.

Our son Jeff was visiting us last week and had some good suggestions how to strengthen the bolts in the legs. The final design came out great and it's strong enough to withstand a hurricane. The steel will bend before those welds break.

Now that the leg connectors are complete I can spend some time this weekend finishing the legs and fabricating hooves for the base. Then I need to figure out a way to mount the giraffe solidly to a concrete pad or ????? so it's secure in the wind. And finally the finishing. I bought a couple cans of an automotive rust protectant from Eastwood that has a hose that I'll insert into the giraffe. The hose disperses a protectant inside the giraffe to retard the rust process. I'll probably then have it sandblasted and apply a galvanized shiny finish that will be highlighted with copper spots.

I woke up to an interesting surprise the other morning. See the video for details.

Giraffe progressing

The Giraffe is coming along nicely and the giraffe (less the tail and mane) is complete less the knees and lower legs which need to be fitted outside.  I'll need to hoist it with a crane because this beast is getting heavy and my back isn't getting any younger.  I think it will look pretty cool when he's standing tall and I can't wait for that phase to begin.  The outer skin for the feet, knees and hooves should be pretty simple compared to the rest of the giraffe.   Can't wait to position him in the yard after he gets finished.

More progress

I haven't felt like blogging much lately but I have been very busy in the garage. The giraffe had a tummy tuck but that entailed removing the existing frame that pretty much held the giraffe together. It hung down too low and made it impossible to contour the belly area. So last weekend was spent cutting out the frame and welding a new support structure within the belly of the beast. It was a little shakey at first but quickly firmed up as the welds took hold. And the giraffe looks much more natural.

This weekend if I get around to it, I'd like to lift the giraffe with my truck crane and experiment with different length lower legs to see how stable (or unstable) it is and what looks best. It's a busy weekend so that may not get done.

Today I got my first major burn and it was a very stupid mistake. I delayed throwing away my favorite pair of welding / cutting gloves. They were the gloves that came with the hypertherm plasma cutter. A hole developed in the thumb a few weeks ago but I stubbornly refused to throw the pair away. Tonight after cutting a brass brush grinding wheel in half I touched the hot item and my thumb instantly melted when the thin glove spot contacted the metal. Geez ... you can bet the gloves are in the trash can and that's one lesson I won't have to learn twice. At least I still have another good thumb.


Last weekend we took R2 to a concert in Dunedin with the Dunedin Orchestra. They played some star wars music and had the 501st out there so we brought R2. It was a fun evening. But R2's front foot still needs a good bit of work. The fix I made to it kept the foot tight but put it at an odd angle which is not good. A front foot with a caster on R2 must be level or you'll have problems controlling the droid.

Posessed

Giraffe without the lower legs

This weekend was nothing but working on the giraffe because I fear the cooler weather is about to depart.

Possessed is about the way I felt this weekend working nonstop on the giraffe. In the last week I completely tore off the chest and redid it TWICE. After the first chest rework it still wasn't what I was hoping for. So the second time I really tore into it and added curves in the front around the legs and middle chest. Plus using the plasma cutter I pulled it in another couple inches.

Next major rework was the hump. Even though most giraffes have a hump at the base of the neck, the size of the hump I made more resembled a camel. So While I was carving, off it came. After that I looked at the profile of the back and decided to make that more of a slant. That looked more natural and the giraffe slimmed down a little bit more. The slant of the back made a kind of hump and the advantage is the neck looks about a 9 inches longer. More Giraffish ...

The back end of the Giraffe was modified slightly to give it more contour. When the rear legs start forming, that area will be roughed in more.

The more I do this the more little tricks I figure out. How to form metal shapes is now quite easy. Welding gets easier by the day and I'm still learning how to make good welds. I found out a lot of my welds were not the best when I took a hammer to a few areas in the front of the giraffe. Extreme hammering the steel broke quite a few welds but they were easily fixed.

That's how you learn...

Giraffe Lyposuction with a plasma cutter

As I roughed in the giraffe's chest area earlier this week, it became obvious that this giraffe was developing a definite weight problem. One that wouldn't be solved without removing the entire front chest area and removing some of the inner structure.

So with the help of my trusty plasma cutter, about 5 inches from the chest area was removed and the lower chest area was tapered inward to look more rounded and natural. The plasma cutter allowed me to get rid of a couple layers of structure that wasn't needed. Shaved a few pounds off this beast.

After a couple hours I was able to add more strips to form the structure and also tacked in a couple front leg pieces. The profile looks so much better. It was worth the extra work.

In the lessons department, I keep learning as I continue to weld. Now I know why welders often have hats under their welding helmet. That lesson was learned after setting my hair on fire more than a few times (well not actually on fire but I felt hot sparks penetrate my hair to burn my scalp). So now I stay pretty well suited up when engaging my mig welder. Not sure how that's going to work when summer makes it's arrival in Florida but it's something that has to be done.

Taming the Giraffe or a wheel good idea

Since last blog The giraffe has grown part of the upper leg in addition to more body contours.

This giraffe sculpture is quite large so it's been a challenge to constantly reposition him for welding and just eyeballing to make sure the proportions look correct. The table he was resting on kept getting in the way and it was a real pain in the neck shuffling him around in a very small area.

So .. I installed casters on the bottoms of the upper leg skeleton. This way I don't need a table to set him on. He stands on his own while I weld away at his upper body. And repositioning is fairly simple. His head almost hits the ceiling of the garage but I have enough room to work. But don't be deceived by the attached pictures. He will stand about 5 feet taller than what he's currently at. Giraffes have pretty long legs too.

This is without a doubt the funnest project I've ever taken on. Just a tremendous source of satisfaction and a challenge.

Giraffe body

The Giraffe body has been roughed in pretty good and I'm pretty happy with the contours and structure. I originally tried to make a wire frame as I go but the wire I have isn't worth a darn so I used steel strips instead. Works much better for me and it's easy to snip and redo if it doesn't look right.

Tonight I just sat and looked at the project trying to visualize how the legs will fit in and look. I must make the legs removable and sturdy and that's the big challenge on my mind lately. I'm getting close to a final design but still not certain.

Another idea I had tonight was regarding the problem of how tall the giraffe already is and how in the heck will I be able to work on the legs. My garage is a standard size height so I felt like I had very few options .... and then a big light bulb came on. I have one of those drop down staircases in my garage and it just happens to be close to my work area. I'll simply pull down the stairs and then position the giraffe underneath the hole and put it on a platform so I can fit the leg parts to him. His neck and head will be in the attic while I work on the legs. I think that might work !

The welding is coming along very nice and every day I do it the welds get better. I absolutely love the new mig. This week I upgraded to a bigger co2/argon bottle because it's getting so much use.

I need a taller workshop

Giraffe is looking mighty cool. You could almost say part Giraffe, part Zebra with those ribs looking like stripes on a zebra.

The original plan was to make the head removable but the more I considered this the more I realized that would be virtually impossible. There is a lot of weight on the neck / head so there's no getting around the fact the connection needs to be strong. Bill (The Giraffe) is already taller than my wife at about 5' 5". And that's with only half a body and no legs. He's growing like a weed. The legs of a giraffe are very long so I'm guessing he may end up around fifteen feet tall. The dilemma of course will be working on this project in my cozy garage. Especially when the legs are attached. I'm guessing they're going to have to be removable.

Giraffe neck

After closely examining pictures of giraffes, I suddenly realized that once I put the giraffe head/neck on a body, the head would have been looking straight down. It looked nice sitting on the work bench but when added to a giraffe body in a standard giraffe pose, it wouldn't look good. At first I tried to adjust (not easy) the head/neck but after a short time, decided the entire neck had to be removed and completely remade. Better now than later.

I was able to fabricate a new neck with the head in the correct position. It actually worked out much better this way and the "mane" I made from steel solid tube seemed to flow nicely along the head and along the back of the new neck. The "mane" also adds strength although this beast is going to be one strong giraffe. He's starting to get heavy already. I can't imagine the final weight.

The neck now expands as it gets closer toward the main part of the body. The neck to head portion is complete so the next step will be to look into creating the legs or maybe the hump section which is between the neck and body. Whatever I do, I need to start thinking of a technique to allow me to dismantle the giraffe so I can move it without having to purchase a full size crane.

It's kind of weird blogging a giraffe project. Much different than robots. Not sure it's going to be that interesting of a build so I may not be posting as much. Another thing about this project is it's moving along quicker than my robot builds. The robots took at least a year for each one .... usually 1-2 years. This giraffe is about 20% complete already so it's coming together quicker.

A final noteworthy item I need to post is a BIG thank you to the very cool person who inspired me to start doing this metal working. And that's the original artist who made the giraffe I saw while on vacation last summer. I recently contacted him and he couldn't have been nicer. He gave me some great tips that changed the way I'm looking at this project. And I'm confident the giraffe will be a success because of those tips.

Science center event and Giraffe sculpture pictures

After a few weeks of welding cutting and grinding I finally have a couple of giraffe pictures. I'm very pleased with the results so far but I realize there is still much to do.

I recently purchased a miller mig welder so I've been alternating between the oxy/act and mig. Both have their places. The mig can tack steel in place like a charm. Saves so much time.

In other news R2D2 was visited by his favorite groupies (Jeremy and fam) at the St. Petersburg Science center on Saturday night. The science center was showing the Clone Wars movie so R2 and an imperial officer (Magnum) patrolled the halls for a couple hours. A good excuse to get out of the house and do something fun.

Giraffe progress

I have to say sculpting a head of an animal out of steel is a lot more work than I originally anticipated .... but ... enormously gratifying at the same time. It takes more patience than I'm normally used to doling out but so far I have to say the giraffe head is coming out according to plan. I'm about half way done with the hard stuff behind me. The face, eyes, lids, brows, mouth, lips, inner mouth and lower jaw area are in good shape.

The hard part was making sure everything was in correct proportions and both sides of the face matched. As I know nothing about how normal people make metal sculptures, I'm using my own technique and seat of the pants type flying I usually employ. As in building the robots, listening to other people too much will taint your creativity. Of course there's a lot to be said for the voice of experience and listening to it can sometimes save you from a lot of painful mistakes. You gotta balance it out.

Still no pictures but in a couple weeks the bust will be hopefully presentable. Then onto the neck, body and legs. It will be a long term project for sure.

On the battle droid project, not much getting done but I did design the adjustable knees and started working on them. One thing that is crazy working with steel is how hard it is. I tried drilling a hole in 1/4" steel with the drill press and it just wasn't going to happen until I started the hole by blasting a starter hole with the plasma cutter. Without that, it would have taken 3 days to drill a hole with the bits I had. Even with cutting oil. I guess I'm just used to working with aluminum from R2D2 which was a cinch to drill or cut. Steel is a whole different medium. Or maybe I need new drill bits ...

Giant steel Giraffe

On the battle droid I'm trying to come up with a way to make strong adjustable knees that can support the heavy steel body. I keep coming up with different ideas but nothing that really excites me. Since I'm sitting at a temporary roadblock with the battle droid I decided to start another major project that I can't seem to get out of my head.

And that is the giant steel giraffe project. We saw a large steel giraffe sculpture while on vacation in Michigan last summer and that's what originally got me learning metal working. If I can build it, it may be about 15 feet tall and should be very heavy. Might be nice in the backyard among the palm trees. Of course I'll have to make it portable so I can break it down and move it.

As of now the head is already under construction. I normally use 22 gauge steel but I'm experimenting with 24 gauge in a few places as it's a tad easier to move around (though harder to weld and not as strong). If I can get the head looking like a giraffe then the rest of the body should be doable. I'll post pictures when the head gets close to completion.