Breaking in the new Plasma Cutter

You know the feeling, you have spent the last six months bugging your mom and dad for the coolest new toy EVER! Christmas morning comes and you find your hearts desire under the tree and you just can't wait to get it out of the package and play with it. "Oh I hope it came with batteries!" That's how I felt when Fed Ex brought my new plasma cutter and left it on my doorstep.

I had to wait for the next day to unbox my cool new toy and play with it (it drove me nust). That next morning I got my coolest toy ever out of the box and found a piece of steel plate that I had bought in anticipation of the cutter arriving. I took the plate around back to my work pad and had some fun. 

The first project with the new plasma cutter was inspired by a picture I had seen. It is a half moon shape with Kokopelli sitting on it and playing his flute.

The image above is approx 20 inches across

The above I cut (pretty much) free hand just to "break in" the new toy.
I find Kokopelli an interesting subject. For one reason his shape and general configuration is open to much interpretation, there is not exact form. There is no "You did this wrong." because he's completely open to artistic interpretation.

Second; Kokopelli is a native American diety (and all things native American are awesome) and if you're interested here is what Wikipedia has to say about him.

"Kokopelli is a fertility deity, usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player (often with feathers or antenna-like protrusions on his head), who has been venerated by some Native American cultures in the Southwestern United States. Like most fertility deities, Kokopelli presides over both childbirth and agriculture. He is also a trickster god and represents the spirit of music."

It's also interesting that in native American culture (so I've been told) virginal young girls are afraid of Kokopelli. It seems that when he shows up babies get born and (having not been told how babies are made) the girls worry about the possibility of getting (or being) pregnant and pretty much freak out about it.

Another project I did right away was, again, an image of Kokopelli and this one was set inside a Santa Fe style sun.

From top to bottom this is approx 30 inches

The cut was done as part of a gate that I built. There were actually two of these done for the same gate. In the picture above it's kind of hard to make out any details about Kokopelli because the metal was not yet painted when I took the photo. I need to find the photos I took after he was painted and post them here, he actually turned out quite nice.

Copper Butterfly

Several years ago I bought my wife a set a wind chimes I had always known she had a fondness for them so when I found a really nice set I gave them to her as a gift ( I think it was for Valentines Day).

Above is a photo of the wind chimes.
Originally the chimes had a wooden 'sail' that hung down and caught the wind but after a really nasty wind storm (actually several years of really nasty wind storms) the wooden sail went missing. After looking for a new sail and not finding anything we liked I asked my wife if she'd like me to make a new sail. I described my idea and she said she loved it.
The idea I had was to take a piece of copper plate and cut a butterfly shape out of it and hang it as a new sail. I printed several butterflies and showed them to my wife and she picked the one you see above.

Above is a photo of just the butterfly.
I cut the shape from a the copper using a plasma cutter and I then took a torch to it and over heated the copper to produce the colors that you see.
I hung the butterfly from the wind chimes using a slip ring and it is doing a great job catching the wind.
Copper is such a soft metal that the wings of the butterfly can be easily bent to change the shape of the butterfly and the way it hangs. I can almost shape it so it looks like it's flying.

 

Fire Globe Project - Kokopelli Under the Stars.

Welcome to Peterson Metal Arts.

As a metal artist I have been around for a couple of years now but this (the fire globe) is my first major art project. In the past I messed around a lot with making strange little animals and other creatures out of discarded materials (a lot of shovels, rebar, pliers, bolts, nuts, washers, and etc.) I have also built gates, metal arches, window well covers and other types of projects you would consider functional rather than artistic. I will post some photos of these later on.

 Recently my wife and I were at a lawn and garden store and I stumbled across an assortment of tank caps. These are caps that are used on commercial propane tanks. When the tank ages and needs to be decommissioned they cut them up. The caps get "repurposed." People buy these (mostly) for large and decorative planters. When I came across them I had a different purpose in mind.

Seen next to my PT Cruiser for scale

I brought home two of these and they were in the same condition, they were completely covered in rust that had to be removed before I could start work.

Neatly cleaned now

 














I cleaned the tank caps with an orbital sander and wire wheel that was attached to my drill. This was a slow and laborious process but it cleaned both of them up nicely.

Starting to cut the top

After cleaning the rust off I drew a pattern on one of the caps and cut the pattern out using my plasma cutter. The image is Kokopelli (a native American fertility God) over his should is a full moon and in front of him is a saguaro cactus and under the cactus a coyote howls at the moon.

Had to see it lit

After cutting the stars out of the top I wanted to get a feel for what the cap was going to look like so I brought the cap into my garage put a light under the cap and turned the lights out.

Fitting the top and the bottom

The second tank cap I cleaned, as I did the first, and used my plasma cutter to cut a 3 inch diameter hole in the bottom (for venting) and welded legs to it. When the two pieces are put together they form a sphere standing on a tripod.

Burn Test

After bottom had been completed my wife and I thought it would be fun to put a fire in the globe and sit out on our patio. The light from the globe casts a warm glow everywhere. (I haven't welded the top and bottom sections together at this point)

Painted

To finish this project I sandblasted and the two halves of the globe (inside and out) and painted the entire globe with a high temperature, corrosion resistant paint. I did the entire globe with a flat black and then decided that a semi-gloss would look better. After painting the top with the semi-gloss I really liked the look of the two parts. The contrast (flat black on the bottom and semi-gloss on top) gave it an interesting appearance I thought I'd leave it that way. If I change my mind I can always paint the bottom with the semi-gloss as well.

The globe has a "Fire Deck" inside it which is to say there is a surface to build a fire on. This keeps the fire from sitting right on the bottom of the globe. Together with the 3 inch hole in the bottom this makes air flow in through the bottom and up and around the fire causing to burn hot and efficiently.
The two halves of the globe are not welded together. Between the two halves is a cooking surface. The globe is actually a BBQ grill! The top half sits not on the bottom half but on the cooking surface. The top comes off to use it as a grill and when you are finished grilling you can put the top on (the top weighs about 50 lbs.) and have some food and drinks and sit around a warm fire and enjoy conversation with friends.

This project was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed the process. I learned so much about not only my tools but my abilities. I'm really looking forward to my next project.