Bandsaw Stops

  When I wrote the post on kerf bending, 6/16/2011, I failed to include mentioning how using a piece of tubing cut to proper length fits over the stop bolt on my bandsaw and makes the notching easy and fast.

I used this time saving technique while making the rectangular frames for the chop saw flip stand.  Instead of cutting four separate pieces I marked the linear sequence of elements (15”- 34”- 15”- 34”) on a piece of 98” long square tube and used a tube sleeve stop with the band saw to cut the kerf through three walls which left the back wall intact.  That made it very easy to make 90º bends at the kerfs to form the rectangle and complete it with only one MIG weld.  After squaring, it is ready for assembly.

I use a similar “notch and bend” technique when making the solid bar bridges for fire grates, feet for fire backs and several other jig and template projects. 

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Wheatscapes

I just finished an interesting project. A new client from Nebraska requested several small wheat sculptures which would be presented as acknowledgments of service in a wheat oriented business. Wheat is a popular icon in the plains states so I welcomed this an an opportunity to experiment with some ways I might present the motif in my display in the Prairie PastTimes gallery.

Initially six pieces would be required but over the next month the number grew to nine. I worked with several concepts and had about twenty renditions which could be completed by the deadline but decided to focus on a rectangular frame style to insure the group had some common denominator.

It has been a half century since I participated in a grain harvest although I have followed agricultural issues at least as closely as I have followed sports over the years. Wheat harvest in Kansas is a big deal.

As I laid out these pieces a lot of sketchy images appeared to me which included sun, heat, dust, waving golden grain from horizon to horizon, sky nearly as wide and stubble clothed earth exposed as the grain is swept away.

There is also the machinery, new ones, rusty ones and rusty welded ones. There is a lot more, the urgency, the anxiety, the fatigue, the noise and the satisfaction which I am completely incapable of illustrating in my ironwork.

I’m generally satisfied with the experiment from my perspective. We’ll seen in a week how they were received.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/