Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Getting Into the Real Work

This has been my first week of actual fabrication work on Homes for Everyone. Of course it has also been the first heat wave of the season. Yesterday it was 104F in the shop. It was an interesting day! The truth is when you are deep into a creative journey you hardly notice any of the uncomfortable issues that come hand-in-hand with metal fabrication. 


Right now I am working out my fabrication system. I have one full house plasma cut from the .25" aluminum plate. It took a few tries to get the plasma set up just right and the same with the new Spoolmatic welding gun, an essential tool to mig weld aluminum. At first I just melted my test pieces. It was pretty comical, but after a day of practice everything is fined tuned. Changing from steel and stainless steel, two very hard substances, to working with super soft aluminum is a challenge, but one I am loving.


Even though the work is hard I am very excited and finding that I really like aluminum. Here are some images from the first week of fab work.
Ahh, pretty. Aluminum plate just waiting to get cut up.

More raw materials.

Layout and cutting with the plasma torch.

The Miller Spoolmatic mig gun, a dream to work with.

Me, plasma cutting.

Test cuts for the windows, pretty crappy, I'll be using a template to make them cleaner.

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