Help/Advice Needed on a Sculpture Project

[Ian]

Hi all, I'm hoping that some of you chaps (and chappesses) might be able to help with a project/idea that my Boss is trying to plan and price out.

He makes sculpture from wire mesh and has in the past created a series of flat panels using acid etching based on photo's of the 3D figures (you can see the type of work he does at Information). These panels are no thicker than 0.7mm (because of the problems of etching thicker panels) but David wants to see if the idea can be scaled up into LARGE pieces (several meters tall and wide). I've already done a bit of digging around and two technologies came up as possibles. Waterjet Cutting and Laser cutting, I've discounted laser cutting because of HAZ and thickness/quality of cut which leaves water jet as the leading contender. However because of the complexity of the converted cad files and number of cuts most of the companies I've spoken to won't even offer a quote on the work, the one that did quoted over £20,000 for a panel 4m by 2m by 10mm in stainless steel. Also the time to produce was considerable being over 6 months.
We were looking at creating a modular system where each panel is made up of segments (say 1m by 1m) that would fit together to make up the whole piece. I also wanted to make the panels significantly thicker than 10mm for structural reasons (but thats not a problem with waterjet, it can cut over 100mm plate)

Does anyone have any ideas on a simpler and cheaper way to get the kind of panels we want?


Any suggestions would be most welcome

[NateDJ]

Can you buy pre-made wire mesh and form it? Should be able to do it with expanded metal if that 'look' was acceptable to the artist. Other than that and for prototyping you could use wire mesh fencing, it is just wire that is welded at each corner is a square mesh, and I have seen it at a hardware store in as small as 1/4'' mesh, you should be able to special order a much smaller mesh from a fencing supplier.

[Makoz]

I've done a few public commissions using laser cut stainless as well as aluminium. Besides the cost of converting CAD files (which shouldn't be there if I'd learn to use a CAD program myself!), the expense seems to lie with the cutting of holes. The machine has to stop and start again, obviously. Each "insertion" costs $$$, so if you are cutting a lot of holes, which your mesh is, that equals a heck of lot of money! The technology seems to be suited more to continuous cuts, in multiples. Can the holes be linked in a more continuous flow, ie strips of holes?
I would agree with Nate, use a commercial mesh and shape panels which can to be joined later. Is there a possibility of joining each panel to a formed rod or bar, on the seam line?

Good luck

[azIRonSmith]

Are they using the etching to actually do the cutting and not make the mesh itself? In the video it looks like regular hardware screen and the cutting was done via scissors.

It sounds like for $$$ and time sake, laying out and cutting the larger material (i.e. expanded mesh/metal) with cutting discs/sheet metal sheers/hand plasma cutting maybe more cost effective and probably quicker for actual delivery. You could use the CAD plans and just print out the shapes as templates to lay on top of the mesh to show the lines. At the larger sizes, the exactness of the cut down to the mm is not as critical as those smaller sculptures he did.

Using hammers with dollies as most sheet metal body shop pros have done for decades is probably how the shaping could be done. In the video, that's basically what the artist in the video is doing. He's just using his hands and small tools as hammers/benders and dollies. Add in an Oxy/Acetylene rosebud torch to heat areas on the big metal to help them bend/stretch/shrink and anneal the metal and you would have a fairly complete method.

This is all fairly standard metal sculpture methodology.

If you have ever looked at some of the bodywork (no pun intended, okay maybe a little) that guys like Ron Covell and others have done, the curves and shapes are very much like human forms. Intentionally so in many cases.

Hope this gives you a few useful ideas.

[Ian]

Perhaps I should clarify, I'm not tasked to replicate the 3D meshwork that David does on a much larger scale but rather the flat panels. They are about 40cm by 80cm and under a mm thick stailess steel. David wants to scale up that flat panel idea dramatically. Now if they are to be mounted to a base for the sake of safety I realise that the panel needs to be significantly thicker in order to prevent flex (I have to plan for them being outdoors for example) so I narrowed my options down to water jet cutting for the precision and depth of cuts possible. That would in fact work I'm sure but the cost/time factor makes it a harder sell by far.
I'm trying to find an alernative to waterjet that doesn't have the same cost/time problems.

[bipolarandy]

I dont want to sound like a broken record, but have you thought about buying commercial SS mesh and manipulating it to get the desired look, for instance, Rolling or selective planishing might get a more organic look. I cant imagine it'd cost more than 20,000 pounds.

[Ian]

Andy,
thanks for the suggestion but I cannot use actual mesh of any decription, these are FLAT panels, the mesh look is entirely down to the acid etching which burns out the holes. Looks like a mesh from a distance but ISNT a mesh. This idea needs to be replicated but on a larger scale. Acid etchings no good because it would undercut to an unnaceptable degree on thicker material so I left with finding a way to get the same look on the larger plate.
I'm only really worried about serious thickness of plate on base mounted pieces and have a perfectly useable idea for hung pieces, but I want to be able to cover all the base as it were

[John B]

Hi Ian, Spark erosion?

[ThomasPowers]

Ian, the mesh comes in Flat panels too, Flat doesn't mean no holes; I think what you are trying to say is you need to start with solid sheet and then selectively create holes and I am afraid you will not find an easy cheap fast method to do so.

Most of the high tech methods require a starter hole or charge more to create such a hole as it's harder on the equipment.

[Glenn]

Can you use expanded plate? The stuff that has a diamond shaped hole in the metal? Comes in 4 x 8 and 12 feet, but is something like 1/8 inch thick.