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I Forge Iron

Unicorn


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Not an easy project, Das. I have never made a horse, but I can understand the difficulties. I'm wondering how you did the mane and tail because that material looks too light to weld, if indeed it is metal.

You have certainly got him well anchored down with that crown wheel base. You want brutally honest comment, but as I said,  that's one difficult project. I would probably have gone for a little more flex in those back legs and maybe thickened them out a bit at the top. But hey, a minor detail, and the boss's daughter will think it's the ant's pants.

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Well, I would say the thighs are a bit skinny for a horse, and the tail is too thick at the base. The mane is looking a bit ragged too. For the hind legs a bigger bolt that is quite a bit larger, or maybe not even a bolt, say something like a spoon would give it a more natural look... 

Ever consider using a TIG for these? To me the MIG welds have always been kind of a turn off for a lot of the smaller scrap art that I have seen. TIG is so much more precise that I think it would move the sculptures up a few notches in the eyes of the consumers.

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Aus, the mane is braided wire rope cut and welded at the end in smaller sections, then untwisted. As far as the big heavy base, it could be overkill but I was thinking that would keep it on the shelf.  

 

BigGun, I see your points clearly. I really need to plug in the Tig and get practicing with it. I guess I always just grab the Mig because I know it and to me is easy. 

 

Thanks for the pointers guys. 

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9 hours ago, Daswulf said:

. As far as the big heavy base, it could be overkill but I was thinking that would keep it on the shelf.  

 

 

Nothing wrong with big heavy bases. They are essential, especially if you make anything attached to a spring ... you don't want the base wobbling around. Brake drums and rotors, crown wheels, plough shares etc all make good bases. If you want area rather than weight, satellite dishes are good.

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Agreed about difficulty with horses, legs and tail. I think it needs to be a bit . . . hornier. Longer and tipped forward rather than curved up and back.

Good first critter, I can see you developing this considerably.

Frosty The Lucky.

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I will be reworking this one tonight. Thank you for the comments and suggestions. After looking at it again this morning, and reading the suggestions and thinking about it today There are a couple things i'm going to work on. 

1. is the mane and tail. while they are not proper to begin with, I was thinking that this is going to a child and I think the wire is a bad idea. I think i will try small chain or something less "pokey".

2. The base Is too heavy. honestly when I picked it up this morning i could swear it had to weigh around 25lbs. while in some cases that would be fine but for this piece that is Far too much.

3. I'm going to bulk up the neck and legs. I dont know if i can get more bend out of the hind legs but i'll see what i can do.

4. hook up the Tig and get practicing.

Frosty I like the suggestion for the horn. i'll think about it but would definitely do it on another one. The head was My first hurdle in making this piece. For bit, I couldn't picture for the life of me how to make the head the size i needed with the materials I had.  All these are steps in learning How to make something. Its really nice when a general concept Works so it can be improved on. 

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Das, you could make a nice tail and mane by getting some of that really thin rebar and twisting it together. The stuff that joins the heavier bars in what we call trench mesh here. It would have a good texture without the spiky wire. Thin welding rod would work well too, but it wouldn't have the same texture. 

And this is what I meant about the angle of the back legs. Just about a right angle there:

 

 

rearing horse.jpg

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Here is what I will call finished on this on.

2 hours ago, caintuckrifle said:

Hey no one know what a unicorn looks like! I think it looks great, I would just tweak the back legs a bit myself.

I'll agree to a point. I do want it to look somewhat horse-ish. 

Thomas, I just got what you meant by your comment. Wow, that took till I was done with it. Ah well. Next one right? Unicorns are supposed to have cloven hooves and a lion-ish tail in some visions of it. Ugh...  

Dave I could be off but I kept checking a reference even as the legs kept collapsing on me after I tacked them to double check. :) 

Aus, I know exactly what you mean. I torched and bent the legs a lil bit but wasn't getting much better without starting over. I believe I was trying to get that look at first but as the leg tack welds kept falling apart on me I think I got off base with reference. I haven't seen that kind of "rebar" here. I watched em build oue new building at work tying the rebar with wire to which they left a box of rolls and I grabbed some. New mane is chain I had, and the tail is that wire and chain on the outside. This is some chain I had planned on making a spiderweb out of but it seemed to fit. 

BigGun. I worked with the Tig but ended up back at the mig. I really need to practice on flat stock to start. Tho it is nice getting the heat without feeding wire, I need practice and probably more tungsten before I'm ready to use it on something serious. I have read through Millers guide and even watched a video but practice is what will get me there. 

 

Thank you you all for the opinions and help.

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Oh and it went from literally 24 lbs. to 8.5 lbs. and is still really sturdy. 

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Oh YEAH! That's WAY better, the front on view is down right intimidating. The chain mail-like mane and tail are a good call. It's sort of Frisian like it's de-Bomb.

I don't know about a child's toy though unless s/he's a kid who collects things the way Deb collected her Briar Horses. I'm thinking a kid playing with a unicorn would just HAVE to stick it's enemies, say the neighbor kid.

Frosty The Lucky.

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:)  Its Art and as far as I know the boss is teaching or has taught them about it. shouldn't end up a toy. This will be in the same home as the guitar and butterfly. here's to hoping this never ends up sticking anyone or bludgeoning anyone lol.

ah well.. all i can do it keep trying to improve. cant say what happens to the art after it's in someone else's hands. glad i didn't make the horn bigger.

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Thanks guys, the boss loved it to the point he said he might cry lol.  I'm sure his daughter will like it too. I really appreciate the suggestions that helped me make this better.  It does look better in person then I can do justice with my horrible photography skills. 

Nick some times I see it in the parts and sometimes you have to make the parts fit. 

This one challenged me and I learned a good bit so on to the next one. 

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5 hours ago, Daswulf said:

Thanks guys, the boss loved it to the point he said he might cry lol.  I'm sure his daughter will like it too. I really appreciate the suggestions that helped me make this better.  It does look better in person then I can do justice with my horrible photography skills. 

Nick some times I see it in the parts and sometimes you have to make the parts fit. 

This one challenged me and I learned a good bit so on to the next one. 

And the next one is ....

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