Buzz

[macbruce]

One of my offbeat techniques;
The needle scaler is generally not thought of as a tool that can be utilized as a creative instrument. I think it can also be looked at as a cluster of 19 tiny ball peens wailing at 4,600 BPM...........
I once got a project to make a support for a BIG, 250lb 33'' x 44''antique cast iron fireback that would hold it upright and prevent it from falling forward. I thought it was cool and started brainstorming a way to copy the image.......Hmmm, sheet copper clamped over the thing and the needle scaler??? What the hay.......started out with the process by roughing it in with a rubber mallet then soon discovered the needles were too sharp......Remove, radius the sharp away then polish, more better. After about an hour of needling, clamping, re-clamping, and annealing I pretty much got it.......I hung it on the wall B)

[Thomas Dean]

That's cool! A couple of yrs back I used the needle scaler to texture my copper rose petals, works great but you do have to 'soften' the needles some. A chipping gun works good to but the same applies, need to dull/soften the bit first so ya don't cut through the copper. Thanks for sharing.

[MLMartin]

Vary sneaky! Artsy use for a otherwise utilitarian tool

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

Pretty slick! What guage was the copper?

[macbruce]

Nakedanvil - "Pretty slick! What guage was the copper?"

It's .020, or 16 oz, up to .045 would be doable I think, depending on the piece

[nuge]

Nice technique, I'm filing that one away. You could use that with all sorts of different objects. I immediately think towards the organic like rocks and even wood for a form. Or stuff like perf metal that has an open back to poof into. I've been playing with little air hammers in a similar way but this screams detail! Nice nice nice.

[macbruce]

Rocks, maybe, clamping the cu to rough forms could be difficult. Wood maybe,I use plywood as a backing for textureing and that shows considerable damage afterwards, so detail would suffer on wood forms.........Although cutting a pattern in say masonite would work I think but not for long.........one or two sinkings.
Clamp well, capture form with rubber mallet, work in swirls with the scaler lightly at first over large areas(if you get too aggressive and local at first you're in for trouble), anneal however many times it takes, finer details last. Oh, and you won't be bothered by the phone much..

One more....... The round Celtic piece was made on a brass piece 1/4'' thick......I got a couple of ''sinkings''off that before I had to stop cause it was getting work hardened and would have cracked the piece resulting an an angry mother in law..........
That piece opened another door........flip the whole thing over..... the copper then bulges out from in between the grille. The two together would work as a copper and brass ( in this case) unit.........I haven't had the project to try it on but it could really look cool on the panels of a range hood, etc...........mb

[Bentiron1946]

Thanks for the tip on using the needle scaler in such a manner, that's wonderful :P