Metal allows you to realize many creative ideas. But working with it requires special skills, abilities and devices. However, the result is durable, original and unique.
Thanks to the malleability of the material and the talent of the master, do-it-yourself metal crafts worthy of admiration appear. They become the pride of a personal plot, cottage or home interior. Let's look at a few examples and working methods:
Metal products for the garden
Agree, every dacha owner gradually accumulates various pieces of iron in his household in the form of old tools, unnecessary metal parts, and from them it will be possible to make wonderful metal crafts for the dacha.
Products for the dacha are constructed from everything metal that is stored in a person’s barn. The best method for joining such crafts together is welding, although other joining methods are also used on various structures. Ideas for implementation:
- For example, you can make an openwork panel for a summer house from wire. First, a frame is made from thick-diameter wire, then the image itself is attached to it from thin wire. The theme of the images can be the faces of people, especially the fair sex.
- Stainless steel crafts. They look neat and do not require frequent maintenance, although they are more difficult to make.
- A grasshopper mailbox would be a bold decision. It will surprise and delight your friends, and will also scare away uninvited visitors.
- With a flight of fancy, you can design a puppy or a piglet. By installing the figurine in the garden, it will evoke a smile and positive emotions.
Creating metal objects for the garden will require the availability of certain materials and free time. You shouldn’t regret spending time assembling the figurine when you have time to paint the fence.
At the dacha, owners often use a barbecue - a collapsible or stationary type. For a model with permanent registration, the grill is made from an old barrel. It is easy to assemble it on your own using a drill and grinder. Still, it’s worth using a welding device.
An empty and washed barrel is taken, cut lengthwise in a straight line and divided into two halves. Legs made of reinforcement, pieces of pipes or rods are welded to one workpiece.
The top half acts as a hinged lid, and canopies are welded on for easy opening. It is advisable to work with thin metal parts after gaining some experience.
In order to weld workpieces efficiently and not make a hole with the electrode, you need to accurately select the current for welding and carry out the work with short tacks, constantly monitoring the quality of the seam.
Differences between cold forging and other metalworking methods
In addition to this method, the following is used for the production of metal products:
- Casting. The alloy is heated to a liquid state and poured into molds.
- Mechanical processing (using a cutting tool). The workpiece is turned, drilled, planed, etc.
- Hot forging and stamping. The workpiece is subjected to impact in a heated state.
Thus, the differences between cold processing and alternative methods are as follows:
- The workpiece is not preheated.
- Its integrity and structure are not violated. The required shape is achieved by cold working under the influence of external force.
Welded metal crafts
Having acquired knowledge and mastered the skills of a welder in adulthood, you can use a welding machine to make attractive metal crafts by welding. During production, two goals are realized.
Firstly, welding skills are consolidated. Secondly, a useful household item is created - a shoe stand or something else. You can make a funny figurine for the garden from used metal cans and unnecessary springs.
Having welding skills, you can start creating an owl from metal. You will need to prepare the following items:
- pencil, scissors, cardboard, drawing paper;
- chisel, hammer, grinder;
- thin sheet metal, welded device;
- bolts with washers, wire, steel rods.
First, an image of an owl is drawn on paper with a pencil. You need to try to make the drawing as beautiful as possible. Then the sketch is transferred to cardboard. Next, a grinder and thin sheet metal are used for work.
To form an owl figurine, you need to prepare body parts with plumage, for the eyes, wings and tail. This is all cut out of iron using a grinder. When forming the eyes, you should make holes in the part to secure bolts in them.
You need to make notches on the surface of the body, due to which the effect of bird plumage will appear. This is where a chisel comes in handy. For the beak, you can insert a piece of bent metal. To form paws, you need to take different rods and connect them by welding.
After preparing all the individual parts, they are combined together using a welding device. Now the craft is ready, all that remains is to paint it and apply a special varnish.
Tools and materials for cold forging
The master must have the following:
- Special machines.
- Welding machine. Used to assemble decorative elements into a single composition.
- A grinder with a metal disc. It is used to cut rolled products into blanks.
- Clamps or other devices for permanently fixing elements before welding.
- A brush with metal bristles.
- With a hammer.
- Brush for applying enamel. Low carbon steel needs protection against corrosion.
- With a tape measure.
Materials used:
- Rolled steel: rod, strip, sheet.
- Coated consumable electrodes. The design is not critical, so rutile consumables like MP-3 are suitable.
- Enamel for exterior use.
Product made from horseshoes
A horseshoe stand is made as follows. Take two horseshoes, turn them back and weld them together. Another pair of united horseshoes is produced.
At the top of a separate pair, another horseshoe is welded on, with the ends facing up. The two structures are welded into one using the following method:
- installed on the edges with the bottom edge;
- to connect the upper horseshoes, a metal rod is taken and welded to the bottom;
- at the top of the upper horseshoe, a horseshoe is welded perpendicularly, which will look backward with the outgoing edge;
- the second, third, and so on until the end is attached to it, until the topmost one is welded to the side horseshoe on the other side of the structure.
The result will be a product that looks extraordinary and is comfortable for shoes. Welding in a short period of time allows a novice master to consolidate his skills and will be beneficial for the home.
Cold forging techniques and technology
Changing the shape of blanks is carried out using the following methods:
- flexible;
- torsion;
- broaching;
- minting.
A distinctive feature of cold deformation of metal is the simplicity of the technological process. So, bending is carried out in the following sequence:
- Install the mandrel of the required size.
- Rigidly fix one end of the workpiece.
- Bend it, covering the mandrel. As a result, a monogram or curl of the desired size, shape and direction is obtained.
A rod of square cross-section is subjected to torsion. To perform the operation, you only need a vice and a collar with a long lever. If performed manually, the operation will require a lot of effort. The result is a rod that is evenly twisted around its own axis. You can place 2 products in a vice and wrap them around one another. This is done, for example, by the outer supports of balcony railings.
Interesting: Types and equipment of metal slitting
The broaching operation consists of moving the workpiece between the rollers, as a result of which it is compressed. In most cases, using this method, the ends of the rods are given a pointed shape.
Custom embossing is done by hand using a hammer. In mass production, a stamp is used. The mechanism extrudes the design with a moving part - a punch.
Torsion is one of the forging methods.
Deer figurine
To build up your welding skills, you can also make a deer from metal rings. The manufacturing steps are as follows: metal rings d-5, 6 cm are selected, and on the ground they are welded to each other.
Here you need to use symbolic thinking, which will tell you when creating one side of the deer when you need to start raising the animal figurine. Pieces of brick are suitable for this.
Then the rings are welded together, gradually forming the convex body of a deer lying on its side on the ground. Perhaps you can come up with other methods for maintaining the rings before welding them. The product will take hundreds of rings, but the result is worth it.
The deer is brought to its feet. All parts of his body are clearly visible: an openwork head, a voluminous body, deer antlers.
Such a model may well be taken to an exhibition.
Conclusions: there is no shame in taking an idea to bring a metal craft to life using special literature. Having made a sketch on paper, your products will come out unique.
Working with metal involves using your creativity and ideas. Having acquired welding skills, do not delay to start tinkering and creating masterpieces from metal.
Types of Cold Forging
To give the workpieces the desired shape, special machines, presses and stamps are used. The technology includes the following operations:
- bending;
- calibration;
- firmware;
- tenderloin;
- stamping;
- winding
The equipment allows for mass production of identical products.
The following types of rolled metal are used as blanks:
- round and square rod with a thickness of 8-16 mm;
- strip;
- sheet metal.
Relief decorations are made from steel plates using the hammer embossing method.
The material used in cold forming is low-carbon steel, which is soft and ductile. The most common brand is St3.
Photos of new crafts made from different types of metal
Cold forging equipment
Elements are manufactured on several machines. The name of each device corresponds to the operation performed with it.
Snail
This equipment is designed for curling the workpiece into a flat spiral. In its simplest form, it is a massive table with a template made of a thick steel strip attached to it.
Having fixed the end of the workpiece in the center, it is deformed with a bending lever.
In a more complicated version, the template is made of several hinged links and installed on a rotating table. The workpiece is pressed by a roller. As the shaft rotates, the template gradually unbends.
Gnutik
This machine bends the rolled product at the desired angle. It consists of the following components:
- Beds.
- Fixed stops with pressure rollers for fixing the workpiece.
- Guides.
- A movable stop moving along them.
- Screw mechanism.
Interesting: What is electroplating of metal
An overlay with a profile corresponding to the required bending shape is attached to the movable stop. The necessary force is created by a screw mechanism.
By rotating the table with the workpiece attached to it, you can obtain any flat and spatial shapes.
Wave
The final product is a rounded zigzag. The main elements of the machine are the central and bypass rollers, the latter is mounted on the carrier. You can also retrofit the “snail” or use a “grip”, equipping the movable stop with an overlay of the appropriate profile.
Flashlight
The machine twists several rods at once, installed in a circle. The result is a spatial structure of a cylindrical shape with spiral walls. A stop with a lock and a movable gate are fixed to the frame.
globe
Using this machine, arched ceilings and other products in the form of an arc with a large radius are made. The workpiece is crimped according to a template using a bending lever with a movable roller.
This machine is used for mass production. In single quantities, arcs can be produced on a “bending machine”.
Blacksmithing machine Globe.
Twister
The device twists the workpiece around the longitudinal axis. To do this, one end is rigidly fixed, and the other is rotated with a movable collar. This unit can move along the workpiece, which allows you to adjust the pitch of the spiral.
Homemade equipment for cold forging
You can make machines yourself. A novice craftsman should first of all acquire a “snail”, since spirals and curls are the most popular decorative element. By changing the bending radius and the number of windings, you can create many beautiful original products using only this machine.
What you need
Cold deformation of steel blanks requires great effort. Therefore, all machine components must be durable and massive. The following materials are used for their manufacture:
- Table top – sheet with a thickness of 10 mm.
- Bending lever – profiled pipe with a cross section of 40x25x3 (mm). It is allowed to use a product with a wall of 2 mm.
Some parts cannot be made at home. Examples:
- Bed and movable stop "bend". The material is high-strength steel, so manufacturing requires milling and drilling machines.
- Central and bypass “wave” rollers. They experience heavy loads, so they are made of tool steel. Its processing also requires industrial equipment.
Such parts should be ordered from a production site with a good fleet of metalworking machines.
Manufacturing of the machine
The snail device is made in the following sequence:
- A round tabletop is cut from sheet steel.
- A thick-walled pipe leg with brackets for fastening to the floor is welded in the center. To give stability, it can be strengthened with struts.
- Install the bending lever. One end of it is attached to the leg so that rotation remains possible. On the other hand, the lever is equipped with pressure rollers on bearings.
- A template made of a thick strip is attached to the tabletop. It should repeat the shape of the future part with a small tolerance (determined experimentally). Pins are welded to the template, and holes are drilled in the tabletop for them. This method of fixation will make it possible to produce elements with different radii of curvature.
Interesting: Types of metal cutting equipment
Attaching the bending arm to the machine leg can be done in 2 ways:
- Using a bearing. This is the best option, it provides easy rotation.
- By means of a sleeve made of a larger diameter pipe. A support ring is welded on the bottom. In this case, rotating the lever will require a lot of effort, but if there is lubrication, the operation will be accessible even to a person of average build.
