Author Archives: Thewelder

About Thewelder

After serving 4 years in the Marine Corp from 1963-67 when I got home I started an apprenticeship with the plumbers union, Part of my training was learning the basics of welding. I immediately took to it and have been doing it ever since.I have welded around the country in a lot of the nuclear, and major power plants. I always thought of using my welding skills and applying them to creating art. I love working with the different steels and manipulating them with welding or forging. I am retired now from power plants but still love what I do, forming metal, all my birds and fish are started with a solid block of steel and then ground down to shape. They take a lot of time so in-between all that grinding I try to have fun with some lawn art and furniture. I now live in Northwest Montana, How can you not do art surrounded by all this beauty and inspiration.

Karin’s Plant stand

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This is a Plant stand designed by Karin, An artist and good friend, my part in creating it was just to choose material, and put it together. As you can see, all the individual platforms swivel so you can place it in tight places and still get a lot of plants (7) on the one stand.

 

 

rosewood and steel mirror frame

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This is a custom frame we made with some exotic rosewood. as you can see the wood was too beautiful to square and miter like a traditional frame so we made a metal frame to the contour of the wood, we then used steel blocks in the corners,the steel was ground to the contour of the wood and then flame colored.  as you can see I think the steel corners pulled the irregular wood together.
rosewood metal frame

Wood Stove

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Finally finished my wood stove and got it in the house. It is made from 1/4″ steel plate, the door is 1/2″, all moving parts were forged shaped and welded.  no nuts or bolts. It was a fun project, Heats the whole house, great to turn the thermostat offwood stove

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Torchmate

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Hi everyone, Just got back from a trip to Reno where I was tutored in the use of the CNC cad program “torch mate, I can’t say enough about these people and this company, Jake, one of the Techs was great, Now it is up to me to practice what I have learned.
hopefully I will be able to post an example soon,