Lamp 001 2016 12 12

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Well I have picked up another hobby. I was poking around on the internet and saw some artwork that was being done with scrap metal.

I had some old engine parts laying around and I sent out an e-mail to my mailing list asking if anyone had scrap engine parts. I got a pretty good response and am starting to get a good selection of different parts.

I have never been very good at art, in fact my abilities are limited to poorly drawn stick men.

I am pretty good at seeing stuff that I like and can see ways to improve on other people’s attempts on things.

One of the pieces I came across was this piece and I recognized it as an early Ford symbol. I was not very impressed with the execution of the piece and decided to see if I could do better.

I can MIG weld reasonably well and am just starting to TIG weld. My number two son is a fantastic welder so I got to thinking that I would try and impress him by attempting to do so TIG welding and also create a Christmas gift for him.

The first thing I did was google early Ford Symbols and found this. 

So with a couple of push rods and a couple of wheel bearing races, a little heat to bend the push rods, a little grinding to notch out the back of the races, I came up with this. I did TIG weld the push rods into the notches, but I will not show you the welds because they were really bad. I ground them down. Still I need to hide them so I will have to think of something to put behind this symbol. The push rods are even, even though they do not look it. It is just the angle at which I took the picture. 

So now we need a base to hold the symbol, and if I’m going to put something behind it to hide the welds, I will need room to mount it. I liked the idea of using a piston and rod for the base so I dug one out and cut the rod off. I welded the rod to the piston so that it could not move and I had to MIG the plate to the cut off rod because I could not reach in with the TIG torch. Drilled a hole for the mounting bolt of the symbol and we are good to go.

So what do I put in back of the symbol to hide my ugly welds? I went back to the internet and started looking at more scrap metal art and came across some lamps built from parts. In fact, I was really intrigued by this one built from an old carburetor. I have an old Rochester Products Carburetor off my 1949 Fleetmaster that is being built as a gasser (see it here on the web site). It is too big for this project but I know I will be building another lamp using the carburetor. I have new inspiration, so now we are building a lamp just to hide ugly welds. It did seem out of proportion (too wide for the height).

I need to raise the base that I have up a little to give the whole thing more height. I want to make whatever I did removable in case it gets too high or too top heavy. I cut a circle in some ¼ inch thick steel to give the base some weight and welded some roller lifters from a diesel engine to it.

Because the base needs more height and I want to make whatever I do removable in case it gets too high or too top heavy, I cut a circle in some ¼ inch thick steel.  This will give the base weight. For more stability and a smooth bottom, I also welded some roller lifters from a diesel engine to it.

Bolted two rods together and welded them to the plate that is welded to the cut off rod in the piston. Welded a small plate to the top of the rod to mount the lamp sockets to. Bolted everything together to see what we have.

It is quite tall and I am not sure that I like the raised base, and the V8 symbol and the circle created by bolting the rods together are a little busy.

I think if I powder coat the rods semi-gloss black and keep the V8 symbol in natural bright steel it will be ok.

I do not want the cord to hang down from the top of the lamp, I just think that would distract from or make the whole thing more confusing. I took some 3/8 inch brake line and bent it to conform to the back of the two rods, and to go around the hole created by the big end of the rods. I do not know if you have ever bent brake lines, but it is very easy to bend in the wrong direction and steel lines, once bent, are very unforgiving. The bends were tight and a number of errors were made. I ended up with a gap in the lines in the center of the rods.

I tried to TIG weld a short piece on the end of one of the lines, but was unable to do it. I just kept melting the line. I cheated and MIG welded the piece on.

I do not know why I made it so that the two rods could come apart, but that is what I did. When the rods are bolted together the two brake lines which are welded to the backs of the rods meet and there is no gap. When unbolted the rods can still be separated.

So now I have all the pieces and trial fitted them all to gather one last time before I clean them up. The single air cleaner looked out of proportion so I will add a second one. I glued them together with silicone gasket sealer and was able to save the mounting process I used for the single air cleaner. It is surprisingly stable but I’m still not sure if it isn’t too tall. My wife likes it

Apart it all comes again for final clean up and powder coating.

The pieces have all been powder coated now and ready for final assembly.  The V8 is polished bare metal.

This is the end result. I think I’m going to pull it apart one more time. I like the old style cloth wrapped power cord on the lamp built with the carburetor.

I’m still not sure about the height, but it is a gift to my son so I will let him make up his own mind.

What do you think? Maybe what I should have done is shorten the bottom rod so that the circle formed by the two big ends was at the same height as the top circle of the 8 in the V8 symbol. That would also reduce the overall height of the lamp.

Hope it is a Merry Christmas.