Welding holds our world together. From bridges to pipelines to cars, we benefit from welding every day. However, welding can also make our world a far more beautiful place. Besides creating unique furniture and decorations for the home and garden, welding can also create extraordinary works of art.
Some of these projects are not for beginners, but you can usually simplify the projects in order to match your skill set. In addition, these projects give you a great excuse to experiment with cutting, bending, and tacking metal and to perfect your skills at a variety of welding applications. Even if your first attempt isn’t good enough to give as a gift, you’ll at least give yourself some excellent welding practice and an excuse to pick up some new tools. Here are some art welding projects to consider:
Shepherd’s Hook Art Welding Project
This welding project offers both simple and more complex aspects that you can integrate into your own project plans. At the very least you can cut two long pieces of metal and bend them into the hooks for each side before welding them together at the point where they join together. Most Shepherd’s hooks are one long continuous piece of metal that have a shorter piece of metal welded onto the top where the two pieces diverge in opposite directions as the metal curves in loops.
The grapes are made from large nuts with ¼-inch round bar spaces in the middle surrounded by TIG weld (made using a Lincoln Electric Precision TIG® 225). Carole overheated the grapes to get the purple coloring.” Picture below is an example of a Shepards hook.
Trout Mobile Art Welding Project
If you’re looking for an easier welding project that will have less metal bending and cutting, this trout mobile project is a great place to start. According to Lincoln Electric: “[Charles Buster] welded washers together to form each fish; 5/8-inch washers on the large fish, 5/16-inch on the middle-sized fish, and 1/4-inch on the smallest fish. Charles used various colors of spray paint for the finishing touch.”
This project will test your tack welding precision and also requires a lot of painstaking detail work. However, you won’t need too many tools or very much welding experience. If you have an artistic eye, the spray painting aspect of this art welding project will be especially challenging and enjoyable.
Best yet, this welding project makes the ideal gift for fishermen, welders, or welders who fish!