Farm Gate Art Welding Workshop Information

Welding Workshop with Nick Webber

 

Dates : 2 Weekend Workshops to be held  9^th/10th August  and  16^th/17th August

Time: 9.00 - 4.00pm with an hour for lunch each day

Location: Ravensthorpe

Cost: $70 per person for a 2 Day workshop

Limit of 10 people. So please register early

Please bring your lunch and a water bottle each day

To book in please contact:  

Mel Daw email: rraccoordinator@westnet.com.au or 0427 381530

 

 

Come and learn how to weld scrap metals and old farm implements together to make a sculpture for your front gate as part of the Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council Farm Gate Art Project

Learn techniques and skills that teach you:

 

• how to identify and prepare metals to weld,
• basic stick welding & grinding welds clean,
• plasma cutting
• spot welding
• working with wire
• designing in metal

 

Please bring lots of enthusiasm and some bits of metal you want to weld. It’s ok if you don’t have a solid idea of what you want to make yet, just bring some bits and we will help you with ideas on the day. The main thing is learning how to weld and being confident with that, so you are able to go home and then make what you want.

 

Prerequisites

 

There are essential prerequisites to this workshop.

 

• You must wear covered in shoes
• You must wear close fitting long sleeves and long pants (preferably cotton or wool content).
• Please bring an auto darkening welding helmet and welding gloves.
• Please bring a small 5 inch angle grinder if you have one and a couple of grinding discs (not essential)

 

Liability disclaimer

You must accept full insurance responsibility for your own safety while attending this workshop due to the danger aspects of using these tools. All liability resides and remains with you as a participant. You will need to sign a waiver attesting to this.

 

 

 

 

 

Materials You Need to Bring:

 

Foraging for pieces you can use:

Go to your oldest farm tip where old machinery has been dumped and have a look for things in the list below.  Or have a look behind the shed (there is usually a pile there) for bits that could be useful. If you are making flowers think about things that you have multiple amounts that might be the same shape that can be used for petals, stamens and leaves like u-bolts, bolts, points.

 

Have a good time foraging for interesting pieces that inspire you!

 

Suggestions:

Plough discs

Crop lifters (off header combs)

Bits of different size pipe

Car panels or coloured metal

drums

cogs

Chains from headers

odd chain links

springs

Old tools –eg spanners, screwdrivers, pliers

Bolts & U-Bolts

Thin rod – eg spokes

Points

Old Corrugated iron

Pressed tin

Wire mesh like old header separators

 

Material Ideas to Start:

 

Have a look these interesting scrap pieces to get an idea of what you will need to bring, if you’re not sure just bring it anyway and we’ll work it out from there!

 

 

 

   

 

 

Structure:

Think about how you might build your structure or how it will fit together. Is it going to be on a gate, or will it be freestanding? Some methods to use might be:

 

Use pipe to build up structures eg. stems, branches

Adding plasma cut shapes from found objects

Adding plasma cut shapes from flat sheet metal

Using found shapes together with cut shapes

Use negative and positive shapes eg cutouts in discs

 

Joining techniques:

Welding

Riveting

Lace things together

Wire objects on

Linking objects using chains

 

 

Colour

Will you paint it, or leave it rusty? You can get colour from car or machinery panels, drums etc. or you can paint afterwards.