Small,Big and Then BIGGER! Metal Eagle Sculpture

I bought a cheap wooden laser cut Eagle model from a charity shop and thought it would look nice scaled up and made of metal as a garden ornament

Angle Grinder

Sander

MIG Welder

Stainless Steel Sheet/ Old Sink

Gluestick

I found this unmade model of an Eagle in a charity shop, and after assembly wondered if a larger metal version would be possible

After pressing out all the parts (13 of them) I used the wood "carrier" to trace all the parts.

I then blew these up to A3 size on the photocopier

I had a quantity of 1mm Stainless Steel that I had "rescued" from a kerbside inorganic waste collection, it was originally a Barbeque

I cut out the paper templates and laid them out on the Stainless Steel, once I was happy I stuck them in place with a gluestick

Using a 1mm thick cutting wheel on my angle grinder, I cut out all the pieces, any sharp edges and burrs were removed using a belt sander.

A slight curve was introduced into the wings and tail by using a chisel and hammering along the feather lines

Slots were also cut to allow the joining of the pieces, the 1mm cutting disc was the perfect width for this.

The Eagle was assembled in the same fashion as the original wood model, firstly I peeled off the paper templates and made sure there were no sharp edges or burrs, while the cut slots held it together adequately I used my Gasless MIG Welder to tack all the pieces as I don't want it coming apart.

I made a hexagonal base for it so that I can screw it down where I am going to place it, then cleaned up all the welds and made it shiny again.

Just need to find the right location for it

I am considering making a larger version (maybe twice the size) as I have quite a bit of stainless steel left, though I may need a thicker sheet for that.

All in all this took about 4 hours to make.

A couple of weeks have passed since the build and I have decided I want BIGGER (especially as the Big and Small contest has started!)

So using an old Stainless Steel sink which I have had cluttering up the place for ages, I made a larger one (well as large as I could feasibly fit on there), the method was the same, glue on templates, cut out, sand and weld.

The second picture shows what was left of the sink.

Still have to make a base for it, but banana for scale.

If I want to go even bigger I think I will have to use thicker steel, but you never know!