As part of the MIG welding training for Metropolis, we were supposed to make something small. I decided to make a little robot sculpture out of scrap square tube. I thought welding all the caps would be good welding practice and that the end result would be cool/cute as well.
I didn’t want it to look too stiff. I wanted to give the robot a pose that would convey a sense of dynamism/motion.
I wasn’t sure if I should grind down all the welds or just leave them. I also experimented with a bunch of different surface finishes: grinder, sanding flap disc, scotch brite pad and wire brush.
In the end I decided that grinding down all the welds would be too much work, and also that it would take away some character from the robot. I also felt that a completely shiny surface finish wouldn’t fit with the lupsup asthetic I was going for, and went with wire brushing everything by hand for the most part.
I used little pieces of steel square bar stock for the joints/hips/neck so I could play around with the pose and have it be less blocky. The heat distortion from welding the hip bits naturally splayed the legs in that way and I just went with it. Welding in such tight spaces (shoulders, ankles and neck) proved to be extremely challenging (and generally led to pretty bad welds but it should be good enough).
Also, I dropped the little square stock into the holes of the welding table about a million times before I finally put everything on a scrap piece of sheet metal so things would stop falling through.
I used a spray on clear coat to stop it from getting rusty, but I realized that I would never be able to weld/modify the sculpture again. I figured that was probably fine…
A secret bonus feature is that the robot can balance on both its left and right legs!
I’m very happy with how it turned out, the pose creates some visual interest. It could be taking a step, about to kick a ball, stabilizing itself trying to stop itself from falling, or just doing a happy pose.
It now lives on our window sill.
