Jake Derocher
Welding Work
This year I have been learning how to weld in my sculpture class. We started by welding basic shapes like a sphere and a cube, which actually requires a lot more precision than you may think. Then we moved to learning to use an iron worker equipped with a coping machine and a pipe bender, as well as a pipe roller and a cutter. We combined our welding skills with our ability to work with steel pipe and rod to create life sized projects meant to hold and transport a human, ( or at least look like they could). I ended up making a robo-rocking chair out of steel. It's a little cold but I am very proud of it.
This process truly involved a lot of problem solving. The way my sculpture professor works is that we are pretty much on our own after we receive our initial instructions. But don't think I'm speaking ill of him, he actually lets us text his personal cell at any time of the day or night to ask questions about projects, and I have, many times.
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This project started out with paper/cardboard maquettes as you see below. Then we realized that just winging it with our shapes wasn't going to work, so we had to make a mathematically accurate template to make sure that when we cut the shape out of steel with the beverly shears that they would fit together well.
Second project
Here you'll see the process of my robo-chair project documented with photos from start to finish:
Once I get it home, I'll be giving it a cushion, and a blanket that will hang from the thumbs and cover the cold steel backing. The cup holder is equipped with a gap on the outer side to allow the handle of my mug to stick out comfortably. Every poke and prong has been grinded off so I won't cut myself on the thing, too.