I found enough surplus wood in the basement to build the base. Each piece was carefully calculated, measured, cut then glued together. If I had my father's woodworking skill the project would have been complete at that point, but I have an overcautious knack to leave extra material on everything I do, as a buffer just in case I need it later. It's a useful characteristic when carving stone but not for building a wooden base. The cross brace was too long and needed recut to fit. The plywood top was oversize and needed trimmed on two sides for future slate tiles to fit. I wonder if in the future I can mimic my father's brain when working with wood then revert to my brain for stone carving. We'll have to wait for the next sculpture to find the answer.
Creating the threaded rod frame presented a few challenges too by having rod diameters twice as big as the scale model but using the same size of angle iron. Nuts securing the vertical rods at the shoulder interfered with nuts securing the horizontal arm rods so I had to build extensions for the angle iron. Then I tried bending the arm rods down at the shoulders and up at the elbows. Impossible! Too strong for my strength and tools. I brought it up during a lunch conversation with some old friends at Blount and they suggested three alternatives: 1) Apply heat with a torch, 2) Use a pipe bender or 3) Use several smaller rods instead of one large rod.
Creating the threaded rod frame presented a few challenges too by having rod diameters twice as big as the scale model but using the same size of angle iron. Nuts securing the vertical rods at the shoulder interfered with nuts securing the horizontal arm rods so I had to build extensions for the angle iron. Then I tried bending the arm rods down at the shoulders and up at the elbows. Impossible! Too strong for my strength and tools. I brought it up during a lunch conversation with some old friends at Blount and they suggested three alternatives: 1) Apply heat with a torch, 2) Use a pipe bender or 3) Use several smaller rods instead of one large rod.
With no access to a large torch, alternative 1) was out. I bought a small pipe bender to give alternative 2) a try. Even with all my strength, the rod wouldn't budge so I slipped meter long pipes over the handles to provide more leverage. The assemble kept sliding around the table. I clamped one of the long rods to the table and gave the free rod a heave. Crack! The pipe bender broke. That finished alternative 2). Off to the supply store I went to buy three smaller rods for alternative 3). They fit through the holes in the mounting bracket. Good! I bent them with my hands. Good! I set then at the desired angle but they swung down from gravity. Ugh! With no nuts holding the arm rods in place they spun freely like the Princess had broken should bones. Problemo! Think, think, think, idea. I opted to fill the connecting points with Winterstone, creating a giant cast that should hold the arms securely.
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