giant crab: August 2009

Friday, August 28, 2009

Finally getting back to it...

After missing about two weeks of sculpture time due to a series of most troublesome events (ie. work), I have finally gotten back to making the crab!

Here's the 'bond-o sculpted' VW hood all sanded down
and primed up for painting.

Here's Doug helping me load the heavy stuff; he's one of the great
guys from Wentworth Scrap Metal in Portsmouth.

Crab down!!! Oh no! ( Actually, when I put the crab down on it's front, it almost took me with it!...this bugger is heavy!)

The bottom of the crab was the last of the body panels I needed to weld...

...and as you can see, there were a few intricate pieces to get just right!

Here's what I'm thinking the side legs will look like
(before I weld them all together).

Monday, August 17, 2009

Inside-out...

Now that the front was all sealed up, it was time to get to work on the top!

Ooops! Forgot about that little gap. One of the challenges of using "found materials" (ie. recycled metal) is that you can't always choose how big it's going to be. So, in this case I had to fill in the gap on the front with a lot of little scraps.

And here's what it looks like on the inside.

Now, it's time for the top.

I used some re-bar to make an edge for the hood to rest against. That way I could make sure it didn't move once it was in the right place.

And here it is all put together (...almost).

Another challenge of using found objects, is that they aren't always in pristine condition. In this case there was a large hole in the hood that needed to be fixed up before it could go in place. (thank you bond-o!)

Front and center!

This rusty old sheet metal will soon become part of my crab... just a light dusting should do the trick!

For the front part I wanted to hide my welds...

...so, I decided to weld on the inside of the crab.

And this process involved using a lot of helping hands...or rather helping clamps!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

I decided to add a little more structural support to the frame...not that I think anyone would ever try to climb on my sculpture. But you know, just in case!

Wow! This part took much longer than it should of...it's times like this when I wish there were instructions that came with being an artist!

And now I have two sides done :)

Sunday, August 2, 2009

well, it's certainly starting to look like something...right?

Things are starting to come together :)

(the belly of the beast)

from the posterior

the VW!

I actually just found the little Beetle on the Car World website. I think it must have been waiting there for me - the term 'destiny' comes to mind.

hoods are good!

Here's half a Honda hood...

...and the other half. (next to the crab eyes - I'll try to get some better pics of those up here, too)

And here's the best find! A '73 VW Beetle hood - got this little gem from Car World ( http://www.carworldused.com/)

...more legs

here come the legs!!!

starting the build!

The first few welds are done...10,000 more to go!

A few more welds are done - yeah!

Here is the main body put together. I originally wanted more curvy lines here, but I figured most of the frame will be completely hidden, so it probably wasn't a good use of time :)

It's me and my crab! (wait a minute...something doesn't sound right about that!)

Here's the crab body up in the air...just waiting on legs. I guess if I didn't spend half the day trying to figure out a way to keep him suspended, those legs might be a little closer to being done! But I do often have to invent some crude, yet effective means for holding things in place. So far, nothing has come crashing down on me...although, if you notice my updates suddenly stop, there's probably a good chance my luck has finally ended.

getting prepared...

That magic pile of metal treasures (a.k.a. The Wentworth Scrap Yard)

Just organizing the tools and pieces for the project. I find black pipe to be an excellent material choice for framing up large structures - not too heavy, but very strong!