sitting – Skunkadelia https://skunkadelia.com Steel Sculptures of Friendly Robots Fri, 08 Dec 2023 00:18:04 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://skunkadelia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/cropped-skunkadelia-favicon-1-32x32.gif sitting – Skunkadelia https://skunkadelia.com 32 32 James x428 https://skunkadelia.com/works/james/ Sat, 25 Nov 2023 23:44:57 +0000 https://skunkadelia.com/?post_type=product&p=11732 Experimenting with simple joints James was originally going to be an improved version of the Dionysian line, with loose, ragdoll style joints. The process began with a washer and bolt-style rotating joint, but after some playful experimentation, I realized I could do a lot by welding parts to a nut and a machine screw to make a nice shoulder joint. Adding a split washer allows for some optional friction - by spinning the arms around once, they can go from loose to pose-able. For the elbow joints, there needs to be a hard stop when the arm is fully extended. For the first elbow I made - the right one - I added some tiny blobs of metal to the joint with the TIG torch. For the left elbow I used the shape of the split washers to act as the hard stop. Both techniques seem to work well, and I'm excited for James to have a few subtle differences for people to discover on their own. This new joint style is compact, and can be scaled to any size needed for any sized robot. This comes at a cost of not being as serviceable as the joints on Proteus Class robots. While they are strong, moving parts can be overstressed under extreme circumstances. I like making robots to last the ages, so I like to think way ahead. If a shoulder joint or an arm joint becomes locked or loose, perhaps it will add to the charm of the robot. James has very strong joints for his size so I'm guessing it shouldn't be an issue for a few hundred years. I considered the possibilities of the James' articulation for the lower half of his body, opting for a simple and reliable choice: fixed knees and ankles, with hinge joint hips. Starting with a square nut and a hex machine screw, I reshaped the joints by rounding off two points of the nut and hacksawing a fake screwdriver slot to the bolt to add some detail. I welded the legs onto James in such a way that he can't bend his legs backwards very far because the leg nut socks down onto the hip screw at just the right spot for the left leg. This same technique doesn't work with the right leg - unless you have left handed threads. I opted to have the shape of the square nut act as a stop against the torso. James has quite a few subtly asymmetric joint designs! I did my best to make the knee and ankle joints look like they could bend. In fact I have fooled myself many times on photo sessions with James, absentmindedly trying to pose him in ways he won't pose. Should I feel proud for fooling my myself? The thought makes my chuckle. James' shoes are made from leftover coped ends of some 4130 tubing ends from a summer project of mine. One shoe was made with a hole saw, the other was made with a hacksaw and file to try and mimic the first one. The steel got hard to hold in the vise after as it took it's irregular shape, so the shoes aren't absolutely identical. One of the pieces of steel had a little chunk of it missing, which I thought I could easily remedy by welding on another piece. That part of the plan went poorly, so I needed to turn the situation around, and into what artist's call 'a happy accident'. In this particular case, I chose copper clad toes to add some fun metal accents to the piece. [caption id="attachment_11782" align="alignnone" width="1900"] James' has got some workin' hands.[/caption]

James' 'Workin' Hands

James' older sister Opal, my previous work, has amazing hands made from discarded square punch blanks, and little snipped pieces of stainless steel bicycle spokes. Working steel that hard on metal that small was a big challenge, but the effort was well worth it. For this piece I needed to scale things up slightly, which is easy to do with a 3d print, but not so much when pallete is comprised entirely of specifically-sized and specifically-shaped pieces of old machine parts. Suddenly, after years of dormancy, the box full of various old square nuts in assorted sizes I've been squirreling away had found their true calling! This is a significant breakthrough. In order to make the nut into the palm of a robot's hand, I needed to to plug the holes in the square nut. I fuse-welded a hacked-down piece of machine screw. I then carefully welded the bronze fingers and thumbs on one at a time, learning a little more each time. Hands have the potential to say so much, I savored this part of the process. Once everything was properly connected, I peered deeply at them using a dorky head-mounted magnifier and heavy scrutiny - reshaping the fingers with tiny files and sandpaper. I also had the perfect excuse to try out the lead hammer for moving the metal while not leaving a dent. It worked, too! The whole time I was working them, I was thinking of how a sculptor's file strokes can be a lot like a painter's brush strokes.

Get up on your feet James!

After weeks of scheming, sculpting, welding, and finishing, James had it all-together. It's a very exciting moment when a new piece stands before me for the first time, staring at it's creator. I like to give my robots an expression of wonder, and that wondrous look can feel profound at this first moment of scrap metal synergy. A collection of leftover machine parts and scrap metal stares back at you. From almost nothing, something meaningful. After allowing this moment its space, I remembered that James can get down as well as get up. I grabbed the hot metal with my weld gloves on and sat him down - then realized my work was not yet done. His feet had no bottom. In short, James had no soles! Say what?! There was a part of me, left over from the old ways I thought about process, that was frustrated to be robbed of the endorphins associated with the 'done' part of a job well done. But as I get older and wiser, I realized that this was just another opportunity to have some more fun with the piece. Instead of rushing out a good-enough solution for something as mundane as the bottoms of feet, I thought of it as another opportunity to experiment. James' birthday will have to wait for the cobbler to come up with something. I chose copper plate to match the shoe tips: scribed to match the feet and cut with a hacksaw, Tread was carefully grooved by hand with a hacksaw. The blade slipped on the slick copper a couple of times, which I'm okay with since his boots should be scuffed from use anyway. After welding the plates onto James feet, I was sure to leave the bottoms of the shoes dark and scuffed. Copper tends to turn all kinds of amazing colors when heated up; and while they are beautiful, they can be difficult to create purposely with a TIG torch and even more difficult to keep once they appear. Copper loves to oxidize as most readers are aware. Clear coating puts a barrier between the metal and the atmosphere. However even after that barrier has been added, there's still some oxygen present so the oxidation continues for a short time afterwards. James' toes had two very different colors before clear coat - I was excited to see if I could lock the colors down so as soon as it was cool enough, I applied a coat of polyurethane to just his feet. While the contrast has faded as expected, a distinct difference in color is still present. I was able to lock down some very nice colors on James' back boilerplate. I was also able to lock in some nice blues and golds in the threaded bolts used for his arms and legs. James had many rounds of finish work throughout the process, and the reward was to have full spectrum of surface finishes and metal colors.

Why James?

This experimental robot didn't have a name picked until his birthday. My first impression of him as a whole was a quiet, reserved sort of fellow. Funny thing is, when I stood him up on his feet for the first time, I realized he could stand on a heel and a toe - making him look like he can dance! The name James seems to have a duality to me - he could be a reserved chaufer, or a tiny robot version of the Godfather of Soul himself.

A New Class of Astrobot

James was an absolute pleasure to make - I have given him my everything for him be the best little robot he can. I plan on making more X-class experimental robots, but James is the first official one. I've had a few commissions in the past that I would reclassify in retrospect, but James will always be the one to make it official. 9.5 x 3.25 x 2" 2 lb, 0.7 oz.]]> Opal i247 https://skunkadelia.com/works/opal/ Sat, 25 Nov 2023 22:39:35 +0000 https://skunkadelia.com/?post_type=product&p=11728 Opal's hands took a whole day to create - it was a day of great joy. Note the slightly bent up pinky and ring finger of her right hand, shaped to contour the leg it's to rest upon.[/caption] The hand's that were made for opal may be the most expressive part of the sculpture; carefully created from square punch blanks from an ironworker, mated with ten small bits of a stainless steel bicycle spoke. Stainless is even tougher to bend and form just right than mild steel, and great care with the TIG torch was used to weld them on just so, without melting other fingers off in the intense heat affected zone. Needless to say I did not successfully perform the procedure ten times in a row, but perseverance and learning from setbacks helped to pave the way to eventual success. Opal's torso is a copper plumbing flange which sat waiting for decades in a metal box amongst other precious 'maybe someday' parts that are beloved and are reserved for just the right occasion. The whisky-brown tint was an unexpected result of the polyurethane coating discoloring from the heat - which came from a post-birthday touch-up weld, which the copper absorbed like only copper can. The colors looked so rich that I opted to add an additional coat of polyurethane layer rather than clearing it off with acetone. [caption id="attachment_11770" align="alignnone" width="1900"] Opal's arms were made with some bolts, a hacksaw, some files, a sturdy vise, and great deal of moxie.[/caption] Opal's arms started out as average threaded bolts. They were extensively hand filed to mimic the shape of a human arm, sanded, finished, and adorned with little bronze buttons. A full range of finishing techniques were used throughout the piece. I got lost in the process: musing about shapes to make, fussing over the tiniest of details with my magno-spectacles, and ooh-ing and ah-ing over cool looking stray file marks. I felt like some kind of eccentric cavalier watchmaker gone mad, toiling for hours on this magic little thing. [caption id="attachment_11772" align="alignnone" width="1585"] Opal's birthday. If you could zoom in enough you would find tears of joy in my reflection in her shiny metal knees.[/caption] After many hours of working and re-working all the little parts and pieces to be just so, and connecting all the perfect little pieces together to also be just so, Opal had her first sit-down as a complete piece on the edge of my weld bench. As tradition dictates, I rang the big bell above my work bench, and then took a break for a few minutes. These few minutes help me 'reset' my mind so I can try to experience my work with a fresh 'first impression'. This can allow space for a near-end critique of the piece. When I did this 'reset' with Opal, I had moment of absolute head-buzzing joy. To me, Opal is nothing short of the culmination of a lifetime pursuit of pushing art through craft to create something meaningful from the mundane - even if it is only to remind people to smile and be happy. She is iconic in my pursuit to elevate my art as well as my craft, and I will always hold this one very dear to my heart. 1 lb, 3.6 oz. 7.5 x 3 x 3.5"]]> Star i381 https://skunkadelia.com/works/star/ Sat, 04 Apr 2020 21:13:30 +0000 https://skunkadelia.com/?post_type=product&p=6386 Lyra m357 https://skunkadelia.com/works/lyra/ Wed, 17 Oct 2018 00:14:11 +0000 https://skunkadelia.com/?post_type=product&p=5599 Deedee i349 https://skunkadelia.com/works/deedee/ Tue, 03 Jul 2018 14:34:55 +0000 https://skunkadelia.com/?post_type=product&p=5517 Bart i306 https://skunkadelia.com/works/bart/ Mon, 17 Apr 2017 16:43:39 +0000 https://skunkadelia.com/?post_type=product&p=4928 Toki i301 https://skunkadelia.com/works/toki/ Wed, 01 Feb 2017 20:38:47 +0000 http://skunkadelia.com/?post_type=product&p=4794 Shelley a300 https://skunkadelia.com/works/shelley/ Thu, 08 Dec 2016 02:13:48 +0000 http://skunkadelia.com/?post_type=product&p=4765 Ash a299 https://skunkadelia.com/works/ash/ Thu, 08 Dec 2016 01:52:59 +0000 http://skunkadelia.com/?post_type=product&p=4760 Roger m293 https://skunkadelia.com/works/roger/ Wed, 06 Jan 2016 18:22:55 +0000 http://skunkadelia.com/?post_type=product&p=4057