![]() ![]() It's really quite fun when you get the hang of it.Ĭan you believe a DIY'er can pick up a tool that can do this for only about 65 bucks at local stores?Ĭheck out this quick video so you can get a feel for my pace. It looks like I'm gently easing a pea-sized ball of molten metal along the cutline. I point the flame forward, preheating the line ahead. I ease it against the steel, which quickly heats orange hot, dimples, and opens up like melting butter. That inner flame is the cutting part of the tool. Then I've got to shut it all down and start over. Sometimes, I get a little greedy and crank up the gas too quickly causing the flame to blow out with a pop. When I light this beast, I keep alternating between the gasses, adding more and more until the inner, blue flame is about a quarter inch long and the torch is positively roaring. More oxygen actually shortens that inner tip of flame. ![]() The flame actually snaps and converts into a hard, pencil-sized, blue / white flame with an inner blue tip. Aiming for a small, blue knife-edge of flame, I've found that initially reducing the MAP-Pro a bit more helps while I ease in more oxygen. With MAP-Pro gently burning, introduce oxygen (Red cylinder) very slowly. Light it with the sparker (included with the kit) and adjust the flame down until it's soft and flickering, just touching the tip of the torch. You start by opening the MAP-Pro (yellow) gas valve, just a little bit to let is hiss. It takes a little practice and patience, but once you get the process down, it's super easy. Lighting this tool is tricky to get the hang of at first. I'd never done anything close to precision cutting with it, so the lizard would be the guinea pig. I'd used this bad boy twice before, once to cut off an old hinge pin on our fence, and then to braze steel bookends from my old electrician's tools. ![]() The hottest-burning, fire-breathing beast in their line of blow torches can eat sheet metal for breakfast. Rather than use a metal cutting saw, I set up one of the most fun tools in my collection, Bernzomatic's dual-gas WK5500 OX Cutting, Welding, and Brazing Torch. No, I wanted a rough and rustic piece, scaly like a lizard in the wild. This project was not going to be a lazer-smooth, pretty piece for grandma's parlor. I followed up with a Sharpie marker and darkened the lines I'd need to see what I was doing when the cutting action started. The milled finish had enough texture to use a pencil to trace the pattern. I'd picked up a 1 foot x 2 foot piece of 22 gauge, mill finish, "weldable" steel at Home Depot. It was free to scurry about the coffee table. With the help of a pair of kitchen scissors, the reptile burst free from the constraints of its rectangular prison. I figured I'd not be able to detail the spindly little lizard fingers when cutting metal, so I left the feet kind of vague. I grabbed a #2 Ticonderoga and started free hand sketching.Īfter some feverish scribbling, erasing, and more scribbling, I came up with a reasonably handsome, lizardy design. I used some green painter's tape, because I couldn't find regular frosted tape, and made a large sheet of paper the size of my metal stock, 12 in x 24 in. ![]() I've seen these things at flea markets, craft shows, and decor shops that give me those " I can make one of these" and " Holy cow! look what they charge for them!" vibes.įor inspiration, I only had to pop out and visit the desert dwelling denizens running along our block fence. These little critters are fun and friendly, scurrying about, doing their jobs, and snatching up bugs.Ī lizard art piece it would be then. I'd been thinking about making some kind of rustic, wall hanging art for a while. It just needs something visual out there, besides weeds. Working on the kitchen remodel, I've been glancing out the window, thinking about the little courtyard we're going to have, just outside a new exterior door. ![]()
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