I've mentioned in a couple of threads being buried in metal fabrication building stuff for Tracy to give to friends for Christmas presents. A number of you have asked to see some of the stuff. I've been taking pics for several weeks and it took a few minutes to get them all together and organized.
A few weeks back before the weather turned nasty, we were sitting down on the pool deck enjoying a couple of barley pops. Tracy came up with this brain storm that I needed to make Christmas trees and planter boxes. Uh...sure thing dear...whatever you say honey...y'all know the drill. Ok, planter boxes don't sound all that difficult but how the heck am I gonna make a tree? Went to one of the job sites here and snatches a decent sized piece of OSB and started trying to lay out a design for the tree. Nothing worked...not even close. Got frustrated after a couple hours and did what I usually do: just start cutting steel and piecing it together.
Tree #1. it is a little over 3' tall and about that wide. A lot of pieces and a lot of welding in a very small area.
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End caps in to finish it off and painted.
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Tracy installed the lights with zip ties. Her idea....not mine.
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I did 6 of these and SWMBO thought she heeded a bigger one....a LOT bigger. this one is over 6' tall
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Lit up.
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Now we move on to planter boxes. this is the first one. I just kinda shot from the hip. (You can see the lines on the OSB where I was trying to lay out the trees)
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The next planter. Similar concept, different approach, and a larger unit.
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And a third planter box. Totally different design. I've now been contracted to do two more of these in different sizes.
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Now of all things, snowflakes. No comments from the peanut gallery please. This was not my idea, I'm just the support mechanism. This is the first one. No progress pics. Both of these are 32" tall and 32" wide.
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The second one. I don't know what happened to the finished pics. It's a different design with more cutting and more welding.
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Finally and alas, Tracy had to have a bigger and better snowflake of course. Here is her 3 1/2' tall version.
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All told I've completed 12 projects and have the two more planter boxes pending. This ladies and gentlemen is why I've been pretty much absent for a couple weeks. Sure am glad i ordered about 3Xas much steel as she thought I'd need when this melee started though. I came home with over a half ton of plate and square tubing, a large portion of which has been cut up. Got enough left to finish the last couple projects but I just knew she was gonna come up with more than the 3 things she first said she wanted me to make. Women are like that...at least she is

Oh well, time for a beer or twelve. Y'all take care and apologies for the long post but some of y'all asked for it
Robert