candlesticks

My customer emailed me and said she received the candlesticks today and is happy with them.

candlestick are done

I finished the candlesticks a few days ago, and I shipped them today. They should arrive Monday. They were very difficult to photograph because of the shiny polished stainless steel and the dark aluminum. And they were almost too big for my backdrop. I think the photos I got will be ok, they just need some work in Photoshop before I can post them.

I haven't started anything new yet. I want to spend a bit more time working on some designs before I start my next piece. Lately I think I have not been spending enough time working on the designs. I just start carving something. It turns out ok, but I think the things I am making lately are mostly just variations of the same designs. I want to do something different. I have an idea, but I haven't worked out the details well enough to start.

almost done

I have all the pieces anodized for 2 of the candle sticks. I just need to redo a couple pieces of the last one. Then I just need to polish a few parts and put them together. I plan to ship them monday.

candle stick assembly

This is how the candlesticks are put together:

Threaded rods and nuts hold them together. The stainless steel tubing is used as spacers for the aluminum.

Underneath piece of aluminum are nuts to keep the the whole thing tightly together.

At one end of the threaded rods are two nuts welded on that have been cut round on the lathe.

In this photo I am making the nuts round on the lathe.

boring a hole

In this photo I am using a lathe to drill the hole to hold the silver part the candle will go in.




After the hole is drilled I used a boring tool to enlarge the hole to the correct size.





This is how the silver piece fits in.

random process shots

I have been working on the candle sticks today. I am anodizing the square ones.

I also re anodized the part of my welding handpiece holder. I couldn't get it any darker than before. Actually I think its lighter than before. Theres nothing that can be done about it, except remake the piece in the same alloy as the base, whatever that is. But I'm not going to do that. Its not that important.


This is kind of what one of the candle sticks will look like once its together. Its about 24" high. The round discs are 1/4" thick aluminum, the vertical parts are polished stainless steel tubing. The part that will hold the candle is sterling silver, its not in the picture. This one is being anodized blue.


This is how I sanded and polished the stainless steel tubing. There were 55 pieces to do.


These are some of the polished pieces of stainless steel. I sorted them by size. I tried to put the ones that were close tothe same size together, some of the over sized pieces I had to trim down a bit.


I have taped together the pieces of the same size and put them aside for later.

handpiece holder

I worked on the candlesticks some more tonight. I finished anodizing the triangular pieces. Tomorrow I will work on the square ones. I also worked on a hand piece holder for my PUK 2 welder.

Milling with my Sherline mill:

I am working on the base of the hand piece holder. I have the part super glued to the angle plate. The PUK 2 is the metal box in the background.

I really need to make some kind of enclosure for the mill to keep these chips from going every where like they do now.

So I finished milling the parts and went to anodize them. Both of the parts are made from different pieces of scrap aluminum, so I don't know what the alloys are. I anodized both pieces for the same amount of time, and used the same dye. The piece on the right I anodized first. The color was very light even though I left it in the dye for almost 10 minutes. The big square piece was in the dye for about 1 minute. I like the color of the bigger piece better. I will redo the smaller piece and try to get the color to match the larger piece by anodizing it longer.

anodized parts:

I can't wait till these candlesticks are finished. I enjoyed making them, except for this anodizing I am doing right now and a few other steps. They are bigger than anything else I have ever made, but I didn't mind. Usually I don't like working on larger pieces. I might make some more pieces in a similar style once these are done.

I am not sure what to work on after these candlesticks are finished. I have more commission work to do, but nothing thats due anytime soon. I have a few brooches in progress,and several pairs of earrings I need to finish. I need to work on my scale necklace too, but that involves casting and my kiln is not working.


Here is a brooch I would like to finish:




SOFA is this weekend. I don't think I will go.

endless anodizing

The anodizing went bad for the first candlestick. I will have to re-anodize several of the parts, but I am sick of working on it right now, so I have moved on to the second candlestick. They are coming out better. And while I was anodizing one of the parts, I came up with a new theory as to why I was consistently getting blotches on the same part of the piece. The blotches were always at the top of the part around the edge, I think either the acid or the neutralizer was starting to dry on the aluminum and clog the pores before I put it in the dye. So I am trying to move a bit quicker now. I will see if that helps once I go back to re-anodizing the parts of the first candlestick. I am so sick of anodizing.

anodizing

Lately I have been working on a commission for 3 candlesticks. They are made of aluminum, stainless steel and sterling silver. I thought I would have them finished by Monday or Tuesday, but nothing is going well with the anodizing. I have 18 parts to anodize, but of the 10 or 12 attempts to anodize I only have two parts that anodized well. First I had trouble getting a good connection to the part, then I was getting blotchy coloring on the part, I thought the anodizing bath was contaminated. I changed the anodizing bath and the rinse. I still had the problem. The uneven color only happens at the top of the part near where it is connected, so last night I tried connecting it at two points and suspending it horizontally in stead of connecting it at one point and suspending it vertically. It worked better on the one part I did like that last night. The part was usable. So I tried again tonight on another part, but one of the connections came loose less than half way through. I finished anodizing like that, and got the usual blotches near the connection. I have another piece in right now, connected at two points. I'll see how it comes out in about 35 minutes.
I am so angry about this. I have never had this sort of problem with my tank before.

anodizing a candle stick part: