Kevin is creating a sound sculpture that has five different height arms and five different size bells.
He needs to cut a slot in the bottom of each arm for the bell to hang from. How do you decide how big to make it? Why do you want to put the slot one place rather than another? How deep should it be? It’s actually a little more complex than you would think.
Kevin locates where he wants the slot. He’s going to slide a piece of metal pipe into the hole that goes through the sides of the arm and weld it on each end. Then he’ll come through the slot to cut out the center section of the pipe so the ring has someplace to go. Insert a pin, and the bell is hung.
Because of the way this arch is going to stand, Kevin knows he’s going to need to put the slot down the arm a bit rather than center it over the hole. That way the bell will hang better and not get hung up on the edge of the hole. The arm is 3 inches wide, so he sets his square at 1″. He makes his upper mark at 1-1/2″ above the hole and 2 inches below the hole. That takes 1″ out of the center of the arm’s 3″ width.
He’s using 1/2″ rod to hang the bells – he bends it in the forge to create the rings the bells hang from. That gives him 1/4″ play on each side. Kevin puts a cut-off wheel on his 4-1/2″ grinder and, using his hand to steady it, cuts on the marks he had drawn on the metal arm.
The cut-off wheel gives a nice straight cut, which is why he selected that metal cutting method rather than, say, a plasma cutter. He cuts the long lines a little short. The shorter top and bottom lines are cut a little wide just because the wheel is too small a diameter to go deep the whole length. Kevin finishes the cut with an air-powered hacksaw with a metal cutting blade and pops out the metal. He’ll weld shut the ends of the shorter cuts at the top and bottom and smooth them off.
Kevin then shows the piece of pipe he will slide through the holes to hold the bell. He marks where he will cut it off, then will use a parting tool on his metal lathe to cut the pipe almost all the way through.
He welds the pipe in on both ends, then uses that air-powered hacksaw to make his final cut. That gives him 2 heavy bushings to help hold that 1/2″ rod, which will hold the bell.
This free how-to video shows you the many steps you have to go through just to create something so simple. You definitely want to do this sort of operation on the workbench, though, rather than working overhead after the stand is assembled.
Kevin appreciates you watching, and asks viewers to hit the notification bell to see more free how-to videos as soon as they come out. You can also see his wild sculptures at https://kevincaron.com
Well, you might want to stick around for another moment to see how Kevin fits in ….