copper cubes

Metalforming is happening this semester. We’re off to a slow start due to weather cancelations. As per tradition we’re starting off the semester with reinforcing some silver soldering fabrication skills before we get into stretching and shrinking sheet metal. The students have to create an accurate 1.25 inch cube in copper. This is an homage to getting my first fabricator job and realizing that I couldn’t get by on art school tolerances and expect to keep my job. It’s also a little tip of the hat to @jkopel and the awesome boxes he creates. It gets the students working fast as we begin to work on our first major project. This year we have a little competition going. We have some door prizes for the top three cubes in the class. One of the prizes is this scrap metal bending brake that I made this past Saturday. One student will walk away with this tool for their own personal studio. Many thanks to Clemens Welding and Machine Shop for donating the scrap steel for this little dogmeat bending brake.

I made a couple cubes today and made them in the one piece method vs. the multiple piece method I showed in class. I'm undecided on which method is better. I guess time will tell once I finish silver soldering and do my clean-up.