plasma cutting

Our border collie has no problem scaling our 6 foot block wall and then jumping into the neighbors yard. She does this when we're not home of course. Then neighbor ends up calling me at work and then I come home to get the dog. But what to do? Adding those redwood lattice strips looks so ugly. So I built some steel panels and broke out the plasma cutter. At first I wasn't sure of my design. Loving gardening I wanted single leaf patterns but then maybe vines would look good to. I cut each panel separately and freehanded the design as I went. Looking back I think I would have mapped it all out on paper then cut the steel. But what the heck, sometimes all the fun it just flying by the seat of your pants and going for it. Not being able to mount the panels on the top of the wall posed an additional problem. The wall doesnt really belong to me...thats a long story.

We anchored 3 inch square steel posts to the cement and then welded in the panels along the top. So now the fence and posts are free standing.

The dog no longer jumps over this section of the fence.

Whats next with the plasma cutter?

steel art

My first plasma cutting project started on a whim. I needed to build some gates for the side of my house, but I wanted something different. So I started by building metal frames using 1x3 flat stock, then sheeting them with sheet metal. Keeping in mind we get strong winter winds in my area I wanted to cut out large patterns to let the wind pass through. I free-handed the designs with chaulk and then fired up the plama cutter. What's nice about this machine is that it doesn't leave sharp edges. As the electric torch heats the metal an air compressor blows away the molten metal. The panels were then sprayed with a metal eching product to help it rust faster.