Welding projects

November I tackled a few welding projects. I don't have a welder but one of my co-workers does and he has offered his shop anytime I have a project. So, I took him up on the offer and took 2 projects!

The first one was some triangle Christmas trees made from re-rod. I cut 3 different sizes, 3 foot, 4 foot and 5 foot.

 Layed them out so I new how they should look and them put on the welding face mask and welded them together!

 After a coat of white spray paint, we wrapped them with lights and stood them up in the front yard just in time for Christmas!

 The second project was for inside, Heather wanted two floating shelves on the long wall in our bedroom. The wall is long, so we wanted some thicker shelves that had some visual weight to them. We found these two old beams down at West End Architectural Salvage. The beams are 6 feet long, 2.5 inches thick and 5.5 inches wide! We had them bend the rods for the fronts on the shelves.

 I gave them a light sanding and then tried a clear coat that I had, it brought out a red to the wood that we didn't love...so I sanded that back off...

 Then for the welding. I bought a 2 inch bar of steel from Home Depot and 1/2 thick rods. I ended up cutting 5 rods for each shelf and then we welded the rods onto the steel creating a bracket.

 After that, I lined up the bracket and drilled 1/2 holes into the shelves for the rods to slide into! Mounted the bracket to the studs on the wall and then pushed the shelves onto the bracket. It sounds simple but it took a lot of drilling and some pounding with a rubber mallet

 But the finished product turned out great! 2 floating shelves with hidden brackets!

 They sit snug to the wall and are level!

 ...and we love the character of the old beams!

Big thanks to Brent for the welding help and letting me play in his shop (I do have a little shop envy now) If you ever need reclaimed wood, head down to West End Architectural Salvage, talk to them at the desk on the main level because their lumber shop is actually few blocks down the road in a different warehouse, but Aiden can help you find what you need and they have a lot of lumber there!