July 31, 2007

Hi Jim,

Just finished this salmon. It's about 26" long. Went much better with my flame settings right.
Best,
--Kira
for more see: www.kiraod.com

July 31, 2007

Hi Jim,

Wasn't sure if I could pull this thing off, but it came out fine. There are 146 - 150 shaped holes in it and I thought I'd melt the interstices with every hole I cut.

It's 3 feet long and has nails for teeth – just like real pikes do.

Now I should weld up a big, dead, Eland with Its tongue sticking out. Then I can take a picture of myself kneeling behind it with my (welding) gun across my knee so everyone could tell I killed it: Kira the Great White Hunter-Welder!

Gotta go...they're coming to take me away now. See ya' Sunday
Best,
--Kira
for more see: www.kiraod.com

July 06, 2007

Hey Jim,

Did a couple more weldies. Here are photos. One's a portrait of my friend's dog, so I'm attaching a picture of the dog, too.

I'm starting a couple more dog portraits for a friend who owns a machine shop. He's gonna cut them on the laser cutter so I don't kill my hands, grinding slag off. Then I'm gonna weld 'em up. Should be interesting.

Hope all's well. Say hello to the family for me!
Best,
--Kira
for more see: www.kiraod.com

May 25, 2007

Hi Jim,

Just did a couple of jackrabbits. One was a commissioned Jackelope that I epoxied deer antlers to.
Pretty goofy.
Best,
--Kira Od
for more see: www.kiraod.com

Mar 10, 2007

Hi Jim,

I finished yesterday, but this thing proved as hard to photograph as it initially was to weld.
Took 6 attempts under 3 different lighting conditions!

Anyway, it came out okay. Wish I'd done a few things differently, but I had a great time welding it.
Could start welds wherever and whenever I wanted with no trouble.

Hope you got your motor home fixed.
Best,
--Kira
for more see: www.kiraod.com

First, let me apologize for hustling off the phone yesterday. A neighbor dropped by to visit and since he's a retired cop, I didn't want him to leave so he could man the fire extinguisher while I calibrated the torch according to your instructions. My tanks are chained to the wall of my garage, so I had to do it inside.
I didn't feel comfortable running the torch that hot indoors without a second pair of eyes and hands around.

Second, I calibrated the torch to a Q-tip and afterwards the settings read 6.5 pounds acetylene and 6.0 pounds oxygen with tank valves open and torch valves closed.

(Does that sound okay? Running the 1.5 tip with a JOF flame, the regulators read about 5.5 acetylene and 5.25 oxygen. Up to now, I've run them both at 4 pounds for welding, regardless of the tip.)

Third, I still couldn't weld worth a damn afterwards. When one of my filler rod ends balled up strangely on
me this morning, I called my supplier to ask if I had the right rod. Turns out they accidentally gave me a bunch of TIG rod a month or so ago. It was mixed in with my oxy-acetylene filler and by sheer luck I kept pulling out the right ones...until yesterday.

I just got home with the correct rod and think I'd better grind the weld area down a bit before I have at it again. I have bad welds in 4 different places along the seam.

I'm not a very happy camper, but I learned something.

I will let you know how things go. I should be confident, but I've had so many setbacks the last couple days, I'm not going to make any assumptions.

In the meantime, here are my other, comparatively successful projects, in the order I did them. Most are under 10" in length, but the tree and the last three are bigger.

Thank you again for your time and thoughtful support.
Best,
--Kira
for more see: www.kiraod.com

Dec 15, 2006

Hi Jim,

Here's the little metal yak I told you I chose for my first cutting and welding project,
along with a picture of what it's SUPPOSED to look like.

I'm not gonna win any awards, as you can see; but it was fun, and my friend who works at Apple will appreciate it.

I cut it before I spoke with you, with the 0 and 0.5 tips, rather than the 0 and the 1. (The steel was 1/16" thick.)

I wonder if all the scale and slag I created made it hard to weld up. In the places I could file it a bit before welding, things seemed to go better. Is this likely true?

I will try the tip combination you suggested on my next project.

Thank you again for your advice.
Best,
--Kira
for more see: www.kiraod.com