Valentines Heart 4 Ur Sweety

Since my Valentine is long gone. I decided to make her a Valentines heart at the Chandler TechShop.  For my information checkout the TechShop website at www.techshop.ws.  

Materials needed include:
3/4 inch flat steel - Industrial Metal Supply
Diablo routing disc - HomeDepot
Powder Coat (color of your choice) - Powder by the pound

Equipment:
Table Clamps
Hand grinder
UB-5 bender with Scroll attachments
Bench grinder
Sand Blaster
Mig Welder
Powder coating gun/booth/oven

Step 1: Grinding Flat Steel and Preparing to Cut

Now you will want to use your Diablo grinding disc that is installed on the hand grinder and want to remove the protective coating that is on flat steel. Make sure to use the table clamps to hold the steel in place as you remove the coating.  This should leave a nice metalic look on the steel.

After you have the nice metallic look on the steel as shown below.  You will want to measure and mark the flat steel accordingly.  Since I used the Ironworker to make the cuts I had to account for an additional offset of 5.5 inches.  To form the scroll I will be cutting the steel to 9 inch length pieces. That means when using the Ironworker I will have to mark my pieces off at 14.5 inches.  I used to painters tape to reduce the amount of sanding we will have to do since the flat steel will be powder coated at a later stage.

Step 2: Bending

Now that you are ready to bend the steel setup the UB-5 with the scroll attachment.  Please check out my other instructable on how to setup the UB-5 for making scrolls at the following link.  Make sure that when using the scroll attachment you are moving the handle in the counter clock wise position and that the B on the scroll attachment is perpendicular to your material.

Step 3: Welding

In this step I will be welding the flat steel together.  I used the Mig welder at the TechShop to do this.  Be mindful that the recommended settings for welding the 3/16 inch thick flat steel is a little high on the Lincoln welder so you will want to back down the voltage and the wire feed rate a little bit or you will have to be cleaning up your welds like I had to.  Clamp your material down securely to the welding table and fire away placing tack welds on where the scrolls meet and where the tip of the heart meets.

Step 4: Cleaning Your Welds and Sand Blasting

At this state you will want to clean up your welds using the bench grinder.  After that go ahead and run your pieces through the sand blaster to remove any contaminants that you might have missed or picked up in the process of bending and welding your flat steel.

Step 5: Powder Coating

Now you will want to prep your work by mounting it on the movable rack in the powder coat room using bailing wire.  After the heart is hanging with the bailing wire apply the powder coat using the powder gun.  Once the powder is applied turn on the oven to 400 degree Fahrenheit. Once the oven reaches 400 degrees insert the the movable rack into the oven with the heart and let the heart reach 400 degrees. Generally the powder will tell you how long the part has to maintain 400 degrees before it can be removed from the oven.  For the powder I was using I had to let it sit in the oven for 10 minutes.   After 10 minutes remove the movable rack and allow the part to cool.

Once the part is cooled you are all done.  Enjoy your valentines present you made for your sweety!