CinderCone: Making V2, Part 2.

With the fire basin pretty much finished, time to tackle the upper section - the place where all the magic happens. These faces are where the cutouts reveal the fire through a pattern of flowing, distorted hexagons - giving CinderCone its unique look.

With the “belt line” brackets all welded together into a rigid ring, they can serve as a jig for aligning the patterned faces. I built a fancy fixture to hold adjacent faces while tacking their tops.

Bolting the bottoms and tacking the seams is a pretty quick, straightforward proposition.

Stitch welding the seams - an inch of weld, skip 3 inches, then another inch of weld. Lowers the amount of heat applied while allowing a bit of flexible relief for the strain of the heating/cooling cycle.

On to the hardest part fo the whole process: the “eyebrow” over the fire door. All the other parts are just welded together in their flat state; the is one needs to formed into a curve. Hydraulics to the rescue!

The Eyebrow. Attached.

With that, the upper section is finished.

CinderCone: Making V2.0

Now that I’ve figured out how to correct the issues that presented themselves in V1, it’s time to implement the changes. That means generating new patterns for the laser and having the improved design cut. I also went with slightly thicker material — 11 gauge instead of 12 — to provide a touch more rigidity. Let the games begin!

The updated upper faces. Here you can see the threshold below the door, and the updated trio of fastener holes in the bottom of each face.

Voila! The laser-cut metal in all its glory.

The bottom plate and fire basin faces.

The 3D model of the new & improved anchoring bracket…

… and its real-world counterpart.

To insure a proper fit, I bolt the brackets into the fire basin and tack them together while there. Here, you can see how the ring of brackets pins the grill in place.

Once tack welded, the brackets are removed, clamped securely flat, and the final welds added. Oh - about that work surface: I was massively frustrated with how my fixturing and clamping setup worked on the prototype, so I broke down and bought a fancy German fabrication table. I really only spend money on things that make making better.

That’s the first half of the assembly for version 2. I’m really pleased at how the design is working out, and the new welding table not only makes things easier, but insures that the quality of my parts is top notch.

CinderCone: First Burn.

With the welding and sanding and bolting all finished up, it’s time to test this thing out. My dear friends Bruce and Cyndi volunteered their beautiful property on the lake for a test site, and, once a day with cooperative weather materialized, it was time.

What an amazing evening! Couldn’t have been happier with how the CinderCone performed — and the visual effect of the cut-out pattern when combined with the dancing flames was nothing short of spectacular. We stoked the flames MUCH more than required to have a nice fire in order to stress-test the design. Glad we did, as it revealed some structural shortcomings that would need to be addressed before offering these up for sale.

Metal may seem like a solid, stable material — one that you can rely on to hold its shape and remain true to itself under stress. In reality, it is subject to all kinds of movement when subjected to heat. These thermal stresses need to be countered to maintain the integrity of the object.

The aftermath of our stress test showed that the outer “shell” of the design handled these forces well — but the grill itself, directly in contact with the source of heat, needed some shoring up. Any welder can tell you that one only need curtail expansion and contraction throughout the heating cycle to minimize warping. The grill was allowed too much freedom in this design, and the forces went to work on it. I needed to do some redesigning, but thought I’d try to retrofit the V1.0 CinderCone before tackling V2.0.

Adding ribs that radiate outward from the center of the grill to add stiffness. Notice the bonus colors provided by the fire!

The brackets not only attach the upper section to the fire basin, but they also serve to pin the edges of the grill in place. I fabricated longer brackets to spread this pinning action along the entire edge.

A phalanx of new brackets ready to be installed. You’ll notice that there are only five; the side with the door doesn’t get one, and that proves to be problematic.

After a second test fire, you can see just how much force gets applied to the grill, and why the design for the opening is not going to work.

So, although the overall design was a success, there are some structural details that need improving. Another sticking point was removal of the ash that accumulates beneath the grill. I’d thought that removing the top section and grill would be easy enough to access this area, but adding the longer brackets and their additional fasteners made that too big a hassle. This thing needs an ash clean-out door.

On to CinderCone Version 2!

CinderCone: How, Part 2.

Now that the design and layout work is complete, and the laser has done its thing, the real work begins. Or the FUN, depending on your feelings about welding and sanding metal. The interesting thing about my process is just how much of the fit-up and fixturing is simplified by the earlier CAD work — there’s very little guesswork or problem solving left at this point. Photos below tells the story of assembling the first CinderCone prototype.

CinderCone Parts

Cleaning and preparing the raw laser cut parts.

Pattern Detail

A closer look at the warped hexagonal pattern.

Nuts

Welding the attachment nuts into the brackets.

Nut Detail

The bracket parts have hex cutouts to accept the nuts. Simplifies positioning.

A Quarter for Your Brackets

These brackets will hold the top section to the bottom fire basin.

Hex Feet

These hexagonal standoffs accept the leveling feet.

Colors

Attaching the legs to the base plate. Pretty.

Six Legs

All the legs attached to the bottom plate.

Bottom Basin

Finishing up the fire basin and adding the brackets.

Nearly There

Upper section welded up and bolted to the fire basin.

The Hard Part

Adding the “eyebrow” above the main door; bending metal of this thickness is never easy.

Clamp It

How many clamps can you fit in there, dude?

Finishing Touches

Eyebrow on and grill in place. Just a few final details.

Backpedal.

Backpedal: Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To move the pedals of a bicycle or similar vehicle backward, especially to apply a brake.

• intransitive verb To move backward by taking short quick steps, as in boxing or football.

• intransitive verb To retreat or withdraw from a position or attitude.

 Well, that didn’t work out.

I’m referring to my previous post, wherein I formally “end” my career as a sculptor. I gave it a year, and it was crystal clear that my new endeavors were not going to pan out financially. I was scrambling to figure out what to do and why, when that stupid little notification sound emerged from my phone. It was a text from a client I’d worked with back in 2015, designing and fabricating a privacy screen for his house here in Fort Collins.

Turns out, he has a need for another screen at his new place in Denver. When opportunity knocks, you answer – sore shoulder notwithstanding. I felt somewhat defeated at first, but, as I started digging into a new design, I realized just how much I missed the process of building artful things—actual, physical objects made to fill space and look cool doing it. There is something deeply satisfying about working out how to reach an artistic goal while also striving to make it fulfill a clear purpose. Speaking of purpose, it seems I’ve relocated mine. Exocubic Studio is back, baby!

Interwoven.

Interwoven is finished

After five long months of work through the winter, Interwoven is finally done. Very happy little metal monkey over here. So pleased, in fact, that I composed a wee poem for the occasion:

Interwoven

Unseen fabric

Warp of Time

Weft of Space

The tapestry of connection

Between me and everything

Nexus

Node to node

Emergent consciousness

Synapse

And Synecdoche

Hydrogen becoming

Humanity

A Universe evolving

Eyes

with which to see

Itself

Interwoven is still being woven.

I've been slowed down with the cold and a nice dose of the flu, but I am still plugging away on Interwoven.

Working on the tenth module.

Weaving Interwoven: Still Going!

I’m still — slowly — making progress on the Interwoven piece.

The modules are beginning to weave together.

The cutouts where the main body meets the base.

Weaving Interwoven: Progress report.

Still working on Interwoven and making good, albeit slow, progress. We had a nice cold snap where the temps dropped down near 0°. Makes the interior of my nice all-concrete shop feel like a meat locker, only colder.

Flipping it over for easier access.

Clamping and using Clecos (temporary rivets) to hold things in place.

Pulling the seam together. Nice Depth of Field!

That’s a LOT of rivets.

Weaving Interwoven: Warp and Weft. Woof.

More progress on the assembly. Starting to feel like this just might work!