By John Luck, product manager, Miller Electric Mfg. Co

“The Power of Flight” is made from polished stainless steel.

It’s almost a modern-day fairy tale. A senior fabricator, his welding skills honed from years of working on everything from structural steel to ships to pharmaceutical equipment, is asked to try his hand at a metal sculpture.

The artist’s medium: 304 stainless steel.

His tools: a Dynasty TIG welder from Miller Electric Mfg. Co.

His objective: Shock and awe artwork. Beauty on a large scale. By large scale, picture an 85-ft.- long stainless steel dragon or a bald eagle with a 32-ft. wingspan.

Natural Talent
Artist Kevin Stone said he always has had artistic ability.

His family is artistic, and drawing was his hobby since childhood.

Art didn’t seem a viable career choice, however, so he trained as a TIG welder at Camosun College in Victoria, BC, Canada. After years of industrial work, his employer asked him to take on a special project that would show off the welding talent they had working in their fabrication shop.

“A few people mentioned my artistic abilities to the staff and they asked me to build a special sculpture for the roof of the building,” Stone said. Although his only previous attempt at sculpting was a soapstone dragon’s head, he took on the project: A 6 ft. high, 8 ft. wide stainless steel gargoyle.

“It was a challenge for me, but I think it turned out well,” Stone said.

Stone continued welding fulltime until 2005. Then, as an independent artist, Stone wanted to create a piece with large appeal to an American art-buying public.

“I have always found the bald eagle to be an inspiration to me both artistically and spiritually. Eagles signify incredible power and dominance in their environment, and yet at the same time are the most graceful, beautiful and elegant species of bird I have observed,” he said.

After six months of work, Stone unveiled “Power and Authority,” a 20-ft. tall, mirror-polished stainless steel eagle with a wingspan of 32 ft. More than 2,000 people attended its unveiling, and it gained attention in media as far away as the Boston Herald. The asking price of the sculpture: $1 million.

With financial backers who appreciate the eagle concept for its beauty and salability, Stone built “Power of Flight,” a second eagle sculpture, at his home in Chilliwack, B.C. He said that the second eagle turned out better than the first because he learned from the first experience.

With “Power of Flight” complete and on the market, Stone has moved on to his third major sculpture, an 85-ft. long, 12-ft. tall Chinese dragon that was inspired by his lifelong interest in fantasy art and the upcoming Olympics in Beijing.

Close up of his eagle’s talon; TIG welds add texture.

The Design
Once Stone decides on a project, there are few intermediate steps between the idea and the creation.

“I’ll take a few photos to get ideas. I check on the Internet for reference photos, but I primarily build from my imagination,” he said.

“I have a blueprint in my head that I follow. I visualize five to 10 steps ahead of what I’m working on. I picture what the overall shape will be and try to think of something that will fit inside that shape, yet be structurally strong,” he added.

The first piece of stainless Stone bent for the dragon was the inside of its mouth. Then he built the tongue and set that aside while he started to build the crown of its head. He went on from there, building it piece by piece.

“I do a lot of paperwork, paper transfer. Now that I have one piece done, I’ll take a piece of paper that represents the next piece, cut it out with scissors then transfer it onto a piece of stainless. That saves a lot of wasted material and helps with fit up,” Stone said.

Once the pattern is transferred to 16-gauge, 304 stainless steel, Stone cuts it with a power shear. He then shapes the pieces by hand and starts tack welding them into place several inches apart with his Dynasty 300 TIG welder.

When he’s happy with the fit up, he’ll add more tack welds between the existing welds until there are welds about every half-inch. He’ll eventually finish-weld the pieces together, welding 10 in. in one place then moving somewhere else to keep down the heat put into the thin metal and to ensure proper fit. He’ll finish by grinding down the welds and polishing the pieces.

The head, the legs, all the accessories and pieces that go into a project are hand cut and hand formed.

A gargoyle, commissioned by Kevin Stone’s employer to show off his welders’ skills, and allowed him to move from fabricator to professional artist.

Stone turned to his former employer to help engineer the complex coils that make up the armature – the skeleton – for the sculpture. The armature adds strength. It was TIG welded from 3-in. structural stainless steel tubing.

For easier shipping, items such as wings bolt on with stainless hardware.

Why Stainless?
“Stainless steel is one of the more difficult metals to work with,” Stone said.

“Very few people can weld thin stainless. It will oxidize quickly, overheat and burn through. It requires polishing to bring out its beauty and it is very labor intensive. Very few people work with it. However, as you can see by the eagle, it’s worth the effort.

“Plus, once it’s polished, it can be out in the elements and it won’t corrode, rust or lose its mirror-like quality. My vision is for them to be mounted over water to bring out the reflective qualities of both while color lights could be used for added effect,” Stone said. An Artist Picks Up

His Brush
Like most artists, Stone chose his equipment with care:

A Dynasty 300 TIGRunner, a 300-amp TIG system that has a water-cooler mounted on a cart for mobility. The Dynasty 350 has now superseded the Dynasty 300 model that Stone uses.
A Miller Spectrum 3080 plasma cutter that he uses to cut thicker material.
A Millermatic 350P MIG/ Pulsed MIG all-in-one welder.
And a Miller Elite autodarkening helmet and Miller Arc Armor TIG gloves.

“I just love the machine and its controllability,” he said of the Dynasty. “I could have purchased any machine I wanted. I’ve worked with all the top brands in my career, but this is the best machine I ever used,” Stone said.

“The Dynasty has a nice arc start, so I can start off slowly and still have good heat control. With my sculptures, there are few welds in a flat position. I weld in the most awkward positions, conditions and shapes you can imagine. This level of control and reliable arc starts makes the Dynasty ideal for what I do,” he added.

The Chinese Dragon’s head, part of Stone’s work in progress, which he hopes will find a place in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Kevin Stone standing amid the components for the dragon’s body

While the Dynasty is available with controls that are designed to tailor the arc precisely, Stone said he was able to be productive with the machine “right out of the box,” using the factory default settings for the material thickness.

“The setting for stainless steel is usually around 160 amps, from 60 amps to 160 amps is controlled variation for the work that I do. And the nice thing about having a foot pedal or having a torchmounted switch is your amperage isn’t limited to what you want to work with. You can weld from 5amps to 350 amps,” he said.

Stone prefers using a thumb control so he doesn’t have to be tied to a foot pedal, and he prefers a water-cooled torch.

“I found that in welding thick materials, the water-cooled torch keeps my hand cooler. It actually gives me a smaller torch than with an air-cooled torch. I really enjoy it,” he said.

Stone uses his Millermatic 350P pulsed MIG welder for heavy welding or structural welding. Currently, he’s using it to build a dune buggy for his kids.

Other than picking the right equipment, Stone said his advice for the aspiring sculptor is to practice trade skills.

“I have 18 years of welding experience, which allows me to weld stainless. It’s not easy and will take practice. If you’re doing artwork, practice drawing. Practice drawing and practice drawing more. It helps you visualize. Drawing can actually help sculpting dramatically because it helps lock in and define your vision,” he said.

More information on Stone’s art can be found at http://www.metalanimation.com.

Information on Miller TIG welders is available at http://millerwelds.com/products/tig/.