Nice thing about working in the shop - a lighter is never far away. Few weeks off for the Grandkids and some recovery r&r afterwards. Time to get back at it and finish this sucker up. This'll be the eagle on top - dogtags for feathers.

She's happy I scored a new stool off Craigslist.

99% of the time is .030 solid wire with C25 gas. I keep a spool of flux core in case I run out of gas on a weekend. I just have a small bottle so my welder/cart are fairly compact.

Gotta sell some of this shit eventually - I'm getting tired of having to lower my cigar standards from lack of funds lol.

I found it quite humorous that the pup's tongue matched the totem poles!

I MIG everything. Don't have a TIG setup yet, and I still suck at stick (although I better get practicing because I'll have to finish stacking these in place and the MIG gun will not fit in most of the joining locations.)

Ha, that's funny. The welding forum I frequent tells me the exact same thing - I waaaay undervalue my efforts. I'm probably at $400 invested - used tanks, new steel, consumables, etc. This is by far the largest most expensive effort I've ever tried. My next largest piece took almost a year to...

I'm going to let it rust over - it'll look great like that. Some colored uplights for evenings too.

I'll list it for $5K. I'm in no hurry to sell it so I'm more than happy to enjoy in my yard for as long as it takes. Thanks for the kind words.

3rd spirit done, one more to go (a hawk for the top). Celebrating with a Perdomo and a needed rest lol.

Made a crown (needed it to support the one above). Heat colored the ball bearings. Preview of the progress so far.

Being in Phoenix, I was sooooo happy to finally make a coolidor. $20 Craigslist wine cooler, Spanish cedar shelves with cigar box pieces to corral them. A couple big Boveda 72's and all is right with the world. It'll hold 50 comfortably, 80 if I take out all the boxes - but then it's a pain to...

#3 taking shape:

2 down, 2 to go.

Got the salmon done today, tomorrow, the arms. Tonight, it's a Perdomo and watching the rain come down.

Thanks! I'm a little slow but methodical. Just pinching in the bottle took a day with cutting, bending, welding, and smoothing. Long weekend ahead - mouth, arms, and salmon hopefully get done.

Little progress...

Next spirit construction has begun. Bigger propane tank, cut in half, with the shoulder area "pinched" in. Some embellishment on the head. I'll use cold blue to darken it when I'm done, hopefully it will look like a helmet or headdress.

Had to do what ya' had to do...

Had a breakfast cigar and coffee this morning - first time in forever. Man I have to do that more often. Just a budget lawn mowing stick, no band and I'll be damned if I remember what it was - but it kicked the day off great. Motivated me to clean up the shop lol.