On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:37:17 -0800, "Paul Hovnanian P.E."
wrote:

SteveB wrote:

I've been seeing some pretty awesome sculptures made of rebar. They seem to
be very anatomically correct. Are these done by talent and eye, or by
taking measurements, and using big calipers to get things right?

I don't even want to think about calipers and 'anatomically correct' in
the same sentence.

:-/

Remember the old "Magic Lantern", where you put a picture under the
projector and a mirror would pick up the picture and shine it on the
wall?. The closer to the wall, the smaller, the farther, the bigger.
Trace the outline with a felt tip, lay it on a piece of MDF, put in
some pins and bend the rebar around the pins. You can buy butcher
paper from Smart and Final cheap enough. Comes in various widths and
about 300' long. Make a ****load of templates this way.

You can do the same with a statue, toy animal etc..and an old slide
projector..just shine the beam at the item and trace around the
shadow.

It WILL be in the proper proportion to the item/picture. The rest is
up to you. BTW...5/16 or 3/8 rebar is much much easier to work with
and if need be, you can make up rebar patterns and use them for the
templates if you are going to use heavier stuff. Heat the 1/2" -3/4"
rebar with a rosebud and bend it around your lighter duty pattern.

Simply C-clamp as you work around the pattern heating the straight end
and bending it as you go.





Gunner

I suppose its possible that someone did the design with some sort of CAD
s/w and spec'd all the bends from that. But I've seen artists work in
different mediums and produce some remarkable art by eye alone.

You could try making a full scale sketch on some butcher paper and use
that as a template for laying out the bends and cuts. I've seen sheet
metal art 'prototyped' with construction paper and Scotch tape.

I'm going to start doing some, and know I can get things to look like the
original, but the difference between those and sculptures that are
anatomically correct are plainly of different magnitudes.

Is a lot of the rebar cold bent and just trial fitted, or is a form used? I
saw some saguaros and a moose the other day that were just awesome, and
using cheap rebar would not be terribly expensive unless you figure in your
time.

Help appreciated.

Steve