wire wall sculpture, need professional advise

[Igor4d]

Hi,

I would like to try to make a wire wall sculpture.
I would be very appreciate if somebody can give me some advises How to find some book for wire sculpture , what kind of equipment using for welding and how to find distributors of 5/32-inch diameter steel wire that is powder coated black?

Thanks

[Ries]

no such thing as pre-powdercoated wire, nor would you want it.
brazing, soldering, or welding will all ruin the finish of the powdercoating at the joint, and stink quite a bit to boot.
Powdercoating would also crack and flake off when you bend the wire.

Powdercoating takes place after the piece is finished.

You can buy some colored wires at places like Micheals or Dick Blick art supplies, but they are not powdercoated, and are pretty small gage, in small spools.

Why 5/32"?

Seems like a wierd size to me.

You can buy small quantites of wire at places like Micheals.
Or you can buy 12 foot pieces of steel, aluminum, or stainless at a real steel supply house.

Welding is for larger sizes of wire, at least 1/8".
Smaller sizes you can braze or solder.
You could start out with a cheap mapp gas torch.
Better would be something like the Smith Little torch.
http://www.littletorch.com/

Google wire sculpture book, and there are a few.
Go to a good bookstore, and there may be some as well.

[fused]

Ries is dead on with all of the facts, buy an oxy-acetylene torch to weld or braze thick wire. You should also be able to find a supplier near where you live for wire in 100 lb. rolls in all sizes.

Metal suppliers sell pencil rod (1/4" hot rolled steel) if you decide to go just a little larger and it is still formable/bendable by hand using a vice, hammer, or any rigid shape to offer resistance as you apply pressure.

[jim]

round stock is`what you are looking for, most come in 20 ft lengths
anything shorter and you will be charged a fee..1/8 up to 1 inch is`what i use.
1/8 will most likely be cold rolled because of the small size,(cold rolled is harder to work with than hot rolled) its still easy to bend and shape at 1/8 inch..hot rolled for all other sizes is pretty easy to work with..
get a good Anvil 110lbs this can help with shaping.

you can also get the same in square stock.

jim

[Igor4d]

Thank you guys for your advises

[Igor4d]

Could you tell me? Do you know techniques how to powder coat wire sculpture?
May be easier to paint it? Also, is wire wall sculpture popular for home and office decoration in USA?

Thanks,

Igor

[WeiMingKai]

Wikipedia is your friend:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder_coating

Curing the powdercoat requires a large 'oven' to bake it in which is why this is a finish process best applied by someone at a specialized shop. If you ask at an Autobody Repair/Motorcycle dealer where they get parts powdercoated you should be on your way to locating the closest source for powdercoating near you.

Craft supply stores (Michaels, Etc.) have lots of tiny gage wires (get the bare metal kind if they have it, plastic-coating and fire aren't a good combination) in the floral arranging section.

Hardware stores like home depot will sell 'fence repair' wire 15-18 gage (unfortunately zinc galvanized which makes for nasty toxic fumes when welding) and if you look in the 'concrete' section of the store you can find 100-200' spools of really cheap 'rebar tie wire' which is coated in some kind of carbon and oil 'stuff' to keep it from rusting too quickly but which doesn't seem to affect welding (it didn't smell poisonous).

If you want to buy large ammounts of wire (or any metal) McMaster-Carr delivers:
http://www.mcmaster.com/

Good Luck

[Igor4d]

Thanks you

[Igor4d]

Is it possible instead of powder coating steel wire, just painting it?
Somebody can recommend some paint with same effect like powder coating

Thanks.