Bender's Head - eye shroud

The fiddliest bit of the project - the shroud which goes around Bender's eyes.
I first planned on building this part using slices of extinguisher and simply flattening the round section onto a mold/pattern/former, and then cutting and welding it on - sounded good in theory, but nearly impossible to do in practice without resorting to heavy equipment, or forging temperatures. - sorry no photos of that attempt - all evidence was taken to the tip months ago.

The second (and successful) attempt was to use a "built up" approach. I split some of the pipe I used for the arms and legs longitudinally, and inserted pieces of sheet in between the pipe halves to form up the shroud. In the photo below the two halves of a shroud are seen on the left, and a completed shroud on the right.

I didn't bother making the sheet the same length as the pipe halves since I knew the pipe had to go back to the centre line of Bender's head, where as the sheet did not. In the next photo the marking for the intersection with the head has been marked with a cheap whiteboard marker. (I grab the cheap ones whenever the discount store is in town - I use them for marking metal if I need to have contrast, or the ability to erase the lines (if on smooth metal) - I basically use whiteboard markers like chalk on rusty metal, or prussian blue on smooth. - I do use chalk as well, just whatever suits, or is within reach at the time)

The waste material is cut away, and the shrouds are ready for fitting to the heads.

A sharp observer will notice I have not cut the corners at the back of the shroud too accurately, and have instead commenced thinning the metal from the inside. Knowing the pipe has wall thickness of around 4mm (just under 3/16"), it knew a smooth transition would require the metal to be thinned considerably.

Fitting the shroud to the heads was fairly straightforward. I attached an eye-plate to the head, and then labeled one head "A", and the other "B". I then marked each shroud with a corresponding letter, and marked the top surface of the shroud so the shroud would always be placed on the same head, the same way up. I then worked around the seam touching up grinding, thinning, and contouring until the fit was less than 1mm (~1/16"). I also marked the head so the indestructible red paint could be ground away for the welding.

A note about the red paint... I don't know what NuSwift used, but that paint is amazing. It prevented rust for over 20 years, is hard to remove, and doesn't burn very well. In the welding photos a margin of only 1/2" can be seen between the weld, and the unburnt paint. I weld salvaged material a lot, and the epoxy paints favoured by local industry burns to a margin of at least 1" when I weld comparable thickness metals. The interior of the extinguishers had another paint inside which was pretty good at well... a thin grey paint which was found failed in only 3 of the 40 extinguishers I cut open.

Back to fitting the shrouds on...
Once fitted, the shrouds were welded in place (see photo below), and I then ground and rewelded to try and build a neat consistent fillet.
The fillet is just visible in the photo below. I placed the eyes on the plate, and bolted it in for testing the fit and look - perfect!!


The next thing to do was the liberal application of bog (automotive body putty - "bondo"), and a lot of sanding and general clean up of welds, fits, and general appearance.
I didn't take photos since the amount of dust generated from the process coated everything with a lovely dust, and I didn't want the camera filled with it.
My approach to the preparation for painting was to sand back all rust, and paint, and then apply a skim coat of bog, and then sand back so the surface was smooth. I predominantly used a flap wheel on my grinder for the aggressive work, and used files, knives, and sandpaper for the finer work.

Looking back, I know I missed a few spots here and there - I'll be the first to admit I simply wanted to get this project finished, and weighed the effort for perfection, versus the return on my time. As I said a few times to people, "it's a lawn ornament, not a show piece. I can always go back and strip him back to metal and refinish him if I change my mind."

Next article... painting. I'll discuss the colours I used, and masking the "fiddly bits"