Eiffel tower 4’ tall 12 gauge

[tinspark]

Spent many hours resizing, changing notch sizes and rescaling. 4’ tall. 12 gauge. Will be putting led lights in the thing and put it out back near the bbq area . Over 2500 cut paths. Turned out really good. I need to tweak a few minor things in the CAD drawing, but overall it went together well for my first attempt after spending many hours at the drawing board getting this ready to cut. A buddy who I work with wants one for his wife, which they visited a few years back and got to go up and into it then. so he will bring metal, beer and a couple of long afternoons! And help out!

[adbuch]

Doug - that turned out great! How many individual pieces did you cut to assemble this? Do you plan to paint it, apply some sort of metal finish, or?
Thanks,
David

[tinspark]

The landings are basically a pan. With bent up guardrail . 3 of them for each tier. It is all slotted and fit for 12 gauge. Not 5 individual pieces,
I think there are 19 pieces off of the top of my head. I might burn some plates for the base.
I think I’m just gonna let it rust out back.. might spray a little bit of solution on it to speed up the process. Not sure what my buddy wants to do. He’ll probably want to take it in and get a powter powder coated I’m imagining. But I like that patina rust look

[tinspark]

I scaled each tower section and tiers off of actual photos of the real Eiffel Tower . so it should be very close to the correct proportions which should add to the look. The ones that I seen were not proportioned correctly imo and didn’t really match the profile of the real deal. it was fun to draw and put together. I started drawing it up several months ago and spend a few hours here and there on it finally got it done and cut ready about a week ago and decided to bust one out.

[adbuch]

I had assumed it was a purchased file. I'm very impressed that you drew it all up yourself from photos. Extremely nice job!!
David

[ROKCRLER]

Very nicely done Doug!

[tinspark]

Here is what I started with. I did scan some of the profile to get the basic structural look and shape. but everything else was pretty much laid out and hand drawn. And like ductwork transitions , there were “true lengths” to deal with. rise, run and tangent sort of challenges. But that was all in the fun of it!

[Dirtmotor]

Great Job !

[plasmanewbie]

Wow! Phenomenal from start to finish Doug

[tinspark]

Thanks fellers.I did burn a 1” hole through each level, that way i can run an LED string light up the middle of this thing from bottom to top, I think they it may look better at night lit up

[tinspark]

Put a set of 8 mode of LED string lights inside of it which makes it pop at night. It twinkles in different light pattern intervals.
I Have it sitting temporarily in front of my home built gravity feed smoker, which a lot of it was also build with the cnc plasma cutter also. I'll will be moving it out back in a flower bed after I get a few pavers to set the feet on so that its not setting in dirt and mud

[adbuch]

This looks great Doug! Nice work.
David

[martyy]

very cool indeed.

[adbuch]

Doug - I will look forward to seeing what this looks like when you get it out into your garden setting. I expect your neighbors will be impressed and possibly wanting you to make more of them.

David

[tinspark]

Doug - I will look forward to seeing what this looks like when you get it out into your garden setting. I expect your neighbors will be impressed and possibly wanting you to make more of them.

David

Yes, It'll stay in the back yard lit up in the corner, for bbq shindigs out back in a flower bed and the like
My only plans for another one is for a close family friend from work. He and his Mrs. loved visiting Paris some years ago, and I think they even got to go up it then, which I am not sure if the public can go up the thing. That was actually my inspiration for building thi sone. He is a really good fabricator. But is too busy at work to burn this thing out, and does not have a home shop. He would need to open the shop up and burn it on a weekend since it too so long to burn out. I ended up stoppping the machine at about each of its 19 or so pieces and raised the torch and scrubbed the nozzle with a mini stainless brush to remove any dingleberrries that may effect the thc or nozzle performance. I think letting the torch and parts cool a bit between cuts didnt hurt either, But thats nothing but a hunch to back that assumption. It took significantly longer to cut than the software estimated it might. I think i had about 6 hours actually cutting, getting coffee, and farting around!! haha and I believe the software estimated a little over 2 hours barreling through it all non stop. I did take a screen shot a few posts up which shows estmated cut time. But i cannot see it here as i type. lol!!
But I was able to cut it all out on 1 set of consumables without any misfires or tip up issues. i do only have the basic height control, so tip ups can be an issue unlike those with advanced height control, whos machines will stop when it detects tip ups/ crashes.
He is supposed to drop some metal to my home shop and I will pre burn and acid bath the parts for him, and we will then pick an afternoon to put it together as a anniversary surprise for her. And rust it out the way that mine is.
This one a test run of sorts, and my Mrs didnt even want me to build it when I told her I was planning on doing one, and got reminded that she needs a kitchen and bathroom remodel done too... (jab, jab) . I was teasing her after it was built a few months later after I saw her eyes light up when I unveiled it for her. Then I teased that I was just going to give them ours, and she protested. I reminded her that she didnt even want me to build the thing, but did not tell her that I was making it. She rarely ventures into my shop, so its kinda my domain!! Which is nice!! She really likes it, especially after she after it was lit up.
There are a few minor changes I can make and if I remember to, but honestly it'd take longer to change the file than to address the minor issues as it is put together as I did this one. I'll prolly just leave it where it is. i am not venturing into the artwork design business, so if I do not have a perfect snap tgether project I do not have anyone whining about it. Nothing a little nip/tuck and aminor finessing didnt fix no worse for the wear..
I am extrmely pleased how well it turned out for the first one that I did.I do not really plan on making many more, if not any more. It was a LOT of cutting in such a small foot print. Over 2500 cut paths in less than a half of a sheet of 12 ga. 48x96.. But it was a really fun project that I am actually a little proud of and stands out from the norm. It really stands out because of all of its detail.

[adbuch]

Doug - thanks for that excellent summary of the build process and the story about your family friend. Now that you have done it once, it should go quicker and smoother for the second one.

I too often find it easier to simply "nip and tuck" than to go back and edit the design - particularly is it is only for a few parts. It's always easy enough to do some grinding and fitting with maybe a little bit of extra welding.

I will look forward to hearing the "follow-up" story once you have finished the second one for your friend.

David

[tinspark]

Doug - thanks for that excellent summary of the build process and the story about your family friend. Now that you have done it once, it should go quicker and smoother for the second one.
I too often find it easier to simply "nip and tuck" than to go back and edit the design - particularly is it is only for a few parts. It's always easy enough to do some grinding and fitting with maybe a little bit of extra welding.

I will look forward to hearing the "follow-up" story once you have finished the second one for your friend.

David

It’s only the corner edge slots. Everything dropped in the tab and slots everywhere else other than the corner tab and slots. I punched them in when drawing them with the same dimension when drawing them up and was going to go back and fix in design edge, but forgot at some point and then I caught it later when I was looking at the file and many days before I cut it out. And something came out funky with the 4 top spire tab and slots. I just opted to chop those off and tac weld the spire to the top landing. Y hink the landing is only about 2”x2” after it is bent up, and the tabs were only about 1/8” wide because of the tiny footprint it was to drop into after the (4) spire pieces were tac welded together and ready to drop into the dinky 2x2 top landing. This error that was not caught before cutting was really the only thing I missed, and was minor, but still frustrated me, because I didn’t catch it before I cut it But I have done way worse in the past, so it was’t really that bad
. I stack cut about 1/16”x 1’8” deep off of the 90 degree corner notches . I was able to stack cut them on my home-built portaband band saw table. The dimensions are identical male to female> I knew this before I cut it all out, and thought about adjusting kerf to compensate for it prior to cutting. But decided “Meah!” , “Stack cut them and keep kerf at book settings”, which I did. No worse for the wear