This sculpture was commissioned by Five Points Development as well as the City of Sarasota, Florida. Situated in the heart of the city, the piece is integrated into a fountain. Water running down the channel on the circumference is held by capillary action until it flows into the basin.
The 16 ft. x 16 ft. x 5 ft. stainless steel sculpture was designed in CAD and then laser cut from 10 gauge sheet. Each element of detail is hand fabricated by welding, grinding and sanding. The lightning bolts consist of seven individual parts each and there are a total of 32 lightning bolts.
The project's 5,000 lbs. of 304L stainless steel was assembled by pulsed MIG welding with a pair of Lincoln Power MIG® 350MP multi-process wire feeder welders. These machines were also used to TIG weld small sections where appropriate. Lincoln Mobiflex® low vacuum/high volume systems were used for fume extraction and filtration.
Pulsed MIG welding provided the speed needed over TIG welding while greatly reducing the amount of finish work required with traditional MIG. Overall the project took less than 800 man-hours to complete while using over 250 lbs. of welding wire. The labor savings of pulsed MIG welding on this project paid for one of the machines!
*The above project images and descriptions have been published to show how individuals used their ingenuity for their own needs, convenience and enjoyment. Only limited details are available and the projects have NOT been engineered by the Lincoln Electric Company. Therefore, when you use the ideas for projects of your own, you must develop your own details and plans and the safety and performance of your work is your responsibility.
