We put up our Valentine’s Day mailbox decoration yesterday on the way to do our other errands.
This cupid is about 2-1/2 feet tall by almost 3 feet wide. It is made of heavy sheet metal, cut out by my husband using our CNC set up. We found the design on the net. He uses a program to convert the picture we have found to what is called “G-Code” a language the computer can understand. We save this on a thumb drive and take it out to the shop. We put the thumb drive into the computer and decide speed of cutting and a few other things. After set up, we start the program which guides the torch to cut the design out of an 8 foot x 4 foot sheet of metal.
Once the design is cut out, we add the piece that will attach the design to the mailbox, welding it on. We use an overhead projector and a transparency we have made to mark the salient points of the design onto the metal – both sides.
I then paint both side of the metal and the attachment piece with paint made for outside. When the painting is finished, I spray the piece with polyurethane spray to protect the piece as much as possible from sun, wind, and rain.
We change our decoration twice a month.
If you look carefully in the background of this picture, you can see our 100 pound robot made from scrap metal who welcomes people who want to come up our driveway. You can also see two metals owls – each about 2-1/2 feet tall, perched on top of poles that hold a gate we can close.
We really enjoy making decorations and yard ‘critters’ together.
My husband is trying to find a good design now for “Wonder Warthog.”
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