Welding Tips and Tricks

So about a month and half ago some chick at school asked me to make her some steel roses for Christmas gifts for her family. Of course I said yes and figured out a simple way to do so. It is 1/4" round stock, and 3 pieces of 16 gauge sheet metal that I cut out on the cnc plasma cutter. Everyone loves them and I am now having people ask me to make them for it and may end up buying a bunch of sheet metal and making them at school and have a little gig going. Any idea what they would be worth?

Good job Nick
Do you know how much you have in material, say for example you pay $100 for material and can make 25 roses then you have $4 per unit, then calculate how much time (labor) you have to fab them.

Wow, that's pretty nice work, very creative. I don't think I can add much to the advice above beyond making sure that you include the cost of any consumables you use and to remember that your time has real value. That could turn into a fun little side thing for you. Stuff like that is good, it keeps you busy and thus out of trouble...

If these catch on and you find you are able to sell them here and there, make sure to keep you eyes and mind open to other possible things you could add to sell, or places to sell your creations. Lots of serious businesses get started like this, sort of "by accident."

Have fun with it, nice work!

I got bored a lunch and did some calculations and with purchasing sheet meta and round stock at menards, I should be able to make each rose for $2.60. Each rose takes 15-20 min to make so I figure $10-$15 would make a solid profit. I was gonna try and make little stuff out of stainless filler wire like snowflakes and that sort of thing.

drop your stem material to 1/8” or 3/16” for better scale. That will make them look more “delicate”. You could even put a bit of a heat bend in the stem, add a thorn or two They would be rather lovely then-

Wow, very nice. Did you form the petals individually by hand, or did you make some kind of fixture to shape them?

MarkL wrote:Wow, very nice. Did you form the petals individually by hand, or did you make some kind of fixture to shape them?

Bent them individually. Cut out the top piece with 5 "petals" and bent the two in the middle really tight. That way they are each a little different.

Made these for my wife several years ago.

When i was first starting out in metal working i was making tulips as birthday gifts. Recently, a few years later, used the same pattern i did before and realized that that was a whole lotta work for what they looked like. Especially made out of 1/8" Bilco doors.

Daisies are much easier...