Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello, so, I am making something. It is aluminum. I am teaching myself to tig weld. I want to make the hair, look like it is curly. How would I cut it to look like that? I thought, just drill holes in parts and cut curved lines. Thoughts?

Make a coil from wire, then grab the ends and pull apart.

You just blew my mind. haha I will need aluminum wire I guess. This is what I thought last night. I wondered, if the weight of the hair, the way I have it now, would bend the thing. You know what I mean? So, I thought, what if I got one of those drill things, that people use to put holes in wood. Then, I cut holes in the head. This reducing weight. Then, I take another piece and cut holes out, that are a bit bigger than the holes in the head. After that, I cut them in half and weld them, going all different ways on the head. That would give it a 3D effect, as well as reduce the weight. But, your way seems much easier to me. LOLOL

Thinking more. First, cutting the aluminum, with a jig saw, is impossible. haha I have two half moon shapes. I would cut the center out. I can not do it with the saw. I was thinking of what you said. What if I drilled small holes, 1/2 inch to 1 inch apart? Various parts of the metal that is the hair. Then, I put one piece of the wire and put it through one hole and the other piece though the other. After that, I coiled, both ends of the wire. Then, it would look curly and because of the coiling, the wire would not be able to come out of the hole.

Thank you for that idea. haha It will look even better than what I was originally going to do.

You can see the center part is open. I WAS going to make a peace sign, using bearings, that could spin. But, I really do not want to drill holes in the thing. So, I may just make a peace sign and weld it into that open part.

You can marking hair on the head!

I would look into using a scroll saw, not sure if they make a blade for aluminum but you can cut insanely curved shapes. Since the scroll saw cuts on the down stroke against the table it would be a whole different experience than using a jig saw. I see used scroll saws on our local craigslist quite frequently.

That is a good idea. haha I shall search.