60 grit flap wheel. I took this picture outside hoping there would be a little more light from the sun. There was a big black cloud at the time though, looks like a big heart on a beach.
4.5" 40 grit flap wheel on a right angle grinder.
The welds caused a little warping, but not as much as I feared. I was able to pound the material back to shape from underneath.
Now to weld off and grind and grind and then grind some more.
The top right corner off the heart will be covered by the chefs hat so there's no need to complete the shaping in this area.
As you can see, I still have to weld off all the joints. My hope is to minimize heat warpage by tacking all the pieces together thus giving the metal less area to expand
Even though I shape each part on an anvil as close as possible, in this tight curve I need a little help using Vise grip pliers, tack welding between.
After all the pieces are in place, I will finish welding each butt joint.
After each piece is tacked, I grind the tack down and use body working tools to smooth the joint between pieces.
Now I start working the pieces to a more convex shape a little at a time. Each piece is 3 to 4 inches wide.
Connecting to the outside ring, the first piece on the lower left of this picture is concave.
I used 1/4" round stainless bar stock to give me the desired height from the table. The bottom and top halves are slightly convex.
I will post the customers installed pictures ASAP.
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