New guy intro

[Jim Reese]

I had worked in bronze years ago - 1970s - and then life got in the way. I recently built a 1970 1/2 Falcon and wanted to get involved in the metal work so I enrolled in a welding and casting class. I learned to gas weld and then MIG weld and did some bronze casting again using centrifugal and shell casting methods. I really enjoyed welding and began creating wasps, animals and flowers in steel with hand tools and realized I needed to learn how to form and shape metal both in simple curves and compound shapes. I started to look for methods and tools with which I can hand shape metal and also simple tools like bead rollers and found my way here.
The flowers I have formed are mostly Orchids and Dogwood but really want to create others accurately as well as body panels on old cars.