Model T

 Awhile back I got a call from a friend in Iowa to discuss a present for his father's 80th birthday.  His father is very interested in cars, and he wanted to know if I could make a replica of a model T his father had.  After a few photos and some discussion I started to build the car from a variety of recycled materials.  I decided to document my process and took photos of every key step.  Here's the link to my Picassa album http://picasaweb.google.com/jl12118/ModelT#.  Each photo has a description of what I'm doing.

I started by creating the spoked wheel from some pipe and 20 penny nails.  Then I built the body from the ground up.  It took me about three days to create the piece. 

This was a real challenge but I sure had a great time creating the piece, and it was even better when he called me and told me what a hit it was and how pleased his father was at his party.  He especially liked that the wheels and steering wheel worked!

Check out my website at www.cliftonmetalworks.com and let's talk about something special for you, a member of your family, or a special friend.

Tiki Fire Pit

I have an interesting life and have made numerous friends over the past 30 plus years through my art work.  People appreaciate my efforts and have thrown my all sorts of curve balls in thier ideas that they would like to have turned into reality.  It was June when a young lady approached me to create a special piece for her husbands birthday - she decided on a Tiki fire pit. 

Now I had to find the material to create her dream!  That's one of the biggest challenges when one is working with recycled materials.  I searched for over a month to find the right items.  Fortunately, I've build a number of great relationships over the years with scrap dealers all around the country and able to scavenge around their facilities.  I found a full size air tank in one state and half of it became the fire pit you see with me in the picture.  I then found another piece of curved steel plate in another state and created the Tiki figure on the top step.  Look closely and you'll see his flaming hair.

I cut all of the pieces by hand with a hand held plasma cutter.  Each piece came out great.  I then added propane plumbing for the fire pit so they can enjoy the piece year round outside their home near Kent, Washington.  This is a perfect choice for this area as it sports about 9-10 months a year of gray weather.

Fire pits can be created to be used with propane or wood for primary fire source.  Check out my website at www.cliftonmetalworks.com to see samples of other work or send me an email at joe@cliftonmetalworks.com and I'll be happy to work with you to create your dreams.