Industrial Flowers

Who doesn't love decoration with a little industrial flare?

Who doesn't love using up all the extra washers laying around the house!?

In this step-by-step I'll show you how I turned boring old harware into a beautiful bouquet!

1. Washers! I used two different sizes of stainless steal washers 1/8"I.D. x 5/8"O.D. and 3/8"I.D. x 1"O.D. because that's what I had laying around. You can use one size if that's all you have.
2. Something for a stem. I used a piece of scrap TIG wire, though I wish I'd had a slightly thicker piece of it for this.
3. Three small pieces of scrap something. I used some scrap carbon I had laying around. You want these to be maybe 1/8"-1/4" thick. If it gets much thicker then it gets in the way.
4. An angle grinder can come in handy. I used it to cut down my scrap metal and stems.
5. A vise for holding.
6. A hammer for hammering.
7. Welder and everything needed to run it. I used a TIG machine but it would probably work with other welding types.
8. PPE!!!! Cotton pants and long sleeves, close toed shoes, gloves, safty glasses, welding hood, and RESPIRATOR. Stainless steel is nasty stuff when it melts. PROTECT YOURSELF.

Now we make the washers into petals!

Most of my flowers are made out of nine small washers and six bigger washers, but I always bend extra just in case.

To bend a washer-

1. Stick a washer halfway into a vise and secure.
2. Smack it with a hammer until it wont bend anymore. (Roughly 45 degree bend.)
3. Admire your little metal pringle.
4. Do steps 1-3 about a hundred more times.

Note- the closer to getting this folded directly in the middle of the washer the easier it is to stack them later. I didn't measure or anything and some of my little bends were off a bit. I still used them though.

Hokay! Now that we have all our shiny, tiny tacos it's time for some metal melting!

There are five layers to each flower in sets of three washers each.

1. Layer one- This first layer is the intermost section of our flower and it is the hardest and most frustrating part of this whole build. The idea is to take three of our smaller washers and prop them up with help from our scrap metal. You want them leaning on each other at about a 45 degree angle off the table. We also want them alternating which side is under or on top of it's neighbor, all while balancing on the tip of a bent washer... yeah. Be patient with this step. I've been making these things for years and I still knock over this first layer multiple times each flower. Once you get them even and to your liking, tack them. I used a TIG machine with my volts turned down to like 60 and 3/32" filler wire . I melted through my first try with this batch too, so I was glad I bent extra petals!
2. Layer two- These next three small washers will be leaning in between the first three. Use the scrap metal to make sure they don't slide around on you. I want them leaning so they're making contact with the washers under them in a way that's easy to tack. Once they're even, tack them.
3. Layer three- This is the last set of smaller washers. These three get propped up inbetween the last set which puts them above the first layer. Again, lean them so there's good contact for tacking, and then tack them.
4. Layer four- Our first three big washers! These guys get propped in between the last set and above layer two. The transition from small to big washer is the hardest to tack together. If you lay them too flat there's a really big gap between the two sizes on the front of the flower, but if you have them up at a super steep angle it's hard to find a spot to weld them to the layer underneath.
5. Layer five- Last set of washers! Prop them in between the last set, (above layers 1 and 3). I try to position them so that the table touching tips of all six large washers make a roundish shape.
6. Tack in a stem. I think the TIG wire I found for this was 1/16" and I wish I'd found something a bit thicker. It still worked though!
7. Flip it over and admire your handy work!! (In hindsight I wish I'd pulled the last layer up a bit steeper so they didn't stick out so far. This flower turned out more triangular than round, but it's still pretty!)

One of the reasons I like making this style of flower is that you can change little things and get really cool variations! You can change the size of your washers, use only one size, (use three sizes!? I'll have to try that next time...) or use four or five washers per layer (if you wanna go super crazy!). If you look closely you can see on my second flower I added a sixth layer of large washers to make it a smidge bigger.

Here are a few more flowers I've made in the past.

I hope you enjoyed following along on my floral adventure, and I cant wait to see the beautiful garden you weld up!

Happy Making!