Pick & Shovel

2/21 ~ by Griz (aka Steve Stovner) ~
I call it Pick & Shovel. It obviously was inspired by a heron or crane but was never intended to be true to either, just a whimsical piece of garden art made from old rusty tools. The spine is 1" schedule 80 pipe which was a real pain to bend. My hydraulic pipe bender did a fair job on the larger raduis section but not the small radius upper neck. For that I cut wedges from the inside and bent them closed with sledge hammer.

My initial layout on shop floor convinced me to proceed. Spine terminates with hitch ball and head is attached with old school ball hitch so head can be positioned at any angle.

3/23 ~ by Griz (aka Steve Stovner) ~
Pelvis was bolted to spine with optional positioning. 1/2" rebar legs were welded to pelvis. Welding the front and rear side shovels to spine was a disaster. Joining super thin rusty shovel steel to schedule 80 pipe with either my OA or big MIG created huge mess, but finally got it to stick.

I wanted legs to be contiguous so, after I got legs bent to desired angle, I split 1/2" plumbing elbow in half then added as knee and welded it back together. Toe nails are actual nails welded to 3/8" rebar toes, welded to 1/2" pipe ankle, welded to 1/2" rebar leg. Steel plate webs have holes for bolting it down.

2 old hoe heads make a great tail. The funnel was another "Did not go as planned". I wanted rusty steel but did not have one so I called around and finally Ace Hardware said they had one steel funnel on the self, so I bought it. It looked like it had zinc coating so I put it in my Vinegar & Salt bucket overnight, washed off residue in morning, cut spout off and slid it on spine before any other attachments to the spine. After 2 months outside it showed no sign of rust (because it is not steel - Grrrr). 2 top shovels complete the body.

Bridge washers for eyes. The yellow & red plastic is fun but did not ring true to the rest of the piece, so I removed them before deploying it. Added signature above tail.

It stands alone on flat surface and is surprisingly stable with all that mass so high up. Deployed, it is bolted to large buried concrete blocks and has weathered 40 mph winds with no problem.