I first got some mild round rod and bent the to different curves to get that straightened out for measurements. Had to use 2 different benders to get this done.
| Moved to the stainless rod next and needed to weld it together to make it one solid piece. I wanted it so you wouldn't be able to tell where it was done.
| I got a long, thick chunk of tool steel. I laid out a pattern for the wires and needed holes drilled on 45 degrees. I had a friend Mark R, do this on a CNC mill for me and thanks to him for that. I then had it heat treated. Ground a groove the same size as the surround rod into the jig in the center of the hole line.
| I clamped the two pieces end to end and TIG welded it up.
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Once welded I rough ground it being very careful not to gouge it anywhere.
| I then covered the area with a Magic Marker and started hand filing in straight sweeping, curving motion, keeping the file parallel. If you get crooked the marker will tell you. I use a very fine mill file for this. Here you can see it is getting real close to flush.
| On our grinders at work we use this method with pieces that are ground in size to a total .0002 of an inch tolerance. We blend these without removing any stock from that .0002. This is ready for sanding and polishing. If I drill the holes now it will distort around them when sanding/polishing so get it shiny at this point.
| Making sure the first hole was correctly positioned was critical as if you screw up there the gaps wouldn't look right. Once the first one was in I left the drill bit in and went to the next one. It now was a self locating jig and worked my way down the line
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I then remeasured and drill all the holes the other way. Jig worked great and I got it all right.
| Polished all the rods out and laid them in. Original was woven But I decided against that as it was too hard to do. I left the rods long and TIG welded them down. I'd heat them and the metal would flow and blend in into the surround, No filler rod was used on this. I did the same blending thing here and you can see the steps.
| Cut out some flat stock for tabs and rounded the corners to match original. Sanded out and polished it all again. Tig welded the tabs on after careful measurement. I put transfer screws in the cabs mounting holes then pushed the screen onto them, thus marking all the holes at once.so I knew they'd line up that way.
| Drilled the holes and it's now done.
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No distortion on the edges where it was welded and blended. Gives a lot cleaner look.
| Ready to put on.
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