Jeff Morgan honed his metalworking skills as a pipe fitter. Working with pipe didn't satisfy his artistic side, however, so he began to experiment with creating objects made from metal. He became so skillful at metalworking that he was able to leave pipefitting behind and now makes his living creating unique metal objects. His work -- sculptures, tables and chairs -- can be found throughout his hometown region. His most ambitious project to date is an entire building that he covered in stainless steel. Stainless steel is indeed his metal of choice. "Stainless is the perfect metal, though it's not easy to work with," Jeff says. "If it gets too much heat it'll warp, and it took me a while to learn to use the heat to my advantage." Jeff uses an air plasma cutter (figure A) to work with the stainless steel. A plasma cutter superheats air to around ten thousand degrees at which time the air becomes electrically conductive. It is not a tool a beginner would feel comfortable using, nor is it inexpensive to own one. Among the more fun things that Jeff enjoys making are tabletop, stainless steel musicians. He started making his musicians a few years ago. He has perfected his technique to economize on metal and his time, crafting one in a matter of minutes. The musicians have four separate parts: a head, body, instrument and base. Jeff has created templates for each of the parts, which saves him time. He uses 20-gauge type 304 stainless steel and his templates fit so close together that there is virtually no wasted metal. He can cut 84 of the musician's bodies from one sheet of stainless. First, Jeff traces an outline of the template (figure B) with a felt tip pen, then uses his plasma torch to cut out the various parts. He then sands each of the parts with a lap sander. "This is because of the dross," Jeff says. "Dross is the carbonized edge where the metal was cut. Sanding also shines the steel and adds highlights." Jeff then welds each of the pieces together using a helio arc. "You can't use an oxygen acetylene torch," says Jeff, "because stainless steel has no iron to oxidize." Jeff creates the individual features of the faces by melting stainless steel filler wire (figure C). "I make musician sculptures because almost everyone played some sort of instrument when they were in school and they have a ready-made reference for these musicians", says Jeff. "They enjoy them and so do I."
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