Sil-bronze Sink!

Discussion in 'Other metal working projects' started by Jason, May 21, 2020.

  1. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Not sure who is to blame for this one. It's time for a master bath overhaul and those are NEVER cheap! I made the mistake and showed my wife this photo of a sink made by Diamond Spas in Denver. That place is SOOO expensive, I didn't even bother to ask how much! My guess is it's north of 3grand and that's not happening. We have some experience with import copper sinks and they are all paper thin and generally shit. Then there wasn't anything in the size of a trough sink we need for this 6ft long vanity. She's tired of fighting for the faucet when it's time to brush those fangs!

    This is the inspiration. V shaped trough with a slot drain. HOWEVER, we have a depth issue. I'm raising the counter height to 36", but she wants this thing to intrude very little into the drawers and cabinets below. So, the solution is not an under mount style like this photo, but have it rest 1.5" ABOVE the granite and only about 4" below the stone. This sink is probably copper, but you guys know I'm a bronze guy. So F it!
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    Finding single handle wall mounted faucets where the handle is ON the faucet, in black and not on the wall is a tall order. It was the Italian MGS $2800 a pop faucet or Brizo Litze in something they call black. To add fuel to the fire, nothing comes with roughing valves, handles, arms etc! So all I can see is dollars FLYING faster than I do. Matching bronze with manufactured stuff is impossible, so something in black will blend in better.

    See? Handle ON the faucet. She hates water splashes on the wall. Picked up a pair of these. Still more than I wanted to pay, but a fair compromise. I think Brizo is Delta's lux line. Lifetime everything, finish and mechanicals so there is that.
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    Enter Farmers Copper in Texas City. This place is like friggen FORT KNOX! Long story short, I ordered about 10sq feet of .125 C655 and provided them with a drawing for water jet cutting. After a week of watching them bill my debit card 3 times and putting $2400 to sleep, they FINALLY made things right and knocked off a few bucks for my trouble. Still no apology, but 600bucks, with cutting and taxes included for 57lbs of bronze we were on the road. They make sure you get every sq inch you paid for and you guys should see the 6pages of certification that comes with this metal. Comes from Germany from some company called KME Mansfeld in Hettestedt. Metallurgical numbers, sign offs, and certifications up the friggen yin yang! Now I know why it's 11bucks a pound! It's all the stupid paperwork to keep the anti-lead freaks happy.

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    And NOW the fun begins. I'm estimating, I've got about 20 feet of tig welding in front of me. Lots of it will be autogenous (no filler) and because of this thing sitting ON the counter, I can't be sloppy with this one.
    I cast a bunch of soup cans of crap aluminum recently. I think the stuff turns like shit on the lathe, but it mills pretty good for what I need. Tonight I turned a 4inch chunk into this squaring block here. Fit up is critical if you are not running filler. (fingers crossed I can pull this one off) If not, I'll be grinding my ass off.

    And I thought a small welding table was a good idea. WTF? This is the top of the vessel and it's upside down here. I had them cut out the top in one piece to keep it completely flat. The rim is 1.5" and the long piece I'm starting on here is also 1.5" This thing is 33" long!

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    This method is working great so far and is keeping a tight and square fit up. I only got 4 spots tonight after standing at the mill for 2hrs chopping up that block, I'm pooped out.
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    And JUST when you think it can't possible get any more LUDICROUS, someone comes across this one tonight. The shower part of the bathroom will come after I get the vanity part down. For now, I need this sink built so I can layout the plumbing in the wall that I have to gut AND build the cabinetry also. Can you say, I'm busier than a one legged man at an ass kicking contest? This is not a fast build by any means, but once this is done, I'm allowed to start thinking about stainless.

    There is many things about this design of shower pan below that are pretty stupid. For now, I'll just leave this one on the back burner. The plumbing fixtures for the shower are coming with the lav faucets, so that's one hurdle completed. Typical Rain head, shower head and spray wand for the dog.

    Controls have gotten simple through the years. No more walls littered with shitty valves. Top is now a selector of individual outputs or combinations as you please. Bottom levers set temp and other is pressure. No more burned ass when she flushes the shitter. Photo is of nickle finish and not black.
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    I'm a natural stone kinda guy, but I've got an easy solution for this nonsense. Local granite company will fit solid slabs on the walls. Goodbye grout lines and I don't have to do any stone work. But this shower pan scares the hell out of me! $$$$ Seeing it would be on the floor and extend up the walls 6inches, I bet I can get away with much thinner bronze too! We've been in this house 10years and she's been pretty patient with me while I've pulled this house from the 1980's. (kitchen, guest bathroom, miles of wide molding, raised ceilings, stonework etc) Is this a little over the top? Definitely. I expect the ROI will about even out as I'm not paying some jackass to F stuff up. We aren't going anywhere any time soon, so why not?

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    Last edited: May 21, 2020
    Bentation Funkiloglio likes this.
  2. Can you settle for oval or spherical sinks?.

     
  3. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Interesting contraption.. But no, no round or ovals. Trough, it's kinda the thing here these days.
     
  4. Peedee

    Peedee Silver

    You are a certifiable nutter Jason (in a good way!)
     
    Jason likes this.
  5. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    Would a bronze toilet be self-patinating?

    Looks nice!

    Jeff
     
    Rotarysmp and Jason like this.
  6. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Made a call today, That copper pan and love seat costs just shy of 9grand. But if I order today, I can get 20% off.:eek::rolleyes:
     
    dtsh likes this.
  7. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Well you better hurry up then...
     
  8. It would be self sterilizing like most copper alloys.
     
  9. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I gave them you credit card number.
     
  10. I would have thought that it's mandatory to use explosive forming in Texas for sheet metal work: make a reinforced female concrete form, lay the sheet on top and pull a vacuum underneath, cover the sheet with det cord and 2 feet of water and let er rip!.
     
  11. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I'm running 11g (.125) on this sink, but I did learn from DS they use 14g (.078). Ya gotta be a pretty good welder to work that thin stuff! I'd be willing to try .094 stuff and that is 4.2lbs per foot. Guessing I'd need about 35sq feet puts this around $1600 for materials. That's a far cry from 9grand! Looking at it like that, it's not that insane. I know people that drop 6grand on a soaker tub they use as a laundry basket.:rolleyes:

    On a different note, we had almost baseball size hail tonight for about 20mins. My 2 year old roof took a serious beating:(, lost a windshield in my daily driver and a back window in my wifes car along with serious hail damage. My garage door was also beat to death to. Only lost one glass storm window and some glass on a gas lantern. So now the fun really begins with the insurance company. Fortunately, they have been more than fair in the past and that's all I can ask for.;)

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  12. Yow!, imagine being stuck in the open with that. The capital city of my state: Brisbane cops several hailstorms a year like that and they pay half the insurance as we do in my city because we had a bad cyclone in 1956.
     
    Last edited: May 22, 2020
  13. Jason

    Jason Gold

    These thing come SHOOTING out of the sky with so much force it is amazing! You get hit in the head with that thing probably doing over 100mph and you are DONE!

    I talked to my roofer tonight and I swear he was giddy with excitement! It's raining 100dollar bills at his house!
     
    Mark's castings likes this.
  14. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Work continues...

    Tacked up inside.
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    Waterjet is SO worth the money. I'll never screw with plasma cutting again.

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    Tricky welding. The goal is to NOT hit that edge. I'll soften them later.
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    Grinder makes it all better. 120grit
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    Not bad for an afternoon of work. After 10feet of tig work, I need a bottle of tequila to get rid of the copper taste in my mouth.:p
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    Last edited: May 26, 2020
    _Jason likes this.
  15. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Mockup. I have retrieved my last lost ring down a drain with this sucker!:D It's going to be an interesting piece of enginerding to get this to drain into conventional plumbing. Commercially available trough drains wont cut it here.:rolleyes:

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  16. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Guess you'll have to cast something...
     
  17. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Nahh... I think I can stick build it faster by cutting and welding. BUT you might have a good idea. I tried to buy some tube from Atlas and they hit with 6foot minimum and $600+ for the small piece I need. If I cant find the tube, I'll pour a fat turd and TURN it on the lathe. Tonight I trimmed up some bronze on the mill and thought how the hell did I live without this thing?:confused:

    Here is a note for those of you that TIG bronze. Tonight I tried a tip I picked up from Jody at weldingtipsandtricks.com
    So I've got a simple butt joint with no real constraints. Instead of stacking dimes, flip on the pulse. I set the amps about 30% higher than normal for the job, set 33pulses per second and a peak time of about 70%. WOW! What a time saver! Anyone that has spent any time welding bronze, knows it can be sluggish keeping it moving instead of turning into worm shit. The pulse helps BIGTIME to agitate the puddle and keep things moving. Makes for less grinding. Be aware, your puddle will spread out, just something to consider and try sometime.;)
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2020
  18. My wife will NEVER be allowed to read this thread!

    Seriously, amazing work!
     
    Jason likes this.
  19. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Thanks man.;) I drink Shiner Bock btw.:p
     
    Bentation Funkiloglio likes this.
  20. Rotarysmp

    Rotarysmp Silver

    Man, I hate to think of how deep in the shit you were to need this Honey-do to get back on side :)

    Great workmanship!
    Mark
     
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