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Dragonfly Enterprises 3283 State Hill Road Reading, PA 19608
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-The Union of Two Companies- The Children’s Garden Entrance Arbor At Hershey Gardens The historic Hershey Gardens, located on the grounds of the Hotel Hershey in Hershey, Pennsylvania recently created a Children's Garden with creative, interactive learning facilities for children of all ages. The logo for the Gardens was very whimsical, with leaves, flowers, birds, and insects intertwined into the lettering. The owner desired to create an entrance to the new Garden which incorporated this logo into an entrance arbor with gates. Ebinger Iron Works, Inc., a NOMMA member company, was chosen to take on this project and bring the owner's concept to reality. Ebinger recognized this as an opportunity for an architectural metals shop to combine its talents with those of an artist in design and forging of metals to produce a result that individually would have been difficult. Randy McDaniel of Dragonfly Enterprises, located in Reading, Pa. was commissioned by Ebinger to design the arbor and create the artistic elements incorporated into the design. This artistic work included an archway sign using the Garden's logo, two columns with children's garden features that were topped with Hershey Kisses, and a pair of gates with artistic elements. Working from the Hershey Garden conception and the whimsical logo, Mr. McDaniel was able to expand the idea to include two full size sunflowers, extra large flowers with playful ants and a 10-inch long friendly bumblebee. Using his skills in computer designing and his knowledge of laser cutting of metals he was able to not only design the gates, but also the parts needed to construct the elements that make up the sign, flowers, leaves and insects. Due to the use and cost savings of laser cutting they were also able to produce the fencing that adjoins the columns. This originally was not a part of the plan. The gates are highlighted with three-dimensional roses that are representative of the adjacent rose gardens. The Children’s Garden logo elements were first laser cut and then forged in order to bring the sign to life. Letters that had leaves were laser cut with a small leaf that was forged into the full size leaf with the required detail. The gates and fencing were laser cut from one half inch steel. The bee was done in sheet metal as a hollow form. Starting by drawing the halves of the items in AutoCAD, then laser cutting out the components, it was then that the forming began. The steel sheet metal was from 12 gauge to 7 gauge depending on the part. The parts were then heated and hammered over ladle forms in a swage block to dish the halves enough to make a full half. Once the halves of the bee were shaped, areas for the legs to come through were hot punched from the inside with a round end punch and then drilled through at the same diameter as the legs. The legs were then inserted into the holes and welded on the inside. Slots for the wings were cut in with a cut-off disc in a body grinder. The wings were inserted and welded solid on the inside. Now the two halves could be welded together and ground smooth. The bees’ head was done in a similar fashion and welded onto the body. After forging out a long taper for a stinger it became obvious that that was too menacing. Finally the idea to use a Hershey Kiss for the stinger became the way to go. This was forged from solid bar using top and bottom fullers. Trying this forming in modeling clay was a good solution to seeing exactly how to approach this forging. The ants were forged using pipe. One end of the pipe was forged into a slight taper and the end rounded off and welded solid. The body sections were separated using a top and bottom fullering tool and rolling the pipe between the fullers while hammering. The biggest challenge was to create the three-dimensional Hershey Kisses. These were twenty one and a half inches in diameter and twenty inches high. Since they had the support post of the archway going through them they had to be in halves and be attached as the last item in the installation. To form the sheet metal there needed to be a form to hammer them into. By drawing the perimeter of an actual Kiss and scaling it up to the needed size produced a starting point. Knowing that it would be impossible to hammer the whole side from one piece of metal, it was decided to form the bottom third as one piece and the upper two thirds as the balance. The form was then produced by using that perimeter and cutting pieces to the outside of the perimeter. Again laser cutting produced uniform exacting shapes. These quarter inch thick pieces were tabbed into a plate with equally spaced notches cut in it. This way the form sections could be slid into the bottom plate notches and welded in place. The same process was done for both sections. Forging the sheet metal into these forms became more difficult than anticipated. Compound curves in in sheet metal tend to straighten out what was previously forged. It was a matter of trying to hold everything in place while hot hammering into the form. A wooden hand-made mallet with rounded ends was an excellent tool for this job. Once the sections were formed they were then welded and ground smooth. The two Kisses took two men three weeks to complete. Looking back on it, perhaps having them spun would have been a better solution. A very realistic result was created by actually forming aluminum foil over the Kisses. This was done by obtaining sixty inch square sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil and using silicone adhesive to attach the foil to the kisses. Due to tarnishing of the foil in the weather, they were both painted with Por-15, a clear thick coating used in the automobile restoration business. Ebinger Iron Works fabricated the columns, archway, and structure for the fencing and gates. They also spray painted the overall components and installed the completed commission. Finishing the job was done by metalizing a zinc coating and then coating with Vanex Break-Through paint. This is a water-borne acrylic paint specially created for exterior metalwork. One of its’ advantages is that it dries in an hour and is harder than solvent paints. Randy hand painted all the detail in the sign and columns. Just the hand painting of the details took seven days. The union of Ebinger Iron Works and Dragonfly Enterprises was beneficial to both companies. It allowed a fabrication company and a forged metal artist to combine the best skills of each company to produce a high quality custom entrance arbor and fence that would have been difficult to achieve individually. “I recognized early in the process that we needed an artist; we got one. I have always believed that in order to truly put the customer's interest first, a company should be willing to use alliances with others in order to improve the quality of what you are offering. Our company uses strategic alliances as a key to our success in business. This project truly reflected the contribution of various groups, each with something to contribute. I'm proud of the project, but I'm also pleased with the manner in which it was conceived and conducted.” William L. Miller, Ebinger Iron Works, Inc.
Ebinger Iron Works Dragonfly Enterprises P.O. Box 251, Keystone Ave. 3283 State Hill Road Schuylkill Haven, PA 17972 Reading, PA 19608 570-385-3460 610-670-9620
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Dragonfly Enterprises |
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Randy McDaniel Artist, Author, Instructor in Forged, Lasered & Fabricated Metals |
