Copper “Whale” weathervane is approximately 7′ long by 2″ thick. Entire weathervane stands 7′ tallC

The base mount is fabricated entirely out of stainless steel tube and plate

The base includes tapered roller bearings and sleeve bearings below

The base is covered with a 32oz copper shroud and adjustable cardinal points

The structure of the whale consists of a 32oz copper channel perimeter frame fastened to stainless steel supports

This solid stainless steel shaft is welded into the pipe on the previous photo and the whole unit slides down through the base bearings and through the roof

You can see the threaded shaft sticking through the bottom under the saw horses

The upper bearing gets covered with a hand spun 32oz copper sphere which is soldered to and rotates with the upper portion

Now on to Willy’s dental work!
We machined a solid copper bar into the tooth profile, cut it into sections and soldered them in between the two face sheets

Once the excess sheet metal is trimmed and filed smooth Willy’s got a full set of choppers!

All cleaned up and ready to deliver

Here it is at it’s new home on the beach

New roof cresting progress: First round of stamping new roof cresting

New roof cresting progress: Second round of stamping and partial trimming

Closeup detail of finished roof crest

The roof cresting is attached to the ridge covers that we brake formed out of galvanized steel

The original finial was rotted very thin and had numerous patches of tin, caulk, even spray foam!

Where possible original sections are stripped and used to make hammerforms.

A couple of hammerforms and the new components that are made with them

Sometimes we use both male and female hammerforms. Repousse components are hammered out from the behind (female form) then details are chased back in from the front (male form).

This component was too thin and damaged to make a hammerform from so we sculpted a new form

Boxed it up …

Poured a new hammerform (as seen on the top left). This picture shows just some of the modified and custom made tooling for this job

The large “Water Leaf” urn section coming together

Completed, fully soldered zinc finial.
All components of this finished finial are hand formed “repousse” and soldered together into one unit.
(Repousse is the technique of shaping & hammering malleable metal from the reverse side)

New finial in its place at the end of the new roof cresting

We hand formed full relief copper roof cresting consisting of spheres, fleur-de-lis’, and scrolls. These are not just flat sheets with the designs cut out. They are full three-dimensional panels that are 1” thick at their thinnest point and stand proud of the roof a full 6” at the scrolls.

We hand formed copper finials to replicate originals (in the background) as well as restoring existing ones that were salvageable.