Exploring Stair Shops and Facilities Across Our Nation, First Stop...Heirloom Stair and Iron
View both wood and iron fabrications and expert demonstrations. Originally just woodworkers, Heirloom learned to incorporate iron and other metals into their product to meet customer demand. Learn about their successful model of growth and focus on design while networking with industry professionals from markets across the country. Attend morning/afternoon seminars and exhibits.
NOMMA members may register at the SMA member price by entering code: RECIP160624
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![]()  The National Association of Architectural Metal Manufacturers (NAAMM) announces that its standard ANSI/NAAMM MBG 531 is being revised. It is available for public review and comment. To obtain the document, ballot and other related documents go to http://www.naamm.org/ansi/pending.aspx. Comments must be received on or before June 13, 2016 to be considered. Persons interested in participating with the consensus committee for MBG should contact the NAAMM office or visit the association website at http://www.naamm.org/ansi/consensus.aspx.
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NOMMA Wants YOU to Help Recruit NOMMA Members and Relay the Value of Membership!
NOMMA’s 2016-17 membership drive is underway! Noted business author and speaker Ed Rigsbee kicked off the membership campaign by hosting a webinar on membership recruitment.
Over the next 12 months or so, all NOMMA members are encouraged to sponsor a member. To sponsor a member, simply ask him or her to put your name on the "Sponsored By" line of the membership application. Those who sponsor a member are recognized regularly in the "Iron Club" section of the magazine and in our weekly email blasts. You may also help by submitting a lead to the NOMMA office, which makes you an automatic member of the "Rust-Free Club."
The NOMMA Membership Development Team is currently looking for volunteers to help with the campaign. If you want to help with this effort, contact Todd Daniel at the NOMMA office (888-516-8585, ext. 102; todd@nomma.org).
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Have You Checked Out NOMMA's NEW Online Career Center?
Last month NOMMA announced the launch of their new Career Center. It connects metalworking professionals across all disciplines and career stages with employers offering career opportunities, serving as a robust source of up to thousands of job opportunities.
Some of the benefits NOMMA's new online Career Center offers is:
- The ability for craftspersons to post anonymous resumes, allowing them to be recruited while remaining in complete control over which employers view their complete information.
- A variety of options for employers to expose jobs to passive job-seeking industry professionals who do not visit job boards, including Job Flash emails to NOMMA’s registered job-seekers.
- Integration of job content into social media channels to engage industry professionals and provide valuable job exposure to NOMMA’s audiences and relevant users of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social channels.
- And so much more!
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John Medwedeff has been producing site-specific public sculpture, sculptural fountains, architectural ironwork, and furniture for more than 25 years. His work is represented in private and public collections including the John Deere Collection, the Metal Museum, the Illinois State Museum, the University School of Nashville, SAS Inc, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
At age 19, he began a three-year blacksmithing apprenticeship with Jim Wallace at the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, and later earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from SIU Carbondale.
Concurrent with running his studio, John has curated exhibitions, taught sculpture and blacksmithing workshops at numerous craft schools, and lectured at universities and symposia across the country. He also has an active family life with his wife, poet and graphic designer, Cynthia Roth, and their son James. His art has been featured in numerous books and the journals Sculpture, Art & Antiques, Architectural Digest, and Metalsmith. He has also written the forward for and has work included in "From Fire to Form, Sculpture from the Modern Blacksmith and Metalsmith". WTTW Chicago and WSIU Carbondale recently featured John in Arts Across Illinois and WSIU In Focus in-depth public television programs about his life and work.
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Furniture and Accessory Fabrication (Non-Forged)
In order to be placed in this category, metal fabrication including custom castings and cold forged elements should have less than 5% custom hand forgings. This category includes items such as lighting, tables, chairs, fire screens, fire tools, baker's racks, and window and door grills.
Gold Winner:
Finelli Architectural Iron & Stairs
Solon, Ohio
The design of this custom range hood was done by an Architect and was made for a long standing customer of Finelli Architectural Iron & Stairs. The basic frame construction consisted of flat stock with dimples which were created by hitting a ball peen hammer with a sledge hammer to get the desired texture. All of the sheet metal was also peened using the same, old style technique, cut to size, and then welded into place within the frame. The difficulty grew in acquiring the correct radius and angle on the corner pieces of the curved range hood. The Finelli team was able to overcome this obstacle by experimenting with 3D CAD and geometric equations. The 48 rivets were added to the hood and a hammered bar was used for scrollwork as support brackets on each end of the hood. The entire project was wire brushed clean and finished with a clear lacquer.
This project took approximately 85 hours.
Silver Winner:
MDO Welding & Fab. Inc.
Wheaton, Illinois
The design of this table was done by the fabricator. The base of the table is 2"x4" stainless steel rectangular tube with a brushed finish. The top of the table is a formed cold rolled steel top with a wood core finished with a black patina. The fabrication of the table top was straight forward. The table was formed with cold rolled steel 16 ga sheet on the press brake to fit around a solid wood core. Table top is 44"W x 108"L x 2" thick. The table base was where the challenge came from. The team fabricated the hollow diamond shaped center of the table from thick plate stainless steel, which sets the angles for the eight legs and is the core to which all of the weight of the table is centered on. Getting the angles perfect so that they could have a tight TIG weld to hold everything together was time consuming because each of the eight legs has compound angle cuts going in three directions to off set from the center line, fit the diamond, and rise or fall to meet the top or floor. The finish: Steel top is finished with black patina and an automotive satin clear coat to seal the metal. The base for table is brushed stainless steel.
This project took approximately 50 hours.
Bronze Winner:
The Heirloom Companies
Campobello, South Carolina 
This project was a very unique piece that proved to be more of challenge than the team first realized. The stone seating had already been previously installed, and the team working on this project was asked to provide some kind of back rest to bring it all together. They used flat bar which was heated and bent around a form, but given how close the slates were together, in order to get them all to match perfectly caused a bit of frustration. Seven individual stanchions were created for support. This involved cutting the shape out of plate and then bending both an inside and outside piece in order to frame it and give it strength. Attaching the backing they created to the concrete floor and the back of the seat provided exceptional rigidity. A powder coating was used as a finish.
This project took approximately 170 hours.
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My experiences in the gardens had given me a nearly fully formed idea about building a large scale beehive with bees tending to it. Not long after, I was approached by a local gallery to participate in their "Earthwork" show, which was part of an area wide, series of shows and events with the theme Stewardship of the Earth. Here was the perfect opportunity and justification to work on my largest project to date.
The resulting sculpture, titled "Bee-Cause", stands nearly six feet high and is for indoor use only. The honey comb is made with cold rolled, mild, 18 gauge steel. Each hexagon was made of six equally sheared pieces that were welded in a fixture to create a tube. The tubes were then assembled and welded to create the main structure. The curved top and base are intended to soften and add interest to the sculpture. I used Sculpt Nouveau metal stains and lacquers on the entire piece and I love the various honey colors achieved in the honey comb ends.
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You may be if you aren’t scrutinizing your consumables use
During almost every shop visit I hear the same question: "How can I make my business more productive and yet save money?" The answer is simple: Take a look at your consumables.
It’s a common sight on the cutting shop floor: Next to every CNC plasma cutting machine is the 5-gallon pail of "used up" consumables. Mostly copper, these spent consumables eventually find their way to the recycling bin.
Quite often I reach into this bucket and pull out a handful of parts to review. I see the erosion of the electrode and the swirl marks on the nozzle. The condition of the nozzle and shield orifices often tells a story about either the condition of the plasma cutting system itself or of training issues that should be addressed with machine operators. Sometimes as much as 40 percent of the parts in the scrap pail can go right back in the torch, where they can continue to produce parts with excellent cut quality.
Learn more...
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Thinking of building an enclosure for your latest project? Or maybe you’re working on a giant robot to terrorize the neighborhood? Chances are, sheet metal will play a part. Sheet metal comes in all manner of varieties and sizes. Here are some tips and tricks to help you get that shiny sheet into your desired shape.
Tips in this article include:
• Deciding on the thickness of your sheet metal
• Budget-friendly ways to bend sheet metal
• Tools for cutting sheet metal
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Graphic designers spend so much time in front of a screen. We use laptops, computers with two or more monitors, graphic tablets, iPhones and other devices for our work. We live in the digital world where everything is done on a computer and other tools become forgotten.
When was the last time you wrote or draw something on a piece of paper? Many people think that it is a pointless and ineffective thing to do. However, thousands of graphic designers all over the world always sketch the design of their projects before making it digital. Why would they do it if it was so pointless and ineffective? If you are a graphic designer and you have never tried a pen and paper for work, you may find the reasons for trying in this post. If you are a graphic designer and you do sketch before using a computer, this post can remind you of the reasons you do it.
Read on to see 10 advantages of creating web design on paper first.
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