Recently I was taking apart an old Royal vacuum cleaner that I’d scrounged from the trash and was amused by the face that I saw in one of its castings. As often happens, an interesting shape gets me thinking; in this case the image that came to mind was of a serpent akin to those found on the prow of Viking ships. With a bit of experimentation I came up with some pleasing curves to use for the neck & then bent them from 1/2″ steel rod. Arranging and holding the rods prior to welding was a bit of a challenge, but once welded and cut to fit flush to the head, the real challenge was how to clamp the rods for drilling and tapping. Maybe overkill, but I like the neat appearance of machine screws so I attached the head to the neck with #10-24 SHCS. Once complete, the next step was to mount it to the drill press…a bit of a whimsical mascot! May need to raise it a bit though as it wound up being just about head-banging height. Working on a dorsal fin for him now though…
