2012 - Volume #36, Issue #1, Page #23
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"Dragon Gate" Built From Scrap Iron Parts
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“I wanted to have a gate that nobody had ever seen before. The wings bifold – like a marker arm on a large planter – and you can open the gate with a keypad,” Cassidy says. It took some planning. He made a 1/40th-scale model and used counterbalance and springs from an old combine to make it work since the actuator can only handle 50 lbs.
The dragon is a creative blend of scrap from tiling machines, heavy equipment and farm equipment parts that the Eyota, Minn., excavator has accumulated.
“The legs are tracks off a tile machine that are upside down. That took some doing because they are not meant to bend that way,” Cassidy says. “The head and snout is a traffic light; the crosswalk button is on the left side. Eyebrows are rotary hoe wheels from a farm implement. The teeth are excavator teeth. The claws are subsoiler teeth. Wings are made out of hose reels for manure hose. The web of the wings is an old hay rake. The tail is part of a tiling machine with added pieces of chain.”
Cassidy got into metal sculpture when he decided to teach his son, Anthony, to weld. One project led to another and soon Cassidy was creating metal and granite furniture for his home and the dragon, his first sculpture, about 4 years ago. The dragon sat in a field for a while, until Cassidy decided to update it for a driveway gate.
His second sculpture was a bee with 20-lb. propane tank eyes and a head and tail made out of pressure tanks. The body came from overflow tanks used for underground fuel storage and the wings are expanded steel.
“Besides excavating, I scrap things out and clean up farms. That’s where I get scrap iron. I scrapped a farm where the guy had five styles of tiling machines we scrapped out. I kept the iron because it was so odd.”
As his excavating work has slowed down, Cassidy has been doing more sculpting. A lady expressed interest in a fish, so he’s currently working on a 16-ft. jumping fish. It has a hook in its mouth with a lure that can be used as a swing.
“I’m using old gold-colored, galvanized sheet steel that has an iridescent look from old computer cabinets to form the body. All the material I use is destined for the melting pot. I don’t use anything new. Even the bolts are salvage,” Cassidy says.
He has plenty of project ideas and is open to other people’s ideas for commissioned work.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Paul Cassidy, 7384 Collegeview Rd., Eyota, Minn. 55934 (ph 507 254-0815; paulcassidy68@gmail.com).
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