Bucket Art!

How many people can say they have created art at work?  Some people do it for a living and might create art using cutting and welding, but 'can art'? I have no idea who would want can art of any kind, let alone create it to begin with.  I'm sure if they did it would probably be with small food or beverage cans.

At LaCroy, we use 5-gallon steel buckets!

One of my favorite things at work was crushing empty 5-gallon MEK cans.  I perfected it to the point that I would rarely get anything other than a perfectly flat smash.  Using three 4x4's across the top of the can, all it takes is the right amount of weight at the right speed to do the perfect crumple.  We used the multiple-thousand-pound stacks of stainless steel coils to provide the pancake weight.  Something about that *crunch* sound they make when I drop the weight--I love it.

As you can see, the can on the left has been reduced significantly over its original size.  One might say that it's a "special travel size" container of MEK.  The reason we do it in the first place?  The story I got was simply this:  An empty MEK can is treated as a potential hazardous waste item and Tacoma Metals doesn't want it.  Smashed, it's simply sheet metal scrap and goes in the bin with the rest of the scrap steel.

Then there's the sculpted 5-gallon buckets.

When I was in the back of the shop a few years ago running the Bruderer press all day long, we were running the arms and channels for Sonicare.  The channels were a product that contained a few sharp edges, and they came down a long chute at 325 per minute.  There was a 5-gallon bucket there waiting to receive them, and as they came down the chute they were hitting the far side of the bucket a few inches down from the top of the rim.  We were constantly rotating the bucket all day so they hit pretty much all the way around the can at one time or another.  The result?  The slow, steady forming of metal that resulted in the "melted" metal can you see here.  Doesn't it look like a soft-serve ice cream?  (you can click any of the pictures to see them full size.)  These are cool and unique:

Obviously, the difference between the two styles of can art is the passage of time.  The one at the top is instant.  5 minutes to set everything up, and WHAM--Instant can art.  The style in the bottom pictures show slowly-evolving art over a long period of time--I'd say a good 6 months or so for each can.

While both styles are different, the finished result is the same: Bucket art!