SKILL LEVEL: Beginner
TIME COMMITMENT: 2–3 hours
Here's what you'll need to get started.
WARNING: READ AND FOLLOW ALL LABELS AND THE OWNER'S MANUAL.
Lay out your horseshoes. Use a wire brush to remove any rust and dirt. Put them in a bucket with white vinegar and soak overnight to clean them. After soaking the horseshoes overnight, rinse them with water.
Take four or five horseshoes and cut them in half with a plasma cutter, bandsaw, reciprocating saw or air cut-off wheel. This provides the shapes for your pattern. You may need to make additional trim cuts to smooth them out.
Make sure to grind and debur the sharp edges on the horseshoe pieces you’ve cut.
Lay out your cut pieces in the shape of a tree. Make your marks for any necessary trim cuts and then make those cuts.
Before you weld the pieces together, drill a small hole on the end of each piece, which will allow you to hang ornaments on them. Be sure to debur the back of each drilled hole.
Lay out your pieces in a tree shape and tack weld them together. I used Auto-Set for the 1/8-inch setting on my machine. To produce the best welds on horseshoes, be sure to grind the mill scale off the metal.
Decide what you want to use for the tree base. I used two of the half horseshoes and welded them together as legs to the bottom of the tree. Then I welded that to the larger horseshoe as the base.
As a last step, spray paint the tree green (or any festive color of your choosing), add some textured white spray paint to simulate snow and hang the ornaments!
Feeling inspired? Check out our project page for DIY welding projects, including step-by-step guidance, videos and downloadable plans.
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