Branching out

Building a tree is a little daunting at times and certainly a lot of work. The big structural steel goes together very quickly. Then we do the lower pencil rod armature to guide our efforts on the upper portion. Then we begin cutting the smaller structural steel. 3” x 3” square tubing gives way to 2” x 2” which gives way to 1.5” x 1.5” and then branches out using 1” x 1” square tubing. The final branches are made from 5/8” steel rod and the tips split again using 1/4” ID pipe. Artificial branches and leaves will be inserted into these tubes to complete the tree after we sculpt the wood and bark and paint it to look like the real deal.