Mitchell County Press-News

Tuesday

Oct 10, 2000

Metal silhouettes produced
by Dan Freeman
By B.J. Nelson

Dan Freeman of Osage is turning out beautiful silhouette, metal designs in his welding shop. Their new computerized PlasmaCam cutter has been a family project. Any pattern that can be scanned into the computer program can be cut from metal. The heavy, yet functional mailbox stand has been a popular item.

“I use imagination, family suggestions, and customer requests to create silhouette designs of steel cut with my computerized plasma cutter called a PlasmaCam.” Dan Freeman began.

“I have wanted one of these for a long time, but it took a little coordination to get the entire system put together. Plus, thanks to my family, they’ve all done their part in getting this system up and running. I bought the PlasmaCam, the plasma table, then added our own computer to the system. This is the brain of the whole operation, and we built a special dust and humidity proof, air-conditioned room within the shop to protect and house the computer system. Our son and son-in-law, Joe Freeman and John Heimer and my wife, Deb, were the instigators in getting the whole thing up and running. My good friend, Marty Chisholm, also helped alot in building and setting up the computer lab. I’m just the old welder, the kids and wife have the brains!”

“Next came the development of the patterns and what to make. The PlasmaCam will cut sheets of steel up to 4 x 4 ft. at a time. You just have to scan the pattern into the computer and tell it what to cut. The first cuts are all the inside cutting and next, it goes all around the outside of the pattern in a continuous cut. When it is cut, I clean and finish all the edges, and then apply several coats of black paint. Lately, we have been experimenting with a brown, rustic paint, that look is popular now, but ours won’t really rust. When this is finished, you have a beautiful silhouette design, which is steel, thus will last a lifetime.

“At first, we did a lot of asking around to see just what people would like to see made. Mostly, the designs asked for were patterns of their favorite hobbies, hunting, fishing, reflections of their living styles, such as farming or their general business. We also can do customized silhouettes such as the outline of a real person, dog or pet or even your house. If you bring us a picture of your favorite hunting dog, for instance, we can re-create it within the rest of the pattern. If grandpa loves to fish, bring in his picture, and we’ll cut his silhouette and have him looking very natural in his fishing boat. One of the favorites we do is a combine with tiny, detailed rows of corn in the background. This seems to be popular favorite in this area. Another is our metal mailbox holder, which I will customize to your lifestyle with anything that I can cut out. The one I have in the shop now is the state of Iowa, rows of corn and a pig. There are a lot of pork producers out there. This stand is very sturdy and heavy, plus functional and attractive. I can even cut your name, farm name or favorite sport’s team into the metal for a more personalized one-of-a kind mailbox stand.

“Lately, I have been adding a sturdy hook to a design to make it functional as well as beautiful. You can use the hook to hang a name plate, a hanging plant, a bell, or anything else you think up to put on it. I just did a fireman, an elk and the combine in the cornfield on this hook style. I can do smaller hooks on the longer silhouettes to use as a coat rack. The ideas are endless. You can create really striking design and attach to your house or building or I can cut out your own personal business sign within the metal. If it is a picture or pattern we can scan into the computer, we can cut it out of metal.

“You never run out of ideas. Right now, we are working on golf and recreation designs. We have new patterns for seasonal things such as santas, snowmen, pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, and angels. Garden sculptures are really popular now too and we’re working on metal sunflowers, daisies, gazing ball holders, weather vanes, and lawn furniture. Creating household furniture, especially headboards for beds is a future possibility too. I have also been experimenting with copper designs and did some fall leaves in copper. They turned out beautiful. However, copper is rather expensive, so we’ll probably do special requests only in copper.

“I work in maintenance at Fox River Mills in Osage, which I might add, is a great place to work. I also run the blacksmith and welding shop at Little Cedar evenings and weekends. But, the PlasmaCam has been a great thing, all of my family enjoy using it. Since I always seem to be working here at night and weekends, it got the wife and kids involved too, so it’s something we can do together here at the welding shop in Little Cedar. I have a collection of my work at Cathy’s Cyberspace and Mini-Mall in Osage or you can call me at the welding shop evenings or leave a message, 641-983-4404.” Dan concluded.