DIY Wednesday: Tire Iron Flower

Hi There!

This project is different, but not hard at all. In fact it seems a little silly to even post a tutorial on how to do it!

I found this tire iron in our yard when we moved in. I knew I wanted to do something in the garden the minute my husband was joking around and stuck it in the ground. It's the perfect shape for the stem of a flower. I have been playing around with what I was going to do to make the petal shape. Then I found these tins at a garage sale. (I think it cost it 10 cents or so for it)



Ta Da, a flower garden ornament. My mother-in-law gave me the idea to put a jewel or something in the center. My husband said leave it the way it is so it's more rusty looking. What do you think?

Tire Iron Flower

Supplies

Tire Iron (Free..found junkin')
Old Tin (10 cents)
Epoxy (5.00...used only a small amount of the bottle)
Drill (Already on hand)

Instructions
Step One: Drill a Hole

Measure how big the tire iron base is. Using an appropriate drill bit (or in my case, which ever one looks like it's supposed to do the job) drill a hole in the tin going from front to back. This keeps the parts of the tin your drilling from sticking out the front.

Slide the tire iron through the hole; once again going from front to back.
Step Two: Glue Everything

Since you want a good firm glue job, clean the surface first. I use rubbing alcohol and then make sure the surface is completely dry before gluing.

Using a strong epoxy, glue where the tin and tire iron meet. You may need to do a bit of a balancing act to make sure the head of the tire iron remains center.


The tire iron with wet glue. I propped it up with some bags in an old box and held it to make sure the head of the tire iron was center.

Note about epoxy. You can pick it up at any hardware store. Read the labels carefully to make sure the epoxy is made to bond your material and will stand up to the elements. (It seems so simple, but you have no idea how many returns came in when I was working retail because people didn't read the label)

Epoxy is supposed to be super strong, so you will want to take care when you are using it. Use gloves and make sure your work space is completely covered. You may also want to keep something for clean up on hand (mineral spirits, rubbing alcohol etc)

And you're done! Let the tire iron dry completely before placing outdoors.


Jewel or no jewel? Or something else completely?


It works well with my cattail bird feeders.