Dixie Wood & Metal

Gary Blaylock

Dallas County

Metal Artist

Gary built his own CNC Plasma Machine in 2014. When working on a metal piece, he begins his creative process with a conceived idea or picture, and then a CAD drawing (computer aided drawing) is converted to a g-code. This process takes from two to ten hours on the CAD drawings before spending three days cutting and finishing a piece of art.

His step by step process for black iron pieces is best described as:

• Drawing in Cad program
• Determine the size and convert to g-code for the machine to read
• Center up in the machine
• After the iron is cut, put it into muriatic acid for 24 hours to clean the iron up
• Grind down to bright metal
• Treat with acid chemical that turns into instant copper
• Spray more solution to give colors
• Neutralize with water
• Air dry
• Spray with automotive two-part clear coat
• Dry with air

Upon request, Gary will make custom orders (can cut up to 4’X8’ pieces)