How I built a thing.

Apparently my prior post was too vague: http://imgur.com/gallery/Kt8rsx8

First, get a high poly model. This is the only part I downloaded and did not do myself.

Shove it in Make 123D, and you get low poly bear. Export DXF files from here.

The DXF files the previous step gives you suck, so spend some time properly nesting parts. 123D said it would take seven 4' x 4' sheets of metal. I got it down to five.

Now to cut out the parts. I made the whole bear out of 24 gauge mild steel. Since I intend to sell this at an auction at a county fair, rust is considered a feature not a problem.

I cut all of the parts on a PlasmaCAM.

Since the school year had ended at this point, and I began working full time, I could no longer go to the school shop. But no matter, I had already made this brake to bend metal, (details: http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/little-swing-brake-47631) so everything should be good, right?

Wrong. The above brake can only handle about 40% of the bends on this project, because the parts themselves can interfere with the shape of the brake. So I had to make a press brake, which can bend up to 12" of 24 gauges, which requires 1.8 tons of force. Also, since I had no school shop access, I had to do it at home, with my old MIG welder and a saws all. (Yes, I cut 2" x 1/2" thick plate with a blade rated for up to 1/8" several times. It took a while). It takes moderate force on the screws, but not as bad as one might think.

As of now I only had flat parts. Make 123D, to my knowledge, does not allow you to export angles. To do this, I imported the STL to Sketchup, and manually rotated each bend and recorded the angle. This took a long time; there are 500 triangles.

Starting bending, the fitup came out pretty good. I drilled holes for rivets after the parts were bent, and used a harbor freight rivet gun to put in 380ish rivets.

This is an average piece. It took 30 pieces like this.

After this point I stopped taking pictures.

Potential answers to potential (and prior) questions:

I would sell another for $800
Yes it will rust
The bear has no welding on it.
500 polygons, 380 rivets, around 400 bends (bends are currently estimated)
Weighs 60 ish pounds.
Is probably strong enough to ride, but am not risking it.
No
Yes
Maybe
...What?