We’ve got the copper inserts for the spire about done at this point.  Some interior details still to do, but almost all there!

We’ve called the area between the arch bow and the leg columns a “window sill” and it is by far the most technically complex part of this entire steeple build.   Though it certainly finishes off the piece, details like this are the unheralded heroes of the project.  Fellow sheet metal workers will understand what we’re talking about.

We’ve got plenty more work to still do on this part of the project as we need to spin several more copper discs and have plenty more behind-the-scenes work before we’ll be able to advance this to completion, so we’d better hurry because the truck is coming soon to transport this structure to the cathedral site.  It will be sent on a flat bed.  Should be a head turner going down the freeway, that’s for sure!

No detail on any of our work on this structure has been missed.  Few people will have the opportunity to see inside this copper spire as it will eventually live hundreds of feet in the air, so here’s your exclusive chance to peek inside the structure.  What we’ve done here is install the four copper insets at the top of the arch bow.  If you were to look up through these when the spire is completed, you’d see up inside the steeple extension (which we didn’t make) all the way up to our lovely gilded cross (which you’ve seen in previous posts).

We’ve compiled a few photographs detailing the progress of the build:

We just made the copper collar that connects the cross to the tower.  We still have quite a bit of work to do on the cross and it will be about two weeks before it is gilded, but when all is attached, the completed copper spire will be very dramatic and beautiful.  The collar will also be gilded.

Here’s a step by step of how the collar was made: