A teenager from Bradford has used his engineering skills to create life-size robots out of scrap car parts from his dad’s garage.
Jake Norminton, 17, from Greengates, Bradford builds moving sculptures from waste parts from his dad’s car garage business, after he was inspired when he saw some similar versions at a car show when he was 13.
He has been told that his latest creation could be sold for £3000.
Jake, who is a mechanic and fabricator, said: “I’ve been doing it for a few years now. It all started when I went to Santa Pod when I was 13 and my dad spotted someone had made this weird thing, so we both started having a go at it and it went really well so I started doing my own thing.”
Jake said he learnt how to do it from ‘trial and error’ after his dad taught him how to weld.
Jake said: ”My dad taught me how to weld when we made the first dog sculpture together, and it all kicked off from that. I’ve made all sorts now, snails, dogs and little robots. They’re all nicknamed Boris.”
Jake uses anything he can get his hands on from his dad’s garage, Finishing Touch Autos, in Green Gates.
He added: “I use all the scrap parts that get thrown in the scrap pile like used old bits that are years old, and fancy bits out of gear boxes and engines, just anything I can find really.”
Jake aspires to take his passion further. He said: “I’d like to start doing bigger things, I’ve seen them in Las Vegas and I’d like to get to that standard, but I don’t know if it will ever happen.”
Jake said he sold his first sculpture “which wasn’t very detailed” for £100, but now people have told him that they could be sold for up to £3000, if he can find the right place to sell them. He said: “apparently they go really well when you get well known.”
Jake’s sculptures can move their heads and arms and spin around, but he hopes to get them to walk one day.
Jake has also set up his own small business, after his dad gave him a a CNC plasma cutter. He has been making sculptures of car models and fire pits.
For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/finishingtouchautos.
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