neilb, I understand your questioning the point of the flexible pattern if it fits the metal even when it doesn't even resemble the final piece. I'm sure there a many approaches to come up with the final piece. I'm a relative novice to metalshaping but i've drank the Koolaid. I've used Wray's method and it works.
I believe Wray's point is that there are two factors that drive a piece's final shape, area and arrangement. Area denotes stretching and shrinking of local areas relative to the overall piece. The flex pattern preserves that information. Arrangement denotes the primitive form underlying in the piece, e.g. cylindrical, flat, etc. and it's orientation. The templates preserve the arrangement information and he made those in a previous episode.
The beauty in decoupling the concepts is that you can use a temporary arrangement that facilitates the use of whatever tool is being used.Furthermore, you can work on the gross development via shrinks and stretches without having to constantly reset the arrangement to a buck AND without trying to develop the piece in its final shape. In this video the curled shape was much more efficient for the wheel than working with it in the final shape.
I've seen this approached used many times in making motorcycle fenders. They look nothing like a fender until the piece is uncurled (arrangement).
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