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Old 02-19-2011, 05:49 PM
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Joe Hartson Joe Hartson is offline
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Pass Christian, MS
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Default What you need to get started in metal shaping

One of the questions asked by new members wanting to learn metal shaping is what tools do I need to get started. To me there is no real single answer to this question. It all depends on what you want to do. There are many different ways to make the same shape depending on what you have to work with and what you are going to do with the completed panel.

It is important to understand that there are only four things you can do to sheet metal. You can cut it, bend it, shrink it and stretch it. If you cut it in small pieces and weld it together to get the shape you want you are really fabricating and not shaping.

If you are going to learn metal shaping you have to know what the metal is going to do when you apply force, psi, to the sheet metal. The best way to learn this is by using simple hand tools and trying to make something. Most people start by making a bowl shape. Making a shape that doesn’t fit anything is fairly easy while making it fit something is a lot harder.

Welding sheet metal is an important part of metal shaping because it allows you to create large complex panel out of smaller shaped panel. You do not need welding equipment to start learning metal shaping. You will need to be able to weld when you try to create a larger more complex panel or attach a panel you made to something you are working on.

You also need to understand shape and arrangement before you can create a panel, large of small. That is the subject for another time and would include pattern making.

So what tools do you need to get started learning metal shaping? You have to be able to shrink, stretch, bend and cut the metal.

Cutting sheet metal can be done with hand shears. You need a left cut and a right cut set of hand shears. There are many different brands available. These will let you cut the sheet metal to match a pattern so you can begin changing its shape.



There has been a lot of discussion about who make the best shears, mine are an old set of Wiss shears. They have served me very well, I don't think the quality of the ones made today are as good. Midwest shears sold by Sears and other seems to be very good and reasonable priced.

Shrinking sheet metal is probably the first thing you should master. It can be done using a stump with a depression cut into the top, Tuck Pucks and a hammer, with tucking forks and a hammer, or one of the machines designed for shrinking, like the Lancaster style shrinker/stretcher. To begin with forget about any of the machines.



Here is a link to a thread on Working With A Stump by TheRodDoc.
http://www.allmetalshaping.com/showt...ighlight=stump

Picture of high crown and low crown Tuck Pucks


Here is a link to Tuck Pucks made by Mr. C
http://tuckpuck.com/

Pictures of my tucking forks.


Here are some pictures on my Lancaster shrinker and stretchers. Both sets have GitZit stippled dies in them made by Neil Dunder. They work much better than the standard die and don't mark the metal as much.

Lancaster


Harbor Freight



Stretching sheet metal can be accomplished by using a beater bag and a hammer. The hammer can be made out of an old baseball bat. Beater bags can be purchased or you can make one yourself. You can even use and old leather purse filled with sand. The purchased beater bags come in several different shapes and sizes. The bags can be filled with dry sand, lead shot or steel shot. Most people use sand because it is cheap and works well.



Here is a link to some home made tools.
http://www.allmetalshaping.com/showt...=tucking+forks

Hammers and dollies are also needed to help with bending sheet metal and stretching. Good quality hammers and dollies are a good investment. Cheap hammers and dollies are soft and will become marked up quickly. These marks will transfer into the sheet metal as you work it.

There are hundreds of different styles of hammers. These are the three that I use most.


Likewise there are many different sizes and shapes of dollies. There are the ones I use most.



You will also need to learn how to smooth out the metal to make it smooth once you have put the shape in the panel. This is called planishing. It can be done in many different ways depending on the metal you are working with and the shape of the panel. A slapper and dolly or hammer and dolly can be used to planish the metal. Steel slappers are normally used for steel, wooden slappers with a leather facing are used on aluminum.

Here are some pictures of a couple of slappers. The red one is the one I use most and is made by Dutch and Marty Comstock. The other two are Harbor Freight.



Here is a wooden slapper made by Rick Tucker and it gets used a lot.



Here is a picture of one that is a work of art and too pretty to use make by Dan Shady.



If you have no experience or very little I would recommend you first buy a couple of DVDs that help explain metal shaping. Take a look at this thread http://www.allmetalshaping.com/showthread.php?t=2269
This is some of the best money you can spend to get started. These DVDs will teach you more about the basics of metal shaping in a short period of time than anything else.

There is also a book available called Key to Metal Bumping that can also be very useful. Here is a link for Eastwood that has reprints for sale.
http://www.eastwood.com/key-to-metal-bumping-book.html

You are going to make scrap as you learn, no way around that. Until you learn what the metal is going to do when you hit it with a hammer or other object you are just beating on metal and making scrap. If you try to learn metal shaping using machines you will make more scrap faster and won’t learn as much as if you do it by hand first.

You can find a lot of useful information of the site that will help you get started. Go to the section called General Metal Shaping Discussion scroll down to Resources and have a look at the information there. For the basic tools discussed above visit the vendors site to see what they offer. The ones in Red have been long time supporter of the metal shaping community and offer excellent products.

Hope this has been useful for the new members and helps answer some of the initial questions that you have.
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