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Old 02-12-2010, 12:37 AM
cheemo cheemo is offline
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Default how is a flexible shape pattern used?

I live next door to Santa Clause so there are not a lot of people up here. Especially not a lot of people who work with metal (though there are suprisingly a lot of old cars in the bush) so I don't have anyone helping me in person to teach me things.

So i saw the post by jhnarial and thought I could do that but then i thought what do I do with it? I really don't understand what you do with a flexible shape pattern. I am still quite new to the metal shaping.
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Old 02-12-2010, 12:49 AM
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doug_walter2002 doug_walter2002 is offline
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Where in Alberta are you? There are metalshapers in Alberta and there is a Meet in Lethbridge the last weekend in April.
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Old 02-12-2010, 12:52 AM
cheemo cheemo is offline
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I live a 12 hour drive north of there in a small town called Sexsmith. I am there occasionally though.
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Old 02-12-2010, 01:53 AM
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I think there are some guys from Grande Prairie that come to the Lethbridge meet.
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Old 02-12-2010, 02:29 AM
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Think of a flexible shape pattern (fsp) as peeling the paint off of a panel. You then use it to shape a panel to precisely fit inside that layer of paint. As a general rule, wherever the pattern is tight on the metal it needs to shrink and wherever it is loose you need to stretch. That is a bit of an over-simplification when you are first starting the shaping though. You can often tell where you need to start by just laying the pattern on the sheet in a relaxed state - the lumps in the panel indicate where the first round of stretching should likely go.

Apparently, if you are vary careful when making the pattern you can use the tape to tell where to shrink and how much (like on a paper pattern), but I'm apparently not that good at making flexible shape patterns yet

Flexible shape patterns are very easy to use and will give you all the information that you need to shape a panel - once you learn to "read" them.

HTH,

Tim D.
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Old 02-12-2010, 08:16 AM
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I have found that expierence is a good factor in knowing how much or how little to shrink a panel. No matter how the tape overlaps, you still cant give it a quantitive value like 2 shrinks or really how far. You CAN however after years of doing it, say that on the machine and dies I use it will take X amount of shrinks, but this still isnt much help because oftentimes you stretch an area opposing, and if you are using tucking forks then you lose consistancy, that being the key.

The biggest key in a FSP is reading it, and thats like trying to teach someone to paint a Picasso by reading about it, difficult at best. It takes time and practice, and most of all understanding in your minds eye where you want to go and what you want to acconplish. Dad and I both may not read the same pattern in the same way each and every time, but we understand what it takes to get there, oftentimes one being a smidge more efficent than the other.

Reguardless of how you get there, if the FSP fits your new panel with no wrinkles or floppy spots, it will go ito arrangment.

Arrangment, now there is yet another discussion!

Marty
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Old 02-12-2010, 08:47 AM
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Me personaly...I think flex patterns are a very valuable tool for getting the information you need to shape a panel.

The overlapping of the tape does not tell me exactly how much to shrink the panel, the pattern will tell you that. It will tell me how far in you need to shrink the panel. That being said you can tell where you will need a lot of shrinking.If the tape is overlapping a lot it will need more shrinking then where it is overlapping a little.

As soon as the tape starts to overlap, that is going to be the start of the radius. So what I do is I put in my sight, holes, at the start of the radius, maybe four or five of them. Then when marking out the blank, I turn it upside down, mark the panel a little larger than the pattern (1 1/2'') and then mark through the site holes where I know the radius begins. Then I connect the dots and it gives me a rough idea of how deep into the panel I need to shrink.

So I try to run my tape to where it will overlap the best at the start of the radius. If I run it across the radius it will be easier to lay my tape down flat but I will lose my reference points.


That is just what I do, but it does not matter how you do it as long as you can figure out a way to make it fit the pattern.
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Last edited by jhnarial; 02-12-2010 at 08:56 AM.
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Old 02-12-2010, 09:07 AM
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Johnny, I am going to go on a limb and disagree with you. If you read the tape pattern in such a fashion you are locking yourself into one way of looking at the panel. This doesnt matter much on a compound curve such as a wing, but a reverse curve can be tackled any number of different ways, depending on how you hold the pattern down the first time, meaning which neutral line (approximate line where neither stretching or shrinking is needed) you chose to try to follow. This can hold true on seemingly simple compound curves as well Also, some folk dont shrink at all, they use pure stretch.

If it works for you, great. You are able to get there easily and efficently, as you understand the thought processes that get you there. I guess what I am saying is that reading a tape pattern like that doesnt always apply, and some folk can get lost in the simple things and over analyze.

Marty
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Old 02-12-2010, 09:18 AM
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Each panel is different. I use Kerry's method for reverse curves.

You just have get it talking to you. Sometimes mine are mumbling and sometimes they are singing. It usually doesn't matter because I'm going to make it fit one way or another.
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Old 02-14-2010, 07:19 PM
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Its much simpler to use a FSP than you may think.
After you have your panel well under way, drop the pattern on the piece and push down on it to find "soft" spots.
These places are where your panel is not finished.
Anywhere the pattern is tight on your panel, these places are finished.
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