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Old 11-14-2013, 10:33 AM
Overkill Overkill is offline
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Default Air Power Hammer Class - tinmantech.com

A few months ago I took Kent Whites Air Power Hammer Class, and I've been meaning to post some information/comments about it ever since. But life has gotten in the way. He recently sent me a photo - below - which I had to post, and I plan on adding to this thread as time allows.

The class was in South San Francisco, at Grace Auto Body. It's limited to 6 people, and Kent brings three hammers. A number of us had the hammers, and a few were taking the class to try the hammer out before buying.

Kent goes over the basics, and you do some basic work with the hammer, learning how to control it, what dies to use for each process, etc. Then, you are turned loose on a project.

In watching Kent with the hammer at events over the last few years, what I notice is that he doesn't stick to hard and fast rules about this top die has to be used with that bottom die. From his experiences, he's able to select a combination that will work on a given project. For instance, when taking out a pretty bad wrinkle from a 33 Ford PU rear fender, he selected the shrinking top die, and a low crown steel lower (think CP dies). He turned the air pressure way down, and was able to have the wadded up area flat in a matter of seconds. He did this several times at the Santa Cruz meet.

One of the participants brought a fiberglass Messerschmidt Tiger fender, and we all decided to make patterns from it, to make parts. One of the interesting things that Kent did with the hammer is to use it as a third hand when welding the parts together. The parts were tacked and stuck between the dies to hold. He'd then weld a bit and immediately use the hammer to planish, then weld a bit, planish. He did this across the entire panel. Because he was planishing as he went, the joint came out perfect. I have some photo's of this I'll dig up and post. I'll also try to get into a discussion of how he uses the hammer to shrink.

People will call the Tinmantech hammer a planishing hammer, simply because it's air powered. I think this simply dismisses the hammers potential. Can you planish - yes, see the photo. But you can also stretch - as he demonstrates with .125 aluminum. The beauty of Kent's hammer is the ability to control the force of the hit, and the number of hits. With the air motors that he sells (my rivet gun based motors won't do this), you can turn it down to a single hit, or turn it up to many hits per second, just by varying the air pressure and flow. You can change the motor to a larger size and greatly increase the force of the hit. So, yes, it's a planishing hammer, but it's also a power hammer.

Kent does contract work, making airplane parts. The spec's required are something I can't hope to meet. But in these pictures you'll see a low crown panel and the finish he develops with the hammer. In the background, I believe that's one of the bucks they send him. Hope he doesn't mind that I'm sharing a personal picture that he sent to me to say "Hi".

Kent with camera.jpg

Kent with low crown panel.jpg


Life calls....
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Ron Covell, Autofuturist books (Tim Barton/Bill Longyard) and Kent White metalshaping DVD's available, shipped from the US. Contact lane@mountainhouseestate.com for price and availability.

Last edited by Overkill; 11-14-2013 at 11:39 PM.
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Old 11-14-2013, 06:21 PM
longyard longyard is offline
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Thanks for posting that John. I also think Kent's videos are particularly good and worth watching. I wish he'd produce a few more!!
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Old 11-14-2013, 06:54 PM
Tom Walter Tom Walter is offline
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Kent_Emerson.jpgI have quite a few of Kent's video.. been watching the "Shaping Aluminum Wheel Pants" for the third time. I keep thinking I paid attention, but seem to learn something new every time.

Took my son to the workshop in Northern California last year. Had a blast, took a ton of notes. My son took a bunch of notes, so fun to compare them later and realize "how the heck did we do that?". Prior to the class we had spent a few weeks chasing an oil can dent.... came home, and in 15 minutes it was gone. I highly recommend his class.

Photo of Kent and Emerson (my son). You wouldn't realize my son is 6'5" from that photo! Guess what he wants for Christmas.
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Last edited by route56wingnut; 11-14-2013 at 08:20 PM.
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Old 11-14-2013, 08:22 PM
Irrational Metalworks Irrational Metalworks is offline
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I have owned one of his hammers since 2002, and couldn't live without it! It's a great machine with many capabilities. I do low crown door skins to deep shrinking on it. His die set is great, I bought every one he sold at the time. This machine has paid for itself many a time, and after 11 years my upper shrinking die broke into pieces and Kent took great care of me! It took me a little bit to learn how to shrink with it, but once you get that ah ha moment, you can gather some 16 ga steel real fast! Glad I own one, thanks Kent!
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Old 11-14-2013, 11:38 PM
Overkill Overkill is offline
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Default New dies

Kent's always inventing and he's working on some new dies. They are still in the Beta stage, not ready for prime time.

This is a picture of Kent using the hammer as a third hand. He'd weld a little, planish a little, then back to weld. This is the Messerschmidt Tiger Fender that I mentioned earlier.

DSC00137.JPG

Just to show it could be done, he used the shrinking dies on some .125" aluminum. The edges were also rolled with the hammer.

DSC00139.JPG

The host owns this little Pullmax. Painted, pinstriped and chromed. It's set up just to shear, and does it well. Cute as heck, and there's been one on ebay for a while - but the price the guy wants is above my pay grade.

DSC00123.JPG
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Ron Covell, Autofuturist books (Tim Barton/Bill Longyard) and Kent White metalshaping DVD's available, shipped from the US. Contact lane@mountainhouseestate.com for price and availability.

Last edited by Overkill; 11-15-2013 at 09:32 AM.
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Old 11-15-2013, 02:29 AM
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ekdave1962 ekdave1962 is offline
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i purchased a kent no 3 , mounting system and shrinking dies several months ago and whilst i was waiting it to arrive 8 weeks due to back order and usps delays, i wonder if id spent to much on a power hammer, as i already had a cheap unit..
well once i set it up i was amazed at the performance the metal shaping that i was able to achieve in a very short period and such a fabulous finish i hardly use my ewheel now as i can achieve brilliant results from the unit

Thanks David
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Old 11-15-2013, 09:51 AM
Overkill Overkill is offline
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Default Beats per minute

I've had a couple people familiar with the Chicago Pnuematic plannishing hammer come and use my Tinmantech unit. The first thing they comment on is the beats per minute. It's my understanding that the CP is based on an air motor developed for rock carving - lots of beats, but little power. Whereas Kent started with various sized rivet guns, and then has modified the motors. As it's a rivet gun style, the BPM is less, but you get the same results.

Exactly what Kent does to the valving and the piston - I don't know. Proprietary. My hammer is based off of one of his old kits, and I have three rivet guns 3x, 5x, and 7x. The first time I was able to really use Kent's air motors was at the class, and I can tell you, there is a significant difference between the rivet guns, and Kent's modified motors. First off, his motor, originally rated at 3x, is much, much more powerful than my 3x. The controlability is much bretter - turning the air pressure down, the BPM is about the same as your heartbeat. Therefore, you can do a single soft hit.

Another difference is the texture of the outside of the barrel. There are very small grooves on the outside of the barrel, and on the inside of the gun mounting block. The two interlock so that the gun can't slide up when really doing some work. Whereas, when I use my 7x, with slick, painted barrel, it can slide up after some use. The clamping pressure is great, but those grooves make the difference. Yes, I plan on buying some of his motors in the future.

Kent has some extra, extra heavy units - 14X and higher I believe. They require a lot of CFM to run - the pistons and cylinders are huge. I know he's formed some really tough materials with them, and if you wanted to make bumpers, they'd be the ones to buy. However, you need a specially fabricated frame, as a tube frame like mine can't handle the power.
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Old 11-16-2013, 12:15 AM
fred26t fred26t is offline
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Default Kents kits

I have many of Kent's dyes and built my frame about 7-8 years ago. I have been very satisfied. I would like to move up to one of his hammers instead of a 5X gun. I have also broke one (very early style) rubber die and he replaced it. Fred26T
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Old 11-16-2013, 11:51 PM
crystallographic crystallographic is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fred26t View Post
I have many of Kent's dyes and built my frame about 7-8 years ago. I have been very satisfied. I would like to move up to one of his hammers instead of a 5X gun. I have also broke one (very early style) rubber die and he replaced it. Fred26T

Thank you all, very much, Gentlemen.
Much joy and success to all of you.
I leave for some troubleshooting for a few days, aeroplane reverse shapes... similar to these below, done at Columbia Heli earlier this year.
It's so nice to make a hollow shape fit tightly, even when it has a fat reverse coming out of half of it, and being heat-treated there is no welding permitted. These guys have real talent, having been doing aviation metal for 15-20-30 years. Sure lit up their smiles when they were making fit panels in hours rather than in days.
yeehaw,

026_P1100113.jpg

046_P1100196.jpg
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  #10  
Old 11-20-2013, 11:51 AM
Overkill Overkill is offline
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Default Shrinking

One of most misunderstood, and sometimes, controversial die sets that Kent makes, is the Shrinking Dies. I’ve tried to wrap my head around how and why they work and have had a couple conversations with Kent along that line. The understanding I’m giving you here is from a lay person, my use of the dies, and conversations with Kent. I’m neither a metallurgist, nor one of the professional metal shapers on the site. I’m a hobbyest that simply tries to understand.
There are several methods to shrink metal – tuck shrinking, thumbnail shrinking, grab and shove together (Lancaster, Marchant, Eckold). Each has their use, pro’s and con’s. Kent’s dies can be used for tuck shrinking, but they also have the ability to shrink without the tuck/pucker, in an omni directional manner.


The Shrinking Dies for steel have a material on the face that provides traction – in other words, it’s sticky (as compared to steel). What I’m trying to say, if you used two hardened CP dies against one another, they are so hard, that they will slip on the metal. Kent’s dies will tend to grab the metal. The face material also has a shock absorbing feature. To work, they require the PSI and velocity the air motor provides, along with the die geometry.

With the dies you can form a tuck, and then crush it. Kent shows this on this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuLMI...0001E&index=21

But they also will shrink omni directional out in the middle of a panel. There is an example of Kent doing this on .050” 1100 aluminum at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuLMI...0001E&index=21

I couldn’t find a video of him doing this, but something else you can do with the hammer is to chase a shrink back into a panel. With thumbnail dies you can make multiple passes, going deeper and deeper into a panel. With the Air Power Hammer, you can chase a shrink further and further back into a panel. Both will tend to heat up the metal as you chase the shrink back, however, there is a difference between the thumbnail die shrink and the Air Power Hammer shrink. The thumbnail dies (as well as the grab and shove techniques) will tend to work harden the metal, whereas with the Air Power Hammer and Shrinking Dies, the metal will not work harden to nearly the same degree.

The difference in the techniques, and why it doesn’t work harden as much as other techniques, is due to the high velocity, force the air motor supplies, and the natural traction the die face material employs. These are the same reasons that you don’t need to have a tuck on the edge of the panel to shrink.


In some cases you can hot shrink - heating the metal with a torch, then using the hammer to shrink the area. When you do this, you'll have to cool the dies occasionally.


While thinking about how I was going to explain my observations, I searched Youtube for videos. I didn’t realize that Kent had 27 of them:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6B554968EFA0001E
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Ron Covell, Autofuturist books (Tim Barton/Bill Longyard) and Kent White metalshaping DVD's available, shipped from the US. Contact lane@mountainhouseestate.com for price and availability.
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