[crystallographic]

Originally Posted by Thebryce

Hey guys,
I've been interested in metal shaping for years but have only just started putting together the tools to really try it. I've been a car and motorcycle guy my whole life and I've always been more interested in making the parts that I need rather than buying them..maybe I'm cheap but I get a lot more enjoyment out of making what I need rather than just going out and buying it.

I'm 35 and have a young family, a wife and a 22 month old son. Free time is obviously hard to come by but I'm working on putting together enough tools to start making the parts that I want as my son gets older. Right now, most of my free time comes from his weekend naps so beating on panels is usually out of the question. As he gets older I should be able to get a little bit of free time when he's awake and hopefully he'll be joining me in the garage soon.

So far I've picked up a HF planishing hammer, a bead roller, a leather beater bag and a handful of mallets. The HF planishing hammer needed some love so I made new mechanism for raising and lowering the work surface height and made some new anvils ( mine was a demo unit and didn't come with any anvils ). I made the anvils out of grade 8 3/4" bolts and I'm playing with some making some more out of HDPE g6 rod. I'll try to post some pictures of the unit later, I think it turned out pretty well.

I've been keeping an eye out for a nice hardwood stump but recently came across the tuck puck and I'm pretty excited about starting out with one of those instead. My "shop" is a 2 car garage that is fairly full...there's a '30 model A ford and a handful of motorcycles in there. Making a multipurpose stand for the tuck pucks that would be better for my limited space than a stump. Is the tuck puck a suitable replacement for a stump? I was thinking of making a small bowl out of layered plywood in addition to the pucks.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys are creating and learning as much as I can.
Bryce

Hi Bryce,
Welcome to the forum.