hello from ireland

[ivers]

HI

M name is kenneth and im from ireland

Ive always had an interest in metal work

about 15 years ago or more i bought my first metal shaping book.
Ultimate sheet metal fabrication and i still have it.
I bought a few more by the same publisher after.
I guess im like a lot of people who buy these books and take a long time to actually getting around to making something.
It took me a few years but i finally got around to making an aluminium petrol tank for my 1998 yamaha r1 .

I made the tank by hammer forming.
Chapter ten and eleven of this book showed ways to use hammer forming by John Reed and Cass Nawrocki.
I took a plaster of paris mold from the original tank so i wouldn't damage it and then layed up the inside with fibreglass.
I filled the inside of the new fibreglass tank with a thick layer of concrete mixed with fibreglass strands so it would stand up to the hammering .
It worked really well and was cheep to make .
I used 1,5mm 1050 or 1100 aluminium sheet. Not sure of the exact number.
I made a slapper from the sleeve of an old motorcycle race suit filled with sand and wrapped with ducked tape.
Most of the shaping was done with this and it packed a punch as it hurt like hell when i hit my fingers

After i made all the pieces they sat in my shed gathering dust for about a year and a half until i bought a tig welder and finally finished it.
While learning to tig weld aluminium at the same time haha

Anyway the years flew past again ,as they do and here i am wanting to make another tank.
I joined this forum to find out more information. maybe someone here has done what im thinking of doing .
I'm a cnc machinist and have access to a 3d scanner.
I have scanned a few tanks i want to make. Possibly a few if other people are interested.
2 of these is are from 1:12th scale models.
I have it scaled up and turned into a solid mode,
With this solid model i will machine the hammer form . im not sure what route to take .

glue stripes of hardwood together and machine that or maybe good quality plywood will work .
another option is machine the tank out of foam , make a mold and fill the inside with an epoxy paste .
This way i can make multiple hammer forms with different sections of the tank.
Wish me look and hopefully it wont take me years to do this haha