New member from Cornwall, UK

[tom_benn]

Hi, I'm Tom and I'm a final year mature student at the Arts University Plymouth, UK. I am new to metal shaping as a means to work with sheet metal for sculpture. I've had a few days training with Geoff Moss at MPH Motor Panels and the metal department at the univeristy has just bought an English wheel. I'm hoping to learn a lot more about metal shaping both for my current, final uni project and into the future.

[DavidB]

Hi Tom,

Welcome to the forum, you should find plenty of information here to help you on your journey in the past posts and from forum members. I see that the place is now a University, I've dealt with them on a few occasions under their previous name Plymouth College of Art. What English wheel did they buy?

I did my engineering degree across the road at Plymouth University in the late 1980s and made my English wheel wheel set at the technical college during practical workshop experience in the summer of 1988. AUP/PCA has certainly changed a lot since those days.

Dave

[tom_benn]

Thanks Dave

The wheel is a floor standing one from Trent Precision Engineering. Low cost but seems ok, especially considering the price.

I imagine a lot has changed here since the 80s! The facilities and staff are great, although there's limited expertise with metal shaping, especially using the wheel. Do you by any chance know of anyone in Plymouth who uses one?

Tom

[DavidB]

Hi Tom,

No I'm afraid I don't know anyone in the area that uses one but I expect if you ask around you'll find some people, IIRC some other posters to the forum are in the area so hopefully they'll chip in. The guy I did speak with in the late 1980s/1990 that used them was retired then so now would be 100+ so I expect is no longer with us.

[skintkarter]

Tom, if you have had any exposure at all to Geoff Moss, you are well on your way to becoming a metalshaping God! All I can say as an aspiring metalshaper myself, is 'make some scrap'. Try to master the main hand forming techniques (shrinking and stretching) before getting too hung up on the wheel. A very talented mate of mine (predominantly an aircraft guy) said to me about the wheel "if you stood next to it for 40 years, you might begin to understand it". Get some aluminium and make some things - it moves faster than steel. Good luck!

[tom_benn]

Hi Richard. After spending a couple of days with Geoff, I had no doubt that he is indeed a master at his craft. And this is a craft I knew nothing about 6 months ago! I have been trying out some different approaches to shrinking and stretching, and working with both aluminium and stainless steel of different thicknesses. The piece of work I’m making is going to be made in 0.9mm stainless and polished to a mirror finish.

I’ve added an image of the form below. I’ll cut out the masking tape to make templates. It’s based on the loose outline from a photo of me and my daughter (second image, without the pointy hood!)

I’ve never been one for making my life easy. I think the lower sections should be relatively straightforward, although I could be wrong there. The top third will be more challenging, but by the time I’ve got there I’m hoping my new skills will be up to it. We’ll see. I have no doubt that I’ll need some help along the way.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/z7lml...=031atn5b&dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ym09t...=6ecgix3v&dl=0