Instructor needing instruction

[imaslackr]

Hi All,
My name is Adam, but people call me Legs. I recently moved to Newmarket, NH but I work at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. At SMFA I am the Welding Studio Manager. My job is basically to show people the ropes of how to work safely, and to maintain equipment - as well as budget/administrative duties.

Although I am not a professor, I am often in the position to teach students techniques involved in making steel sculptures. Metal shaping is definitely one area where I feel my skills are not up to par. I attended this school, and shaping was not taught well. I would like to end this poor tradition.

I am very interested in DIY style approaches or those involving using whatever you have around rather than saying "oh if I only had this tool everything would be better."

Also, this has always been a steel-based shop, so I never learned to work with aluminum. I need to do some research and be pointed in the right direction as to which alloys to start with.

Thanks everyone, any future help is much appreciated.