Creating Rounded Corners

[C-Bag]

What kind of tools do you have available and do you have welding skills? I assume the material you will be using is soft steel so there are several possibilities to create this shape with hand tools.

This is always the big question. Sheetmetal is very addictive and satisfying for me. But it can take a lot of other tools to accomplish. Like a lathe with a ball turner attachment to make the size die you want to form the dome for the corner. Or to put in a planishing hammer and flow form into a sand bag. I find those easier to control than a teardrop hammer, if you have the right size. Then there’s the question of what kind of welding equipment. If doing this kind of forming I would be using my oxy/acetylene rig to soften the inevitable work hardening and doing the welding if it’s like 20 or 22ga.as I don’t have a tig yet.

 

[cwilliamrose]

You don't really need a ball turner Tony, just a template, a file and some patience. The tools do not need to be very precise to get good results. You don't really even need a lathe, a vice and an angle grinder can be enough to create a useful tool.

 

[C-Bag]

You don't really need a ball turner Tony, just a template, a file and some patience. The tools do not need to be very precise to get good results. You don't really even need a lathe, a vice and an angle grinder can be enough to create a useful tool.

Well that’s true. I guess I’ve gotten to rely on my machine tools to bypass how I did stuff just like you mention for the 40yrs before them. My angle grinder was my weapon of choice for many forming jobs.

 

[cwilliamrose]

I was reminded recently about the old days when all my machines got relocated to the hangar -- where there was no 3-phase power. Took a while to get that done so it was back to caveman techniques. And hurricane Ian did the same more recently when we were without power for about eight days. Out came the hacksaw.......