Sheetmetal dreams.

[C-Bag]

Through out my varied wanderings/jobs I’ve done minor sheetmetal repair and liked it. That became a dream at aircraft school when I did some projects and ever since have been on the lookout for related tools. But they had to be small, portable effective and cheap. before I was able to find much more than just hand tools I needed to start doing the powder coat I’d always shopped out. All my stuff is fairly small and can fit in my standard MagicChef oven. So I decided my mini DIY powder coat booth needed to be basically 24x24x24.

I bought one of those HF tubing notchers and made the frame out of conduit and got the sheetmetal out of the local hardware store. That was over 10yrs ago now and it has really served me well. But the top has always been a goal but of course I wanted to do it nice. Finally all the tools, time spent on YouTube vids and this weather pattern has all made me commit. Here’s the mini booth and the top bulkheads.

 

[jwmelvin]

I like it! I also have aspirations of being able to work with sheet metal, but have little ability yet. I just got a brake and slip roll, both 24”, 16 ga.

Did you use a bead roller on the bulkheads? Including the edges?

I appreciate any advise on what tools to seek before others.

 

[C-Bag]

One of the first bucket list tools that showed up randomly on CL was a Beverly B2 throatless shear. That had been on long range radar since ’82. In watching YT vids I realized I needed an English wheel, beader and shrinker stretcher. The English wheel was being phased out by HF along with the beader. I found a nice full size EW for less than a HF. And then a beader with stand complete showed up all in the span of a couple of months. I just had to clean up the main wheel and the anvils on EW and it is good. I decided to mount my other sheetmetal tools and machines on it so the beader is now integrated. I’m trying to figure out where to mount the shrinker stretcher and free up the stand its on now that the beader came on.

 

[Ken from ontario]

24x24x24, that is decent size , I have never done powder coating , it must be great to have the basic tools to do it in house.
you did some good metal fabrication with the bulkheads.

 

[C-Bag]

in watching Lazze, Jere Kirkpatrick, Hotrod Hippy, Ron Covel and Wray Schelien (sp?) I got the beader was going to be necessary for the flanges. First to “tip” the curved flange by slowly bending them by clamping them with a tipping die and lifting up as you roll through. I made a quicky tipping die out of a washer off my bench grinder and took the cutter off of my cutting dies to use as a plain roller. I wanted to make a joggle in the flange to help hide the edge of the hood so I made a bottom die and use the upper tipping die.

 

[C-Bag]

24x24x24, that is decent size , I have never done powder coating , it must be great to have the basic tools to do it in house.
you did some good metal fabrication with the bulkheads.

Thanks Ken. It was one of those do or die, sink or swim kinda things. I read a lot, and bought a cheap Eastman powder gun and started small and of course, CHEAP. The only thing I’ve gone fairly top drawer on is the powder coat rig and bought a pro rig. Has made all the difference.

The one thing I regret was not taking before pics of those bulkheads as especially the second one with the cutouts it was schwangle beyond belief! It still needs some little touches but boy was that a mess!

 

[C-Bag]

I like it! I also have aspirations of being able to work with sheet metal, but have little ability yet. I just got a brake and slip roll, both 24”, 16 ga.

Did you use a bead roller on the bulkheads? Including the edges?

I appreciate any advise on what tools to seek before others.

I did use the beader for all the bending, the stiffening beads and the joggle. All the vids, hours and hours, really paid off. I forgot to mention the whole top is out of 22ga galvanized. So way stiffer and heavier than the vids as most of what those guys use is aluminum.

I just have a 30” HF 3n1, shear, break and roll.

i don’t know what kinds of things you are looking to do. Sheet metal is varied so what you need is dependent on the job. I would ultimately make an aluminum body for my tadpole trike and make it into a velomobile. So EW, beader, shrinker/stretcher and planishing hammers, body style hammers, sand bag and lots of dollies along with the Beverly shear were my bucket list.

 

[C-Bag]

The beader which was central to forming the bulkheads was a long project in that I wanted to mod it like Jere Kirkpatrick’s. The ability to move the upper shaft in and out to do different things and the quick release upper tension which nobody else has just seemed necessary. Even though I had no experience. I had to reweld the stiffeners and make an adapter for my HF drive(threader). Not a ton of work when I finally got to it but I had so many other projects before it. The drive just pops off and I use it to drive other machines. 40rpm, 2hp, 12a and my router speed control works perfect on it! I can get it down really slow and it’s still plenty strong for plowing through.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Awesome stuff Tony!
i admire your ingenuity!

 

[Ken from ontario]

You know Tony, it is a pity we don't have a metal fabrication forum here on HM, I'm sure there are a few members who are very much interested in it, I would love to pick their brains and learn a few thing along the way.
Maybe it is time to take a poll and find out what percentage of hobbyist here, are actually active in metal fabrication but stay quiet in the background and do their own projects without being able to share them publicly or ask guidance from the more seasoned fabricators.
What do you guys think?