Sheetmetal dreams.

[vtcnc]

Just saw the poll to create a sheetmetal forum. Great idea! I moved this thread to the new forum in the projects area. Thanks everyone for the great suggestions to make this the best forum on the internet!

 

[jwmelvin]

@C-Bag what do you think about the Woodward Fab 18" bead roller? Would that be a poor choice for me, as I don't know what I want but I'd like to play around with one. There's one for $140 on craigslist by me. I worry that it may be too small and would end up limiting me down the road, but it's pretty inexpensive.

 

[C-Bag]

That’s basically the same bead roller I have. What does the one for $140 look like? Is it one of the original Peck and Stow type with the like 6” throat?

The thing with the Woodward is it needs some beefing up in order to really be useful. So here’s some welding and fabrication involved. The other drawback is because it’s a 18” throat it’s fairly impossible to crank and hold a piece at the same time. So powering is a necessity.

The old peck and stow type being smaller throat have their advantages. Easy to manipulate the work and handle at the same time and smaller throat and being stout they need no mods to do heavier stock. The drawback would be if it doesn’t have any dies with it and I don’t know if they are special. The plate type(that’s what they call like the Woodward) use a standard die. They are expensive if bought in a set.

A good idea for what to do with a plate type to get it up to semi snuff:

He has other vids on mods and making dies, he also sells plans. Personally I like his mods the best.

 

[jwmelvin]

That’s basically the same bead roller I have. What does the one for $140 look like? Is it one of the original Peck and Stow type with the like 6” throat?

Thanks; it's the 18" throat, plate type, with dies. It looks to be in good shape so, based on your experience, it seems like it would be a fun way to start.

 

[Aaron_W]

I missed this thread earlier, but very happy to see we now have a place for sheet metal.

I've been dabbling a little due to some project vehicles I have, but last weekend I went down another rabbit hole.
I stumbled onto an event being held just up the road from me at Jere Kirkpatrick's shop. Ron Covel, Gene Winfield and several other experienced metal shapers gave presentations on various techniques for working metal. I'm hooked, now I'm figuring out where I'm going to fit some (small) sheet metal tools into my already cramped space.

 

[C-Bag]

I would have loved to go to that metal bashing meet. Not only was it my favorite metal workers in Jere and Ron, but was affordable. I love that it was $100 for the workshop.

I also have no room either but there is a lot that can be done with simple tools like a sand bag and good hammers. The major portion of what needs to be done is understanding how to form metal. Another great YouTube channel is Make it Custom. I’m not into hot rods but his custom work and his way of explaining how he does stuff works for me. Pro Metal Shaper with Wray S. is great. He, Karl from Make it Custom and Jere make or mod their own equipment and don’t have the super expensive equipment. They get incredible results and understand their audience are hobbyists that are not making $$ off their work.

 

[Aaron_W]

I would have loved to go to that metal bashing meet. Not only was it my favorite metal workers in Jere and Ron, but was affordable. I love that it was $100 for the workshop.

I also have no room either but there is a lot that can be done with simple tools like a sand bag and good hammers. The major portion of what needs to be done is understanding how to form metal. Another great YouTube channel is Make it Custom. I’m not into hot rods but his custom work and his way of explaining how he does stuff works for me. Pro Metal Shaper with Wray S. is great. He, Karl from Make it Custom and Jere make or mod their own equipment and don’t have the super expensive equipment. They get incredible results and understand their audience are hobbyists that are not making $$ off their work.

Thanks for the other channel suggestions.

The metal bash was awesome, small, affordable and the people they had were very approachable. They had a few hours set aside on the first day where people could get help with their personal projects and even that was very enlightening. Just being able to see the thought process of how an experienced mind solves problems.

Also many cheap solutions offered, the bead roller is just one example. A lot of the machines in Jere's shop are just heavily modified Harbor Freight and Grizzly tools. One of his shaping hammers was made from a baseball bat (cut in half one end becoming the handle, the other end reshaped for the head), another combined the cap from a compressed gas cylinder with a piece of pipe.
Ron Covel's demo was designing and fabricating a fuel tank. His sheet metal brake was simply some pieces of thick wall square and round tubing welded together and clamped to the table. On longer bends he said he will use a piece of 2x4 or 4x6 to help keep the bend straight.

One nice thing I've noticed with sheet metal machines is that many are skinny. A small English wheel, planishing hammer, and bead roller could easily be nested together in a corner and take up about the same space as a 9x20 lathe when not being used.

I've got a couple of David Gingery sheet metal books and he also offered many cheap tool solutions.

 

[C-Bag]

Just being able to see the thought process of how an experienced mind solves problems.

This is what I get from these guys in their vids. One of the best series was where Jere and Ron worked remotely together to duplicate this weird duct Jere found in a wrecking yard. Two totally different approaches that worked perfectly

One nice thing I've noticed with sheet metal machines is that many are skinny. A small English wheel, planishing hammer, and bead roller could easily be nested together in a corner and take up about the same space as a 9x20 lathe when not being used.

yes, and this is what I’m doing with my English Wheel. I was going to do a HF EW but they are phasing it out and no longer offer the anvils. I found this one local on CL for $500. Big, but all there and ones like it are in the $3-4k range so I couldn’t pass it up.

So far I have the beader and the shrinker/stretcher mounted up and when I build a planishing hammer it will go on the other side. The pics aren’t great, too much black but you get the idea. My shop everything has to be able to be nested away when not in use so it also needs to be on castors to be able to reconfigure the shop for the project at hand. Last pic is nested back in its slot.

 

[Aaron_W]

Wow that is quite the serious wheel you have there. I have the little 19" one from Grizzly, good bones (the anvils) but the frame may as well be made from pasta. I was originally just going to beef it up, but the more I think about it making a new frame from heavier tubing will be easier and stiffer. I need small more than light weight.

Understand the wheels, I use a lot of wheels in my shop too.

 

[C-Bag]

I didn’t set out to get this big of EW. But when they quit offering the anvils at HF and anvils elsewhere would cost as much as the HF EW is started just doing my virtual vulture thing. This showed up on CL in Paso Robles about 45mi away. I think he started at $1k so it was easy to resist. But when it got down to $500 and all the smaller wheel were more than that I couldn’t resist. It is very HD with little flex. My main problem is it’s a 9” wheel, so nobody makes a rubber band for it, they are all 8” and smaller