Let's see some sheet metal shaping

Here is what can be done with a lot of determination. Self taught and not my profession.
Designed and crafted by me and all aluminum. Just sharing. Ray in OR

 

Three phase kills pretty much anything for the garage guys. 95% don't want to mess around with Phase converters and the additional cost and hassle especially for one piece of equipment.

 

I didn't see the "like a lot" button

 

OT but quite amazing


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That's certainly one factor.
Smaller 3 phase equipment is super cheap because of that too. Sold it finally for 15% of its estimated value - I begged the guy to take it because he was down the street buying truck loads of other large equipment.

 

20170113_130653 by wingedexpress posted Jan 13, 2017 at 8:42 PM

20170112_120523 by wingedexpress posted Jan 13, 2017 at 8:33 PM

I made a little male/female die to use in a bearing press. Put sheet between dies
and press.

 

Thanks for all the info guys!

 

Practice quarter for fun


Cafe racer tail for a local builder



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Well thats just a awesome idea!

 

I wanted to build some fender flairs to cover the outside dual tires on my 53 Ford COE, with an aluminum Grumman box. I started by clamping a bracket with a center pin @ 20-1/8" outboard of the band saw blade, to cut a 40-1/4" disc out of .063- 3003 alloy sheet. After running it through the bead roller, and then the tank roller die, I sawed it in half. To maintain the semi circle shape, it required building a plywood fixture with angle clips to clamp it secure while welding. The panel and the perimeter strip both needed shrinking to make the fit together. The steel angle is clecoed to the base of the panel to keep the part a flat as possible. The next photo group will show the finished part.

 

Finish ground and roughly clamped in place. If my truck was from the 30's, I might entertain leaving the skirt portion in place, but my plans are to band saw the flat section out, leaving the bead as the finished edge, and trim and radius the bottom corners.

 

Thanks for sharing that lesson on building awesome. I love the way you approached the project. Blue

 

measure twenty times,practice on ,some thing like chocping, cutting in half,channeling,lowering roofs,are the best practice.

the cadillac has driven many nuts for 30 years,on to next builder it just keeps going.the pontiac was an effort also averted.

home made tools such as these others have shown in photos can be some of the best.

the shiny cadillac shows a craftsmans build where parts simply need to be built[coachmen]

i pick up a lot of projects that others simpl give in to[Win or Lose Steve''s Buying] has gotten to be a passion for me ,we simply build race car panels nightly for repair and than take on hard work for relaxation.
and usually find someone to become the next artist.

 

I bought a new 18"×80" lathe in the late 80's for my backyard shop, it had a 10 hp/3 phase motor and by the time I got it fit up with good tooling I found myself a bit skinny in the wallet. I wasn't keen on spending another grand for a rotary phase converter and the good adjustable static versions were about $200 so went that way.
Finally got it all wired up one cold winter night and was still trying to find the "sweet spot" on the dial to make the motor happy so it wouldn't grunt at startup and my 80 year old neighbor comes over and he says "what the hell you doing in here", I can't get my dinner made and my lights have been flickering for a half hour.
He's standing there watching me fiddle with the dial and he goes "when you get that contraption figured out put a mark on the dial, my wife wants popcorn tonight".
Apparently with all the heaters and ovens on my 10 hp motor was taxing the neighborhood power grid.

 

Doesn't seem like much got done this weekend, but here's what we did..


Stopped by the local CNC router facility to get some generic guides made for bead detail on the Lennox Nibbler...





Also had some blanks cut out over there to the right side. These were to form stops so we can adjust length of our pattern shorter as needed..








It has a snug fit like so:





Next was to turn up a new die with less crown than the other we've been using, just to have a different look, a flatter bead..











Setting up for some practice runs...








Here's a comparison between the new die and the fuller radius we've been using..





Thursday night headed over to Virginia, the 52 Chevy tail pan now resided in Fredericksburg (ClutchDumpinDan) and I needed to borrow the original and new one for the Coming Out car show in Charlotte Hall, being held Sunday (today). I had been dragging my feet about even going to the show, but the weather forecast promised beautiful weather, so I went ahead and reserved a vendor spot to show off our fabrication work. Friday night started gathering some samples to take and a put some pictures together for an album..





We still had all the original pieces for the lift gate repair, so that was a good sample..

Set up at the show, I figured parked next to the Ice Cream truck would be easier on my will power than the smell of three BBQ trucks on the other side...










Got these pictures right after we set up and before all the crowd showed up. Had a blast, talking metalshaping, rust repair, etc. for most of the day.. I guess I've got to get back to work now...

 

This is ot..but it is cool! I fabbed this up back in 94 for a metal class final project. The drum spins on 2 german racing bearings and the mirrors are polished to a mirror finish...the wheel rubber material is off a rowing machine sliding mechanism...it measures about 26" long and 14" high. Still have it displayed in my home office

 

Last night we worked on the fender patch #2 for the Biederman truck, 16 gauge fun!











Missed the in process pictures, I'll try and do better next time..

 

made by LBCD
Hey LBCD,

That is a totally rad cement mixer construction and very cool model. You are a craftsman...Kudos… My son loved the cement mixers as they were always in motion, even when rolling down the street. In our neck of the So Cal woods, there was this giant red cab mixer with a white rotating cement holder on the back. It stood out because the owner had painted wild red/yellow flames going from front to back and they rotated all of the time.

That truck was my son’s favorite. From his car seat, whenever he saw that truck, he would shout out, “There is my flame truck.” Then he would say those flames are like what daddy always draws on everything. Ha ! 35 years later, I got chastised for bright red/yellow flames I drew on our granddaughter’s white “tennies.”

Today, I still see those huge red cab/white mixer trucks, with those flames, rolling down our So Cal streets. It is very cool, especially to have built your own model. Darn, I just thought of something, I should have painted my son’s yellow Tonka cement mixer those same colors…

Jnaki
German Racing Bearings? Wow, I have not heard that one since the early skateboard, home-made scooter business days. Here are my last bearings from those 1978 skateboard/scooter days. The top ones are the stock bearings usually found in commercial skateboards found at toy stores. The bottoms are the last two left from a huge box full of Precision German Racing Bearings. Back then, I had to order a big box full to get the best price for retail sales. Over the years, I have given away tons of those Precision German Racing Bearings to neighborhood kids for their street skateboards.

(Although, they still kind of chuckle at my street scooter for big guys. 5th wheel and all the goodies) It still was a big hit scooting down the long trail to Upper Trestles with a board bag strapped to my back. Only one fall in 24 years of use...not bad for an older guy.
built in 1977, in the attic in 2017

 

Thanks! The term German racing bearing too comes from the 70's when I was a kid and I skated not only for fun but as a way to get around...I was hoping someone would get a kick out of that!

 

Hey LBCD,
Yes, those skateboards were a way to get around in So Cal. But, I had to use my big boy scooter to go 12+ miles from South Irvine to Laguna Niguel after a car repair drop off. My wife was sick and could not pick me up, so I drove to the repair shop and rode my scooter all the way back. I stopped for lunch,of course and took a short nap near a tree. I knew that a huge hill going up was coming near the end, so I took my time and hydrated before that last 1/2 mile.

Jnaki
This was before Ipods and cell phones, so I had my trusty Sony Walkman with cassette tapes blasting my brains. Bike lanes and sidewalks were the easiest to use, without having to worry about cars. What an adventure...

 

Some more progress on the Biederman fenders, here's where we left off last time...











On the passenger fender, we removed the cleco's holding the filler panel and John (the owner) media blasted the flanges where the panels overlapped..

















Cleco holes were enlarged on the filler panel flange to accommodate plug welds and the two parts welded together...

















After grinding the welds, John brushed some SPI epoxy in the lapped panels to seal them up..





























Back on the driver's fender, time to trim off the rusted and bent front edge....























The door skin removal tool is used to unwrap the wired edge...

















Once the wrap is broken free, the top is scored with a cutoff wheel and then peeled around. No cuts on the wire as this may weaken it..

















Trimmed and clamped in place for a test fit..

 

This evening we took the passenger fender over to John's so we could mock it up on the truck and locate/cleco it to the lower hood side..














The wing nut cleco's used in about four spots to hold things good and snug....





Back at the shop, we'll get this plug welded on Saturday..

 

tried to make some headway on the Biederman. John is taking it to the truck show in Macungie PA so we're trying to get the fenders complete so he can bolt them on and answer questions all day about their bare finish..


With the lower hood side cleco'ed to the passenger fender using wing nut clecos to pull things up nice and tight, lets get some plug welds done to join all three parts together...














Passenger fender lapped seams then had SPI epoxy brushed in from both sides to seal in case he runs into rain. We he returns they'll be ready for media blasting and paint..





Next onto the Driver fender, the remainder of the flange from the old filler panel is removed, a cut off wheel is used for releasing the OEM spot welds..














Next, we had a rub issue where the fender was a bit close to the cab....note the flat area, as well as a rust through. So we'll just trim this out and replace..

 

Today I finished up the TIG welding on the rust repair...








This area has a recess so it doesn't rub the side of the cab...





Next to clamp the front repair section, the vise grips tend to rotate after clamped and allow the weld joint to open. So to fix the gravity issue, we broke out the painters tape..















16 gauge sheet metal wiring, gotta love it!








Next time we'll get the filler panel added to the Driver's fender..

 

Geez @MP&C I was having the clamp rotating issue on Friday, and many times before. The super simple solution of tape didn't occur to me! But I'll use it now! Thanks!

 

Wow from the new, using a laser, to the old, using masking tape to solve problems you are a man of many talents LOL

 

This evening's progress, the bolting flanges were cut out of 12 gauge steel, and tacked in place using the TIG. Then welded and dressed..
























Next to trim the front of the fender, a laser is set up 13-3/4" above the table holding the fender. This is the differential we measured off the truck from the bumper filler panel down to the running board. all four corners on the table are checked to insure the laser is set correctly. Then the laser line is transposed to the fender and trimmed..



















The height was adjusted by sliding the blocks forward/backward in the fender.









Front mounting flange TIG welded in place and welds dressed..









Filler panel fitted to the fender and plug welded...














Test fit onto the truck, aligned to the lower hood side and cleco'ed in place.



















We'll get the lower hood side welded on tomorrow evening, holes drilled, and fenders bolted up to the truck.

 

Tonight we got the lower hood side plug welded to the driver's fender, then the lapped seams were brushed with SPI epoxy primer from both sides to seal out the elements. John will be taking this to a couple shows with the fenders in bare metal, so we needed to seal those areas.





With the fenders all one piece again, we took them to John's shop for re-assembly. First order of business is to add some welting to the fender area adjacent to the cab's lower cowl area...





..then bolted up the fenders and battery tray.. This should give John a head start on the finishing touches tomorrow before loading it up for the Macungie Truck show.

 

^^^^ Awesome work! The fenders came out great!