TECH: Quick Slapper/Flipper from a leaf spring

Cheap, fast & good - here's one case where you can have all three!

A slapper is a really handy tool for planishing and metalfinishing panels, I understand that you can buy them, just not sure why you would?

Just grab an old leaf and mark it out (that's about 14" in the pic - working area about 7" long )



Have at it with a slim disc on a small grinder



Grind off the rust - take care not to gouge it or dig in with the edge though (perhaps I should have swapped that sanding disc out earlier)


Pop it in a vice or clamp it to something and heat it for the first bend



Bend it about 60 degrees or so and heat about 3" further up the handle before bending this back to parallel with the working face




Allow it to cool down slowly ( you may want to bury it in sand or mica, but for this application I find air cooling to be fine)



Run it on a belt sander to get it all smoothed out. Right now you may be wishing for a late model O/T leaf spring - this piece of '48 one keeps it all traditional and HAMB-friendly but the trade-off is a little more pitting to deal with



You could just add tape or a piece of rubber hose at this point. I went high-tech and epoxied on some scrap wood



Rounded it off to a comfortable shape with the trusty Makita


Take care to kill any sharp edges that will end up marking your panel. Same goes for surface imperfections - they will imprint onto the metal you're working. Start on the belt sander and then do the final blending with a DA



Some folks will polish this with progresively finer grits on the DA to a mirror finish. The way I finish a wheeled panel, I like a little surface texture that shows my hit marks on the already shiny metal so I stop at 120 grit.
Some string bound around the handle and call it good



All told there's about 40 minutes in this (could have saved 15 on the handle) and maybe $3 materials. Couldn't even drive to the store for that.
This way you can make up a couple with different sizes, radii and weights.
Nice to have a good balance to them - this one could do with being about an inch shorter or have a little more weight in the handle.
The only other thing to think about is making sure the kick up is high enough to keep your knuckles out the way of the metal...

 

Nice!

 

Great pics, will be making one or two of them.

 

Very cool.. I need one and have all the required pieces. Thanks for that!

 

Nice tool Barry!! I have one I left the jog out of and left the spring arc as is. It works great for the top of those '36 fenders I did.

 

That turned out great!

 

Super!

 

Baddest spatula EVER. Y'all must make some skinny burgers down there in Africa though.....

Think I'll make myself one this week (a slapper....not a burger) Cool tech.

 

Very cool! Home made tools are some of the best!

 

I did the same but used an old file, works great. Just as good as a bought one.

 

I'd like to slap my ol' lady in the ass with that. Nice job.

 

jeez, showed my ol' lady this and now she wants me to make one, nice how she supports my hobby.

 

kool tech!! have done that myself with a file and spring. i like yours better!!! i need the wood handle!! made so many tools over the years glad u shared urs...Dave

 

love this. i had made one myself a month ago in very similar fashion.

 

Cool - I LOVE cheap tech!

 

Cool tool, and home made too. Now we need a tech thread on the proper use.

 

Damn, I've been looking to buy one, but have a stack of old leafs in the corner. I guess I know what I'm doing this weekend.

Thanks!

 

This^

 

Thanks! Tech eveyone can use...................

 

x 2

 

Way cool! Great Idea!

 

X3!!

Nice work and thanks for the post!

 

terryble, was this just a coincidence, or is your ol' lady kind of a freak?

 

I love this project. I'm putting this on my to-do list, for sure! Great work.

 

Great tool! My Buddy Hamber Bob made 2 of these slappers from a C1 Corvette spring I had a few months ago. I also purchased a "shrinking disc" as well and I'm very happy with the success I'm getting "slapping and shrinking".

 

nice. have had a spring lying around for just this purpose. maybe this will get me off my butt to do it.

 

Hell yeah. I'm going to make one tomorrow with the 60 year old leafs I have. Thanks!

 

Two more reasons to love the HAMB.

 

cool tool, even better that it is home made

 

Many of the tools we use are not HAMB friendly!