Let's see some sheet metal shaping

Thanks! Well, time for some finished pictures, John got the Biederman out into the sunshine Wednesday after a long hibernation, getting it ready to take to the truck show in Macungie PA.

















Loaded up and ready to go....











Today's pictures from the show, the Biederman makes its debut. Still needs a bit more paint on the front end, but John said he's had a ton of interest in the truck and the bodywork Guess I should have sent him up with business cards.

 

Great stuff, Robert. I've only made it to one of those American Truck Historical Society shows but, I love commercial vehicles and the big trucks especially. There's a certain "honesty" about those trucks when you consider all of the miles they have traveled and the hard work they've done to help grow this country. Keep up the fine work.........................................Don.

 

some nibbling tooling fabrication..


This punch will be approx. 3/8 diameter and is made of 4140 oil hardening stock so we can heat treat when complete for better tool life..




End is formed slightly concave to give a better cutting edge..





Bottom die gets a clearance hole for the 3/8 punch, then it gets bored from the bottom end using 1/2" bit to within about 1/8" of the top surface. This will allow better gravity flow of any chips passing through our bottom die..








Then we'll need an exit chute, so a 1/2" angled hole is drilled through the side and a 1/2" plug made to fill the remainder...





The plug bottom gets chamfered and welded into the bottom die, then a ball end die grinder is used to fine tune the exit chute...





A "shoe" is formed to hold down the workpiece, as otherwise the punch tends to lock onto the panel after the first punch and raise it in the air, thus preventing any material feed...





An action video....







Our test slot.... this may work yet!

 

This is a amazing thread . Thank you everyone for sharing their work and how to make dies and other things. Goes to show a person is only limited by their imagination .

 

Very well struck, sir.

Excellent result.

I love seeing people fabricate their own tools from scratch.

 

Bit of LX Torana rust repair panel work

 

LX Torana

 

LX Torana

 

Stopped by John's shop today, he had dropped off the Biederman front fenders to his painter after the Macungie show for media blasting and a epoxy primer to protect them until we can get the hood resolved. Then he'll get all the new parts painted blue at one time...





Here's the newly installed fenders with an epoxy finish..

 

Needed to make some "corners" for our wagon seat back enclosure, which will house/hide some modern audio accessories.. We've got a whole lot of shrinking going on....

 

Check out this!

 

Wow. Thanks for posting

 

Here is a few pictures of the English wheel I built this last week, I have had the rollers and the upper wheel for probably 10 years and never gotten around to building the rest of it. Pictures shows the cad drawing through the fabrication and into my first feeble attempts at shaping a compound curved panel and a round Dome. I think there will be a lot of learning to do here.

 

Fine looking tool, but Good Grief Popeye, with an arm like that, you should be able to do your metal shaping with your thumbs, hahaha.

So, you built everything but the wheels? Nice job.

 

Hey rotten L. Is that a low bucks unit . And if so do you have the louvre part too and do you like it ?

 

LOL Pretty sure it's all camera angle, yes i fabricated everything but the wheels.

 

Made it in house, but really just monkey see monkey do from internet pictures.

 

This past Saturday afternoon we worked to fix the overheating issue Jake was having with his OT Mopar.... The electric fan wasn't cutting it, so he wanted to try a flex fan and shroud. So let's make a shroud..


The ring was cut out and Tig welded together, and beads added using the Fasti bead roller.





The mounting flange is tipped to spot weld to the side baffles, here a linear stretch die in the Lennox Nibbler adds the stretch needed...







Spot welded to the baffles...







test fit.....






We started running out of daylight but finally got it back together. Jake said it didn't get over 160 on the way home, so much better than the electric fan was doing..

 

I got tired of pulling my English wheel from my storage building into my work area so I rigged up a simple tow bar to drag that 300 pounds of iron around by my lawn tractor. Also, note the foot kick-wheel. The spokes are numbered so I can return to a precise setting I have used previously.

 

Question-
Does anyone here think this thing has enough ass to run thumbnail shrinking dies?
That's a 2 foot square for reference.
The top tool holder is 3/4" OD round ,the bottom is 1-1/2" OD round.

 

I've been working mostly on OT stuff recently but took some time to to do some work on "the inheritance" (35 ford roadster) for my pops. pics are pretty self explanatory. i also added a 1/4 rod along the radius to discourage the edge cracking these things are prone to. And yes i cut some corners with the releif cuts on the radius, but I'm happy with the results. threw in a pic of my "high tech" bending/forming tool for kicks.



Sent from my SM-G920R4 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

I would like to see how others have made adjustable fences for the small eastwood-type bead rollers- tired of c-clamps and angle iron.

Thanks!

 

Hey fellas, looking for some input here. I sold my Old Woodward Fab deep throat shrinker stretcher as it just wasn't really up to par. I don't use one enough to justify an Erco, rather be in the $1-2k range I am looking at the Baleigh shrinker stretcher. And a few others that seem to look the same with different paint.


Jets version


Here is the Jamie Jordan/mitler bros, i would probably rather have a foot operated but maybe it is awesome...


And the Dayton version, I'm a little leary of it as it has dies that appear to look like my old woodward fab.


Anyone have personal experience with these machines? Trying to avoid the buyers regret on this go around.

 

As good as you are it should be no problem to convert the Mittler Bros. to a foot operated one since you probably going to build a stand for it anyway.
Just MHO Frank

 

I just wonder if it has any advantage over the Baleigh, by the pictures the dies look similar.

 

I’ve used the Jamey Jordan model and worked great . Been wondering if I could mount the jaws off it into my Eastwood deep throat kick unit . Would be a little cheaper and a lot better .

 

I believe the Jamie Jordan is the same as Mittler Bros. Because they have him on their Web Site. I think the major difference is one is on a stand and the outer is bench mounted.
Frank

 

I have the baleigh unit.

Look here around page 10
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/truck-into-a-coupe-my-next-pet-project.850807/page-10

I bought it off amazon, got fuel perks and free shipping with Amazon prime and all in that was way better deal than the Hamb discount. There is double fuel perks right now.

It's a good head unit, and good dies but the stand is a bit wobbly. The mechanism is ekold style. Some times I wish the bottom 1/2 was deeper like the Dayton unit.

 

I'm envious of guys who have nice machines to use that give the finish and precision I crave. I'd love a mini max or similar and a powered bead roller would be a nice luxury... heck the last few days I really could have used a shop press of some kind.. But I can't manage any of that at the moment so I do the best I can with mostly simple hand tools. My finish isn't as smooth maybe but nothing a skim coat wouldn't fix.

This is the inner beaver panel for an Australian car, an LC torana 2dr. I had to make it in two halves so it would fit through the bead roller.


Thanks for indulging me and keep posting up the inspiration

 

some shots from my Rouster Roadster indy inspired build thread.