I had to look at your post twice before I seen the smiley face at the end. If your a weekender, get the HF.
Just to let everybody know....I purchased the harbor freight set, they work well and they will be perfect for my project as i am just a occasional user. thanks for all the advice
Wow I have a HF set and now I'm inclined to return the damn thing...I figured a hammers a hammers a hammer...maybe not. I found a link to the PDF of the key to metal bumping here EDIT: Just started reading that book. It's awesome. I have to find a real copy.
I bought a set of the HF ones one time. One broke the first time I used it,the rest went in the garbage also.
The biggest problem with buying cheap tools and venturing into a new area is not knowing whether the mistakes you made are operator error or bad tools. When you eliminate the tool issue you can blame yourself for mistakes. I remember wanting a new acoustic guitar for a long time because it sounded like ****. Until someone who could actually play picked it up....I still have the guitar. It sounds much better over the years. LOL
Don't take this the wrong way..not criticizing you personally...but if you didn't know what kind of hammer and dolly set to buy in the beginning, and bought the Cheap ones, you really don't know what the GOOD ones are like, so you can't make a comparison. Like I said in the beginning...if you are enjoying doing this type of work, try buying a good quality hammer and dolly, USED, and then use it and compare. Or if you get frustrated because things aren't working out right, try using a better tool.
I'll give it another shot.... most cheap hammer and dolly sets are contoured wrong for most work. The hammers have either too much of a crown making them into stretching hammers instead of smoothing hammers, or are flat with sharp edges making them mark the metal instead of smoothing. The hammer heads are rarely as large as you want for good smoothing of the metal. The cheap dollies usually have way to much compound shape to help support the average panel while hammering. The best dollies for most panel work are nearly flat in one direction and have a specific curve in the other direction. A large faced hammer (1-5/8") with a very slight crown, nicely smoothed edges, and good balance is better that 200 hammers that will not perform correctly. Once again, I show this in my videos. This stuff is dead simple if you try it. You have to be stubborn and keep trying the methods to get better at it. It really does help the learning process to have a good hammer and dolly. If all you want is something that will help you get to the mud portion of your project, then all this does not matter much. If you want to get into how to smooth the metal, it matters a great deal, especially for a beginner. If you use a small headed hammer with too much crown and a dolly with too much crown, the metal will have a series of small stretched spots that still need smoothing. If you use the proper hammer and dolly, you can stretch if you want to, but you can also control the contours of the metal while getting it smooth and madly hammering away without concerning yourself too much about over-stretching the metal. I learned way more about metal-finishing by excessive use of a hammer and dolly and shrinking disc than by being cautious and worried about ruining something. Since most of us are self-taught to a large degree, we may never know why we are not learning how to do what others seem to find easy. Part of that is what tools you have to experiment with in the beginning. Someone with experience can do very well with junk, someone starting out will get discouraged and think that only a master can do this type of work. That is total bunk. But you may never know this if you don't get some decent results when you start out. I like using weird junk to get good results as much as anyone, but sometimes the most basic tools do make the difference. John www.ghiaspecialties.com
Excellent advice that I need to take to heart myself. After looking at perfectly metal finished cars here on the HAMB and watching the metal work on that show from Legendary Motorcars it easy to look at your own stuff as ****, get frustrated, and get nothing done. As for the tool question I'll say this, Good tools ain't cheap & cheap tools ain't good. It may sound like a ******** salesmans line but it's damn true. I've never regretted a quality tool purchase and I've bought many. Unless somebody spends a lot of time with their tools, it's probably impossible for example to explain to them why a set of craftsman wrenches are not as good as a set from Snap-on. I've owned cheap tools and I've owned expensive ones. There is no comparison. Don't even ask about the chinese garbage.
i have a set of martin hammers that i bought off the MAC tool truck and i like them a lot. They really arent that expensive and if you plan on doing at least a few paint jobs in your life its worth the extra money. My dad has a old set of proto hammers and i also really like those they work real nice so look around for those at swap meets.
Someone bought me one of those sets years back. I never used it. I got about $600 in 3 hammers and 5 or 6 dollies. Worth every penny. Nothing beats quality tools.
FWIW as a result of this thread I bought one slightly used USA made body hammer that cost as much as my entire set of dollys and hammers from HF, and one of those *****in *******s I saw used in a video. The name brand dollys were $$$ and surely worth it, but I ran outta dough. This one is gonna have to be done with a nice hammer and HF dollies
You wont regret buying nice hammers, they will pay you back. As far as the HF dollies go, I bet you can smooth them out on a belt sander to your liking. Good luck.
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