I like hammer form alot better, its time consuming but you get the satisfaction! I think i want to try this now!
Yes, but it works much better if the round stock is in another identical die. That way, the bend edges are much sharper and looks factory. I did small 1/4" true 90 degree corners on the 4 corners of a 1913 antique car roadster decklid. I did most of the 1/4" bead work with a bead roller, but needed a way to have nice intersecting corners. Made 2 same dies, and put 1/4 roundstock in one side, then squished the two dies in a big vise. Aligning the dies perfectly to the existing beads, plus lining up to the other die takes some time. It came out nicer that I hoped.
Hey Kevin, Be sure to clamp and use a fence to guide whatever method you go with, also, prestretching is really key to the production of a part that will look as if it were pressedformed. Trying to remove waves in a flat or semi crowned panel, that were caused by pulling metal surrounding the swage into it can be a real mother fucker! Especially ,given that it's already welded in, and you'll be doing the job on your knees! Swankey Devils C.C. "All Great Truths Begin As Blasphemies"
hammer and dollie in the area you will be making the bead in. you don't need to go nuts with a super high crown hammer or anything but don't be scared to hit it. I would use a pretty flat flat or low crown hammer and stay as uniform as possible with your hits. Spend some time on scrap metal before you ruin the metal you are going to use.
Wow! Shane went on a bender? Did anyone get photos? Swankey Devils C.C. "All Great Truths Begin As Blasphemies"
Hey, Lemmie see if I can splain this well....... Try this as an example: On a scrap panel, take a medium weight ball pein hammer and strike the panel in the center with the pein end with a pretty good wack, don't kill it, but give it a pretty good hit. Now take a piece of , say 2 1/2" pipe, say 'bout 2''-3'' high. Place the pipe on a bench and place another piece of scrap sheetmetal, say 18-22 gauge steel over the pipe end, and strike the scrap piece in the center over the pipe. Try to use the exact same force hitting this piece as you did the previous panel, the one you hit with the pipe behind it. Now if you'll notice, the first one has a bigger damaged area, a larger area of the panel has been dented. Now study your second dented panel, the one struck over the pipe. You'll notice this one is much more controled in its' shape it had been controlled in the forming of its' shape. Also there isn't as much if any damage outside of the area supported by the pipe, when struck. The first example above, is what could happen to your panel if you don't control its' forming with a well formed and clamped hammerform. A much larger area of the panel will be forced to help create the swage/bead, and it probably won't have a very chrisp shape. If you control the process, as in the second example, you produce a much cleaner, chrisper swage/bead. On thin flat panels, or ones that go around corners, you'll have to ''prestretch'' these so as not to pull metal from outside the sholder of the swage/bead. A prestretch can be formed with a wooden calking tool, a plastic or metal one, jus'so the shape of that is close to the final shape of the male die of the swage/bead. Draw a line to follow with the tool, use a stratght edge/fence and go for maybe a 25% depth of the completed swage. Pratice on some scrap of the gauge and alloy of metal you're forming to get a dead-on formed part. Swankey Devils C.C. "All Great Truths Begin As Blasphemies"
I used this form along with my air hammer to make simple X's. The first pic is the top half, the third pic is the bottom plate. The sheetmetal is between and bolted together through floor. It is a pain in the butt to weld all the bolt holes after though.
The "Master" was probably blanked out in aluminum, with a ball mill on a computer, a sheet of steel was than placed between the master and a sheet of a urethane pad, pressed out, trimed and welded in. Swankey Devils C.C. "All Great Truths Begin As Blasphemies"
here is a pic of my company logo, i made the tooling on a cnc turret punch press, but i could of made it with a drill press a hacksaw and a file, the emboss hight is 1/16", by haveing the spacing on the positive and negative 1/8" it looks like a deaper emboss, anyone can do this type of embossing at home.
You can cut the design into a piece of plywood. Place it on your metal, on the backside use a piece of hard flat rubber. then put it in a 10-20 ton press and stamp the emboss into the metal. You will have to round the edges of the plywood or it will punch out the design rather than emboss the design. Practice first. to get the depth of the emboss right.
Just make a few scrap pieces. The edges of the plywood tend to round over and won't punch out after being used a few times. Same thing works with plexiglas and Lexan; they also tend to round over at the edges and allow the metal to move easier. Tim D.
I never had any luck embossing using wood - I have had some sucess using aluminum sheet for tooling and a hammer or Ewheel for the "press" part. ymmv
I reckon you could just glue the hammerform to the work, save filling the holes later. There's little shear force on the hammerform, silicone sealant would probably hold it fine. Don't forget to draw lines so you can re-register it if it should come loose.
that air hammer tech is pretty damn cool. i think welding up a couple holes would take a few seconds... quick buzz off the weld and you would never see it- cleaning up glue sounds like a mess...
If you want to make friends with a painter, just bring out some silicone in the paint shop; you won't know what hit you. Bad stuff.
Hey, why not a holly stake or a crucifix for a really good yuck, whyle you're at it? Swankey Devils C.C. " Your head would look good on a pike"
Tested a few pieces of 6"x18" 18ga and a piece of 16ga. (steel) Worked great. The car I was going to use this on is now in storage though so I have not built the floors yet.
The Jalopy Journal
