Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris152
Quick update - we've been slow, mainly because I don't know what we're doing. First try at the internal profile was poor - we used the steel pipe I bought but couldn't really clamp it down strongly enough, and we tried the 90 degree bend around the pipe by lifting the sheet, which allowed the middle section of the sheet to not bend as much. So it had a bulge. We ditched that plan and I planed the 15mm radius on a piece of wood and this time pressed the sheet down to achieve the 90 degree curve, which seems to have worked! All hammering was done with a block of beech between hammer and sheet, and to hold the sheet in place for the curve we screwed a bar through the sheet and into the wooden profile.
We'd already put the 90 degree lip on using angle irons (the flat profile of the sash clamps didn't hold securely enough at the centre of the sheet, on our first effort) before doing the curve. You can see in the end shot that I also had to plane away wood to leave an overhang so the sheet could be turned through more than 90 degrees to allow for spring back.
Now we just need to cut the curve into the section hanging vertically in the photos, to follow the shape of the rear seen from above when in situ. I'll practice on the failed first attempt (which you can see is still attached on th eopposite end of the sheet in the photos), and I've cut the curve template for the jig saw in ply so hopefully that'll be accurate.
Not sure if any of what I've just written will make sense to you, but hopefully the pics are explanatory!
Then it's on to the external profile which, we hope, will be relatively easy. Ha.
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Some great work there Chris and i certainly couldn't have made those wooden formers!
Just to give you a few more ideas that may help with forming what you need, have a look at these various metal forming machines on fleabay :
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_f...acat=0&_sop=15
That's a starting point, if you do some more searching on ebay and also on YouTube, you'll find many sources of inspiration that may or may not help with this present project but ultimately if you are doing any other sheet metal (or even with metal bars, tubing etc) forming, you will have some extra ideas.
You can work out what is most likely to work for you and build those ideas into your tools and create your own range of tools to do many jobs!
