| By Ken New
For
decades many do it yourselfers involved in the restoration and
building of vintage cars have been interested in learning how to
fabricate sheet metal parts, such as patch panels, fenders, ect.
Unfortunately assuaging that interest hasn’t been all that
easy until about ten years ago, when noted metal crafting
professionals, like lay preachers of old, began taking their
sermons on the road and holding seminars in the backyards of
DIYers throughout the country.
Years
ago the DIYers were scattered about the country and had little or
no contact with each other and, certainly, most weren’t rubbing
elbows with professionals capable of teaching them the finer
points of the metal shaping art. Then some 20 years ago, metal
crafter and author Ron Fournier released “Metal Fabricator’s
Handbook”, a well-illustrated soft cover book that poked a hole
in the fog of isolationism that surrounded the DIYers. An
excellent book, it explains the use of special metalworking tools
and forming techniques and how one goes about choosing the best
sheet metal stock for a project.
Within
a short time terms like hammer forming, English wheels and forging
stakes entered the DIYers vernacular as their prayers were being
answered – finally. One thing led to another.
Today
the in-thing is to log onto one of the websites devoted to
metalworking, such as metalshapers.com and sign up for one of the
sheet metalworking seminars coming your way.
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2.
--- Host mark Kennison had the seminar up and going with ahead of
steam within minutes and the momentum ran full bore both days from
8-5 pm. Here Kennison is demonstrating how to shrink sheet metal
on a Yoder dual-head power hammer, a gigantic piece of equipment
rescued from a salvage yard near Milwaukee and restored. At left
is Marc Scranton, an industrial arts teacher.
3.
---The two-day seminar included an opportunity to complete a
spoon-like project on the power hammer. Here rodder Bill Harrison,
New Cumberland W. VA., takes his turn at planishing his spoon, a
process that involves both stretching and shrinking operations. A
shrinking operation is illustrated in Photo 3a. Getting familiar
with the foot pedal was a bit of a struggle for all the novices.
Harrison did better than most of us in getting the hammer speed
just right.
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Reprinted with the permission
of
Cars and Parts magazine |
