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August 23, 2002 Contacts: Terry Cowan -- 817 790 2076 (Cell
Phone) -- 817-296-3124 ******NEWS RELEASE ***** For immediate release
Formfest 2002 Announcement The official date for this years Formfest is the weekend of October 5 and 6th. The event will be held again in George Kings well equipped shop in Huntsville Alabama. If you read any of the after action reports from last year you already know about Georges southern hospitality. As before there will be early birds arriving up to a week in advance and some that stay a few days after the activities to help George put his shop back into some kind of order. With the great success we had with last years Formfest we have high expectations for the event this year. We will be continuing some of the projects that were started last year and adding more. Some of the projects on the agenda. Continuation of the Ascot project. See http://www.geocities.com/waynerogers/index.html for a description of the car. This project car was the end result of an idea for a de-centralized system of automobile fabrication. Patterns and templates were taken off a semi true surfaced buck in California. These patterns and templates were then shipped all over the country and even to Europe. The shipped patterns and templates then became the focus of regional minifests that were hosted and attended by Metalshapers members. The completed panels were then shipped to Huntsville where we started the assembly process. It was an excellent learning experience. We found some flaws in our methods, but overall it was a huge winner because folks that could not attend the big event in Huntsville still were able to participate in the project. We have refined our methods and the Lesmobile is the second extension of that concept. Panel forming for the Lesmobile ZM2 Car. This is an original design car that a complete wire form has already been fabricated and is already in the shop in Huntsville. We just started this project last year and will be hitting this activity pretty hard. There are over thirty stations on the wireform so there is a lot of work for those people interested in seeing and participating in the construction of a unique original automobile design. This car is a steel body.
Pullmax tooling demonstrations This was a hot subject at FF2001. Several people brought homemade Pullmax tooling that was demonstrated and tested in Georges Pullmax. For such a niche subject there was a lot of activity around that machine. George is supposed to have another Pullmax this year a P21. Art Metal Projects. This year we want to introduce some art to the Formfest. There has been enough interest in this subject to set up an event specifically to address those people that don’t have automotive aspirations but would still like to explore the tools and techniques of metal shaping and forming. No specific project has been selected so be thinking of things you might want to work on. You can see some of the art objects that have been posted by mining the archives on the Metalshapers list. Cyclekarts Currently the plan is to have two rolling Cyclekart chassis at FF2002. During the event the body development and construction will start. At this time the body design has not been decided but it will be announced prior to the event. The bodies will be constructed of aluminum and formed using the tools and expertise available during Formfest. It will start with the development of the body lines followed by pattern and template development and finally the forming and fitting of the panels.
This is a particularly good project for FF2002. These cars are small scale, only 66 inch wheelbase. The panels are small and easy to manage so the work should go quickly. Anybody thinking of building their own original car should start with one of these to learn the ins and outs of building a car from the ground up. You could have a fleet of these hidden away in your rafters and nobody would be the wiser. Check out the link below for an overview of the Cyclekarts from their original inventors. http://www.stevproj.com/Carz/CycleKart.html Formfest will push the Cyclekart design into the classic coachwork arena. These cars are a perfect venue for showcasing metalshaping skills and design. On hand will be journeyman from a huge variety of disciplines,
blacksmiths, welders, metalshapers, machinists, engineers, restorers,
woodworkers, mechanics, air crafters, artists, boat builders, painters,
sculptors. All of these people are coming together with the same goal in
mind, the open exchange of ideas and skills to further the skilled
trades and crafts. To share life experience and show off talents and
tools gained in the pursuits of their fields. For more information you can visit their website or e-mail the MSA moderators at moderators@metalshapers.org.
Mailing address is P.O. Box 900, Alvarado, TX 76009 (Fort Worth area) ###
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