On Fri, 3 Jan 2014 11:53:02 -0800 (PST), stryped
wrote:

On Friday, January 3, 2014 1:10:28 PM UTC-6, Jon Banquer wrote:
In article ,





I got a book at Christmas, "Professional Sheet Metal techniques". I have wanted to build a t bucket for some time. It would be cool to do it out of metal so I have been studying.



Anyway, I know what an English wheel is. I have never used one. Are they hard to use? It would be hard to justify the expense just to play with it to see If I could pick up any skill on it.



One thing I read was that the English wheel was not really used much in the United states until the 1980's. What did people do before this? Would person just build a hammerform?



I wondered if a person could weld together a metal "buck" of a T bucket, tach weld sections of sheet metal to it, then heat the metal with a rose bud tip to make the sheet metal "bend" in the proper areas so the metal would lay flat against the buck?



Again just trying to learn from you expert metalworkers.







http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10143



"I've been a metal working video buyer over the years, but nothing beats

hands-on instruction."





http://tinyurl.com/ljh4ot2

I agree. Its just hard to justify buying an English wheel, plannishing hammer, etc to "try it out"/

So, you don't think someone could use a hammer form to form the body in sections, then weld together?

I know this is a really dumb question, but I watached a partial video on you tube of a guy using a wood buck to make the turtle deck part of the car. I assume the buck is removed before the part is installed? What guage metal do they typically use for these projects?

Thanks!
With a shot bag, some slappers, and a set of body hammers the parts
COULD be hammer formed. A good friend of mine has part of an old
stump that he uses for forming sheet metal along with the former
tools. He also has a big english wheel, a planishing hammer, a roll
former, a beader, a couple of shrinkers and stretchers, as well as
break, shears, and tig unit.

Made the nose bowl for my plane using those tools (using aluminum, not
steel)
16 Ga is a good starting thickness if you are going to do any
extensive stretching/forming. 18ga is easier to work, but it gets too
thin when you stretch it to make a compound curve, and shrinking it
enough to form the curve is not practical.