I intend to learn a new skill and shape aluminum panels to make a motorcycle
fairing. I have seen a skilled pro make them, and have aquirred a beating
bag and have an antique hand-held English wheel.
Anyone experienced with panel beating enough to know if the easier to obtain
3003 Aluminum is as good a choice as 1100 series? Is .060 to thick?
Is an air plannishing hammer a substitite for a Wheel, or something to be
used with it?

On Sun, 25 May 2008 21:44:45 -0700, "Stupendous Man"
wrote:

I intend to learn a new skill and shape aluminum panels to make a motorcycle
fairing. I have seen a skilled pro make them, and have aquirred a beating
bag and have an antique hand-held English wheel.
Anyone experienced with panel beating enough to know if the easier to obtain
3003 Aluminum is as good a choice as 1100 series? Is .060 to thick?
Is an air plannishing hammer a substitite for a Wheel, or something to be
used with it?

1. 3003 is better than 1100, forming will work-harden 3003, but 1100
is dead soft and doesn't work-harden as much as any of the alloys.

2. .060 is way too thick, consider .032 - .040 with appropriate
bracing and reinforcement.

3. A wheel can shape and planish, shaping with a hammer designed for
planishing is an exercise in frustration. It's also much easier to
screw up with power....................DAMHIKT

Check out metalshapers.org for lots of helpful info,
and tinmantech.com, Ron Covell's site, and Williams Lowbuck Tools site
for tool info.

Bob

On Sun, 25 May 2008 21:44:45 -0700, Stupendous Man wrote:

I intend to learn a new skill and shape aluminum panels to make a
motorcycle fairing. I have seen a skilled pro make them, and have
aquirred a beating bag and have an antique hand-held English wheel.
Anyone experienced with panel beating enough to know if the easier to
obtain 3003 Aluminum is as good a choice as 1100 series? Is .060 to
thick? Is an air plannishing hammer a substitite for a Wheel, or
something to be used with it?

* Everything I know comes from common sense and from "Ultimate Sheet
Metal Fabrication" by Timothy Remus. I haven't actually done this, so
take what I say with a grain of salt. I suggest you get a copy of the
book - it's published by "Wolfgang Publications, PO Box 10, Scandia, MN,
55073". Powell's Books has it in stock: http://www.powells.com/
partner/30696/biblio/0964135892.

* Ron Covell sells books & videos, and gives classes. He advertises in
the back pages of the more custom- and DIY-oriented rodding magazines. I
think he also sells stand-up English wheels, when you get tired of your
little one.

* I can't imagine using a hand-held English wheel -- those suckers are
_big_, and I think they're big for a reason.

* As "bob" mentioned (probably from experience), power tools can get you
into trouble quick. I'd suggest learning how to do it by hand first,
then turn on the power. In fact, I'd suggest that before you go to an
air planishing hammer you use a hand planishing hammer to get to know the
process.

* 0.063 would be appropriate for really soft aluminum. The book I
mention insists that you want to stick with dead soft aluminum and
aluminum-killed steel -- these will make your work easy (and it's what
I'll start with to learn), but they bend easily and will not be as
durable as harder materials.

* If you use aluminum that work hardens, learn to anneal it. My dad used
to do body work in aluminum and brass, and he would anneal sheet metal by
smoking it up with an acetylene-only flame, then adjusting for a neutral
flame and playing the middle part of the flame (2-3" from the tip) over
the metal until the soot is gone.

--
Tim Wescott
Control systems and communications consulting
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Need to learn how to apply control theory in your embedded system?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" by Tim Wescott
Elsevier/Newnes, http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

Stupendous Man wrote:

I intend to learn a new skill and shape aluminum panels to make a
motorcycle fairing. I have seen a skilled pro make them, and have
aquirred a beating bag and have an antique hand-held English wheel.
Anyone experienced with panel beating enough to know if the easier to
obtain 3003 Aluminum is as good a choice as 1100 series? Is .060 to thick?
Is an air plannishing hammer a substitite for a Wheel, or something to
be used with it?


Check out: www.salinasboys.com
Cole Foster is one of the best at it.

cheers
T.Alan

Stupendous Man wrote:
I intend to learn a new skill and shape aluminum panels to make a
motorcycle fairing. I have seen a skilled pro make them, and have
aquirred a beating bag and have an antique hand-held English wheel.
Anyone experienced with panel beating enough to know if the easier to
obtain 3003 Aluminum is as good a choice as 1100 series? Is .060 to thick?
Is an air plannishing hammer a substitite for a Wheel, or something to
be used with it?

No expert on using power tools, but 3003 is VERY easy to form by hand,
even! You should have no trouble forming .060" as desired, I just don't
know if that is thick enough to handle the vibration and wind loads plus
occasional bumps, etc.

Jon

Thanks guys.
The bike is rated to 140 MPH so the wind load could be heavy, in spite of
the fact that it will never go that fast with me riding it.
I have looked at some of the Tin Man's "article" pages, a restoration shop I
used to work for hired Kent to do all of our body work. He is the best metal
man I have seen. His pages state that aluminum bodywork ranged from .050 to
..090 with .063 being the standard.
I can't post pics of my hand-held wheel yet, I sent some parts out last week
with some car parts to be nickle plated. Imagine the frame as being the
circle a 6 footer like me can form with his arms. The tool was probably
intended for on-car repair, but held in a vise should be able to do some
good.
It's going to be a month or so before I begin, I'm just trying to learn what
I can beforehand, and not buy the wrong stuff. It looks like 3003 will be
it, 1100 would require a long trip or major shipping costs.
--
Stupendous Man,
Defender of Freedom, Advocate of Liberty

Tim Wescott wrote:
On Sun, 25 May 2008 21:44:45 -0700, Stupendous Man wrote:


I intend to learn a new skill and shape aluminum panels to make a
motorcycle fairing. I have seen a skilled pro make them, and have
aquirred a beating bag and have an antique hand-held English wheel.
Anyone experienced with panel beating enough to know if the easier to
obtain 3003 Aluminum is as good a choice as 1100 series? Is .060 to
thick? Is an air plannishing hammer a substitite for a Wheel, or
something to be used with it?


* Everything I know comes from common sense and from "Ultimate Sheet
Metal Fabrication" by Timothy Remus. I haven't actually done this, so
take what I say with a grain of salt. I suggest you get a copy of the
book - it's published by "Wolfgang Publications, PO Box 10, Scandia, MN,
55073". Powell's Books has it in stock: http://www.powells.com/
partner/30696/biblio/0964135892.

* Ron Covell sells books & videos, and gives classes. He advertises in
the back pages of the more custom- and DIY-oriented rodding magazines. I
think he also sells stand-up English wheels, when you get tired of your
little one.

* I can't imagine using a hand-held English wheel -- those suckers are
_big_, and I think they're big for a reason.

They are sized according to part requirements. Recently in the UK a
couple of small English Wheels came up on ebay that were intended for
making prosthetic limbs. They were maybe 18" long and 6" high, that was
overall, the working opening was smaller.

* As "bob" mentioned (probably from experience), power tools can get you
into trouble quick. I'd suggest learning how to do it by hand first,
then turn on the power. In fact, I'd suggest that before you go to an
air planishing hammer you use a hand planishing hammer to get to know the
process.

* 0.063 would be appropriate for really soft aluminum. The book I
mention insists that you want to stick with dead soft aluminum and
aluminum-killed steel -- these will make your work easy (and it's what
I'll start with to learn), but they bend easily and will not be as
durable as harder materials.

* If you use aluminum that work hardens, learn to anneal it. My dad used
to do body work in aluminum and brass, and he would anneal sheet metal by
smoking it up with an acetylene-only flame, then adjusting for a neutral
flame and playing the middle part of the flame (2-3" from the tip) over
the metal until the soot is gone.