The Fine Art of Metal Shaping Continued - Part 5
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Finishing up this paper pattern. Such patterns are cut an inch or so oversize to give surplus metal around the edges to take care of whatever stretching and distortion might occur as the shaping work progresses.
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While paper is much easier to bend than sheet aluminum, paper is like aluminum in that it resists being formed into compound curves. Fitting pieces of it onto the old part thus gives a useful preview of how the sheet aluminum will and will not accommodate itself to the required curvatures.
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Starting to make the paper pattern for the lower piece of aluminum. The man's left hand shows where the metal will be given an initial U-bend over a T-bar stake. The hard part of the job will come when shaping the flaring forward portion. The metal here will have to be stretched and bent quite a lot.
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Sometimes a V-shaped piece of filler metal will have to fitted and welded into place. Lindsay Publication Inc., P.O. Box 538, Bradley, IL 60915-0538, also sells books on sheet metal working.
See also The Fine Art of Metal Shaping
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