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vn800b 05-20-2020 04:24 PM

making a bowl
 
Hi All

Ive new to metal shaping, and i am looking to make a metal bowl for something, i have bought a English wheel,but i dont have any hammers or sandbag yet, but am looking for a bit of advice, or if there are any videos or tutorials please, on how to wheel a bowl with a deep shape in it?
Thanks Michael

skintkarter 05-21-2020 02:31 AM

Hi Mike. In my limited experience you will struggle to wheel up a very deep shape. They need to be shrunk around the edges to raise the bowl and the centre stretched. So its a combination of the two on a bag, or preferably a stump for the shrinking and the wheel just for the final smoothing. Need the handtools really before any machinery.

Have a look for some videos on tuck shrinking.

Please post some pictures of your progress when you get started - there will be plenty of people who can offer sage advice. Having said that - get stuck in and see how far you can wheel a bowl. Making scrap is how most of us learn.

Jaroslav 05-21-2020 05:09 AM

Look at the link. The first shaping is on an Eckold bombire tool. The tool can do deep strokes. You will do the same on a sandbag or on a wooden block. The material must always be soft. If you use hard tools, the sheet will be hard and will not form. The smoothed shape is finished in EW with a very narrow bottom wheel. You can also finish with a hammer on a spherical surface. Take your time, time is your enemy.

http://allmetalshaping.com/showthread.php?t=18004

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01RnS6G6t30

Richard Lennard 05-21-2020 05:28 AM

First you need to grasp actions and effect.
All the old school (not me, im useless but learning) will tell you hand tools before power etc.
A bowl is a classic case of the above.
First you need some tin, any tin that is flat and big enough.
ut into circle larger than bowl (12mm)
Take off paint, bare metal.
Lump of wood, guage out a bowl shape, fairly smoothly.
Any hammer, for now, average workshop ball pein.
If you bash the middle bit, it will get thinner / stretch.
If you tuck the outside edge (Google it) by any means that doesnt stretch the edge, then will look like edge of pastry pie topping etc.
For me, eureka moment was when I grasped "Shrinking the tuck"!!!
The most important point when closing this tuck, you are not hitting the edge hard, you are forming it.
Work the tuck out gently all the way around with hammer.
Itll look a mess initially, but you will see a bowl forming.
Not the one you want - yet!!
More tin, bash it, the basics drop into place very quickly.
Much scrap.
When you "feel" the tin doing something like you want, then you can finish to a better finish.
If, like me, you dont have the skill to planish / file to a perfect finsish, then the very cheap air planishing hammers will do an excellent job to give a smooth acceptable finish.
As you get better / maybe bored, then you will know what power tools will make your life easier / faster.
As I said / did, tuck shrinking will teach you so much.
If someone had said to me 50 years ago that you can shrink tin, I would have thought they were having a laugh.

Jacob 05-21-2020 08:20 AM

Did you say bowl and video?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HAFndATFo4&t=3s

Kerry Pinkerton 05-21-2020 08:51 AM

Mike, back when I was running up and down the roads selling Ewheels, I made a gabillion bowls using a variety of methods. Someone once asked me how deep I could make a bowl by just wheeling. I replied that I THOUGHT I could make a hemisphere...half a sphere.

I took a round blank 10" in diameter and just started wheeling. back and forth across the middle third. The trick is to NEVER wheel closer than a 1/2" to the edge. You can put a piece of masking tape on the edge and fold it over. When you hit that tape, you will actually FEEL it in time to stop.

Ewheels are stretching machines. Every pass with the wheel stretches the metal and increases the surface area. The panel is CONSTRAINED by the unstretched edge so the new larger surface area HAS to go somewhere and it starts to crown up. You will see this almost as soon as you start wheeling.

If you run over the edge, it will stretch very fast and your diameter will increase and you'll loose shape.

If you wheel all over the same amount, it will make a flat shape only thinner and bigger.

I still have the bowl I wheeled and used it in my Metalshaping 101 seminar. I did not quite get to a full hemisphere because the center got really thin. I can press a dent in the middle with my thumb. If I kept going, I suspect the metal would fail in the center. If I had wheeled more closer to the boundary than the center, I would have raised the shape more and utilized the total quanity of the metal better.

A 10" circle of 18 gauge steel contains a bit less than 4 CUBIC INCHES of steel. Pi*radius squared =>The radius is 5 so 3.14*(5*5)=78.5 square inches. Since 18 guage is 1/20 of an inch thick 78.5/20=3.925 cubic inches.

That's all the metal you have to work with. What you decide to do with that material determines the shape and thickness.

mr.c 05-22-2020 10:47 AM

bowls
 
Jacob and I have made some bowls and taught novices how to make bowls. Sun,n,Fun Flyi-in Metalshapers Workshop for a week a bunch of years . At twenty to thirty minutes- they were done and out of the tent with their freshly made bowl and a smile on their face.
In the early years, we used tucking forks and that didn't really go well. You could see the vacant glazed look on your student face as you tried to explain the process. I hated tucking forks with a passion. Richard Crees "RodDoc" posted a video on stump shrinking. That was life changing to me. I started checking the woods on my walk looking for the right piece of oak to make a stump for Sun,n,Fun. That is when I got the thought of the possibility of using a piece of UHMW instead. I was short on space in my truck as I was taking a pair of power hammers to test for a local fabricator here in Ocala.

That was the birth of the TuckPuck. Do a google search of TuckPuck and you will find four instructional videos that may be a help to you.

Unfortunately, the US postal service raised the rates from $11 to over $30 and killed my International sales. I am not trying to sell here, just making you aware of the videos.


By the way, start with something small . 7-8 inch diameter to get the hang of it. Larger diameters become more difficult. Aluminum if you have some.

vn800b 07-26-2020 06:22 AM

michael,Got the bowl done, and working on the next piece!!
 
2 Attachment(s)
Attachment 56984

Attachment 56985

Hi Guys

Thankyou for all your posts, there was lots of information for me, and it was really helpful,and this is such a great forum for help. I did ok with the bowl and it was interesting how the metal moved,as i was working it. ive started a second repair project now, and used what i learned from the bowl,but am stuck on something now, ive made the shape and welded it in place, but i have a lot of high and low spots, and just wondering what you guy thought and if you had any advice/videos, to make it look better!! I hope its ok to add too pictures in??

All the best guys,
mike

crystallographic 07-26-2020 12:59 PM

7 Attachment(s)
Quote:

Originally Posted by vn800b (Post 163647)
Attachment 56984

Attachment 56985

Hi Guys

Thankyou for all your posts, there was lots of information for me, and it was really helpful,and this is such a great forum for help. I did ok with the bowl and it was interesting how the metal moved,as i was working it. ive started a second repair project now, and used what i learned from the bowl,but am stuck on something now, ive made the shape and welded it in place, but i have a lot of high and low spots, and just wondering what you guy thought and if you had any advice/videos, to make it look better!! I hope its ok to add too pictures in??

All the best guys,
mike


Hi Mike,
The Best Advise I can give you - or anyone who wants to metal finish butt welds (instead of Wonder Butter) is to:
Level the weld area with either a large dia. flat-faced body hammer and dolly that matches the contour -

Attachment 57008

Attachment 57009
But, some guys do not weld the whole enchilada at one time ... and then go whack it out nice, all at one time ... :confused:
Rather than that, they tack a bit and hammer some, then weld some and hammer that, keeping it more in control:
Sumpin' like this:
Attachment 57006
Attachment 57007
Attachment 57010
Another option is the "slapper" which is a flat Z-shaped plank of steel, and a dolly that matches the contour.Slapper in action, "ironing" to a nice contour.
Attachment 57012
This shows how to use a slapper to take down high spots without leaving little "Mike-marks" all over the surface. :)

Attachment 57011
A sweep-over with some 180grit on a 10inch sidewinder kisses off the little bit of proud (metal finishing) and makes the painter happy. :):)

BTromblay 07-26-2020 07:03 PM

[QUOTE=crystallographic;163662]Hi Mike,
The Best Advise I can give you - or anyone who wants to metal finish butt welds (instead of Wonder Butter) is to:
Level the weld area with either a large dia. flat-faced body hammer and dolly


Wonder Butter! First time I have head that, Love It :lol::lol::lol::lol:

B


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