All MetalShaping

Go Back   All MetalShaping > General Metal Shaping Discussion > General Discussion
  Today's Posts Posts for Last 7 Days Posts for Last 14 Days  

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1  
Old 02-06-2021, 01:54 PM
Gareth Davies Gareth Davies is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Staffordshire, England
Posts: 665
Default Aluminium Lamp Canopy Repair

I just thought I'd post this up as it's a little job I was recently tasked with. For a few years now I have worked with someone who has a slightly obscure hobby of collecting street lamp fittings and has literally hundreds of them in his collection. I typically make support brackets for him but have carried out repairs to damaged fittings and recreated parts of obsolete lamps. It's a bit of a side job as there is little money to be made at it but he's a nice guy and some of them are fun to do - a bit of a distraction from real work!

His latest piece that needed attention is a 3' diameter spun aluminium canopy that has an opaque bowl shaped lens underneath and a quick release collar to allow the lens to drop down for bulb changes. Unfortunately, the quick release collar had seized so someone had cut a rectangular hole out of the top of the canopy and self tapped/siliconed a galvanised sheet panel over the hole. My customer really wanted this putting back as close to original as possible so I said I'd do what I could.

Yesterday afternoon was free of other work so I cut myself an oversized patch from 2mm 1050 grade sheet and started rolling it both ways to get some crown into it. It just wasn't getting the shape I needed so I put some little walnuts in with a spoon and shot bag and then shrunk the edges on my Lancaster. After only a few minutes I got the profile right where I wanted it. In an ideal world I'd have wheeled the walnuts out but I sold my wheel a few years ago as I was never using it! I figured that as they were so minimal I could planish them out with a slapper when the patch was welded in. The patch was offered on, scribed through then cut and trimmed. It welded in reallly nice with 1100 grade filler rod and then I ground the excess off from both sides and then proceeded to planish. I finished off with a slapper and dolly, sander and DA sander. It's not perfect and may require a bit more work before it goes for powder coating but there's no major sunk in areas or bulges. The crown has stayed in so the spun profile looks continuous so I'm pretty happy with the results.

Here's a few progress photos.

IMG_7564.jpg

IMG_7565.jpg

IMG_7566.jpg

IMG_7567.jpg

IMG_7568.jpg

IMG_7569.jpg

IMG_7570.jpg

IMG_7571.jpg

IMG_7572.jpg

IMG_7574.jpg
__________________
Gareth Davies
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 02-06-2021, 01:56 PM
Gareth Davies Gareth Davies is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Staffordshire, England
Posts: 665
Default

More photos

IMG_7575.jpg

IMG_7576.jpg

IMG_7577.jpg

IMG_7578.jpg

IMG_7579.jpg

IMG_7580.jpg

IMG_7581.jpg

IMG_7582.jpg
__________________
Gareth Davies
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 02-06-2021, 02:52 PM
Overkill Overkill is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Cloverdale, CA
Posts: 1,233
Default Hobby

Yes, that is an obscure hobby indeed. Great repair.
__________________
John

Ron Covell, Autofuturist books (Tim Barton/Bill Longyard) and Kent White metalshaping DVD's available, shipped from the US. Contact lane@mountainhouseestate.com for price and availability.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 02-07-2021, 07:59 AM
metalmarks metalmarks is offline
MetalShaper of the Month October 2020
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Richmond, Vermont
Posts: 66
Default

Looks good! Do you have a photo of the collection?
__________________
Chris
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 02-07-2021, 03:28 PM
Gareth Davies Gareth Davies is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Staffordshire, England
Posts: 665
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by metalmarks View Post
Looks good! Do you have a photo of the collection?
I don’t I’m afraid. He has a website but it’s quite hard to navigate and doesn’t show things off very well.
__________________
Gareth Davies
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 02-13-2021, 06:19 AM
Gojeep's Avatar
Gojeep Gojeep is offline
MetalShaper of the Month March 2015, March 2020,, June 2022,Aug 2023
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Eastern Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 2,986
Default

Nice bit of welding there.
__________________
Marcus
aka. Gojeep
Victoria, Australia
http://willyshotrod.com

Invention is a combination of brains and materials.
The more brains you use, the less materials you need.
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 02-13-2021, 01:43 PM
Gareth Davies Gareth Davies is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Staffordshire, England
Posts: 665
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gojeep View Post
Nice bit of welding there.
Thanks, it flowed quite well considering it was old to new which is where you’d normally expect to have issues. It was fairly well prepped though so that went in its favour. The customer collected it yesterday and was more than pleased with the job so that’s what matters really.
__________________
Gareth Davies
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 02-15-2021, 01:14 PM
crystallographic crystallographic is offline
MetalShaper of the Month October '14 , April '16, July 2020, Jan 2023
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Western Sierra Nevadas, Badger Hill, CA
Posts: 4,388
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gareth Davies View Post
Thanks, it flowed quite well considering it was old to new which is where you’d normally expect to have issues. It was fairly well prepped though so that went in its favour. The customer collected it yesterday and was more than pleased with the job so that’s what matters really.

Excellent.
(hoping you get some repeat business - )
__________________
Kent

http://www.tinmantech.com

"All it takes is a little practical experience to blow the he!! out of a perfectly good theory." --- Lloyd Rosenquist, charter member AWS, 1919.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 02-15-2021, 06:58 PM
cliffrod cliffrod is offline
MetalShaper of the Month January 2020, March 2022
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Spartanburg, SC
Posts: 2,845
Default

Very cool- looks great.
__________________
AC Button II
http://CarolinaSculptureStudio.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzSYaYdis55gE-vqifzjA6A Carolina Sculpture Studio Channel
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 02-16-2021, 12:54 PM
Gareth Davies Gareth Davies is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Staffordshire, England
Posts: 665
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by crystallographic View Post
Excellent.
(hoping you get some repeat business - )
Thanks Kent, he’s already planning what to send me next

Quote:
Originally Posted by cliffrod View Post
Very cool- looks great.
Thanks. I think I could’ve done it better if I had an air planisher but building one of those is still on the ‘to do’ list.
__________________
Gareth Davies

Last edited by Gareth Davies; 02-16-2021 at 12:57 PM.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:13 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.