Yikes! Didn’t realize this was in “MUST“ for full privileges

[AlphaBob]

Greetings from Northern Florida! I am an early retiree who escaped my life as a Necktie-yoked Cubicle Eunuch in 2015. Recently earned my FAA Airframe Certificate and focus mostly on maintaining and restoring WWII-era aircraft. The bulk of my work to date has been off the aircraft and fairly square.

I’m working to get into “real“ sheet metal work and I am assembling the tools to do so. Building a 12 inch CP clone (see recent post under planishing machines), have a nice Marchant shrinker/stretcher, a HF English wheel with a full set of Hoosier full-radius anvils (Which I believe are most suitable for the HF frame), etc., etc.

At this point I seem to be doing an outstanding job of turning large expensive pieces of raw material into smaller pieces of scrap! I’m traveling to do an insurance quote tomorrow on the crumpled upper wing surface of an aircraft ( see my recent post including a picture in the aircraft section). As several members gently suggested, this is not an on-the-aircraft-fix. Determined to prove that to myself I’ve spent the last week at the bench terrorizing pieces of 0.020 6061-T6 that I crumpled and then attempted to straighten with the slapper and dolly. I can get the crumpled “skin” reasonably flat, but as suspected it stretches and is not a satisfactory fix. Also at the bench I’m cheating because I’m working it from both sides which will not be possible in situ. There are other ways to skin that cat including replacing the wing, or installing a factory replacement patch, so I’m confident that I’ll be able to come up with a reasonable estimate for the repair.

Regardless, this is all very cool stuff and a great group! I look forward to meeting some of you and plan to attend the Metal Meet in the fall. In the meantime if anyone has any suggestions on how I might further my knowledge of forming curved aircraft sheet metal, please make suggestions.

[crystallographic]

Originally Posted by AlphaBob

Greetings from Northern Florida! I am an early retiree who escaped my life as a Necktie-yoked Cubicle Eunuch in 2015. Recently earned my FAA Airframe Certificate and focus mostly on maintaining and restoring WWII-era aircraft. The bulk of my work to date has been off the aircraft and fairly square.

I’m working to get into “real“ sheet metal work and I am assembling the tools to do so. Building a 12 inch CP clone (see recent post under planishing machines), have a nice Marchant shrinker/stretcher, a HF English wheel with a full set of Hoosier full-radius anvils (Which I believe are most suitable for the HF frame), etc., etc.

At this point I seem to be doing an outstanding job of turning large expensive pieces of raw material into smaller pieces of scrap! I’m traveling to do an insurance quote tomorrow on the crumpled upper wing surface of an aircraft ( see my recent post including a picture in the aircraft section). As several members gently suggested, this is not an on-the-aircraft-fix. Determined to prove that to myself I’ve spent the last week at the bench terrorizing pieces of 0.020 6061-T6 that I crumpled and then attempted to straighten with the slapper and dolly. I can get the crumpled “skin” reasonably flat, but as suspected it stretches and is not a satisfactory fix. Also at the bench I’m cheating because I’m working it from both sides which will not be possible in situ. There are other ways to skin that cat including replacing the wing, or installing a factory replacement patch, so I’m confident that I’ll be able to come up with a reasonable estimate for the repair.

Regardless, this is all very cool stuff and a great group! I look forward to meeting some of you and plan to attend the Metal Meet in the fall. In the meantime if anyone has any suggestions on how I might further my knowledge of forming curved aircraft sheet metal, please make suggestions.

Welcome Bob.
From my own experience, 6061 T6 is significantly easier to straighten than 2024 T3.
Good Luck,

[AlphaBob]

Thanks Kent!

You were absolutely right in your original response to my question under aircraft! But, I have had some fun taking creases out of test pieces , which sort of worked, but as you suggested they are virtually impossible to get flat without removing the section and shrinking it back to size (which has it’s own set of challenges).

BTW, I’m the guy you helped a couple weeks ago soldering the C172 gas tank. That repair turned out great!

[crystallographic]

Originally Posted by AlphaBob

Thanks Kent!

You were absolutely right in your original response to my question under aircraft! But, I have had some fun taking creases out of test pieces , which sort of worked, but as you suggested they are virtually impossible to get flat without removing the section and shrinking it back to size (which has it’s own set of challenges).

BTW, I’m the guy you helped a couple weeks ago soldering the C172 gas tank. That repair turned out great!

Okay ! Great!
Thanks.
But - I think working test pieces of 6061 will not really match wing skins as they are "usually" 2024T3.