Forming Aluminum Sheet By Hand

This tech tip is related to their sportster project but can be used on anything you might be working with that requires something built out of aluminum sheet.

Forming aluminum sheet by hand.

Welcome to the latest how to installment from jay roche at special 79 barnstorm cycles. The applied force stresses the metal beyond its yield strength causing the material to plastically deform but not to fail. It didn t take long to realize that he s a master of the art of hand forming sheet aluminum into things ranging from parts for antique automobiles and modern racing car bodies to airplane cowlings fairings and wheel pants. Resistance to corrosion varies.

Some are quite malleable and others so hard and springy as to challenge attempts to work them. Hand forming sheet aluminum requires a knowledge of the characteristics of this metal in the many alloys in which it is available. Cut it bend it shrink it and stretch it. After all there are only four things you can do to metal.

By doing so the sheet can be bent or stretched. Sheet metal forming sheet metal forming processes are those in which force is applied to a piece of sheet metal to modify its geometry rather than remove any material.