How To Form Sheet Metal With A Hammer

If you hammer softly most of the time and harder once in awhile those harder blows will stand out.

How to form sheet metal with a hammer.

For this example we will hammer form some tank end caps. Hold the hammer lightly in your palm and let it bounce off the metal in a fluid motion. The hammer right employs a central face to hold metal and a rotating rim that gathers it. Hammer forming is one of the oldest simplest and least expensive ways to shape sheet metal.

Think of it as a massive stretching machine that thins the material that it impacts causing it to stretch and contour. I used a piece of 2x4. This old planishing hammer can form metal quickly but with limited accuracy. You will be working with sheet metal that can be.

Adding peen marks and texture to each part of a scrap metal sculpture. This is a handy metal fabrication technique you need to learn. Hammer each blow with equal effort for uniform marks or textures. You will need a block of wood.

Keep the hammer bobbing in a straight up and down motion and just turn the metal piece.