How To Form Sheet Steel

The sheet metal takes the form of the design cut into the die.

How to form sheet steel.

How can you go about shaping metal with hand tools alone. The edges were tuck shrunk to create the basic contour on this piece of sheet. Next place the wood parallel and slightly behind the bending line. To bend sheet metal in a vice start by marking a line on the metal where you want to bend it.

In both sheet metal is sunk or pressed into a die. If you want a sharp 90 bend tap along the crease with a mallet. By doing so the sheet can be bent or stretched into a variety of complex shapes. This added hardness increases the amount of force needed to place a bend on a stainless steel sheet.

Most curls are formed in three stages and some setups require two tooling setups with specialized tooling for each stage. Sheet metal is metal formed by an industrial process into thin flat pieces. The first 2 stages form the curves required to form the curl and the third stage closes the curl. See all 28 photos.

The applied force stresses the metal beyond its yield strength causing the material to plastically deform but not to fail. Many different tools cut sheet metal and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. To curl sheet metal on a brake press specialized tooling is required. Hydraulic die forming is quicker and lends itself more to duplicating formed art or other production.

Chromium and nickel give stainless steel its stain resistance and attribute to the hardness of the metal. In this case the sheet of flat steel will be formed into a wheel disc. 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. Extremely thin sheets are considered foil or leaf and pieces thicker than 6 mm 0 25 in are considered.

If your sheet metal is long ask a friend to stabilize the part hanging out from the form blocks so it doesn t affect the bend. Next put your wooden or metal form blocks in the vice and clamp your sheet of metal between the forms. Follow along as i demonstrate how you can begin shaping metal with hand tools only. In this video i show how to make a simple metal brake with a couple.

This video shows how to create and form your own sheet metal parts with limited tooling. Thicknesses can vary significantly. As you bend a stainless steel sheet the bend area cold hardens increasing the amount of pressure required to finish the bend.