Backyard sheetmetal forming

Here's a picture of a slip roll that we built several years ago. It will except up to seven feet long material. It works great for forming curved panels for transmission tunnels.



Keith

what was the name of the sheetmetal in the first post? i want to find some to try my luck too!! thanks

The metal is called A.K or Aluminum killed.

Tom

cantwell.colton said:

so what was this metal called?
whered ya pick it up?
and it welds?
i want to try it.

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i want to find out also. can you just mig weld it or does it have to be tig welded?? any special gasses or anything to weld this metal???

im guessing this is idea for making patch panels that have curves and body lines to them???

thanks
ill remeber the name "A.K or Aluminum killed"

93blazer4dr said:

i want to find out also. can you just mig weld it or does it have to be tig welded?? any special gasses or anything to weld this metal???

im guessing this is idea for making patch panels that have curves and body lines to them???

thanks
ill remeber the name "A.K or Aluminum killed"

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from what i understand - aluminum killed steel is a pain to weld.

cantwell.colton said:

from what i understand - aluminum killed steel is a pain to weld.

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Would love to hear more on this - anyone ever weld it?

BigIrish said:

Would love to hear more on this - anyone ever weld it?

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its basically adding molten aluminum to molten steel -- a way to minimize oxygen so no reaction occurs between the carbon and oxygen (makes the metal porous) during solidification --- but, supposedly its easier to
work with just mild steel and quite a bit cheaper and easier to find
and AK needs to be welded at low temps and the rods are supposed to be "pre dried before use at like 650-700 degrees and you gotta keep the arc as small as possible -- i dont know - just stuff that ive read or heard about it - cant say for certain bc ive never had any : /

Vinyl coated dumbbell weights that the discount stores sell make good bumping dollies. The vinyl peels right off and you can grind and sand whatever radius you need on them.
I tried hammer forming with forms made from MDF particle board and I had pretty good luck.

I'll go take some pics, but I found a huge old arbor press that I cleaned up and repaired, made several shaped feet for it and various shapes to press into and it works great! cuts way down on the amount of hammering! I'll go try to get some pics. The steel yard here sells handrail endcaps that are basically 1/2 round pieces that work great in my press I would imagine they would be good with a handle attached also.

cking894 said:

Here's a picture of a slip roll that we built several years ago. It will except up to seven feet long material. It works great for forming curved panels for transmission tunnels.

Keith

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any plans on how to build a slip roll??? they arnt cheap but id rather build one myself. i love [

anyone got plans on how to build one??? and what is the most common size slip roll do most people use when making body panels?

Heres a roller i built a few years back you might get some ideas from. I tried welding ak and keep temp down and it does ok. Tigs better than mig.

homemade slip roller

HI
Here sia site with some info on a homemade slip roller (just google homemade what ever)
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=637760
http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?t=43355
For the second one I found speedy metals has really thick walled tubing that chould be used to make this one.
have fun
Tom

I like his clamps that tack to the table. Nice MIG holder idea as well.

would this idea work i think it would and wouldnt be hard to do.
go to harbor frieght and buy the 12" slip roller then just cut it and make it to what ever length you want.
or would it be a wast of money???

i got a 48" box and pan brake for 300 bucks he had a slip roller but sold it right before i got there he was going to take 500 for both but i missed out but still got a deal.

so i got a 12" slip roller off of ebay for 54bucks so im going to cut it and make it a 50" roller

93blazer4dr said:

would this idea work i think it would and wouldnt be hard to do.
go to harbor frieght and buy the 12" slip roller then just cut it and make it to what ever length you want.
or would it be a wast of money???

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I have a freebe HF 26"roller. The rollers flex in the middle on a full piece or on 18 ga. Also the gears will shear a pin easy if you have dirt on the metal.

You could shorten it up OK, but adding length would be hard.

PA41

im going to use different type of rollers but im going to use the bearins and gears thats on it or mod them. main thing is i got the base to build off of so if anything i can change the gears.

ok so i got the slip roller today and im going to fix the 12" roller and im going to use it to make my measurements to build a 50" slip roller.
i couldnt find any decent plans on how to build a slip roller so i bought this one off of ebay for 50 bucks and i just got to get a gear and a handle for it and its fixed but at the same time it gives me the measurements to build my own and to make sure i got something to go off of to make sure mine will work so im just going to copy it over to a bigger size.

one question is how do i find out what gauge it could roll??? after i build it just test it out?