How To Shrink Aluminum Sheet Metal

Flat metal warps easy.

How to shrink aluminum sheet metal.

Get used to this idea and your abilities will grow. This is where the tuck shrinking fork from a few weeks back comes into play. Hot shrinking is the legendary shrinking method of simply heating up and dashing water for a quick chill. Start by inserting the fork into the edge of the sheet metal at the desired depth of the shrink you want to make.

If you have access to a bead roller roll yourself a bead and shrink it. Heating up metal and throwing cold water on it may shrink it a tiny bit but it makes distortion and hard steel. Could also add some shape around the holes with offset roller or hammer form. Then twist the handle of the tool to twist the metal around one side of the fork.

Then remove the tool and move it over so the fork will roll the metal over the other side of the fork by twisting the metal the other direction. Place your aluminum sheet onto a work surface. Do not over heat the steel. Get an idea of how much heat it takes to cherry the metal and how hard you need to strike it to smooth it down.

This will create a cold aluminum area or a hard steel one with very little resulting shrinkage. Heat up a quarter sized spot on. Fit an appropriate tip between size 000 or 2 to an. This works the other doesn t.

How to shrink aluminum step 1. You could do it with a hammer as well and a groove in a piece of wood. Put it in a bead roller and put a small bead though the middle to take up the stack and add some shape.