How To Shrink Warped Sheet Metal

Why not just heat it and gently hammer the swell down.

How to shrink warped sheet metal.

When the weld shrinks along its length it causes base metal to twist around the weld figure 3. Do not over heat the steel. Start by inserting the fork into the edge of the sheet metal at the desired depth of the shrink you want to make. Lots of controversy surrounds heat shrinking yet i ve successfully used this process for 40 years.

The condition known as an oil can is often encountered when performing automotive bodywork. 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. 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. Design and welding should be addressed to minimize this sort of warping.

This works the other doesn t. Correctly sizing a weld not only minimizes distortion but also saves weld metal and time. It can be described much like an oil can lid. Heating up metal and throwing cold water on it may shrink it a tiny bit but it makes distortion and hard steel.

The bigger the weld the greater the shrinkage. Then twist the handle of the tool to twist the metal around one side of the fork. If you have access to a bead roller roll yourself a bead and shrink it. Heat to blue only and shrink that much.

Get used to this idea and your abilities will grow.