On January 15th, the metal shaping team here at Baileigh Industrial hosted a free metal shaping seminar. We had over 30 students attend from all over the country: Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, Missouri , Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Many of them flew into Green Bay, but a few diehards drove for days to get here; All for the love of metal shaping. We had a nice mix of hot rod builders, airplane builders, chopper builders, Ferrari builders, blacksmiths, metal shapers and sculptors.
- History of the power hammer
- How to use a power hammer
- How to use a bead roller
- How to use a shrinker stretcher
- What are thumbnail dies?
- Shrinking material using thumbnail shrink dies in a reciprocating or power hammer
- Stretching material by running it through an English Wheel
- Smoothing out or Planishing a panel
- How to make louvers
- How to make your own tooling for a power hammer
…..and much, much more First demo:
Chris Rusch, Baileigh’s lead design engineer gave an impressive 30 minute demonstration of the MH-19 Multi Hammer. With an 18” round piece of material Chris showed the class how to use the thumbnail shrinking dies, radius dies, planishing hammer and step dies. He produced this bowl that exemplifies many of the techniques used in the seminar; shrinking, doming, planishing, beading and stepping.
Here are some videos of the demonstration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ODZDWRLtvo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl-AvEiZ3T0&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=s4dzOvtulac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=94Jum00dxjM
Second demo:
Uncle Johnny from www.allmetalshaping.com blew our minds with his bead rolling art on the BR-16E bead roller. He is well known in the metal shaping world for producing beautiful works of art with a bead roller outfitted with step and art dies. He spent time explaining the benefits of using contact paper to protect your material, transferring patterns using a tabletop projector, and meticulously running the panels through the rolls correctly.
Here is a video of the demonstration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QEOMk5PwUU
Third demo:
Mark Gerisch, a master coach builder from Green Bay Wisconsin is one of the world’s foremost Ferrari reskinners. He began to reproduce an old fender as part of his demonstration on how to use a power hammer. The fender was a useful demo because it has a continuous side crown, but also a reverse on the bottom. Mark uses the MH-19 hammer exclusively to create his masterpieces. He prefers the MH-19 over the YODER style hammers, and other WWII-era industrial machines he has used in the past.
Here are some videos of his demonstration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4nG5IPg6Yk&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGu-S366uUs&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wluZ1DMhXM0&feature=player_embedded
After all the talking was done and the demonstrations were complete, it was lunch time. The pizza was served and the camaraderie began. Being in a shop full of metal shaping equipment with over 30 metal shaping enthusiasts was fascinating. Guys were bragging about their hot rods and choppers, and the old timers talking about the old fashioned ways of shaping metal. Airplane guys were talking with blacksmiths, and metal artists and sculptures passing around pictures of their shops. Everyone seemed to be having a great time.
After lunch was served, the students were set loose in the shop. They started with a flat sheet of material, then cut out 18” circles using the MPS-1 shear. They then shrunk the edges by running the circles through the thumbnail shrinking dies.
After shrinking the edges and creating a rough shape, the students ran their projects through the radius or planishing dies on the power hammer to smooth them out and put a nice radius on them. A couple of the guys got creative and put designs and different shapes on their projects. Check out these videos of their progress:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgYejAyUEiU&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DsBp05HEYC0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PG7ceT3B1ps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-QNsW02ANA&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKpm9rs1IfM&feature=player_embedded
Another popular spot in the shop was the bead roller station. Uncle Johnny worked with many students on proper bead rolling techniques. Most of them made a simple panel with a design or lettering. This was a nice beginner’s project that most said would be displayed nicely in their garages and man caves. Shane Henderson’s wife Tammy and son Justis stopped by to make a panel as well. Check out the video of Tammy Henderson bead rolling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBOzISrZ6Z8
The Baileigh Industrial metal shaping seminar was a huge success. The students all left with a project in hand and a head full of new ideas. Many of them were so inspired, they took the time to write testimonials about their metal shaping adventures in Wisconsin. Check out what the students said about the seminar:
http://www.baileigh.com/company/testimonials/
Baileigh will be hosting these metal shaping seminars several times a year. If you have an interest in the art of metal shaping and would like to attend a future seminar we would love to have you.
Please email shenderson@baileighindustrial.com or call 920-684-4990
Here is the full slideshow of the event. Some of the pictures are not of the best quality.
