How To Make Ribs In Sheet Metal With Plywood Forms

Material costs were cheap less than 50 and we picked up.

How to make ribs in sheet metal with plywood forms. There is an excellent series in the working with metal area that deals with this very subject. Using little more than a sheet of 16 gauge steel and some hand tools we recreated the floor pans including the ribs where needed. Doing so creates the stiffening rib that can be used to strengthen the sheet metal. How can you go about shaping metal with hand tools alone.

Next unclamp the plywood from the form and try bending it to see if it holds its curve. The tool forms the sheet metal by pinching the material between two ball bearings in the upper assembly and one ball bearing in the lower assembly. You can get a bend radius of as little as two feet by bending 1 4 inch plywood whereas the minimum bend radius for 3 4 inch plywood is 12 feet. To bend plywood start by creating a form out of medium density fiberboard that has the curve you want to bend the plywood to.

These radii increase if you bend the sheet along the grain of the wood instead of across it because splinters are more likely to form when bending along the grain. Follow along as i demonstrate how you can begin shaping metal with hand tools only. If i recall correctly to summarize. On the templates faces are the paper patterns from bearhawk plans which are well detailed with locations and sizes for all critical items such as locating pin holes rivets miscellaneous holes etc.

The little cutting templates with fingers are made of mdf and apple plywood. Then clamp the plywood to the form using bar clamps and leave it overnight.